Daily Updates (Week 1-ish)

In the beginning there was a little green car. And three willing adventurers.

We'll share our daily updates below.

The Starting line (pre-rally pre-driving)

We arrived via Bloody Marys and a stopover in Taipei as weary but ready travellers to tackle the London underground and bus system. Astute instructions from our friend Kent got us to his place where we had a lovely dinner catchup with him and his family.

Kent showed us the beautiful steaks he had bought and cooked the previous night in preparation for our arrival (we had given him the right date but the wrong day - whoops!).

Jason and Kent started the next day with a pleasant walk down to Craven Cottage (Fulham football stadium for those not in the know) and a walk along the Thames (which the stadium sits on) Putney bridge which took in some beautiful parkland and an ancient church.

Alyssa was still in Portugal at this point so it was left to Sage and Jason to recover Kermit from his little prison (see above) and to enjoy some of the delights of London. On our way back we went to Richmond Park (one of the old royal parks) and saw a bunch of deer that are clearly haven't been hunted for a long time.

We then hired some bikes and rode into the downtown London area, stopping at the Albert (a Victorian, 1862, pub pictured below) for our first pint of bitter. We also took in Westminster Cathedral (beautiful building but different to the abbey) at the same time.

We then went to see Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square etc. Walking around the Monopoly board actually feels quite surreal. Had the quintessential battered cod and chips with mushy peas and malt vinegar whilst sitting on Trafalgar Square and supping on a pint of Britain's finest. Does it get any better?

The next day saw us head off to see the Natural History Museum with a plan to go do a tour of the Tower of London. Unfortunately we ran out of time as we had planned to meet our mate Fitch at a restaurant called St John's at 2:30 for lunch and he was keen for a pre-lunch beer. So we found one of the oldest pubs in London, 'Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese', which was part of monastery earlier but has been a pub since 1538 and hopped on bikes for a pleasant ride through London, taking in Hyde Park, and getting to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace (by pure chance) on the way. At the pub we got a plate with every British thing you could want on it - Cheshire cheese (of course), Stilton, Pork Pie, Scotch Egg, Piccalilli - despite the high likelihood of this being gimmicky tourist trash, it was actually really good. Fitch met us there for a beer and then we got on our bikes and rode to the restaurant.

St John was a bucket list of Jason's as this is run by a renowned chef called Fergus Henderson who is credited with reviving nose-to-tail eating in England. Bone Marrow Parsley Salad, Lamb Offal, Brown Crab with mayonnaise were some of the delightful dishes savoured. Great meal and company and then back on the bike for a ride back to Kent's where Jason had volunteered to cook up a Mexican feast for Kent and his family and Alyssa and Bella who were flying in that afternoon.

After a great meal we headed off to the accommodation Alyssa had booked for us, accommodation that easily ranks as the worst accommodation we have ever stayed in. That's quite an achievement. Can't believe none of us even took a photo to commemorate.

Day 1 of pre-rally driving (London - Sandwich - Dover - Calais - Brugges)

We are off!!

We left London with Kermit, full of clean clothes and happy passengers, excited to see how long this lasts!

Our first stop was Sandwich (for a sandwich). It was funny because I had been told by a local to avoid Sandwich, and that there were much nicer places to go, but it is literally one of the prettiest places we have been. To add to the joy, there happened to be a 'Folk and Ale Festival' happening on the same day. Morris dancing AND beer AND a quaint ancient village!! Does it get any better? We had such a good time and our sandwiches were actually really good. We have decided to provide a thematic to our rally by visiting places that have a food or drink name and buying said food or drink. Given what a gem 'Sandwich' was, I think this is going to provide for some amazing little deviations and experiences.

From Sandwich we headed to Dover Castle for a wander around the grounds (massive, epic) before we jumped on the ferry in front of the famous white cliffs of Dover and caught our ferry to Calais. Jason felt a need to try oysters on the coast on France (and knew we wouldn't have another chance this trip) so forced a little side quest to go get oysters from the best rated fishmonger in Calais. This was not a disappointment. The oysters were amazing and came freshly shucked and looking like they had been gift-wrapped.

Sage and Jason then went for a 'refreshing' swim at Dunkirk before we bowled up the highway to Brugges in Belgium where we had a hostel booked in the medieval part of the city. What an amazing city, Alyssa has already declared this to be her favourite (could be an early call). We went out to sample Some of the famous Belgian beers and had a fantastic night out. We even picked up our first sticker at one of the bars where we had befriended the proprietor, a fellow that had been offered to go on the rally but could not (I can't remember why) and so offered us a sticker from his bar as a way of going. Will be added to Kermy shortly.

Day 2 of pre-rally driving (Brugges - Oostend - Saint-Etienne-au-Mont - Ham - Paris)

We cycled around Brugges (in the rain unfortunately) and had one of the most amazing hot (Belgian) chocolates before heading off to find some moules frites in Belgian coastal town. Oostend restaurant La Moulieres, delivered the best mussels Jason has ever tried (sorry Keith). and continuing to Saint-Étienne-au-Mont to catch a bit of Stage 2 of the of Tour de France. We setup camp about 10k's out at the top of a climb that we hear caused ructions on the peloton but for us still looked like a bunch of guys flying past at a million miles an hour. One great thing to come out of it was that cars come through before the bikes with a whole bunch of promo stuff and one of these managed to toss a bottle opener at Jason, thereby completing a necessary and missing part of our kit.

From Saint-Etienne-au-Mont we drove to Paris via Ham. Unfortunately it was a Sunday afternoon and anything resembling a deli was closed in Ham so (10 mins before it too closed) we acquired some dodgy Ham from the local grocery store and completed our second food quest (helped down with some cheese, mustard, bread and belgian beer).

From there we made it to our hotel in Paris and found a uni pub to quench our thirsts and get Jason pop-cultured.

Day 3 of pre-rally driving (Paris - Chablis - Dijon)

We got bikes and rode around Paris (in the rain again, but this time with our elite Paris ponchos) taking in all the usual sites, before heading off towards Dijon for food quest 3.

On our way to Dijon we saw a sign for Chablis so stopped in to one of famous wineries in the region (Domaine Long-Depaquit). We tried 3 of their wines and were all amazed that 3 wines from the same grape variety, the same winery and the same quite small local area could all taste so different. The first wine we had was ok but the next 2 were seriously good Chablis. Also ticked off random food quest 3 in the process.

Day 4 (Dijon - Geneva - Gruyere - Furka Pass - St Gallen)

Set off from Dijon (after collecting some bottles of the famous condiment for FQ4) towards Gruyere and food quest 5. Stopped to pick up a 'polarbox' (esky) and a few other supplies before heading on to Switzerland and Gruyere. We went via Champignole and Geneva so we could drive along Lake Geneva which is beautiful. The road up the Alps was also super pretty. Arrived in Gruyere and found a place that had a cave full of cheeses, a tasting centre and a gruyere restaurant. What to do in Gruyere on a cold Swiss day but to eat fondue! So good.

Following Gruyere we drove out to the famous Furka Pass. You'll see why it's famous.

After getting over Furka Pass (which by the way is famous for a car chase scene in James Bond's Goldfinger movie) we booked some accommodation in St Gallen near Lichtenstein. We thought it might be cool to pop into Lichtenstein before heading up to Germany and trying to catch up with friends we have there, the indefatigable Rocky and Birgit. The plan was just to catch up with them but when we asked what they were up to and whether they were free they invited us to stay and so that became the plan for the next day. St Gallen was ok but compared to the scenery we had been driving through it was 'mid', as Olivia would say.

Day 5 (St Gallen - Munich)

Sage had discovered and was very keen to add the town of Kuken (means 'cake' in German) as our food quest 6 but we unfortunately failed this one. We had advised Rocky we would get to Munich around 12pm and given the girls didn't get moving out of bed till after 9 (and it was a 2.5hr drive) we were already behind the eight ball.

We (finally!) got in to Munich about 12:30 but thought we would grab some lunch before heading out to Birgit and Rocky's place (and advised we would be a bit later than first advised). Grabbed some currywurst (famous snack food in Germany, basically sausage chopped up, lathered in a spiced tomato sauce with curry powder added and served with chips) from a great place that Sage found. Sage and Jason then walked to a bottleo to buy our hosts some champagne only to get lost on the way back to the car. Luckily Alyssa stayed with the car and was able to drop a pin or we may still be walking the streets of Munich.

We 'finally' (finally!) headed off to Rocky and Birgits only to arrive at a random petrol station in the north of Munich??? Someone had added a petrol stop to the navigator (despite us having already fuelled up) and this petrol station put us 45m away from our hosts place (sigh!). So after these clusterfucks, we arrived finally at our hosts beautiful house. Rocky informed us that we had really run out of time to take in the sites of Munich for the day and so we settled for cooking dinner for them and ended up making three course, a salmon asparagus with a dill and caper beurre blanc, a beef mussaman curry and sticky date pudding. Great night, great company, amazing hosts!

Day 6 (Munich - Salzburg - Laiter)

Rocky and Jason had agreed to go for a walk the next morning and set off at 7 am, giving the girls time to get their daily 12 hours in. Pumped out an 11.7km walk along the beautiful Isar River and got back to find the girls up and the most amazing breakfast prepared by Birgit. We picked up some bread on the back of our walk and I got to see that the Germans like to cook LARGE loaves and just cut off however much you want. Check out the pic and the loaves in the background. Cool, and the bread was amazing too.

We then drove into town with Rocky coming along as our local guide for the day and took in all the sites around the central city area (excepting museums which Rocky banned due to our limited time).

The most amazing thing we probably saw was people surfing the canal wave in the heart of Munich. Was crazy.

After this we said our goodbyes and headed off to Salzburg in Austria, recommended to us by Birgit. This town was beautiful but unfortunately didn't get many pics. We did have an amazing traditional Austrian meal recommended to us by the bartender we had befriended.

After our meal we headed off to a campground called Moosmühle near Laiter. It was in a really beautiful spot by the river but unfortunately didn't get any pics as we arrived late (10 pm) and left early.

Day 7 (Laiter - Prague)

We arrived in to Prague and decided now was the time to put the stickers that the girls had been acquiring and the decal that Simon bought us, onto Kermit.

We then went for a wander in "Old Town' and took in the famous bridge that was built by Charles IV, and started in 1357.. Had some pilsner that Czech is famous for in a beautiful beer garden and found some frog hats to go with our general car theme. We then headed towards our hotel and stopped for lunch at a recommended place nearby. Jason had a beef dish that came in a cream sauce with rondels of what he can only describe as some sort of 'stuffing'. It was ok but nothing he'd write a blog about. Alyssa had 'gulash', which was better than the cream dish but also not amazing. Probably most disappointing food we have had so far.

I did buy some awesome looking wild mushrooms (I think they were chanterelles) and made a really tasty gnocchi alla fungi with them.

We head out to Pilsner (home of the famous beer) for fq6 today and then onto a place called Junktown for the Rally start party!!! Will start a new post for the next phase!!!