Following Mozart

Another day at the coalface - sorry, computer. After a lot of recent travel, interesting cars and unusual experiences (driving a Mercedes deep underground!) the latter part of this week is all down to word production, pounding the keys to meet various looming deadlines before more trips next week.

Not until the daylight was fading did I realise I was heading for blip famine, with no time to do much about it. So here is a view of what has dominated my day, the twin computer screens that dominate my desk.

In between the steady slog of writing - mostly a series of car reviews for a website today - this screen-saver has been constantly there in the background to remind me of a long-distance drive story I did a while back with my daughter for company.

We drove a BMW Z4 from Tuscany to Kent, and one of the overnight stops was in Strasbourg, in the heart of Alsace. What a beautiful place! Just across the river from the old town, we stayed in this very special hotel, the Cour du Corbeau. Talk about stepping back into history. The building was a 16th century coaching inn where Mozart spent the night in 1778. What was good enough for Mozart was certainly fine for us. That's my beautiful daughter leaning on the balcony, contemplating the quiet grandeur of the place.