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International New MINI Meet 2004
Apple in Europe 2004
DK took Apple to Europe for a 5-day trip, from Friday, 25 June, to Tuesday, 29 June 2004, primarily to attend the International New MINI Meet (INMM) 2004 at Subingen, Switzerland. Click here to visit the event's official site.
Disappointingly, only 2 UK MINI2ers took part, just RVW and DK.
DK met RVW, xoura of MINI2 and Club Nouvelle MINI (CNM) fame, and a few other CNMers, at Nancy in France, before convoying to Subingen. xoura was an excellent convoy leader who checked the group regularly via PMR446 (walkie talkie). Despite his efforts, however, the roadworks in Basel still threw the convoy into disarray, and it was left to the RVW's satellite navigation to guide him and DK to the service station where the others were waiting.
DK did have a hairy moment as she tried to overtake a car transporter on a bend as two lanes merged into one. Luckily, no traffic was coming the opposite way, and Apple escaped unharmed, but the significance of the moment was not lost on DK. Someone or something was looking after Apple and DK for sure!
The group arrived at the meeting point at Subingen shortly after 13:30h, to be greeted by nearly 100 European MINIs. It was great for DK to meet with old friends, including Morty from Belgium, quicksilver, Hein, Peggy and Bjorn from the Netherlands, but she also enjoyed making new acquaintances.
DK, RVW, and his delightful wife, had a quiet evening at the hotel in Zuchwil, and enjoyed an excellent Thai meal al fresco.
The next morning, they returned to the meeting point to participate in a rally around the area. The route meandered through the countryside and up the mountain on roads barely wide enough for one car. At one point, DK and RVW stopped on a rest stop on a slope of nearly 25% gradient. In order to continue up the mountain, DK had to roll backwards slightly downhill before performing a hill start. It was not a pleasant experience.
DK et al made it to the top of the mountain for a quiet cup of coffee on the terrace of a lovely hotel where they admired the hazy scenery until the wind became too strong and started to blow everything off the tables.
DK left RVW and his wife when they reached the foot of the mountain, since she had a long journey ahead of her to holiday in Belgium and France.
On her way back to Calais, DK made her usual detour to the magnificent Auchan just outside Boulogne-sur-mer, where she lost all track of time admiring the goodies on sale. As a consequence she was charged 30 GBP for arriving at Eurotunnel 20 minutes later than her scheduled departure time. Be sure that she won't be late for Eurotunnel again!
DK has already signed up for INMM2005 at Lommel, Belgium, preliminary details can be found in MINI2 by clicking here.
Please click here to see a slide show and here for a short video featuring scenes and people that made this a very enjoyable trip.
Please note that it may take some time to download all the photos before the slide show will start to run, depending on the speed of your internet connection. If the slide show does not start automatically, click "Pause Slide Show" and navigate manually using the "Previous" and "Next" links.
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