Two Pensioners and a Porsche: The German Alpine Route and Beyond

By Peter Court

Two Pensioners and a Porsche is a journal compiled during a twenty-two day car journey across the Continent of Europe. The purpose of the journey, undertaken by two pensioners driving a Porsche sports car, was to explore The German Alpine Route, some 450 kilometres of alpine scenery from the town of Lindau, Lake Constance Bavaria, to the infamous Eagles Nest at Berchtesgaden on the border with Austria. This part of the journey,recorded with multiple photographic content, is a light hearted written descriptions of places of interest that the two pensioners visited. After Berchtesgaden, the journey then took the intrepid travellers to the countries of Austria, Italy, Switzerland and France, and finally back across The English Channel and home to the United Kingdom. This section of the journey is a short video showing the route taken and the places of interest that is the journey: Beyond. Please read this book at your leisure and enjoy. The Two Pensioners and a Porsche certainly did.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Peter Court
• Release date: Jul 19, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311149091

Peter Court

Indie Author - Published on Smashwords EditionOwner - Peter Court Media Services – Photographic and video servicesJanuary 2010/Present - Market Harborough - Leicester - UK

Book preview

Two Pensioners and a Porsche

The German Alpine Route

And Beyond

By Peter Court

Copyright © 2014 Peter Court

Smashwords Edition

*Quotations with an asterisk are from

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam 1048 - 1131*

Licence Statement: This eBook is licenced for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook is not to be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this eBook with another person, please purchase another copy for each recipient. If you are reading this eBook and did not purchase it, or if this eBook was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favourite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author

Authors Note: Two Pensioners and a Porsche: The German Alpine Route and Beyond is a book comprising of two parts and compiled during a twenty-two day car journey across the Continent of Europe. The purpose of the journey, undertaken by Two Pensioners driving a Porsche, was to explore The German Alpine Route, some 450 kilometres of alpine scenery from the town of Lindau, Lake Constance Bavaria, to the infamous Eagles Nest at Obersalzberg, Berchtesgaden, a town located in South East Bavaria, Germany. This part of the journey is a light-hearted written account with photographic content showing the places of historical interest that the two pensioners visited. After Berchtesgaden, the journey then took the intrepid travellers to the countries of Austria, Italy, Switzerland and France, and finally back across The English Channel and home to the United Kingdom. This section of the book shows the journey as a compilation of photographs made into a short video showing the route taken and other places that was the journey: Beyond.

Contents

Day 1 : Dunkirk to Lindau.

Day 2 : Lindau: Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

video1 Photograph/video for Day 1 and 2.

Day 3 : The Zugspitze Mountain: Olympia Ski-Stadion.

video2 Photograph/video for day 3.

Day 4 : Fusson: Schloss Hohenschwangau: Schloss Neuschwanstein.

video3 Photograph/video for Day 4.

Day 5 : Partnach Gorge: Oberammergau: Linderhof Palace.

video4 Photograph/video for Day 5.

Day 6 : Ettal Abbey: Prien am Chiemsee.

Day 7 : Prien am Chiemsee.

Day 8 : Herrenchiemsee Palace: Augustinian Monastery.

video5 Photograph/video for Days 6, 7 and 8.

Day 9 : Berchtesgaden.

Day 10 : Salzbergwerk Salt Mine: Obersalzberg Museum: The Eagles Nest.

video6 Photograph/video for days 9 and 10.

Day 11 : Beyond The German Alpine Route.

Video : Photograph/video for Day 11 and ‘Beyond’.

Disclaimer

Introduction

* Today tomorrow is not within your reach:

To think of it is only morbid,

If the heart is awake, do not waste this moment in time.

There is no proof of life's continuance *

It started, as probably all of these things do, with a quip of conversation amongst friends whilst having a beer. Johan, the better half and I had decided to take a six months sabbatical in Barbados renting a three-bedroom apartment within an exclusive development on the West coast of the island, Port St Charles and having done so we then invited family and friends to come and stay with us: Come and stay! The apartment is on us, you just organize your flights!

The response to this open invitation was, to say the least, overwhelming, until the 2008/09 financial recession started to bite and several of our friends and family suddenly found that financial restrictions meant justification of expenditure on long haul holiday flights to the Caribbean difficult to reconcile. However, very good friends of ours, Jimmy and Jane, had decided to take a two-week holiday in Barbados spending part of their time with ourselves at our apartment and the remainder of their holiday at a well-known hotel in Holetown, The Mango Bay Hotel, which is located just a few miles along the coast from Port St Charles.

With the ambient temperature in the region of 30 ⁰C and not a cloud in sight and with a gentle slightly cooling breeze that barely moved the air around the green and yellow palm fronses, a small group of people had gathered for lunchtime drinks around the marina swimming pool. There is an extensive sun lounger deck and pool bar, The Sunset Pool Bar, where drinks and food is served

A happy Barbadian named Carlos who was ever eager to serve and to chat with anyone in proximity staffed the bar. Carlos has a larger than life smile which showed more than an abundance of glowing white teeth, some of which had been capped with gold as is the way with some Barbadian/Caribbean me. Mmmm - Nice!

The girls had selected sun loungers that followed the trajectory of the sun and were layering copious amounts of sun cream onto their already tanned bodies whilst placing orders for white wine, gin and tonics, bottles of carbonated iced water and a selection of sandwiches with green salad and fries, leaving we men to do what we men do best.

So there we were, (doing what we men do best), sitting on submerged stools in the swimming pool at The Sunset Pool Bar and with each of us having a third or fourth bottle of ‘Banks Caribbean Beer’ [The Beer of Barbados Exactly!]. Our babbling conversation steered away from the state of the economy and football, rugby, tennis, the make and model of the motor car that we were currently driving and the make and model of the motor car that we would prefer to drive, yachts, powerboats, the inevitable ‘Must book that deep sea fishing trip' etc. The conversation then drifted as if by chance or even by providence perhaps onto the forthcoming retirement for some and career change for others.

Talk of bikini clad girls generally comes into play much later after blah-blah amounts of wine and beer and when the conversation is, as ever at such a time, conducted in a language which to the casual spectator would appear to be downtown Swahili [?].

Jimmy and Jane were about to sell their upmarket jewellery business with Jimmy heading into a sort of self-imposed semi-retirement, whilst Mike and Carron, Jo and myself were considering possible career changes and re-thinking life’s direction: everyone else around the pool had their own agenda! Jimmy is and possibly always will be a sun seeker, a sun tan aficionado as holidays for him and Jane have are taken in faraway places with sun, sand and sea guaranteed, so it came as a surprise when his conversation drifted towards the possibility of driving across the European Continent during his forthcoming retirement.

Sort of in the general direction of France and Italy and the Italian Lakes Jimmy was saying, Playing golf every day and going to the gym three times a week will become an inevitable bore and anyway I've never done The Alps and it will be a tick in the box of things to do before Jo Black arrives!

Same again Carlos if you please!

OK sir! Yes sir, right away sir! Carlos replied with a flashing smile of pure white and gold.

As it transpired, all of the people gathered around the pool had travelled to various parts of Europe and I had been contemplating for some time that, in the not too distance future that I would quite like to drive The German Alpine Route. It therefore became quite natural that with the alcohol fuelled chatter and boys being boys the conversation accelerated towards the impossible prospect that our respective wives, better halves, girls, would agree that we boys together with friends could embark upon a mini Gumball Rally!

Let’s see now, who would just love to do a Gumball Rally? There is Phil and Adrian of course and John and Colin, Lee and Tony, Ian and Sam and Tony from Nottingham! He'll be up for it!

Oh and there is Geoff from Spain! Hey! Did you know that Geoff at one time had a Ferrari Showroom so I bet he could loan a couple of toys for boys Uh? Oh and do not forget Wal and Dave! They would just love it and shall we go later in the year and take our skis with us?

The conversation was accelerating with impish enthusiasm and reaching a crescendo of sound as all of these boyish fantasy conversations tend to do!

Hang on though! Wait a minute, we all drive, or have access to, German cars so that is it! Off we go then! ‘The German Alpine Route in German cars! Every car going on this trip must be German! Yes! Great! A united chorus of Vorsprung Durch Technik! ensued.

More enthusiastic conversation and a rise in histrionic tempo as the excitement clearly grew.

Another round if you please Carlos!

Yes Sir, certainly sir, right away sir!

Oh