day 1 , its a 2 hour run down to the train where i stop for brekkie and get some money changed and get a days eurotax
.
then straight onto a train getting off at calais and it soon starts raining
i run upto dunkerque then into belgium onto gent and brussels where i get held up a bit , the brussel ring is almost as bad as the m25 for traffic , onto the liege road then turn off at leuven and up the a2 to the dutch border , a little bit in holland and i park at the shell near acchen , an hour later im coffeed and taxed up as i head accross the border into germany
down the 4 to koln going round past the airport and eventually onto the 3 in a torrential storm where i find a parking area for the night ,
day 2 , on the 3 i go down the hill with the 40 km limit for trucks
then onto frankfurt , wurzburg and nuremburg where i split onto the 9 for munich , i fly round the munich ring onto the 8 for salzburg , about 25km from the austrian border im off looking for a village called haslach where i find the merc garage on the main street , i park up beside the garage for the night and cant be bothered to cook , its nearly 30 degrees , theres an aldi nearby so im off for a wander , a large loaf , pack of cheese , pack of salami and 9 litres of water =6 euros , you cant go wrong with that price .
day 3 . it takes longer to do the paperwork than to load the car , a merc 190
then after finding a garage to buy some tax
its back onto the 8 for munich , round the ring again but staying on the 8 for stutgart and karlsruhe , i snapped a village going down a steep hill onthe 8 
i get onto the 5 for basel but turn off for mullhouse getting stopped at the border for a quick check 
then i stop at the first services in france .
day 4 . a clear run down the a36 and the 39 gets me to lyon going past the airport onto the chambery road , near grenoble not far from where i was on the last trip i find a village called charnecles where i load another merc , an a class 190
then its back the way i came staying near dijon for the night .
day 5 , i head for troyes then get onto one of the champagne trails and find a small village called landreville , i put a bmw 5 series on 
then back onto the a5 and after a break i venture into the centre of troyes looking for a recovery firm . it takes a while to find and ages to do the papers , i drew the short straw with the trailer this time and load a fiat ducato van , it doesnt drive but rolls , the winch makes short work of it .
after getting back onto the 5 i head for paris and crawl round the 104 finally getting onto the a10 then the 11 i park up
day 6 ,. a 2 hour drive takes me to le mans where i head north on the 28 and hunt down a town called fresnay sur sarthe , i load a renault scenic that had a small engine fire and the throttle is jammed on . 
then back round le mans on the 28 for tours where i park in the shell services for the weekend .
day 8 , after getting onto the a10 then through tours im onto nationals looking for a town called chinon , im due to load a volvo but find that the garage is half way through repairing it , an hour later and loads of phone calls im told to leave it and head to caen , i arrive just in time to wave at the afternoon boat , bollox , so i book on the night boat , getting off tuesday morning and back to the yard . this jag was there 
Good read that MM, just a quick question…what happens to all the fuel thats still in the tanks of the vehicles you recover back to the yard!!! 
hi mate , it generally stays in the vehicles , a lot of the cars when they get back to the yard will get delivered onwards to be repaired , only the write off will stay and they will go as salvage .
Brilliant diary and pics as usual.
Harry Monk:
Brilliant diary and pics as usual.
Ditto!!
marcustandy:
Harry Monk:
Brilliant diary and pics as usual.Ditto!!
and ditto.
Hope you don’t mind but I edited the post to remove some of the extra tags you had included which tidies the pictures and text up a bit.
thanks for that coffee , dont mind at all , its still all new to me , hope im doing allright .
Excellent diary. That BMW 5, what was wrong with it apart from flat tyres? That Jag in your yard was a mess, hope they got out!
GREAT read as normal and even better with photos when is the next installment
hi pete the next one should be in a couple of weeks or so , i ship out on a spanish trip monday , as for that bmw penfold , what you see is it as far as i know i guess he curbed it big time . not sure about the jag they are pretty sturdy things , but like you i hope they did , thankfully fatal ones are not that common .
Mad, I love your diaries if only cos I like seeing what silly English drivers have got up to abroad … but please, please, please, can you resize your pics before posting so we don’t have to scroll across the screen?? Resize them to 640x480 and they will be excellent.
Great diary, btw
Another good post, I’ve never done Europe or wanted to even but that looks like a tidy job.
Look forward to the next episode.