London, Aachen, Munich

I spent some of last week dealing with car issues. I caught up with Jo and discussed our respective travel plans and the pleasure of not working. And Ben and Zoe continued to enjoy the presence of my lap top.

I got away on Saturday morning, taking the ferry from Dover to Dunkerque (white cliffs pictured) and then driving through Belgium to Aachen in Germany. Aachen is most well known for its cathedral. Yesterday I drove from Aachen to Munich, a trip of 620km (my longest one day drive ever) on the autobahn. Not particularly exciting or picturesque and the excitement of no speed limit was limited by my not particularly sporty car and frequent stretches where a speed limit of 60 or 80km/h in fact applied. Driving on the right has not been a problem, although it is hard to get it wrong on the motorway. It helps being in a right-hand drive car- for me a left-hand side driver's seat is more difficult to get used to than driving on the right. I stayed in a suburb of Munich last night at a hostel. I had a pleasant night with Nick and Gemma, a young English couple. I also chatted to Eric from Florida who looked a lot like a character from the Simpsons.