Amsterdam to Hamburg - Day 1

Excitement comes in varying forms, and this could be no truer than a place like Amsterdam. But this was a new kind, one that has been building for some time. Years in fact, constant talk of the tour. From bars to lounge rooms, Globetrotter to Dublin. Many a minute has been fritted away talking about this very journey. And here we were, 9am Thursday 30^th August 2007. 4 lads, brought together from around the globe, bound by one charge and one goal.

As the Van Stalled on the first corner, a brief moment of unease hit, but as the 1979 fiat 2.4 flat engine roared into life, a hearty round of cheers went up and we were off……with TomTom (SatNav) safely navigating thru Europe we set sail for Hamburg. According to TomTom we were about 4hrs from the German City, this was travelling at normal car speeds circa 2007.

What we all failed to grasp was the fact our Van had a top speed of 90km. This was all to evident when we hit the Auto barn, and it felt as though we were doing the speed of Smell as the Audis, BMW’s and Skoda streaked past I’m sure travelling somewhat close to the speed of Halley’s comet! Revising our original goal of a 5pm arrival, the old girl slumbered her way into town around 9am.

We had picked out Camp round care of the Lonely Planet – Europe on a Shoe String book, which had proved a wealth of knowledge thus far, but was about to put the kibosh on a decent parking spot for the night. As we cruised up this particular lane looking for said camp ground at 274, nothing to be found. Around 11am we found it at 374 and closed. Thanks lonely planet, we really enjoyed the night in a truck stop 20km out of town. Haha. Well day one was a nice wee learning curve, and interestingly ended with us all sober. Oh, and we had McDonalds for dinner…we’ll we were in Hamburg