Alpine scenery

The storms last night cleared the air and luckily the sun shone again. Quite by chance, I happened to see a bit of President Obama and Chancellor Merkel taking a break to visit the local village near the G7 meeting about to be held not far from here in Garmisch. What a "Lederhosen strewn" event that was. More Bavarian that a true Bavarian could ever wish for - the Bavarian tourist offices dream PR event. Incredible!

Then at midday got a call from Dr Bulldog, Jürgen, who keeps our tractor/garden machinery equipment alive. The defunct garden grass mowing ride-on tractor was ready, so I popped over to pick it up. As always he had done a great job and even welded on a towbar. Now have to work on getting/building a small trailer. The tractor will be a bit of fun and maybe the grandchildren can spend a bit of time whizzing around on it - their mother and uncle were accomplished garden tractor drivers when just out of nappies.

Having seen that there was a car rally being held at the weekend quite close by, I took another way home and passed through the village where it was being held, sadly by then many of the participants were on the way home.

Back in 1968 the car rally driver Robert Kern (now 70) founded a garage specialising in tuning for the Renault Alpine. Kern Tuning is now a worldwide "centre" for the restoration and tuning of the Alpine. This weekend was the 13th annual rally. Strangely within 30km of here, there are a number of renowned tuning specialists who are so to speak "works tuners": ABT in Kempten for Audi, Alpina in Buchloe for BMW and RUF in Pfaffenhausen for Porsche - I think all three produce the fastest road versions of all these brands.

I think Kern also has some link with Ford. In the Blip at the back, you can see a Ford Escort RS and a rally Ford Capri. Around here you often see new normal Ford cars with the Kern badging. One of the extra photos shows a used Alpine for 49,900 Euros.

As always the event was very relaxed taking place on two sides of the main road through the village. Beer tables, BBQ (right next to the petrol station), 60's/70's rock music turned up loud. Typical "real" Bavarian.

In the evening battened down for another night of storms and weather due to deteriorate big time on Monday.