C.R : Meeting en Alsace / les 10ans du MR

[Les]

Hello to all our new friends!

At long last here is our write up about the wonderful trip we made to be with you all. Also included is the rest of our journey through the Black Forest. We are using this same article as a write up for the magazine 'MR2 Only'.

The link for uploading pictures we have been given is taking far too long for just one picture, so I hope you do not mind me using a link to all photographs uploaded in my photobucket.

LINK

The pictures are in low resolution but I can send any needed in high resolution if necessary.

THE ROADSTER IS 10 YEARS OLD!!!! WE CELEBRATED BY JOINING THE FRENCH MR-S PASSION CLUB IN ALSACE

While checking out the events section on Roadster Owners Club I noticed that Club MR-S Passion had posted an invitation asking if members wished to join them along with fellow enthusiasts in a celebration of 10 Years of the Roadster.

The list of events planned looked too good to miss……Staying in a chalet for the three day event, having meals provided and the opportunity to drive round the stunning Alsace Region of France, taking in visits to two of my favourite vices (not the vices you are thinking of), one being the Ritter chocolate factory, the next at a winery....HEAVEN!

An international attendance also made it a very interesting prospect, more so as I have difficulty speaking the English language let alone any other but once Anne’s and my name were added Google Translate became a good friend.

As the region we were to visit dabbled a little in wine production I thought it only fitting to ask fellow wine expert (expert as in we both know how to open a bottle of wine without spilling it) Nigel (“Loadswine” on the forum …..now there’s a clue) and his wife Carol, would like to make the trip with us - this took all of ten seconds for them to decide it would be a great trip and confirm their attendance. So MR2 Roadster Owners Club and the British representation for this event had doubled in strength, I hope our fellow continental Roadster owners know what they are letting themselves in for?

As on previous trips to Corfu with our club, my wife Anne kept a diary of events from beginning to end and hopefully our joint contribution will make for interesting reading.

Les

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Anne’s Diary
Tuesday May 11 2010

11.15am and we are packed (every orifice in the roadster) and ready for the off. The weather is iffy but we take the top down to start off with. Later we have to put it up as it is raining but it must be noted that this is the only time for the whole holiday. At 15.25pm we arrive at Nigel and Carols and settled in for the evening.

Wednesday May 12 2010

5.00am (oh the joys!) we start for Dover. It is a frosty morning but bright and clear so we take the tops down (they will stay down for the rest of the holiday!) and enjoy the fresh air - well it wakes us up at least! 6.30am we arrive at Dover and join the queue
for the ferry finding ourselves next to a group of Lotus something or others… 7.30am we are boarded and go get some breakfast. 11.05am we disembark at Dunkerque and so starts our real adventure. Our first stop is at Auchan for the very important stocking up of the bottles of wine which we find so necessary on a journey like this (hic!). 12.00 high noon and we are off heading for Metz in fine weather. 15.25pm we enter Luxembourg and at 16.30pm we are back in France! 17.45pm we arrive at our first stop - a hotel in Metz. It is a pleasant place although at the back of an industrial estate, however the rooms are clean and adequate and we find a lovely place to eat within walking distance. It is called “Crocodile” though as the ambience is trains we could not work out why! The food - well WOW!!! We have an ‘all you can eat’ option - wonderful starters, choice of main, gorgeous deserts and wine on tap!!! Suits us fine.

Thursday May 13 2010

10.10am breakfast eaten and we are ready for the off again, driving on country roads so we can enjoy ourselves. It is fine weather again. 12.30pm and we stop at a small taverna for refreshments - coffee and tarte which are very nice. 13.00pm it tries to rain but we keep the tops down and motor along so it doesn’t bother us, the countryside is lovely. We are actually driving through the clouds - it is really weird but a fantastic drive - have you ever seen the roads steaming??? 13.45pm we arrive at the chalets in Alsace. They are in a place called Metzeral and are in a very picturesque setting. We can’t unload the cars yet so we go find the bar and get ourselves a refreshing beer. 14.00pm the first of our foreign colleagues arrives Edouard (cow-boo) and we are relieved to find he speaks good English (in fact he is our translator for the whole of the stay and is very much appreciated by us all). 17.30pm Cyril and his wife arrive - they are the arrangers along with Edouard of the stay and having said our hellos we finally get to see our chalet. It is small and basic but adequate for our purposes and we unload the groaning roadsters. Then we go to a large ‘club-house’ - well it is a big chalet with plenty of room - to have a ‘meet and greet’. We are presented to everyone (about 20 or so people so far) and are given champagne to toast the forthcoming holiday. Also we are all given special t-shirts with the 10th anniversary printed on them AND we four are given MR-S Passion caps as well!!!!!! It is so lovely to be made so welcome. Next comes a very nice four course meal in the restaurant which sets the precedent for the holiday as we had four course meals everywhere! Naturally we had bottles of wine on the table and we just had to drink them. 22.30pm to midnight and we wend our way to our chalet where we have a final wine and so to bed.

Friday 14 May 2010

Up at 8.30am and breakfast at 9.00am - very large bowls for coffee or tea or chocolate, fruit juice and bread-ham-cheese-jam etc. 11.00am we are off on our first arranged trip - there are 17 cars all roadsters bar one which is an Lotus Elise - we make an impressive convoy!!! We drive along pretty winding roads (the sort so loved by the roadster whoohoo) heading upwards all the time. After motoring along nicely testing out the driving abilities of everyone we arrive at White Lake (erm it is not white?) where we gather for a picnic lunch and photos. The lunches are very generous and we are more than satisfied! 13.00pm and we are off again. After this we drive along more delightful roads to a chocolate factory - Ritter. Here we stop for a tour of the factory which is very interesting and then we get a drink of coffee and a taste of the lovely chocolate, followed by a chance to buy as much as we want - yummy!! We then drive happily back to our chalets arriving at 17.20pm. There is an opportunity to chill out for a while followed by an aperitif in the ’club-house’ - more wines are produced by various people and we just have to sample them. We English are given more bottles to take home - they are so generous!! Then we eat once more and finally us four go back to our chalet and so to bed.

Saturday 15 May 2010

Breakfast at 8.00am as we have a busy day ahead. 9.20am after some late people (erm too much wine the night before?) join us we are finally off. We lose a few people on the way and then lose the winery but eventually we all arrive - it is a bit of an adventure! We all go in for an arranged tour which is very interesting and afterwards we gather for a tasting of three of the wines followed by an opportunity to buy wines. Next we go for a short walk to a very nice restaurant where we have another four course meal (boy are we going to get fat!) with wine again!!!! Of course the drivers cant drink so much but us passengers can enjoy it. We set off again and make our various ways back to Metzeral, enjoying the drive as usual, we arrive at 18.00pm. Then we have a very special evening. Cyril and Karine have given up their afternoon to shopping for and preparing a lasagne meal for us all which is fabulous. Then Cyril is out at the bbq cooking sausages as well. The whole evening was very pleasant and we spent a lot of time discussing the runs and cars and comparing notes - yes even us English managed to join in the conversations!!! Bed was at midnight for us four though I suspect the others stayed up much later playing card games.

Sunday 15 May 2010

Up at 8.30am and so to breakfast. Nigel takes several of our new friends for a quick blast in his car - just to show it off you know. Then packing of the cars….shove heave it all goes in! We go for a short run to take some final photos and then it is back to the ‘club-house’ for a short chat about how much we have enjoyed the stay and how we must meet again. Then we all go for lunch which was as superb as always and at 15.00pm we are finally ready for the off to our tour of the Black Forest. We bid our new friends a sad adieu and are away. 16.00pm we enter Germany and at 17.15pm after a stunning drive we arrive at Bergfriede Hotel at Schonach, It is very picturesque and our rooms are magnificent with stunning views from the windows. We chill out for a while settling in and then set off for a walk to find some food. We find a nice little restaurant and have a fairly small dinner - well we are still stuffed from lunch!. 21.45pm we are back at the hotel and ready for an early bed.

Monday 16 May 2010

9.00am breakfast is excellent and at 10.00am our day of touring commences. Our first stop is at Triberg where there are the highest waterfalls in Germany (well so we are told). They are magnificent and we climb over half way up them, taking photos and videos on the way. 11.45am we depart after a bit of retail therapy (well us gals deserved one chance to shop!) and at 12 noon we are posing our cars under a ski jump which is very impressive. Here we ‘meet’ a grossen bitchen who tells us not to block the road for photos hmmmmmfffff. 12.45 onwards to Titisee then Feldberg and Todtnall and Munstental - all along very pretty roads - a nice sedate little drive. After lunch which is coffee and cakes eaten in our cars we carry on with the drive. By 15.00pm we arrive at Munstertal and at 15.35pm we are heading for Botzingen and Emmendingen and finally back to Schonach where we drive round to see the biggest cuckoo clock in the area. It is on the side of a house but we are not allowed to tour inside unfortunately. Back to our hotel briefly and out at 20.00pm for evening meal at the same restaurant as last night - well it is so nice! So to bed for second and last night at Schonach.

Tuesday 17 May 2010

Ah well got to leave our hotel so at 10.20am we are all packed up and ready to go. We journey up the hill to see a ski jump and take a few more photos. 11.00am we set off towards our next destination, we find a nice bit of country road to follow…..erm it eventually ends up like a cycle track and even goes over a small bridge which we negotiate carefully! 13.00pm we take a short break for lunch and we are off again on the picturesque roads. 13.30pm we are back in France and motoring along nicely. 16.00pm we arrive at our B&B in Nancy after spending a little time on motorways. 17.00pm we toast our journey so far with a glass or two of red wine in our room and then we go for a Chinese ‘all-you-can-eat’ buffet. 21.30pm we are back in our room sharing wine and looking on the laptop computer at our videos etc. 22.30pm bed.

Wednesday 18 May 2010

8.00am we wake to another pleasant morning and go for our breakfast. 9.45am we are once more packed up and ready for the off towards Reims. We are driving through pretty villages with blue skies, little white fluffy clouds, on glorious open roads with very little traffic. The roads are weird - they are very long and very straight with very little other traffic, every time we come over the top of a hill we see more road stretching out ahead. 12.30pm we find a little bar on the roadside and chill with a glass of wine and a sandwich. At 13.00pm we are off again running smoothly in the sunshine - just chilling as we drive along. 2.00pm we are in the pits!!!!!!!!!!!! At on old formula one race track, the boys just have to do a VERY fast run past and we girls video it. Onwards and at 15.00pm we arrive at Reims and park up for a stroll to the cathedral - it is very spectacular. 17.30pm we visit a supermarket and stock up on wine for the evening (well you just go to haven’t you!) and at 18.30pm we finally find our Campanille hotel after a bit of a hic up with the sat navs. We settle in and go for a meal in the hotel restaurant - this is our only really disappointing meal of the whole holiday (memo to selves don’t order steak in a small hotel) and then to our rooms for wine and bed.

Thursday 19 May 2010

9.30am and we are ready for the last leg of our journey - to Dunkerque, but once again we take the country roads. At 9.55am we enter Belgium and take a short stop at a breathtaking view, then onwards and we take to the motorways in order to get to Auchan in time to do some essential shopping. 14.15pm we arrive at Auchan and get a few bottles of wine (did I say a few?) Well OK then as many as we can stuff in the roadsters!!!!!!!!!!!! At 15.00pm we are heading for the ferry - sob - the end is nigh……. At 15.30pm we are in a line waiting to board and then all of a sudden we are on the ferry. Hey ho…..watches back to British time and at 17.20pm we disembark and are back on English soil……must remember to drive on the correct side!!! 19.00pm we arrive back at Nigel and Carols to spend a pleasant evening reminiscing about our marvellous trip.

Friday 20 May 2010

9.15am we are ready to depart for home, in brilliant sunshine. We say a sad farewell to our wonderful companions and promise to meet again soon. We stop for a sandwich and drink at 12 noon and are home at 14.00pm.

We have travelled a total of 2185 miles in wonderful company, seen marvellous sights and got so many memories. It has been magnificent and we would do it again tomorrow!!!!!!!!!

NIGEL AND I DOING A DRIVE BY

[Pilgrim]

Thank you again for coming and for your report too :wink:

[annepat]

Thank you again for coming and for your report too :wink:

So glad you enjoyed it.........did not know if you would understand it!!!!!!!! :roll:

[loadswine]

Nice write-up Anne and Les. 8)

[Pilgrim]

So glad you enjoyed it.........did not know if you would understand it!!!!!!!! :roll:

My brain is burning...But i do it :lol:

[loadswine]

As Edouard liked my little vid I posted on mr2roc, I thought I'd post it on here as well.

This was done on my minicam on our way home, in the Ardennes

[cow_boo]

Thanks so much for the write up of your whole trip. It is a first class one ! 8)

Thanks too for the pictures (I will see them tonight as I don't time at work)

We are really glad that you enjoyed the meeting. :wink:

[Cyril]

As Edouard liked my little vid I posted on mr2roc, I thought I'd post it on here as well.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

[Kuskillman]

Quelqu'un pourrais uploader le fichier de la caméra de Les ? celle placé au ras du sol je sais que Pilm l'a alors je fais un appel.


Et lol la vidéo de loadswine ^^

[beno43]

c'est vraiment bon de lire tout ca ... ca me rappelle de trés bons souvenirs :-)

[Pilgrim]

Quelqu'un pourrais uploader le fichier de la caméra de Les ? celle placé au ras du sol je sais que Pilm l'a alors je fais un appel.


Et lol la vidéo de loadswine ^^

Je finis de me battre avec et j'upload...Où vous voulez :-D

[Kuskillman]

ça roule, normalement ça devrait pas prendre trop de temps vu que t'as une bande passante de la mort qui tue ^^ :yawinkle:

[Pilgrim]

ça roule, normalement ça devrait pas prendre trop de temps vu que t'as une bande passante de la mort qui tue ^^

Je ne suis pas chez moi avant ce we... :-D

[Pilgrim]

Je viens de remettre le nez dans toutes les photos et vidéos...Et j'y ai croisé notre ami de Melmac dans une position...



Holiday on wine :rock:



Ah l'alcoolisme... :-D



Nos retardataires du premier matin...



Et oui, les Suisses aussi se droguent :weedman:



J'm'en fous de ce qu'il dit, mais j'm'en fous :lol:



La flasque de Bloody :drinkers:



Oh non mes clés!!!



Bon j'y retourne. Je vais uploader les photos qui reste et trier les vidéos :-D

[karlus972]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: