Pics and report from day 1

The trip there and service area in Trier.

Mark set off from Bournemouth at about 1.30am! Then on to John in Southampton for 2.15am and mine, in Portsmouth for 3:30am. Once we had loaded up the car (surprising how much you can fit in a 156) we set off to meet the 7am sailing from Dover. It was my turn to drive, the sound of that V6 was a real wake up. I was reminded by Mark on several occasions that I was the first person other than himself to have control of the troll-mobile (cheers mate). The biggest surprise to us on this leg was that you still get "middle lane monsters" on the M25 even at 5am! We arrived at Dover with ample time to spare. John had to convince customs to let him leave the UK because his passport was in the USA (don't ask). All he had was a photocard driving license and a provisional one at that. Jokes were made about having to put him in the boot for the return trip or taking him to Sangatte so he could try running through the channel tunnel with the asylum seekers.
We boarded the Seafrance Manet and waved goodbye to blighty. The white cliffs disappeared from view, as we tucked into our last decent breakfast for 4 days and we were finally on our way.
The trip to Germany, via France, Belgium and Luxembourg, took less than 5 hours with a long stop in Belgium for a chocolate fix. We saw a couple of lads in a 306 who were also making the trip to the rally, had a quick chat, but never managed to track them down thereafter. On crossing the German border, we were greeted with the heavens opening, just like crossing into Wales, great! By the time we reached the campsite in Reinsfeld the sun was shining and we pitched our tents in a suitable place. The campsite was full of rally fans, from all over Europe; Holland, Belgium, Italy, Spain and of course Germans. No fellow brits unfortunately. Around teatime we ventured into Trier to pick up our tickets and fan packs. Big mistake, Trier in rush hour is not the ideal place to be. We eventually bailed out from the car and found the Rally HQ hotel where our tickets should have been. Guess what, they weren't there! We were sent to the Service Park about 1.5km walk (we could take the traffic jam no longer). On arrival at the Messepark, we managed to actually pick up our tickets and maps (which were pretty useless) and all was well once more. We stayed to soak up the atmosphere and view the cars being prepared. Waved the union jack at Colin McRae, but he didn't even bat an eyelid, miserable git. By the time we left service the only place to eat was the local McDonald's drive-thru (nice!).
The final highlight of the day was racing with Markko Martin's Gravel car at high speed through Trier. Strangely this was a UK rally spec Volvo S60 instead of a Ford. The Volvo could really shift, but so could the Alfa (ha, ha - victory was ours).