The Last Ditch by Tom Paine

THE LAST DITCH

Adventures in MittelEuropa

Published by Tom

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I have done my route planning for our next tour. I am going to drive Speranza to Vienna. I plan to arrive there on April 13 for a photography course with Joe McNally.  We will cross to the Continent via the Eurotunnel on the morning of April 11 and drive on to Verviers in Belgium. On April 12 we will drive to Nuremberg and on April 13 we will drive to Vienna.

The course moves from Vienna to Prague on April 16 and ends on April 20. I will then drive on to Berlin to spend a couple of days with an old friend before returning to England on April 22/23, overnighting in Eindhoven in the Netherlands.

As there was for the Great American Road Trip of 2013, there will be a map available here so that you can track my progress and offer suggestions or comments as to stuff to see and do on the way. In the meantime, here's the route plan.

Screen Shot 2014-04-02 at 19.37.14

It's not quite as ambitious as the American tour, but it should be fun. Especially on the unrestricted autobahns in Germany where we may actually be able to reach her maximum speed of 194mph. My friend in Berlin has kindly sent me a "speed limit map" of Germany for planning purposes.

11 responses to “Adventures in MittelEuropa”

  1. Furor Teutonicus Avatar
    Furor Teutonicus

    Hey! Don’t forget German motorways have NO SPEED LIMITS WHATSOEVER…. ANYWHERE! Just drive as fast as you like!
    We may meet. I am the one on the big green and white motorbike with all the blue flashing lights and the nasty noisy twin tone horns.

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  2. Tom Avatar
    Tom

    Who says Germans have no sense of humour, eh?

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  3. Eva Avatar
    Eva

    Let me know if you need any recommendations for prague

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  4. Tom Avatar
    Tom

    Please recommend away. I would be happy to be the best informed photographer on the course and lead my companions to photogenic venues! You can share the suggestions here for the benefit of all or click the email link to send them privately.

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  5. james higham Avatar
    james higham

    Sounds like it will be a wild old time on the autobahns.

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  6. Tom Avatar
    Tom

    I am as conservative a driver as an investor. I don’t perform any manoeuvre unless I can see a safe exit. In consequence I am often passed by braver drivers (and investors!) which does not bother me at all. When driving Speranza I know that such occasions give young petrol heads a story to tell their friends and I am happy for them.
    I recently spent a happy hour or so in a Las Vegas bar chatting to a young lady (Hi Stephanie) who owns a Dodge Viper and has a far more aggressive approach to motoring than I do. Her father taught her proper driving when she was even more very young and she now races Ford Mustangs for fun. If I had met her when I was young, I would have proposed marriage on the spot; she was a petrol head’s dream woman. At my age, I am simply happy to leave such driving to her and others with her youthful reflexes.
    Bear in mind I drove 14,524 miles on the Great American Road Trip of 2013 and did not pick up a single speeding ticket (though I did get a couple of warnings). The joy of driving a serious car on public roads is not the cruising speed, which is always legally capped, it’s the opportunity to pass in shorter distances than others can; what I call my “Ferrari moments”.
    I can only imagine doing 194mph in a straight line on an unrestricted dry road with light traffic on a clear day. So fast, yes, if conditions permit but wild, no. I like my life and want it to last at least until I am too doddery to renew my driving licence. I am not much bothered about lasting beyond that, mind. I would miss driving way too much.

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  7. David Davis Avatar
    David Davis

    You ever been up and/or down the Stelvio Tom? (I wouldn’t do it in winter if I was you…prob closed then anyway. There were snowdrifts and ice sheets aloft when I did in it Sept 1985.) It as fun: maybe on another trip you could go via that way.

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  8. CherryPie Avatar
    CherryPie

    Both Vienna and Prague are a photographers dream. In Prague there are some good views from inside the town hall tower and you can also see the clock mechanism from within. A place that is a little bit different which I enjoyed was the Wallenstein garden, it has some interesting features.
    I look forward to seeing your photos when you return.

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  9. Tim Newman Avatar
    Tim Newman

    I did a very similar route in 1995 in a coach on a school history trip to Eastern Europe. Hopefully you won’t be travelling half as pissed as I was…
    Eindhoven isn’t much to get excited about, but it’s peaceful enough. There are some decent bars in the main square, but I found everywhere shuts early during the week and is full of kids on the weekend.
    Regarding speeding tickets, I picked one up the first time I took my new car out around Paris two weekends ago. Fortunately the fine was only 45 Euros, but I’ll need to slow down a bit in future. I agree, the fun is in nailing it past cars which you otherwise couldn’t have overtaken in other cars.

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  10. Peter Whale Avatar
    Peter Whale

    Hi tom I took my Jag to Vienna back in the eighties and was warned about crossing the tram tracks, not stopping on them and that the trams do not stop at the lights and they come the other way down one way streets. All turned out to be true. Have a good trip.

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  11. Tom Avatar
    Tom

    Thanks, Peter. All advice humbly and gratefully accepted…

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Tom is a retired international lawyer. He was a partner in a City of London law firm and spent almost twenty years abroad serving clients from all over the world.

Returning to London on retirement in 2011, he was dismayed to discover how much liberty had been lost in the UK while he was away.

He’s a classical liberal (libertarian, if you must) who, like his illustrious namesake, considers that

“…government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.”

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