It took me two weeks before I finally made a decision to bring it on our own - bringing it on a trailer meant additional costs that I was unwilling to spare as I could imagine lots of other ways how to spend these when maintaining the newly arriving member of our family - such as throwing it into the bottomless pit of the state budget by paing the VAT for imports from non-EU countries...
As an only two-driver trip would not be feasible, I rallied supporters and found an enthusiast among our friends who was equally ready to spend such a horrendous weekend on the roads and motorways of Europe. The final set-up was me, my girlfriend as an emergency driver, our enthusiastic friend Tomas, and our Jack Russell Terrier, Rex.
The distance to be covered was some 1,700km (Prague - Bern - Prague), the time schedule was to leave on Friday, 11th May 2007, and return on Sunday, 13th May 2007. We left Prague on Friday just after 9:00 PM as planned, apparently missing only by minutes a spectacular car crash on one of the exits from the city.
We crossed the border with Germany and after a few kilometres drove again on the motorway. The direction was Nuernberg, Karlsruhe and Bern. Just before Nuernberg we had to stop for a short nap as we were all really sleepy and were afraid to use two many motorway lanes at once.
Just before noon on Saturday, 12th May 2007, we found the small Swiss village and after a brief phone call arranged a meeting with the owner at the only local landmark we were able to find - a small hotel, apparently closed down. The landscape around was wonderful, with green meadows climbing up both slopes of the small valley and wooden houses scattered all around, together with small islands of trees.
Then it came - the owner naturally brought the subject of the purchase along to the meeting and we had our first chance to see the vehicle that was to become our companion for the return journey. It looked strangely small on the relatively wide country road, but at the very first sight it was a lovable car. The seller was happy to hand over the driving and I had got the first chance to drive the car long before I was prepared for anything like that - after driving the car that brought us here (a three years old Skoda Octavia), the steering, transmission and brakes were a big change. I took the plunge and drove it over to the driveway leading to the seller's house, nesting above the road, up a steep grassy slope. The driveway bent sharply across a narrow bridge and I had a rough time negotiating the bridge with the car, as the turning circle of the Landy wasn't exactly the same like with the Skoda.
The introduction to the advantages and preserved original parts of the vehicle took us well into the afternoon. The seller's wife was kind enough to prepare lunch for all the three of us (Rex was happy enough playing with his new Swiss playmates - kids, a Chinese pig and a lamb). We were shown practically everything related to the vehicle, including documents, tools and the car in general. The impression was wonderful, although we were shortly taken aback by the generous consumption of the engine, which we were told was about 20 litres for every 100 kilometres, while our idea was just over 12. In the end we overcame this shock, the cash we brought and the vehicle changed owners and we were ready for the journey back.
Only four or five hours after our meeting with the previous owner of the Land-Rover, we left again to tackle the return leg of the trip. We followed a recommendation of the seller to bypass the motorway to Basel and went along country roads through an amazing mountain pass. The EU border was a bit of a scare as we expected problems due to the fact that we were still driving a car registered in Switzerland (we planned to change the registration after arrival to prevent further costs with the change of registration in Switzerland). The customs officer just waved us along after a painstaking millisecond of staring examiningly into my worried eyes.
We rumbled along at 80 kph, which was not so bad as such, however, driving from the Swiss-German border to the motorway junction just before Karlsruhe, where we were supposed to turn right in the direction of Heilbronn and Nuernberg, seemed like ages. In comparison to this, the much longer journey from this junction to Prague appeared to be much shorter, perhaps it was helpful that we stopped every 100 kilometres or so to check the fuel-smothered Solex carb.
The Czech border was another challenge, but the Czech customs officer had the same idea like the Swiss one and we passed through without any curious questions. We were finally back at home. The 250 kilometres to Prague and beyond to my parents' home (where the Landy would have to stay as I had no garage where I could park it in Prague) looked like peanuts.
Today it's 21st June and I already have a Czech registration for the car since Friday, 15th June 2007. I never thought it would go as fast - it was less than 3 months ago when I first started looking for a Land-Rover... |
