The Wacky Rally – Day 2

I’m aware that my last blog was actually the first day of the rally but it was really difficult to a) find the internet and/or b) have the time to write whilst trying to travel half way across Europe.  So apologies for that.

Here I am going to break it down into sections to try and capture what went on on the rally.

Day 2 Lille – Bern

When we woke up in Lille we had to head to the underground car park which was about ten miutes from where we were staying.  We had to get to a large car park for the official start of the rally.

Us being us meant that first of all we couldn’t get out of the car park because it didn’t open until 7am and we were early.  When we did get out we struggled to find the car park (this became a common theme of the entire rally).  In our desperation to get to the starting point we took a wrong turn and ended up in another underground car park where we couldn’t find the exit!

Anyway we got out eventually and found the car park.  It was a great sight.  Sixty cars all done up in crazy themes, some better than others, and everyone was milling around taking pictures and meeting each other.

We had our first briefing off Rob and Ali and then everyone jumped in their cars and left the car park where we were handed the envelope with our first days challenges in.

The challenges included buying something from each of the five countries we were to visit that day as well as bringing back proof of actually being in those countries.  We did okay with that though stuggled to find anything for Luxembourg, because lets face it, what is Luxembourg famous for?  Exactly you can’t think of anything can you?!!!

In Belgium we met a team called Carkeys and Clutch ( a play on Starsky and Hutch) who followed us into Brussels.  Being in Brussels we decided to visit the EU Headquarters, which took longer than we thought to find but we got there in the end.

Tom, Me and Rich outside the EU

From Brussels we headed for Luxembourg.  When i say headed I mean we took the long route because we got lost.  However we had a quick stop for lunch when we reached our third country of the day.  It must have been about 35 degrees and we found some Super Dickmanns, which were required for the second part of the days task.  We had to find them, come up with a slogan and then photograph one of the team eating them for an advertising campaign.  Basically they were chocolate marshmellowy things and were disgusting.

From there we really needed to get a move on as we were only about half way to where we needed to be.  We stopped again at a French service station and our car was promtly surrounded by two coaches of French children who were on their way to Germany.  We gave them pens and they all searched for Wally, or Charlie as he’s known in France.

French children finding Wally

We made it through Germany and soon after we got to Switzerland where the landscape suddenly changed into high mountains, it was amazing.  We headed for Bern where our accomodation was.  The rally was actually meeting up in Thun, about ten miles from Bern, but it was getting on so we thought we’d drop our bags off then get to Thun to register.  We never made it to Thun.

The reason was we couldn’t find our accomodation and after driving past the train station, which was packed with Friday night drinkers, for the eighth time tension was seriously mounting in the car.  We rang the hostel three times only to be told “It is hard to direct you in a car”.  We had my Dad back in England, again, trying to direct us!  It was ridiculous and in the end we hopped into a taxi and followed it to where we needed to be.

When we got there and checked in we decided to have one beer before going to bed.  However as soon as the first beer was cracked open the tension drained away and we all had a huge laugh and joke about what had just happened.  One beer turned to five and we were up until 2.30am.

A happy end to a stressful and long long day!!

(Day 3 to follow soon)