After the stressful journey of the day before, the morning drive to Stuttgart was, thankfully, uneventful, and as planned, we met up for breakfast with our friends from the German MG Drivers Club (MG Drivers Club Deutschland e.V.)
It was a good start to the day and a great breakfast with Guido and Neil, who presented us with some very considerate gifts. Once again, we encountered the anti-camera sentiment; the café staff would not allow any filming inside their premises and asked us to blank their business name from the film taken outside. Of course, we were keen on taking pictures of the cars our friends had brought alongside our MG and so we agreed to comply.
All too soon, it was time to move on – the new route plan was to travel via Luxembourg. We waved goodbye to the German MG Drivers Club members and set off. We stopped for fuel in Schengen (we all recognise that name!) and started to explore possible locations to stop overnight. As we checked our route north, we discovered massive traffic jams ahead. At that point, we decided to detour back towards Reims.
It turned out there were huge delays on this route, too, and it was clear that we were not going to make Reims by a sensible time, so we booked something en route in the small town of Etain. It looked perfectly OK on Booking.com, but when got there… hotel from hell.
It was closed! There was no door access code, no staff, no restaurant, and no bar! We couldn’t even lock our hotel room, so we left!
I am still arguing with Booking.com, who have charged us for this fiasco. Is this the worst hotel in France?
So, we headed towards the nearest town in search of somewhere to sleep and opted for an Ibis Budget in Verdun. There, we could talk to someone, find our room and get dinner at an Italian restaurant just over the road.
At this point, we were so nearly home – we had an idea for celebratory drinkies when we got there!
Safe to say, we were looking forward to getting back.
Augsberg to Verdun, Via Luxembourg and Etain. 341 miles