Baltic tour- 11 capitals

[Keith Clements]

Trying to make it to Berlin today. We are a bit worried this morning as we could not get out of the 'hotel' for the morning run as every door is locked.


Scott has just come back having tried to find breakfast and found out it is in fact 7 a.m. here not 8 as we thought. Oh well that might explain how we were a little early for our meeting yesterday, not late as we thought.

[Keith Clements]

After we escaped from the hotel in the forest around Lodz, we decided not to use the new motorway but wend our way across the bumpy roads and countryside. Whilst there were some picturesque parts much of the road had drab hamlets slowing our progress. After 250 k of this and the start of drizzle we decided to use the motorway.
Unfortunately in Lodz a van driver decided he was in the wrong lane at the traffic lights and reversed back into us. There is now a dent beside the sidelight. He emptied his wallet of 70 Zloty, which was hardly recompense but what could we do? Previously Scott had managed to overfill the petrol tank because of a non- functioning shut-off at the pump. So was that the third and last problem that day?
After studying Lonely Planet we could not find anything of interest to the west of Poznan, so decided to head for Berlin. We paid the motorway toll and then off loaded all our Zlotys on petrol at the border.

We had been recommended a hotel in Berlin by Leslaw and stayed there. But I refuse to pay 6euro for wireless access when the hotel charges 70e for a room, so you are getting this late.

We had a stroll in the intermittent rain around the Brandenburg Gate and Reichstag before having a great meal in a typical German restaurant.

Now off to find breakfast and tour the city in the car before leaving for Bonn.

[Keith Clements]

Two posts in quick succession as the hotel we have just landed in at Wettenberg has free Internet access. Scott saw the town on the hill and fancied it…

Anyhow we evaded the Umveltzone police and took photos at the Brandenburg Tor.

As it was drizzling we headed south in the hope of finding some sun. Unfortunately the Sat Nav managed to send us heading back to Poland and when we came off at the next junction we could not get on the motorway again to go back. So an hour later we were back on the motorway towards Leipzig. Never mind we saw some East German countryside.

We thrashed down the motorway gradually stripping off layers of clothing and eventually dropped the hood. I planned to come off at ERFURT http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erfurt to add another capital to our list. This was an historical town so we took our mandatory picture and set off for the hills . We realised that after nearly 4000 miles driving those bumps in the distance were the highest hills we had seen. Perhaps by design I found a great hill climb and promptly put the Jup into rally mode with Scott calling the bends.




We walked up the last 100m of the Inselsberg where we found some bikes and a coach at the top so went back and took the Jup for a photoshoot. We had thoughts of taking it down the ski slope….

A lively drive through some more twisty roads showed us how this part of Germany was overlooked by wars and the Communist regime to retain its old way of life and customs.
So we are a day ahead of schedule, hoping to make Bonn and Luxembourg tomorrow, perhaps with a surprise thrown in.

.

[Keith Clements]

Another surprise, Wettenberg! The Jup wended its way up the hill above our stop for the night where we gate crashed a street party in the Jup but then decided to follow the cobbles to the very top of the mountain on which the village is built. We nearly entered the castle walls where there was a concert going on, but thought better of it. Having secured that we could eat there (and more importantly drink the local dark beer) I left Scott to order the beers whilst I took the car back to a car park. Two local delicacies of a special cheese and a local sausage meat plus some fireworks seen from the castle walls accompanied by the various acts in the concert completed a good day.

Having finished our meal we investigated the castle but decided wisely to stop climbing the castle tower in the pitch black after more than 30 flights of narrow steps with another 30 to go.

Hopefully back at Jaak Jacobs tomorrow evening.

[Keith Clements]

Some Polish publicity.

http://aktualnosci.auto-swiat.pl/1-jowe ... o-warszawy

[Keith Clements]

Yesterday was a very difficult day. It started when I noticed the head temps were rising, the standard water temp gauge was happy at 75, but the heads rose to 100c. We pulled off and noticed the water pump rear seal had gone with water dripping out. Although carrying a spare seal, we decided to continue as we might have problems rebuilding the pump. The car initially did about 40k before needing water but this rose to about 80 or even 100k on some stretches.

Another problem ensued when the car started miss firing and loosing power. At the next stop for a refill I noticed a spark which was the alternator power wire had broken. Scott said this was because solder had been used on the crimp joint causing the copper to be brittle. Anyhow that was fixed.


The day was going to be long anyway as we planned to go to Bonn which we did and had a photo outside Beethoven's birthplace and then decided not to cut and run to Peer, but go south to Luxembourg via the Nurburgring. A good call as it was a great road with many bikers on it. An ADAC race was on at the circuit so we left after the photoshoot.


Luxembourg has some impressive modern architecture but we chose and older building for the photo.

We then plotted a course for the Spa circuit and then to see Claude Bernard and his Jup. Claude has done some impressive mods, so more later.



As dusk approached we noticed problems with the lights some of which were fixed, but we continued anyway. We went to the restaurant in Peer and called Jaak. What a surprise, Bas and Gerda de Bruijn were there so they watched us eat the much wanted meal and copious amounts of Leffe Brun.



On leaving Josephine had developed a flat tyre . So the pit crew changed the wheel, albeit the car fell off the jack on the cobbled street. Will go and check now what the damage is and get the tyre repaired!


Hopefully the next post will be from home.

[Keith Clements]

We have arrived back after 3750 miles, 6000 km in 21 days.
We took the tyre into Peer for repair. The tube had split and was replaced with a 15inch one rather than 16 inch as this is less likely to crease. All the tyres had survived the potholes of the Dorgone and the Sahara piste of 1998 Marathon as well as 14 years of other driving so perhaps one should expect a 100 miles on rough eastern European roads to have finally made one to succumb.
We had travelled just one kilometre when a weight came off but Scott found it in the wheel arch and it was stuck back on with tape. After another 40k another weight came off so now we had some wheel unbalance as well as the transmission judder.
Regular stops every 80k for water in the rad were needed but we made good time to Dunkirk and had time to pick up some lunch in a patisserie.
Arriving at 17:00 in Dover we made Tower Bridge just before dusk and then fought our way out of London with the remnants of the Olympic celebrations. We arrive at the Saracens Head for a couple of pints before an Italian meal.
Then home for a good sleep.



Hope you enjoyed this saga of two adventurers in a car that now needs lots of care and attention.

[PJGD]

Keith, Scott;

That was a great saga! I can only hope to do something similar one day in the future. I applaud your sense of adventure and appreciate the friendliness of the scattered Jowett community who helped along the way. Glad it was a safe and relatively uneventful trip.

But, hey, it looks like you need to get one of your rear lights fixed?

Philip

[p.p.]

well done so cool wath you made welcom back home you both a hero of jowetters man always been boy's
peter

[Peter Holden]

Keith & Scott

That was a really interesting post. Well done both of you. I have enjoyed reading it, seeing the pictures and checking where your location on the map. Good to know the car made it without any major problem and good that you both got home safe for a decent pint!!!

I have ideas and preliminary plans for a trip in the 7hp. I now have renewed enthusiam.

[Trevor Spero]

Well done Josephine to survive being driven by Keith for 4000 miles. Having rallied all over Europe with Keith I know how heavy he can be on a car and it is a remarkable achievement for her and maybe even the crew to have completed this challenge.
Nice to have you back safe and sound and see you at Goodwood.
Trevor.

[Keith Clements]

Philip, The light in the centre offside is the indicator so not a problem with rear light.

All,

All the people we met were really helpful, friendly and generous. Special thanks to Jorma and Maikki for the sea cruise and stay on their island.

Trev,
Josephine now requires a lot of care and attention, so will be in line for the lift.

Update, we actually did visit 13 countries and 12 capitals plus Bonn which was the capital of West Germany.

[Keith Clements]

http://issuu.com/tomasdigaitis/docs/olcr-mag
Click on the picture 'Click to read'

Then skip to page 10

or this may work
http://issuu.com/tomasdigaitis/docs/olc ... eNumber=10

[Jack]

Useful stats from Youtube - the video that the QR code linked to on the car has now been viewed by people in the following countries, in descending order:

The UK
Denmark
Finland
Australia
Canada
Belgium
Germany
Estonia
The US
Lithuania

So using these codes works - most of the traffic was a direct link, i.e. from the QR code (unless they typed in a huge long address to find it that we haven't told anybody about!)

Jack.

[Keith Clements]

Hello Keith

and Thank You for yr nice and interesting report. I would certainly wish that we could use it in our magazine. I find that in Finland people do not dare to do such long trips with their oldies. I think this would be something different for them to read and think about. I also had a quick look at the link where there were a lot of really good pictures (photoes). Certainly a story worth while telling from many points of view!
Good that you had contcted these people in Latvia and Estonia. I knew they would be the ones who would be able to help you.
For me it was a surpise that you came first to Sweden and Finland and then went down to the Baltic states. I thougt it would be quite the opposite. But I must say that the whole summer has been so hectic that it is no wonder if I have missed some points. So sorry also missing yr entourage. Could have at laeast come to see you at the harbour, but like I said it has been such a summer that half of the time I haven't known if I'm coming (from a trip) or if I'm just embarking on a new one (and also literally embarking because I've been to Estonia, Latvia and Sweden as well) and most of them having to do with work (which of course doesn't mean that it would be unpleasant. It has just been so much this summer.)

Let me have a look at the aricle with some more time and I'll get back to you with my thoughts.
Thank you again for sending me the report and also nice to hear that you are safe and sound back home.

Yours truly

Riitta



Riitta Kastemaa
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