Today we had to get from France into Austria while avoiding Germany (we had been told the German Police were not fond of Rallys and would fine everyone to death), all the while getting as many photo's of coppers as we could.
So, the first stop way the 'Hotel de Police' (honestly!) in Strasbourg where we sent in the girls to convince the French Police to come out and stand by our cars while we took the piss... it worked a treat! Following this we headwards the border with Switzerland where we got trapped in a rather long queue of traffic.
The P4 wasn't loving the hot weather so with the engine turned off it was down to Dave and myself to push. Most people in the queue thought this was great and a few jumped out with cameras to pap us and the skunk car. Once through the border control and with the first of many motorway passes purchased we headed for Zurich Airport on a mission to get photos with more cops.
This achieved we headed for a nearby petrol station as we had dicovered the rear wheels of the P4 were almost melting... something was amis! Tim quickly diagnosed and fixed the problem; we had driven from England through France, Belgium, Louxembourg and half of Switzerland with the rear brakes jammed slightly on. Not a lot of people can say they've done that!
We continued through the Austrian border (and got more cop pictures) and on up into the mountains towards Innsbruck. Which is were we had our second forced halt to the trip. First time it was human error (ish) where we had run out of fuel. This time water and steam were gushing from the front of the car. We had overheated. However, the P4 engine is a strong one. With 15 mins to cool we continued on towards our destination.
On one of the downhills we decided to see what we had. The speedo wound up to around 115mph. Nice. However when we pulled in to chat to the others we were still doing 80mph after we had parked up. Methinks we broke it. We were then informed by the cottage car that we had NO lights at the back. Not sidelight, brakes... anything. Good then.
We continued to our hotel alone as the rest of the convoy went on a mission to the German border to get more cop photos. Once settled in Tim went on a wiring mission and took the P4 to bits in a bid to fix the brakelights, which he eventually did by about midnight.
In the meantime Fee, Dave and I headed off for a Schnitzel and some beer. Dave was a bit surprised when I managed to ask a passer-by where the best Schnitzel in town was and how to get there in German, then order all the food and drinks when we got there.
After a fantastic meal we headed for the meeting point to say 'Hi' to the rest of the Ramshacklers and grab a few beers before heading back to the Hotel.
