Munich....or not!

I got to sleep last night at about 11.30pm and then my body obviously had decided that this was just a catnap as I woke at 11.45pm quite refreshed! Thankfully I managed to get off to sleep again and my alarm woke me at 2.00am. I left at 3.00am and it was a beautiful night with a spectacular full moon.

After about 20 miles, just as I was overtaking a lorry on the motorway, my car cut out! I indicated to pull in but the lorry driver must have thought that I meant to pull in front of him so it was a bit hairy until he pulled away as I had visions of being stuck in the middle lane of the motorway! I pulled on to the hard shoulder but my car just wouldn't start. Luckily I was only a 10th of a mile from an emergency telephone but just as I got there another motorist stopped and offered to look at my car. He tried exactly what I had (the HT leads) but couldn't get it to start so I rang the emergency service. It goes through to the police and they arranged for a tow truck to come out to me.

Thankfully he took less than half an hour (by which time it was already light). Unfortunately he said that it was the distributor cap and the rotor arm so would have to tow me home. Thankfully he said that it would only be about an hours labour and would cost about £65,

We dropped the car off at the garage that I use and he took me home so I got in at about 5.30am. I went back to bed but I didn't sleep too well. I rang the garage at 8.15am and he said he would fix it as soon as possible. As it's a 9 hour drive once I get across the channel, I'm not holding out much hope of seeing Kasim tonight now.

The garage rang at 10.00am to say it was fixed but that it was the module (whatever that is). I called a taxi and collected the car - it came to £158.03!!! As I was in a hurry I paid it but when I checked later he'd charged me 3 hours labour so I'm going to dispute that as he had it for only two hours and he wasn't working on it when I first rang.

I drove back down to Dover but just missed one sailing so I caught the 1.15pm boat which left late at 1.30pm...is everything against me today?!! Thankfully it was a lovely sunny day so was a smooth crossing and I sat out on deck in the sun for most of it.

We docked at 3.00pm = 4.00pm European time. As Kasim is due on stage at about 8.00pm (there's a support act tonight) I don't hold out any hope of doing this 9 hour, 602 mile journey in time.

I didn't!

I didn't actually reach Munich until about 3.00am as there was some heavy traffic around Brussels. I drove through France, into Belgium, I was in Holland for 20 minutes and I didn't even reach Germany until 7.50pm. Munich is located in south east Germany (I entered it in the north west section). Thankfully it was light until about 10.30pm so I didn't find the journey too arduous and I only had to pull over once for a 10 minute catnap at about midnight (I stopped another couple of times for petrol and a bottle of drink). I kept at about 80mph (remember there's no speed limit in most of Germany) as I don't want to thrash my old car too much.

The loos on German autobahns have changed since 1996. Back then there used to be little old ladies manning them with a saucer beside them on the way out for people to tip. Some of the loos had their own personal touches like pot plants and flowers in there. Now all the loos I've stopped at so far in Germany on this tour are maintained by a company called Sanifair. It cost 50 cents to enter through a turnstile and then everything is automated. There are sensors to flush the loo, sensors to turn on the taps (faucets) and sensors for paper towel and hot air dryers. There is this amazing loo seat cleaning thing that comes out of the side when you flush that rotates the seats and cleans it (unfortunately it doesn't always dry it too well!). After you've paid your 50 cents you get a receipt and you can use that against a purchase in the garage shop so I guess the loos are free in a way (expect you're more tempted to buy something).

A friend rang me after the concert to say that it was a good concert but was very hot in there. He then went on to describe how hot and sweaty Kasim got (he actually said that he looked quite sexy!) but he also said that Kasim was wearing a leotard!!! I think he used the wrong word but I'll certainly be checking photos of that gig!!

I managed to find my hotel quite easily which was just as well as I had been up for 24 hours by then. I was a bit dubious about this one as it only cost me £28 ($35) a night but thankfully it turns out to be an Expedia late booking special bargain as it's a lovely hotel! It's a chain called NH and has a sauna and fitness room in the basement. My room has it's own front door bell and has a long corridor which leads to the bathroom, the kitchenette and the bedroom is at the end. When I asked about where to put my car he showed me where the garage was and said that there was a "duplex system". What it was is that each space can take two cars with one lifting up above the other - I'll certainly play with that tomorrow!

I just cleaned my teeth and fell into bed at 3.30am!
Mileage today: 723 miles
Tour total (in my car) –3,243 miles