Wednesday 12th August Day One sightseeing in Berlin A good nights sleep and we are ready for day one of sightseeing in Berlin,a city with plenty of history to get involved in. With the Kaufland supermarket just a step or two away from the hotel we called in to get supplies for breakfast.By the process of elimination we think we have bought milk although there isn’t a picture of a cow on the container as you might expect but the OJ was a giveaway with a picture of an orange being squeezed.Prices here are so much cheaper than we have encountered in the Euro zone so far.And although we don’t need any bottles of wine were as cheap as €1.99!!! RR is going to be parked up for the next 3 days in the car parking ... read more

Monday 10th August Seeking out the Pied Piper of Hameln Our hotel room is very well equipped and this morning Gretchen was able to enjoy her favourite way of cooking eggs,poached style. We plan only to do some local driving today with the town of Hameln the main focus of the day.Hameln is famous for the Pied Piper who when the town would not pay him for ridding the town of rats,enticed the children of the town away with his music,never to be seen again.All the children but one that is,who was on crutches and unable to keep up and he lived to tell the tale!! So with all day at our disposal and probably no more than 100km to do the round trip to Hameln we took our time over breakfast and getting ourselves ready ... read more

Saturday 8th August A day in the Dutch countryside and Amsterdam We needed to be earlier today than yesterday as Diny has a day travelling through the countryside to Amsterdam and back. Wim organised breakfast and our packed lunches and we were on the road by just after 9am with Diny in the co pilot’s seat as navigator while I enjoyed the ample leg room in the back seat of RR with Wim. We headed west along a network of roads that travelled over the reclaimed island of Flevoland.Reclamation took place during the late 1950’s and provided a huge area of land for new settlements and farms.Diny explained that initially people didn’t want to live there because it was seen as isolated compared to other established towns and cities.However over time the population grew and today ... read more

Thursday 6th August Three countries in one day We have a long drive ahead of us today as we head north to Holland to stay with Cormac’s parents Wim and Diny for 3 nights.In doing so we shall leave France,pass through Belgium and traverse a good percentage of Holland before getting to Zwolle.The weather prospects look good for driving and the morning temperature is already in the mid 20’s!!One of the noticeable things about the weather in the couple of days we have been in Europe is the lack of wind which has been keeping the temperature very steady. Google maps gave us two options of highways with tolls and highways without tolls.The BBA tour committe(of two)decided on the second option naturally enough!!The toll road option would have had us travelling on at least 7 separate ... read more

Tuesday August 4th What a difference a Channel makes The weather pattern really does look like it has changed but the forecast too for France was for fine weather so summer is officially declared back on track for the BBA. It is only a short distance to Dover and the Sea France ferry to Calais but we wanted to get there in plenty of time to locate where the ferry sailed from and because we anticipate there will be some customs and emigration forms to be completed on our departure from UK soil. Breakfast has been a bonus when it has been part of the tarrif and cooked for us but we dreaded the thought of the hotel buffet which we thought would be on offer considering the dinner was buffet.Sure enough it was a buffet.So ... read more