Gareth Jones

Last Wednesday I left for the Nürburgring in Germany with my father. We stayed in Dover that night and got a 7am ferry over to Calais the next morning, then drove down to Nürburg.

We got there around 4pm on the Thursday evening to find the place totally packed with people from all over the world. The track was open from 6 to anyone who wanted to take their car – whatever it was – around the famous course. We opted not to go round at that point having just spent a day travelling down, and we’d go the next day.

The next day the course was closed to the public because it was host to some real races. I took loads of photos and videos – and in most of them you can get a good sense of how hot it was there.

Saturday morning the track was due to be open to the public again, but dense fog kept it closed for a couple of hours. Thousands of people had turned up for the weekend as the lower track was also hosting the OldTimer Grand Prix at the same time. Eventually we got on there and did a couple of laps before being pulled off again due to the bad weather.

I managed to record the second lap around the circuit despite having been told to put the camera in the boot when I was spotted while trying to film the first one…

The fog never really lifted at all during the day and so the course remained closed to the public, though the Grand Prix on the lower circuit went ahead anyway. We were due to come home on Sunday and so had no time to use the remaining laps on our card before leaving, so we managed to sell them to some locals who would use them another day when the weather was better.

You could sit in the Aston in the photo while a professional driver took you round the course at maximum speed for just under 300 euros. I never went as over 250 quid for 5 minutes of entertainment is well steep, but I imagine it must be a fantastic ride. Surprisingly it went out with a new customer every half hour or so…!

The food was fantastic and we did’t have a bad meal once. To think that France is famous for having the best chefs, the food in France is crap compared to what we had in Germany. The French could certainly learn a thing or two there.

As part of the tour that we were on we were supposed to stay in Koblenz which is about 35 miles east of Nürburg, but as this meant we’d be 35 miles in the wrong direction on Sunday morning we opted to check out a day early after finding some available accommodation in Wiesemscheid. This village is too small to offer any proper entertainment but so close to the track – and more importantly west of the track for Sunday morning – that it didn’t matter. Once again we had a fantastic meal here – made all the nicer since they forgot to add it to the bill the next day!

We started back at about 8.30 on Sunday morning, again in thick fog. We travelled for about 100 miles before finally making it out of the fog in the Netherlands. In Belgium it was sunnier and in France we saw a return to the hot weather that we’d seen on the way down.

The twitter feed came in handy as I managed to keep certain people updated on our progress through Europe, though now that I’m back in the UK it’s not that easy to see how I’ll use it again until next time I’m off somewhere!

I think it would be good to stay in Koblenz for a night or two again next year despite the distance, because it’s the closest city to Nürburg and has the most choice of places to go out at night. It would be good to have a night or two in Nürburg itself too though so that we can be close to the track all day and be able to drink without having to worry about how to get back to the hotel later.

All in all a fantastic trip and I’m already looking forward to the next one.  :)

Photos and videos are available to view in the usual way.