The Enchanting Black Forest trip
When a recent edition of our Jaguar Enthusiasts magazine arrived, the first the
page I opened it at featured the tour advert from Scenic and Continental Car
Tours to the Black Forest in Germany. Christine and I have been travelling to
Germany for over 30 years now, originally by motorcycle but more recently by car
and over the last decade or so have gone in September and October in alternate
years for a ‘Rundreise’ and to replenish the stocks of wine; with the high
temperatures here in Orkney, it seems to evaporate all too quickly! Both being
keen on such a trip, I rang Scenic and Continental and asked which other ferries
were available as we didn’t fancy travelling from Orkney to Dover - we would
rather do more miles on the Continent these days. North Sea Ferries (now P&O)
Hull to Rotterdam is our preferred route and surprisingly the first Hotel on our
tour in the South of Luxembourg was closer to Rotterdam than Calais.
As I was born in Hull I am very familiar with this crossing and it would
give us chance to visit friends plus an ever decreasing number of relatives. For
us it feels like being on a cruise and the holiday really does start there in
Hull.
During the phone conversation to the Company I enquired whether it might also be
possible to extend our trip and perhaps return 5 days later. There was no
problem with this as the original tour was not on a time restricted ticket. The
very helpful lady asked where we would be going after the tour and when I
outlined our plans of going further north in Germany, she immediately said ‘In
that case, would you really want the last night in France?’ I didn’t think that
would have been an option but she soon had that arranged for us too. Chatting
to JEC Chairman Mike Horlor about another matter he reminded me that the company
had provided a £50 discount voucher for use on these trips - of course, I
couldn’t remember where I had put mine so I contacted the company after I’d paid
our deposit, expecting the usual ‘Computer says no’ response but Nicola Bozier
sorted out the discount for us, well if you don’t ask..... It really appears
that nothing is too much trouble for them to make your trip as smooth and
enjoyable as possible, unlike many of the companies we all have to deal with.
The information pack and road book was even tailor made for our variations, so
top marks to Nicola and the team!
Our car, a 2000 Daimler Super V8 4 seat version is a real wafting machine
eminently suited to a trip of this kind and needed little other than the usual
check over before our adventure, having had a full set of new Bridgestone tyres
only last year. All packed up and ready to go, it was a lovely evening as we
made our way from our home in the north west corner of the Orkney Mainland to
Hatston for the trip on the Northlink Hrossey from Kirkwall to Aberdeen. We
stayed a couple of nights at my Sister Janet’s place in Aberdeenshire before
embarking on our trip to Hull.
On the way down at the service area near Stirling a rather large 4x4
reversed into the car wrecking the whole left hand rear lamp cluster, not the
way to start a continental holiday! This was on a Saturday afternoon, so not
much chance of a repair before we had to catch the ferry on Sunday evening,
still nearly 300 miles away. We called into Halfords on the Sunday morning and
bought a lamp repair kit consisting of rolls of transparent tape in red, amber
and clear and a roll of clear Gorilla tape. The indicator bulb is amber anyway
but the stop/tail is clear, so I bought a small touch up tube of red paint and
covered the glass with it. Although not very nice looking, at least I had tried
to be near legal. As soon as I arrived in Hull (where I was born) I dropped by a
friend’s house and made a fairly acceptable repair using the various tapes stuck
onto a makeshift wire armature shaped from some copper cores of stripped 2.5 mm
single cable. This was necessary so it sort of conformed to the curved shape of
the lamp housing. I then covered this with clear Gorilla tape and overlapped it
a small amount on to the surrounding bodywork. This would have to do until we
returned home unless I could have one sent somewhere in Germany for us to
collect. We arrived without further drama at the King George Dock in Hull and
were singled out for a thorough search of the car and I had to warn the security
chap that the engine bay would be rather warm, the outside temperature was still
showing 30 degrees – he took no notice but stepped back shocked after reaching
in with one hand and just walked away muttering to himself.
We couldn’t find the little bag of Euros left over from our last trip but knew that we could easily sort some once we got off the boat. The best way we have found is to not change money on the boat or even at a bank in Mainland Europe – their rates are scandalous! We buy as much as we can with a credit card, settling the whole amount in one go on return when asked and get currency using our Nationwide debit cards, taking the maximum at each visit as there is a fixed charge plus commission. Fuel was about the same price in Holland and Germany but much cheaper in Luxembourg where were staying for our first night. This was to be the Hotel Gulliver in Bascharage, where we met the others for an excellent meal and then all relaxed over a few drinks after a fairly long day for all of us. The following morning we enjoyed a lovely, often spirited scenic drive to the Schwarzwald via the wonderful Hochstraße and on to the Landhaus Lauble in the Black Forest, not far from the famous ‘Deutsche Uhrenstrasse’ or clock road, as this whole area is World renowned for its cuckoo clocks, some dating back many hundreds of years.
Landhaus Lauble near Hornberg, Schwarzwald
This charming family run hotel with very attentive staff and excellent food was
to be our base for the next five nights. Christine and I decided to chill for
the first full day and used the ‘Gast Karte’ issued by the Hotel to take the bus
into Hornberg and the train to Triberg - all for free!
The next day it was back in the car before the sweltering heat arrived and out
along the Deutsche Uhrenstrasse, then via a short stretch of very smooth
Autobahn to the Bodensee (Lake Constance) which is bordered by Germany,
Switzerland and Austria.
Cake anyone?
After a walk around Sipplingen and the inevitable ‘Kaffee und Kuchen’ on the
north shore of the Lake we drove back to the Hotel by a different but relaxing
route, still using parts of the clock road.
There were some wonderful cars in our party, F Types, modern XK’s, a later X350
XJR, an XE belonging to our own XE coordinator and just one E Type - a 1973 V12,
so apart from this car ours was the oldest at 18 years.
The only E type on our trip
Not fancy dress, just Peter (F type) and Keith (XK) giving their legs an airing
beside the fine array of Jaguars (and a Daimler)
Another relaxing day on the Friday, this time visiting Wolfach and then
on to Hausach with its fantastic Schwarzwald Model Railway in HO gauge - a truly
remarkable layout for every one of all ages. We had a short trip out on the
Saturday to Freiburg to collect a new rear lamp cluster which we fitted in the
car park of the Jaguar dealership who had kindly ordered it only 2 days before.
Just 3 nuts requiring a 10mm socket and the usual wiring connector soon had the
car back to its old self. There is a small hardly noticeable dent to repair just
beneath the lamp but that can wait till the winter lay up. Coffee and biscuits
were offered and accepted and we even had a sit in the new all electric I-Pace
which apparently has 400 horses on tap and a range of 400km - ideal for Orkney!
When we got back to the Hotel after driving along some wonderful roads in
stunning scenery, we found that one of our Party had approached the Hotel
management and organised a barbecue for our last evening meal - which turned out
to be a great idea - many thanks Quentin and Libby!
It had been so hot that the Bilt Hamber wax which I had injected nearly four
years ago started to melt and drip out from the wings and sills; even the
air-con struggled a bit to bring the temperature down after lunchtime stops as
the black bodywork heated up and my mobile phone produced an error message
saying invalid battery - whatever that means, until it cooled down overnight!
One of our Party with a later aluminium bodied XJ noticed a line running down
one of the rear side windows which turned out to be a crack! I hadn’t realised
that these later cars have laminated side glass and the only explanation seems
to be that with the intense heat during a lunch stop and having had the air con
keeping the interior cool, this had created differential expansion of the glass.
XJ prior to the window problem
We said our goodbyes on the Sunday morning as we were doing our own thing from
now on, while the rest of the group were having their last night in Troyes
before heading home.
We enjoyed the ‘bummel’ through the Schwarzwald north to Bockenheim which is on
the B271 Deutsche Weinstraße.
We have stayed here many times; starting with a holiday with our German friends
Ingo and Ingrid from Bremen and we have been going for over 25 years on and off.
That first trip was in our XJ-SC cabriolet which was a self build and we had it
for nearly 25 years. Our intention this time was to collect wine from Weingut
Kohl but with only 3 rooms for B&B it’s usually booked up a long time in
advance, although this time they did have a room for us. Unfortunately the
original owner Werner Kohl passed away recently so his son Wolfgang is now in
charge and the grandson Peter, following years of studying is now producing his
own wines - so the tradition is being kept alive.
Weingut Kohl in Bockenheim
I often hear people say that the Germans don’t produce any
red wine – the truth of the matter is that they definitely do but all of the
good stuff stays over there and we get Liebfraumilch and other cheap sweepings
up, so consequently most folk don’t get to sample their best offerings and
gravitate towards France and the New World. We left Bockenheim on a thankfully
cooler morning after collecting our wine and travelled west to Michelstadt with
its ‘Fachwerkhäuser’ (timber framed houses) and then down to the Neckar Valley
for 3 nights in Neckarsteinach. The following day we enjoyed a boat trip into
Heidelberg and it happened to be Christine’s birthday so on production of her
driving licence as proof, she got the ‘Geburtstag’s trip’ for free!
About to enter the Schleuse (locks) on the Neckar near Heidelberg
Around Heidelberg
Although there are many lovely villages and sights worth seeing along the Rhein,
we find that for us, it is a bit too busy to stay in that region these days, now
preferring the quieter Mosel, Saar and Neckar valleys.
Our return to Rotterdam took us along the coast via Middleburg to avoid the busy
motorways around Rotterdam. One organisational mistake we did make on this trip
was to end it with the Friday night crossing; we have normally used the Saturday
or Sunday night crossings as the heavy lorries, other than those with essential
supplies, have to park up from Saturday lunchtime to Sunday teatime – why can’t
we adopt that very sensible system in Britain?
We enjoyed our overnight cruise back to Hull and had time to visit
friends in and around Hull the following day, then it was back to Aberdeenshire
for a couple of nights, then north to Scrabster for the last ferry of the day to
Orkney; it always feels very special going home by boat. We had driven 2480
miles door to door at, an average fuel consumption of 24.3mpg although on
arrival in Germany the average was 25! A friend was quizzing me later about
using the Daimler on such a long trip and the amount of fuel I would have used,
so I outlined the fact that his new Ford Kuga had lost more in depreciation in
the time we were away than it had cost me in fuel, even if he hadn’t used it. I
added that I can’t afford a Kuga, I’m reduced to running a Daimler!
Not bad for an 18 year old 4 litre engine with a
blower!
If you ever fancy one of these trips, don’t be afraid to ask if you might prefer
some alterations, as I said they are unbelievably helpful. If we had had to
travel to Dover that would have meant another 600 miles and possibly another
stop over each way; far more expensive for us than using the Hull crossing - let
alone the hassle of the drive south now that we have become accustomed to the
pace of life in Orkney – oh, and keep that discount voucher somewhere safe!
ianstallard 'at' hotmail 'dot' com