Nurnberg to Zagreb

1050hrs and we leave Nurnberg, a lovely sunny drive through forest and mountains. The Car ’Jerry’ is coping tremendously well with the long mileage, especially considering the overall weight we must be at.  We pass a convoy of Humvee U.S military trucks, and get a thumbs up from the lead driver.

Into Austria, the land of 1,000 tunnels through a mountain - The first one was cool, the 27th one was less so.  But none the less the scenary was stunning, and from an engineering view the tunnels are pretty amazing.  Great job Austria!

Weaving through the Alps was pretty amazing, some fantastic scenary and challenging climbs for Jerry. (Pictures to follow soon)  From Austria we enter Slovenia, shortly after we're knocking on the door of Croatia..

The Croatian border formalities proved to be pretty straight forward, the Customs lady appeared to think  for just a second about asking us to remove all our kit from the car for inspection.  Seeing the mountains of junk inside the car she then thought again, laughed and asked if we had anything new. Only new items for an old car I explained, which seemed to confuse her just enough to waive us through with a grin.

We motor on into the sunset, next stop Zagreb.  The scenary turns from alpine mountains to rural farmland, and the roads become ever so slightly worse.

We arrive in Zagreb just as the sun sets. Not the easiest of cities to navigate at night, and driving can be pretty dicey at times with tram drivers and locals competing to cut you up. A very pretty city though, with some great architecture too.

As usual, Jerry proves to be a major hit with the locals. Cameras flash and people point as we make our way through the city to our hotel. Outside the Fourpoints hotel, a group of Jap tourists come rushing out the hotel lobby  to take pictures, quite entertaining.   People ask when the rest of the London to Saigon rally cars are due to arrive.   "0900 tomorrow and en-mass"  I couldnt help it...

Our hotel appears to be boarded up and shutdown....  So we try the next one in the book, which also appears to have been shutdown....It looked like we were in the dodgy side of town, I wasnt too keen on leaving Jerry to fend for himself overnight around here anyway.   At this point, a guy pulls up in a car next to us at the traffic lights and beckons me to wind down the window.

"Hey....I'm liking your car Sir, she is veeeeeey beautiful!  Heh, I tell you one thing my friend.  If I was to steal one car tonight, just one car in the whole city. I would take your car my friend! "   Is that a compliment lost in translation, or a warning to heed?... He speeds off with a cackle.  Meanwhile we turn around and book straight into the Sheraton, its great!   :)

Tune in on the 24th for the next thrilling installment - Zagreb to Sofia via Belgrade..