MGF Treffen 2002 day 4 (last miles only)

Well, a very long and eventful drive today, Zell am Mosel to Wernigerode (according to Ted's route in the travel pack) is 265.7 miles, we left Zell on time (8:30am) and I have just checked in to the hotel at 6:00 pm – nearly 10 hours on the road, but then, Ted never was one for taking the (boring) direct route!! ;-) But I am getting ahead of myself here; I shall start at the beginning…

Remember Erik and Fran's misfire problem? Well they, with the help of Dieter decided to split from the group, head to the nearest MG dealership and get it sorted out. Mike Satur had yet more work to do so he also stayed behind to finish it and meet up with us later. Also, sadly this was to be Art's farewell to us this morning as well – he had used all of his holiday entitlement from work and had to start the journey home. So, of the 12 Treffeners (9 UK MGs, 1 Belgian (Erik and Fran), 1 Swiss (Alex) and 1 German (Dieter and Rosi), only 8 set out together for the run to Wernigerode. Dieter went with Erik and
Fran as 'translator!' and as yet I haven't had a chance to quiz him to find out how it went.

We headed off down the river, before turning in land and saying goodbye to the Mosel. Some superb roads yet again and although the forecast was for rain later, where we were was lovely and sunny. Shortly after turning in land we headed through a (very) narrow cobbled street and then up onto a steep climbing stretch of road complete with hairpin bends. It was half way up this that Ted received a phone call from the hotel in Zell, apparently whoever was in room 12 ordered a couple of cases of wine and forgot to collect them. A call went out to Mike Satur and he agreed to drive them to our meeting
point later in the day. Other than this and the odd bout of overtaking slower drivers, the first leg was pretty uneventful. The batteries in Mike's walkie-talkies gave out this morning so there was an interlude before we could replace them when the rear of the convoy was out of contact with the front, but other than this, it was a nice, incident free journey. We stopped for lunch in a town called Frankenberg (mmm, Strammer Max (2 fried eggs on ham on toast)) and on the way we passed a place called Battenberg (I
wonder if this is where the cake was invented?) We also passed a town called Bad Wildungen, which co-incidentally is twinned with Saffron Walden back home in Essex – one of my local towns.

The second leg was a bit more high speed stuff on main roads and it was on this journey, heading for the afternoon petrol stop and rendezvous point that we caught up with Dieter and Rosi, so now the convoy was back to 9 MGs. Again, the odd slow driver and more specifically a pair of huge tipper lorries complete with full sized trailers, were the only bug bears in the drive. There was also quite a lot of urban driving, if you have ever driven in a convoy, this is the situation you most try to avoid, keeping 9 MGs in a group through urban areas if bleedin' hard work! It wasn't long before we hit the main roads
again and found the rendezvous point where we picked up another pair of German Fs, Platinum Silver (belonging to Marco Peter) and a BRG (belonging to Ronald Bauer). Mike Satur also re-joined the group here and together 12 MGs set off on the last trip of the day into Wernigerode and East Germany.

I think I picked up a speeding photograph on this journey; fingers crossed my being English will prevent it surfacing back home. We left the main roads behind and headed through the heavily forested countryside on ever deteriorating roads until they became wet and we had to slow down. Ted nearly had a head to head with an Audi; ironically it was the Audi that was overtaking coming the other way and not Ted!! Eventually we entered Wernigerode and after a small number of us taking the wrong turn, found the hotel – just as it started raining - perfect timing! The hotel is very modern at one end and
attached to a medieval building at the other, strangely architecturally it works with the feeling of separation created by the glass-roofed atrium in between. We also met Michael, Ted's cousin I believe who is an East German and will be co-driving with Ted. He doesn't speak a great deal of English, so Ted has been translating. I managed a short conversation with him though, I said "Mein Deutsche ist nich sair gut" and he replied "My English also!" (Apologies for the likely miss spelling of the German words!) Our evening meal was held at the local Rathaus, a restaurant under the town hall. Despite the
inference of rodent infestation the place turned out to be rather good and we are planning on eating there again tomorrow.

It is quarter past 12 as I type this and after all those miles I am feeling very tired. I have had a go at the Internet connection from here, but it appears that I may not be successful in Wernigerode either; Stefan has a plan though so you may get to see this after all…

SF

Treffeners of this day
Ted Newman
Andrew Phillips "Scarlet Fever"
Patrick & Ann Beet
Mike Nunn & Viv
David Smith & Jackie
Richard Tookey
Stefan Gibney & Jenny
Allessandro Faccetty
Erik Baekelant & Fran (direct drive to Wernigerode)
Dieter Koennecke & Rosi (lined up near Kassel)
Mike Satur (direct drive to Gottingen)

Visitor of the day
Ronald Bauer
Marco Peter

Enhancement by Dieter:
Erik and Fran and Rosi and me found some of the required spares in Neuwied at an MGR dealer. HT leads where said to be 80 miles south at Wiesbaden. Erik and Fran went down there and were sent again 15 miles eastwards direction Frankfurt to another dealer for the leads. Rosi and I rushed along the Motorway A 3 and A5 west of the Treffeners route in north direction and met them some miles south of Kassel. The above pictures show only the car park at Gottingen where we met Ronni and Marco.

Dieter