[DeTomaso] Postcard from Germany...

[MikeLDrew at aol.com]

Hi guys,

We've been having fun on Charlie's Spa Italia tour.   Yesterday it dawned 
gray and rainy.   Our first leg was supposed to be over two-lane roads, but 
due to a road closure we wound up on goat trails, barely wider than the cars 
in some cases.   Still, it was a fun drive, out of France and back into 
Belgium, and we arrived at our first stop, a Trappist monastery.

Belgium has some of the finest beers in the world, and a handful are brewed 
by Trappist monks.   We were able to tour their monastery, after which we 
retired to an Auberge where we enjoyed their beer, and also the cheese that 
they make.

We then drove to a town dominated by a huge fortress atop a peninsula 
overlooking a deep river valley, and enjoyed an amazing falconry demonstration 
and a self-guided tour of the castle.   We then drove clear across Luxembourg, 
and crossed the Mosel river into Germany where we spent the night in a 
delightful little hotel nestled among a quiet neighborhood.

This morning we abandoned the cars, and instead took a hired bus into the 
center of Luxembourg City.   This is a fantastic ancient city/fortress, now a 
world financial center, boasting an extremely well-dressed, affluent and 
cosmopolitan populace.   The shopping rivals anything this side of Rodeo Drive 
or 5th Avenue, so the Significant Others were in heaven.   Blessed with 
cool but clear and sunny weather, we alternatly shopped and saw the sights 
until late afternoon, at which point we caught our bus back to the hotel for 
another fine meal.

Tomorrow we're off to Germany to visit the ancient city of Trier, and also 
try our hand at the Trier hillclimb course, before returning to Belgium, 
where tomorrow night we'll link up with the large (30 or so cars?) Pantera 
contingent arriving from Sweden, and a few stragglers from England, and a few 
other European countries.

We're looking forward to the group growing in size, with the knowledge that 
it will almost triple by the weekend!

I've added five photos to the bottom of the page, here:

http://www.poca.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=31258

Cheers!

Mike