South to the Nurburgring and Zur Alten Muhle.

This has been our first full day driving through Germany, from Munchengladbach we joined the A61 only to discover that the local autobahn system was all being dug up. Not a good start but as we had to make a detour to Wesseling which allowed us to pass the worst of it.

From Wesseling we travelled on to the Nurburgring down the B257. This road was lots of fun and dangerous given all the signs warning motorcyclists not to race. We knew that the ring was closed but hoped to have a look round the place however on arrival it was all too evident that the clean-up operation from the weekend rock concert made getting around impossible so we drove on down the B259 to Ediger-Ella for lunch on the bank of the Mosel, nothing too exciting just a nice salad.

I took over for the afternoon drive only to discover that the car hates me. On starting the car a red warning light appeared on the dashboard, this introduced a 30 minute flap as we prodded and checked all the electrics while consulting the Ferrari guru over the phone.

Eventual conclusion, don't park it in the sun.

We cut across country to re-join the autobahns and just cruised on down to the Pforzheim west exit for Paul's recommended stop at Zur Alten Muhle.

The place does live up to Paul's hype, lovely setting and the view from the room window down to the trout stream relieved some monster fish holding station in the flow from the mill race. It was unfortunately very dark so pictures were not that good. We have just dined on the house speciality trout dish, well worth it.

We had been lucky lucky with the weather all the way down with just a few spots of rain, tonight it is throwing it down.