As mentioned elsewhere - Helga, myself and Mrs Bobins have just returned from another motoring trip to Germany
2056 miles door to door over 8 days. 63 gallons of petrol used on the European section and returning around 29.5 mpg all told, and as a rough estimate £375 - £400 of fuel. Not too bad considering it's built for 'proper' good old fashioned touring
....and it's a NA 3.2 litre engine with a relaxed auto box and it's 28 years old
The main plan of the trip was to do the Deutsche Alpenstrasse (German Alpine Road)
https://www.deutsche-alpenstrasse.de/en/home . This stretches from Lake Constance (Bodensee) to (more or less) Salzburg by the German - Austrian border. We travelled the route from East to West, starting at Berchtesgaden.... which may ring a bell with one or two bods
It's home to the Eagle's Nest or Kehlsteinhaus which was a place occasionally frequented by a bloke with a dodgy moustache
- Tea room - own work
Popular with the tourists, apparently.
- Tea room views - own work
Cracking views from up there though.
Onwards from there we did 80 - 100 miles a day taking a relaxed drive through the absolutely gorgeous scenery. Mountain passes, and verdant valleys - all with obligatory cows with their bells around their necks
Many fantastic passes with numerous hairpin bends...... which may have been quite fun in the car
The car performed as you'd expect
I had one cause for concern - I'd flushed and replaced the coolant about 4-6 weeks ago and had kept an eye on it since to check for any new leaks - of which there were none. Each day on the trip I'd checked the oil and water as all good motorists should and one day the coolant reservoir was down about 200ml. I'd got a bottle of coolant with me so topped it up but couldn't find any obvious issues so pressed on. I can only assume it'd been caused by a belated burp from the cooling system as it cleared a small airlock from somewhere in the pipework. These engines are supposed to be self bleeding and aren't supposed to need special treatment so it could have been air up in the heater matrix or suchlike.
The mountain descents and hairpin bends lead me to want to change the brake pads though. Plenty of stopping power when needed, but the brakes need a bit of heft so I'm researching alternative brake pads at the moment. Both pads and discs had been changed by a 'specialist' before I bought the car, but I have a feeling they used Pagid parts....... hmmmmmm
If anyone is considering a trip down that way, then it comes with the Bobins Seal of Approval
Fantastic road surfaces just about the whole time in Germany, not that much traffic - only a handful of cars in sight on an awful lot of times on the autobahn and country roads, and gorgeous scenery.
And the food was very good as well.....
- A small chunk of pig and a beer. Or two - own work
As seen on tour.....
- Trabby parked up - own work
There had to be a Trabby somewhere on the trip !
- Mt Wendelstein - own work
Cable car up on top of Mount Wendelstein
On top of Wendelstein you have an observatory, TV transmitter, church, caves, a mountain cog railway, restaurant from where you should probably order a Dubonnet or other suitable drink
- On top of old Wendelstein, not covered in snow.... - own work
...........and some impressive views. Spot Helga in this picture and you get 10 points
- View from Wendelstein - own work
One of our side trips took us to Schloss Lichtenstein
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lichtenst ... rttemberg)
Despite its looks, it wasn't invented by Disney
- Schloss Lichtenstein - own work
All in all, a very good and very fattening trip
Now, where to next time....... ?
I did something similar to catch a rat in my workshop. Didn't use a toaster element though. A metal grill from an oven, mounted it on wood, baited it, connected the metal to 240v +ve. No newt or earth. Rat trod on it, he's the earth. I knew when I got it because the MCD in the house tripped 
