Last week I went to the Rock-Am-Ring rock music festival at the Nurburgring in Germany with some friends. Wednesday afternoon we packed up Neil’s 330d BMW to the absolute brink with our camping and festival gear, and with the ghetto blaster on the back seat between Smith and Richie we headed for Dover.

Ben Hughes was taking Polly, Pete and Jonny in the Shaguar but they weren’t leaving til 2, so they had come catching up to do.
After a short drive and a movie we had arrived in Dover, however we just missed the early ferry and had an hour and a half to wait, luckily that’s just enough time to watch Rambo 4 whilst sitting in the queue. The ferry ride across the channel was breif and as soon as we hit French soil we floored it all the way to Aachen in Germany passing through Belguim and The Netherlands without stopping once.

We caught up with the others at our first stop, the Ibus in Aachen and went out ‘to where all the crazy kids go’ for some pizza and Bitburger. We found the pizza and beer but there was no sign of any crazy kids.

Outside the Ibus in Aachen, Germany

After a decent nights sleep at the Ibus we packed up again and made a B-Line for the Nurburgring so we could find a place and pitch our tents.

The Jag coming up the rear.

The road to the Nurburgring

After driving around the ring and not finding a single place to stop we headed back to the entrance to start again in the opposite direction when a guy came running over saying “Do you guys speak English? Come with me, we have a place for you to camp, we hate the Germans too”.
A little odd and quite frankly worrying being that we are in Germany at a festival surrounded by Germans, but we needed a place so off we went. Turns out it was a great space on the 3Km mark, we immediately erected our tents, had some ciders and instantly made friends with the Germans across the track….the Swiss were not impressed!

Finished erecting tents, time for a cider

…stay tuned, more to come!

Today we leave for Germany for the Rock-Am-Ring musik festival at the Nürburgring. 8 of us are driving over there in 2 cars and then camping on the ring once we get there.

Will do a full report back next week.

_B

Last long weekend I venture down south for a camping trip in Cornwall, a friend from work drove down and we meet up with a few of his friends.
We left bright and early on the Friday morning driving down and stopping at various places along the way. Although it did rain while we had to set the tents up it was dryer than I imagined. The first night Neil and I started our taste testing at the Pie & Ale festival although after about 3 half pints each we tried the “Skull Splitter” an 8.5% ale, and it was pretty much over for the night.

Stone Henge - From the fence as you have to be a hippy to get in.

Cattle on the roads everywhere, this one posed for a photo.

Neil's BMW 330d that we went down in.

Stopped for Coffee at a hotel in Dartmoor

Then we went underground in a local Slate mine.

Safety first, they were mining slate after all.

The next couple of days we went venturing around Cornwall as the weather was holding up, beautiful landscapes.

The most southern point of England

They've had a security problem down here for awhile now.

Beautiful landcapes & old castles

May day celebrations

Boscastle - Great little place, with lovely cream teas, a witch museum & freezing temperatures!

All in all I had a great weekend, saw so many places and really got to experience some of the more English parts of the UK.

Next trip Germany for the mighty ‘Rock Am Ring‘ roadtrip in June, stay tuned!

_B

Tomorrow I am going down to Cornwall for an extra long weekend with my mate from work, Neil and a bunch of others.

Look forward to exploring some of Englands South-West, in fact just looking forward to getting away for a little bit.
Taking my big camera too so will take plenty of photos.

_B

The other weekend was Matt from work’s Stag-do weekend and we headed out to sunny Santiago.

There is only one flight in and one out so I had to be up at the sparrows fart hour of 3:30 Friday morning to get ready, get a cab and then catch the hour long bus out to Stansted airport.
Once there I caught up with Neil, Matt, Paxton, Chris and John and a Weatherspoons breakfast and beers were in order.

The flight was pretty good and once the hatch door opened I could feel that magical heat I haven’t felt in almost a year.  After some negotiations we got a 7 seater bus but with luggage it was really only a 5 seater, so John ended up squashed in the back…top marks.   With that sorted we headed into town for some lunch and to meet up with Rupert. The tapas and beers along with the warmth made for a relaxing afternoon.

However that was all to change when the 7 of us piled into the car and headed out for some paintball action. We meet up with a young girl running the show and then ended up the the wood just outside a nearby village, it was great as it was only the 7 of us playing and asides from the basic safety stuff there were no rules.

After we had sufficently shot the shit out of each other we jammed back in the car and headed out to Ruperts villa to clean up and unpack.
The place was magnificant in all aspects but it was the shower that did it for me, ‘Best Shower Ever!’

Once cleaned up and a few more beers later in we headed out to a local restaurant for some home-made style local cusine. After a mix of stews, seafood, pork and devine cheesecakes we finished off with a local spirit (much like a scnapps) and then back for more pool at the villa.

Go Karting was first thing Saturday morning after a much needed sleep in. Rupert even snuck in a few quick laps before his wife noticed him missing.   John was kind enough to sit this one out and document the race for us. Neil was unsupprisingly the course leader but Chris and Paxton faught quite a battle for secon place, I clearly had a weight disadvantage but countered that with some thrilling drifting. 

Now Matt on the other hand was playing it very safe (either him just getting his licence or trying to protect his body for the wedding) but this didn’t last, 5mins or so in and a rouge tyre rolls past Neil, we look over and Matt has managed to park his kart on top of a tyre barrier right on the hairpin! He narrowly avoided being staked so we can be happy about that but I think if he just gave it a little more gas he could have launched the kart and created a course shortcut.

All that excitement had built up a hunger (which was surprising after the 7 meal bonanza from Friday) so we (eventually) made our way to the supermarket for more supplies for our big last night feast.

The rest of the day/night went pretty much as expected, plenty of drinking, loads of food, trying the swimming pool but not getting past my toes. After dinner and many more drinks there was some discussion and with some self help from Matt I threw him in the pool at about midnight

Sunday it wax time to leave and with only one flight in and one out it was important we packed up and left early, so it was really great when the GPS/ Matt/Paxton got us lost on the highway and we started heading in the wrong direction! I had resided to spending another day there but some tactical driving from Paxton and a spot of airport running meant we made the flight and were on our way back to the UK.

Congratulations Matt and Nikki! I can’t wait to see the wedding photos.  I look forward to seeing all the guys again sometime, I had a great weekend away.

_B