Welcome to the Nurburgring! The Ring is a 28km motorsport complex surrounding the tiny village of Nurburg. It's very famous in racing circles, but motor racing aside it is also used extensively for testing by car manufacturers, tyre manufacturers and the like. A 22km circuit of the full 28kms is called the Nordschleife or Northern Loop. The Nordschleife is open to the public most evenings of the week to screw their own vehicles around the track, and they come in their droves!

On this day there were a lot of motorbikes, a Subaru WRX...

A few Ford Focus'...

Even a couple Dodge Ram Yank-tanks hehe.

The track car is a Nissan GT-R. I'm a Skyline fanatic from way back in the day (I owned one for four years back home), but I'm not a fan of what they've done with GT-R - they look as though they're trying to be European. Not that I have anything against them but check out the predecessor - now that is fucking nice!

Some dude sent his van around the track but the Czech Wreck Dire Engine (complete with working fire hose sticking out the front) topped the cake hahaha!

As for me, I paid my €22 and lined up in...

...the Gutless Wonder hahaha! There are a number of car hire companies in the area from which you can hire proper track cars for as little as €250, but given the lack of time we had left in the day I didn't bother with that and took the Wonder round instead (complete with luggage and camping gear still packed in the back ;)

The Nurburgring, with its close to 100 turns, is reputed to be one of the most challenging tracks in the world, but to be honest I have no basis for comparison - I've never screwed a car around a proper racetrack before.

Cool, calm and collected ;) Kristina came round with me (I couldn't take photos of myself of course) and I think she may have left a few deep finger imprints on the door handle hehe.

You certainly aren't alone on the track but nobody is there to race anybody else - they're only racing themselves and so everybody indicates and moves out of your way if you come screaming up behind them (and likewise you're expected to do the same).

Easy as you like ;)

I polished the 22kms up in just over 11 minutes, which included a delay of maybe 30 seconds where we were slowed to pass repairmen fixing a fence that someone had probably driven through the day before.

Well that was so much fun I went back for a second lap, alone this time hehe - poor Kristina had enough fun the first time round.

During the second lap I had noticeably less traction on the road and slid around a lot more than during the first lap. The tyres are obviously just cheap road tyres and definitely not designed for this torture. After I was done with them they were very hot to the touch, and you can just make out the tiny bits of rubber there that have scraped off. Anyway, my second lap was done in just under 10.5 minutes - not a bad improvement.

The Nurburgring claims on average at least one vehicle a day. As you go round there are some very dark skid marks in places that lead straight into the fence (which looks very new at that point hehe). The top speed I got the Wonder up to was 170km/h, and 22kms in the 10.5 minutes I did it in is an average speed of around 125km/h, despite the 100 turns. In short, I was fucking going for it and had all four tyres screaming in agony. I overtook several cars and bikes but in turn was overtaken by a few too - everybody fucking goes for it! I ended up driving across the grass at the same corner during both laps (a really tight and blind S-bend) but aside from that, no worries!

Welcome to Luxembourg City, Luxembourg! Our seventh country of the trip, and the second of two new countries for me. We arrived here the previous night after leaving the Nurburgring. Luxembourg is Europe's third-smallest country with a population of just half a million, but despite that it has a pretty eventful history! Luxembourg City is home to around 80,000 of them, and is bloody nice but bloody boring I'd have to say.

Check out the t-shirt! :)

So yeah we got some food and wandered for a bit (usual story).

Like I said: nice, but nothing going on.

And all the planes that flew in had this weird bulbous thing stuck on the top of the fuselage - anyone know what the hell that is?! It isn't a jet engine so I've got no idea!

In the mood for a quality burger? Go to the Quality Burger Restaurant!

Broken your frame? Take it to Fix A Frame!

Small, cute, and boring - just like the city.

We left Luxembourg City around noon and had a short drive to our final destination for the day - Esch-sur-Sure. Esch is dubbed one of Europe's prettiest villages, and it absolutely is. Its population of 300 is so proud of their little town's river that they've spelt its name out on the river bank in the hedge hehe.

We spent half the following day here as well, sacrificing the planned drive into Belgium and back into Germany via the Netherlands, because a) the weather was perfect, 2) the town and area was so damn gorgeous, and d) the trip was nearing its end and after all we'd done and all that had happened it was nice to just kick back with a couple beers and lap up the sunshine.