NO 8

Hi all, little old me again. Ok left off with dropping one of the ice floor trl's in at Antwerpen and then headed south for Basel in Switzerland. The trip down was ok except for the weather in the ardenns; They never clear the roads in that area and we were driving on ice and snow, with just the cab, it's not to good a drive, so got to a place called Habay not far from the Luxembourg boarder and called it a night. The next day the main road was good but trying to get off the parking lot was a bit slippy. Got to Basel later that day.


This is us parked up at the arena in Basel.

Ok loaded out and then headed north with Marcel and Bernard. Got to Luxembourg and called it a night or a morning as it was early Monday morning. There was still alot of snow about.

The next photo's are the wrong way round. This first one is about 2hours up the road from Luxembourg, its north of Namur and the snow is getting better.

Photo no 4

Photo no 3


Photo no 2



Photo no 1.

This is what it was like when we started heading north. and so on with 2 3 and 4.


Cannot remember where i took this but snowing again; Maybe it was on the way south the first time but hey ho I have slept since then.


Ok me and Marcel dropped our trl's in Antwerpen and then headed back to Nr Basel on the Germany side of the border. There were 2 of the ice floor trl's there for us, so we picked them up and headed back up to Hassel in Belgium as that was where the show was going after Antwerpen.

This next photo is of us stopped at the Luxembourg/ Belgium border. I was having a lot of problems with warning lights coming on the dash, telling me this is not working that is not working and then the arlam was going off as I was driving with all the lights flashing and that, but it kept going, Anyway stopped and reset it and on my way again, or so I thought!!!!!! No it wasn't; It went off again, 3 times i had to reset it. In the end I said "what the fuck" and just drove with them flashing away, but within maybe 10ks it settled down and all was ok again. So off we jolly trot to Hassel.

This next one was after Marcel got going. Well, 6 wheeler with mid lift are no F...ing good in snow, but we got going in the end.

And we had more snow to deal with.

Heading into the Ardens.

Still in the Ardens. See the truck tyre marks, that was from an Italian truck and he was not hanging about. We were doing about 65/ 70ks as that was ice we were driving on and well, he was gone by the time I picked up the camera.

Look at the ice it's about 1 inch thick.

Ok dropped the trl's at Hassel and had a night out. The next day headed back to the yard in Rotterdam as my girl, (The Cab) was going into the workshop to try and sort out the problems I was getting with her. Had a couple of days off. Then into Antwerpen to move the show over to Hassel. I did one trl and back again as I was doing the ice out that night. Then I took the ice floors to Brussel's as that was the next city for the next show. Did the ice out as we call it. It means I move the tlr's when they are ready to load the ice floor away, (Pics to follow of ice out)then it was bed time. Had a long sleep as there was no rush to Brussel's as it is only about 120ks there and back and had all day to do it. Well did one then after getting back to Antwerpen I was having a break and I got a phone call to do the next one then head back to M.A.N in Rotterdam as they did not sort all the old girls problems out.

The next day bright and breezy into M.A.N by 07.30hrs. Rene was the guy to try and sort her out. I know him as we had worked together before the boss's sold the container side of the company sometime back.


Sorted some of the problems out then went looking for the air leak. So over went the cab and as I live in their, there was a lot of stuff to get out first. Shit....... I got some crap in my cab but hey ho where else can i keep it but with me..


This is Rene trying to find the leak with some listening thing on his head.

Their is some of my shit on the diesel tank. I think Rene is somewhere under the truck or taking another coffee.

That's the man there after finding the leak. It's in the gearbox, so the gearbox will have to come it out and send it to ZF for repair. As it only looses all it's air when it's parked up for more then 7hrs, we agreed to do the job when it goes in for its M.O.T later this year. That sounds good for me as I will take that week off.

Ok after coming out of M.A.N, I had her washed down and then headed over to Hassel for the night as the load out was for the next day. The snow in this photo came down in about 40mns.

Thats Leon's truck over there. He must have the clap or something parking so far away. (Only joking) he was asleep.

Did the move to Brussel's, and the load in. Then headed back to Hassel for the last ice floor trl which was going to Berlin.... where I am now.

Here are some photos of the old border crossing from West to East Germany.

Coming into the west side.

A closer look at it now, it's just a service station.

Here is the watchtower on the west side. In the background behind the trees are a lot of old military buildings.

You can just see some of them in this one.

There they are.

And some more i think these ones are on the East side.

This is like no mans land. All the trucks would of parked here waiting to do customs and all that stuff. Now its one big parking lot and service stations.

This is the watchtower on the East side. Don't know why but it looks better than the one on the West side for some reason.

Just driving in the snow but not like Belgium here in Germany there is no ice on the road as they grit it.The train bridge is over a frozen river. Sorry was not fast enough to get a better photo.

Looks like a German firm has stolen our name, will pass this on to the boss. Thats dirty snow stuck to the back doors. But then I thought.... hey boss you got another company???

Ok in the arena at Berlin. Thats looking towards the way out, and behind that wall on the left is a train line but higher up as this arena is built sunken into the ground. There isn't much to look at up top.

Ok this is me parked up. To my right is the trl, to my left, is the door into the arena. That's where the guards are, and also the shower room. I got power to the truck and as you can tell a bloody good internet connection as i've now got up to date with the blog. Well...it's Sunday night and in the morning I have to put the 2 trl's inside ready for the ice floor to be unloaded. I will manage to drive one in as there's room to turn around and the second one will have to be backed in then, because of the lack of room. The tlr with the pumping station stays outside, where i am parked at the moment. Will have to put the tank tlr next to the pumping station tlr; one of the ice floor trl's have a big tank in it which is the length of the trl and they stack some of the flooring on top. (Piccy's to follow in next post to explain this procedure)

After I have done the ice floor in, it's off up to a port, north of Berlin called Rostock and wait for the show trl's to come off the boat. Have been told I will do two trl's then have to go back to Brussel's and pick up another ice floor tlr and take that to Odense in Denmark as that's where this show is going after Berlin. But all i am doing is dropping it over at Odense and heading back to Berlin to help with the move on Monday. I have been told more what i am doing in the next couple of weeks but that WILL change so will have to wait and see what happens.

So till the next time; and i hope it won't be too long this time before the next blog as it has took me all afternoon to do both this one and No7. Now its time to talk to the good looking one, so keep it sunny side up and have a good one ........