18 August Prague to Ladenburg

Heidelberg

Off to Germany today. The countries are flying past and we have difficulty remembering where we have been from one night to the next.  We drive the autobahn although apparently it now has a 130km speed limit. The roads are good though and the traffic well behaved. They are good drivers, no sudden changes and they don’t push in like Russia, Mongolia and China. All the cars are late model with mostly Mercedes and VW. Skoda was the car of choice in Czech Rep of course. We see about 4 defenders today and they all wave out – makes the landcruiser boys jealous – perfect!

We stop at the Sinsheim Car museum just out of Heidelberg. Wow, an amazing collection of planes, cars. We are interested in the Ferrari display – they have a ex rally Audi Quattro Coupe similar to what I used to have. Wish I didn’t sell that car. We have 2 hours and we rush through. Plenty of time for us but the boys probably could have done with longer.

Heidelberg is the most picturesque town on the banks of a river with almost gothic fairytale homes on the hillsides. Apparently it was a nazi stronghold during the war. It is now very expensive. We are staying just out of town in a village called Ladenberg. The Hotel  Leonardo is our bed for the night. We have 3 spiders in our room and they are yuk looking. Think crucifix spiders – all legs. We thought they were dead and I got Murray to have a look for me. They moved…. Ooo.  Obviously no one has been in this room for a while. Have dinner in the town square. Small and surrounded by tudor looking buildings from the 1400’s. Georgia is aiming to get drunk as she thinks there is no drinking age limit here. We give her 2 beers and watch her face go rosey. She starts pulling faces and slowly slumps down in her chair. We all give her our words of advice for drinking in later life! She hides in the bushes and gives Murray and Maurice a fright on the way home – hehe, good night.