21.01.19
This is the second part to my roadtrip from Munich to London. Find part one here
Part one covered all of the first day and the morning of day two, spent in Strasbourg with some local E30 owners. Day two started off with an amazing photoshoot (featured in part one). After lunch I got back on the road, heading towards Saarbrücken, driving through the beautiful National Park Des Vosges. Just like on the previous day my plan was to be doing some hiking through the amazing landscape. One of the best things about venturing through the outdoors by car is having the freedom to access more remote places and really explore, and sometimes you just have to get out of the car to really experience the locations you see. I feel like vision is not enough to truly take in how breathtaking these places are. It is only with the addition of touch and smell that I can make real memories at these locations. Unfortunately it was raining for most of that afternoon and I didn’t get the chance to properly go for a walk. However, I did drive past this old factory and stopped the car to take a closer look. It consisted of one main hall and a few smaller buildings behind it, and I managed to drive into it and took some photos (see below). After that I carried on driving to Saarbrücken to spend my second night in the comfort of the warmth.
Day three was spent driving from Saarbrücken to Brussels, during which I visited the Natural Park Des Ardennes. Throughout this roadtrip I was struck by the beauty of the forest roads, and I am so glad I chose this route over the motorways. I find that listening to music while experiencing the here and now is priceless. I started off in Germany and then made it through France, Luxemburg and Belgium. The most memorable moments of that day were along the Belgium-France border.
One of the stand out moments from that day was in being this field with two horses. As soon as I saw them I had to stop and pull over. It was like a reflex; perhaps because I don’t see horses every day, or maybe because they were the only other living thing I interacted with that day. It was amazing to go up to them, stroke them and feed them some grass. I have always had a lot of respect for horses, watching them flexing their muscles reminds me how small humans are in comparison to the natural world. It also made me think about the 90 horsepower of my e30. Although it doesn’t feel that powerful next to other cars on the road, when you picture ninety horses pulling your car along it actually is a lot more than you think.
The other memorable moment was when I left the concrete road and drove on this gravel path. I had looked at google maps to find some higher altitude so I could get up and enjoy the view. As I didn’t find any useful information on the internet and had never been to the park Des Ardennes, I used the Terrain option on google maps and decided to see what I could find along the way. Thanks to the satellite images I found a small road going through a forest. I didn’t know for sure what would be there but this was my best bet! I followed the map, once again not quite knowing where I was going, and drove along a small gravel path. I did so for a while, driving pretty slow, making sure that there was enough clearance and I was not hitting the new exhaust on any rocks. After about twenty minutes I stopped, hoping that I would be rewarded with some kind of view, but I couldn’t see anything. I was about to turn around but noticed there was about a hundred metres left to the exact spot that I had marked on the map. I decided to carry on driving for a little longer; in these remote spots you never really know what awaits you or what you might come across. Indeed, exactly at the position that I randomly marked on google maps, there was a small passing bay connected to a rough track, in which I parked the car. After walking about twenty meters into the woods the trees cleared and a truly amazing landscape lay before me. There is something extraordinary about these kind of discoveries; going from being totally lost to feeling like everything has worked just as planned is one of the best experiences one can have on a trip like this.
Later that afternoon I made it to Brussels and looked around the European quarter of the city.
Early the next morning I had to leave Brussels already to make it to the ferry on time. Although I try to make these trips as spontaneous and free of limitations as possible, it doesn’t always work out. There will be something that you have to book in advance, like a ferry for example. That morning, I was in a bit of a rush to be in Dunkirk by eleven and still have time to take a look at some of the Belgian coast before driving over to where the ferry would depart.
The ferry took about two hours to get to Dover. When I arrived my plan was to drive the remaining two hours to London. However, it occurred to me that I might as well visit the acclaimed White Cliffs as I would be in Dover anyway! Instead of going straight onto the motorway I stayed for a couple of hours and took some photos.
The last two hours were no problem at all, I made it back before it got dark, giving me enough time to unpack and clean out the car. Now that I’ve got the car in the UK again I would be quite interested in visiting Ireland and Wales in the near future! More to come, stay tuned! Don’t forget to check out my Instagram to see more work!
