Dover, Saturday, 2 August, one week after the MGFest08 and our MG holiday in Dorset, we met with almost all the English participants of the Kempenrit08 at the harbour of Dover to take the channel ferry towards Dunkerque. We were received by the Belgium MG friends who drove us via convoy to Mechelen. We spent a wonderful weekend with the English, Dutch and Belgium MG friends, staying at Mechelen in the fantastic Hotel Ve, visiting the old town and participating at the Kempenrit 2008 on Sunday 3 August.
Monday, August 4
Our run began with 11 MG's and 19 enthusiasts at Mechelen with saying good bye to those who were driving home. Then the convoy set off towards Durbuy in the Belgium province of Luxembourg, a very nice touristy town with little paving-stone roads. After an ice-cream we drove to La-Roche-en-Ardenne to enter the valley of the Ourthe in the Ardennes and then to Bastogne to visit the monument Mardasson. Here we met Pascal, too, who escorted us to Larochette in Luxembourg, where the group stayed at the Grand Hotel de la Poste.
Tuesday, August 5
We drove to the Luxembourg vine region valley of the river Moselle with its vineyards, drove along the river Moselle to the 3 country corner of Schengen: Luxembourg, Germany and France. Here we crossed the border to Germany and then to France to drive through the region Lorraine and Alsace, where we visited the rock of Dabo and a gothic church built in the 13th century, the Saint-Florent church in Niederhaslach. After the rock of Dabo we had pleasure with the first bended roads, before entering the valley of the river Rhine and setting over to Germany towards Black Forest, where we stayed at the hotel Ochsenwirtshof.
Wednesday, August 6
We drove through the Black Forest to the lake Titisee and then along the lake Schluchsee at an altitude of 930m.
Crossing the Switzerland border we drove to Schaffhausen to visit the Rhine Falls, the largest Falls in Europe. It offers a spectacular showpiece to visitors. With an average flow of 700 m3/sec the water cascades down the cataracts, which are 150m wide and 23m high.
After the visit we drove towards Austria and had our first mountain pass, the mountain pass of Sankt Anton, before reaching the village Sankt Anton where we stayed at the hotel Haus am Fang. In the evening we discovered the town, and enjoyed a traditionally music band marching through Sankt Anton, really nice.
Thursday, August 7
We set off towards the Oetz valley, which is among the most beautiful in the Alps. Oetzi the Iceman was found in 1991 in the Schnalstal glacier in the Oetztal Alps, near Hauslabjoch on the border between Austria and Italy. He is a well-preserved natural mummy of a man from about 3300 BC and his nickname comes from Oetztal. He is Europe's oldest natural human mummy. At the end of the Oetz valley we drove onto the mountain pass Timmelsjoch (Passo del Rombo) with an altitude of 2'509m. Here at the top we had lunch in a tavern.
Then the convoy entered Italy and drove into the valley of Passiria towards San Leonardo. The road here is smaller than on the Austrian side, very bended with lots of tunnels. Driving through Meran was difficult to stay together in the convoy, but we mastered it very well. After the Rechenpass (Passo di Resia) at 1'504m we arrived at Nauders, back again in Austria, where we stayed at the Alpinspa Hotel Naudererhof.
Friday, August 8
This was the day of the Stelvio Pass at an altitude of 2'757m, the highest paved mountain Pass in the Eastern Alps, and the second highest in the Alps. At midway, all the MG's had to wait until we drove up to place the camera on top to take pictures from the group driving up. After a short break we drove off to the Umbrail Pass (Giogo di Santa Maria) at 2'501m with a non asphalt road between 2'000 and 1'800m of altitude going down do Santa Maria.
Entering Switzerland we drove the Fuorn Pass or Ofen Pass (Pass dal Fuorn) at 2'149m. It is a high alpine mountain pass in the canton of Graubuenden in Switzerland. It connects Zernez in the Engadin valley with Val Muestair. Then we drove to Susch to the car-train station to drive the MG onto a train wagon. The train took us 19 km through the Vereina-tunnel under the Fluela Pass towards Landquart-Klosters. Then we drove the last part via motorway to Zug. We arrived at the EEOTY 2008 ground in the late afternoon.
Finally
It was a fantastic and amazing run bringing together people from England, Holland, Hungary and Luxembourg. Starting with 11 MG's in Belgium, we were 13 in Austria and 23 participants. We had a lot of fun together and this MG holiday will be unforgettable for us.
English
