Day 9 - getting to the finish line!

A relaxing morning in Koblenz on our last day: Ines went for her morning walk, Claudia slept in and I went for a nice run with lots of rain.. but .. almost the only rain we had all week. We had a very nice breakfast and finished our roadbook to hand it in this afternoon. The roadbook is the document we got at the start describing the drive and tasks for the day as well the big weekly tasks for extra points. We had to take photo proofs and keep a log of driven km's, temperature, our mood etc. The SAC team also made each team calculate the score to speed up the calculations this afternoon which allows them to only spot check entries for accuracy.

Taking a walk through town to visit ‘Deutsches Eck’ which is the name of a headland, where the Mosel river joins the Rhine. Named after a local commandry of the Teutonic Order, it became known for a monumental equestrian statue of William I, first German Emperor, erected in 1897 in appreciation for his role in the unification of Germany. It is a lovely area with local wine bars, sightseeing boats on both rivers and impressive big houses. Also the old town has beautiful spots.

Leaving around 11am for our last tour to get to the finish line, we drove through ‘Bergisches Land’ , a low mountain range region within the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, east of Rhine river, south of the Ruhr. The landscape is shaped by woods, meadows, rivers and creeks and contains over 20 artificial lakes. For us it was the most disappointing forest area in comparison to all other than we drove through.

Similar to the other days, all of the sudden you see a fellow rally car. In desperate need for a short stop to get rid of coffee and buying a fresh one, we found the ‘Renn Taxi’ at a café where Simone and Frank enjoyed a break. We also got tips from them how it is to do the Baltic Sea Rally which we might do in 2021.