My Carina Wagon Adventures!

[Unikitty1]

I said in my first post about how my Carina and I's biggest adventure was just around the corner, and this thread I'll start with how that adventure went.

Me looking goofy at an old F1 grandstand in France, car in the background on the pit straight.

We left on the Friday, after work to head down to Dover so the trip could start straight away on the Saturday morning. One Premier Inn breakfast down and off to the EuroTunnel we went. I've never driven abroad so it was all very exciting. For those that have never experienced the EuroTunnel, it's a bit like a normal train station except everything has been doubled in size, it's all very odd. Our first day was to be a simple one, make it to Luxembourg by evening while detouring to go to Reims-Geuex! 

On the old pit straight at Reims-Geuex, if you're wondering, yes, you can go up the top and pretend you're waving the flag!

Reims-Geuex is an old Grand Prix circuit just outside the city of Reims in the north of France. It was built in the 20s and was raced on up until the 70s, impressively being on the calendar for the first ever Formula 1 Grand Prix. It's no longer the 20s, in-fact now it's the 20s, the 2020s. 100 years on and it's still here, just sitting at the side of an unassuming French road. It's clear from having a thorough walk about of the place that a lot of time and money has been spent keeping the place up, there's still a way to go but it's great to see the care it's rightfully getting. I've known about Reims-Geuex for years now and I'm so glad I could cross it off the list of places I want to go.

As you can tell from the photos, we were here for hours, it got almost completely dark. So no time to go try snails or frog's legs elsewhere. It was off to Luxembourg for the night.

Luxembourg was great, really incredibly pretty place, especially when lightly snowing like it was while I was there. Since all public transport in Luxembourg is free I didn't do anything with the car. Although all I can say is don't ever try to drive through that city! It is an absolute mess of one way streets and disorienting twists and turns! Just stick to the public transport!

It's impossible for a phone camera to do justice to the awesome sights of the valleys through Luxembourg!

Of course, there was no way I was going to Europe and not taking the Carina to the Nurburgring! The original plan was of course to drive the track on a Touristenfahrten day. But after realising the track was closed during the winter months I thought "well at least we could go to the castle and see a glimpse of the track.

However upon arrival it was mind-blowing the scale of the buildings on-track! We were just aiming for the cafe going inside, but it turned out to be so much more! The cafe was closed but I did spot in another room a couple of old touring cars. A Ford Sierra and an Opel Omega. walking a bit further in and we saw a whole room full of incredible looking race cars out and on display. However they were behind a barrier which required tickets to enter. When we heard the price for entry for two people we were a bit torn, but after spotting a Porsche 962 off in the corner we thought we just had to pay it!

I don't remember seeing any Toyotas, but there was more than enough to have me running around like some crazed fan-girl at a Harry Styles concert! So many cool and interesting cars to see plus a host of attractions and things to do on top. I really couldn't recommend it enough!

After spending all day at the Nurburgring, it was off to Cologne. Cologne seemed like an amazing city, really nice vibe and so much to see and do. Lots of car stuff to see and do too, it has multiple car museums and was by far the best city we went to for on the fly car-spotting! 

I saw a lot of nice cars, rubbish cars, classic cars in Cologne, but this Colt was for sure the most "memorable"

Also did you know there's a Toyota Museum in Cologne!? It looks fantastic, unfortunately it was closed during our trip so we never went. But next time I go on a trip here I'll be sure to make it while the museum is open!

Not my photos, photos from Egzostive. Lots more photos and information in the link! ;}

Ultimately, beyond Cologne I didn't do much more car related stuff so I'll keep the rest short. After Cologne we went to Dortmund and Wuppertal for their Stadium and suspended monorail respectively. Travelled through The Netherlands stopping in Eindhoven on our way to Brussels for our fourth and final night. There was lots more throughout the trip that we did, but these were the parts which I thought would be most enticing to you readers of Toyota Forums.

We left Brussels around midday and were back in Norwich, back on the driveway at home by 7:30. All in, from Leaving the driveway to being back on it, it was exactly 1,419 miles within 5 and a bit days of travel. The car, although freezing cold, was perfect. Only a headlight bulb being a problem that was sorted in no more than a minute.

Can't wait to visit again, maybe also do Monaco and the Alps some day too!

Here's a few miscellaneous pictures from our travels and Thanks for reading!

I also forgot to mention driving the AutoBahn, maxing the car out to an indicated 120mph on a particularly long downhill stretch! Has anyone else ever gotten a stock 4A-F powered car up to such speeds? I'm curious to know!