Preparations and Planning
As time in November progressed, I returned home and did my best to throw myself into projects to keep myself occupied while I was between jobs, having left my previous contract a few weeks earlier after the funeral. I had a home studio (still do now, fourteen years later) and spent a lot of time in there working on writing and recording tracks (another story for another time) which kept me occupied, or at least it did most of the time. There were still days when one would come downstairs with the best of intentions and then realise “…..er….. Nope. Not feeling it today….” only to end up with hours and some days going to waste, which irked me quite a bit… some don’t have the luxury of time being something that can be spent doing nothing. Kinda ran against the grain a bit.
Anyway, two weeks later following doing the deal with Dave, in late November, the car was delivered to the house on the edge of Aylesbury where I was living at the time. Dave and his son delivered it by hand, but unfortunately with a broken headlight – on their journey on the way up, they were following a lorry, briefly on the M25 and it spat up a stone at them which hit one of the XJS’s headlights and broke the glass. So I guess it was kind of unlucky that it turned up with a battle scar that I hadn’t seen when it was test driven. Dave’s son had followed him up in another car ready to drive back to Sussex following delivery – I cant remember what it was that he drove. I don’t recall it being another Jaguar, it was probably something a lot more simple as a daily driver.
Dave apologetically got out of the XJS and told me what had happened and reassured me that at the earliest point that I had, I could bring it back down to The Long Barn and the defect would be fixed free of charge. That suited me, I was quite happy to start doing some distance with the car and getting used to it and how it drove, as the only other time I had been in it was with Dave on the test drive. The dust cover was in the boot for it to live under when not in use to protect it from pigeons, acid rain and prying eyes. I parked it up in front of the garage door and took some pictures for posterity, both inside and out and she scrubbed up very well.
….and of course, I had to take it out for a drive to start getting used to it. Obviously.
Now at this point in my life, I had only passed my driving test 5 years before, in 2006 (always had been a motorcyclist before that) and I hadnt had much experience of driving automatics at this point and particularly automatic GT cars such as the XJS.
So, the first 20-30 minutes of the drive around Aylesbury that I had on this particular day were hardly at pace, they were particularly gentle. One indication of how the car would be received was as I made a somewhat gentle right turn at a roundabout on the estate towards the A41, there was a young fella walking along minding his own business, but as the XJS went past him, it was like his head was on a gimbal; he couldnt take his eyes off the car. And this was a thing that I would have to get used to for the next two years; this particular car made a lot of friends wherever she went.
So, over the next few weeks, as Christmas came and went, there was a lot of organisation to do still for the Road Trip. With it being pre-Brexit days, there were no visas to arrange but there was a lot of logistical planning that needed to be done;
How were we to get to the destination, what would be the best route?
Where would we stop at along the way?
Where were the hotels that we’d stay at?
Where would we refuel?
How many driving hours per day would be realistic?
What would the weather be like at that time of year along the route?
Equally, it had now become a question of “we” as it was clear that doing the entire journey on my own would be a non-starter. I had to have an accompanying co-pilot for such a journey, one who ideally also knew and was close the late Mrs F and who understood the significance of the journey and was available to take a week or so out of their schedule to be able to complete the trip there and back.
So, the cast of one where that was concerned, turned out to be my younger sister, Alison.
At this point, she was about 33 years old, working for a commercial estate agent. Good experienced driver, but has a slightly heavy right foot. My other sister was not that close to Mrs F, a very long story there… also, my best friend doesnt drive, never has done and the late Mrs F’s best friend has had a degenerative eye condition for decades and by that point was starting to lose her sight and was unable to drive.
She had also lost her own husband to a blood disease 6 months before Mrs F passed, which had rounded off an awful year for her. She was determined to be there at the Lake to take part in the scattering of the ashes, but would fly out with her son and daughter, who were Mrs F’s god-children.
I cant describe how close Mrs F and her best friend were, they were inseparable friends from when they were both growing up in Stepney in the 1960s and 70s. She’s a lovely person and the most inspirational woman I have ever met.
So, Alison was going to be the one to share the journey with me and I had to make sure that she got plenty of practise time in with the car and myself between the point of purchase in November 2011 and when we were due to undertake the journey in March 2012. There were a few semi-rural and urban/motorway/dual carriageway drives over that two or three month period for us both to get used to how the XJS handled those kinds of environments so that we wouldn’t end up getting any nasty surprises when we were on the European mainland. She was duly added to the Classic Car insurance policy as a named driver for the duration of this trip.
At the time of this journey, the likes of Waves and Google Maps on phones didn’t really exist in Europe and on the UK Mainland. Or, if they did, they certainly were nothing like as prolific as they are now.
So, I had to resolve another challenge in that my knowledge of driving in Europe could get us as far as the Brussels outer ring road, Ring 0, which I had always found terrifying when I was over there, but no further. There were a number of other satnav devices on the market at the time from manufacturers like Garmin and TomTom and in this particular case, I settled for one from TomTom that had the capability of downloading the maps for not only the full UK but also all of Europe, with a slightly lesser UK component.
Changing from one to the other was quite a straightforward operation, from what I remember and given that I already was very familiar with the journey to the Channel Tunnel terminal at Folkestone, there wouldn’t really be much need for satnav to get us to that point. And, arguably for the first part of the journey to Brussels, but I was doubtful that Brussels should be the breakpoint for the first day. Typically, the journey door-to-door which I had previously done as a NATO contractor from Aylesbury to Brussels would take 6 hours, so that was the template for the journey, in many ways but I didn’t want to stop there for the first night, that we should press on slightly further.
So, the journey planning started to take place and there was a need for some European roadmaps and also the emergent journey planning capabilities of Google; and also some tour books including things like the 2011 Michelin Guide and also the Relais & Chateau guide which I remembered I had heard Jay Kay from Jamiroquai mentioning at one point. We had to plan the journey as to where we would break overnight and when we would stay and arrange the hotels accordingly.
I did consider whether it should be the same route there and back. Possibly so, but it was also discussed that it would be more enjoyable to undertake the return journey by a different route.
So, as a result, the journey that was planned was as follows:
Outbound:
Aylesbury to Ashford Services. 1st refuel stop. Ashford to Folkestone Eurostar Terminal to pick up Le Shuttle to Calais. Calais to Luxembourg City via the E44; 2nd Refuel Stop and overnight hotel break. Then to Austrian Tyrol and 2nd overnight hotel break.
Following the overnight break in the Tyrol, we would then proceed to Limone Sul Garda through the Brenner Pass and conduct the scattering of the Ashes on Day 4/Day 5, prior to starting making the return journey on Day 6, staying overnight in Strasbourg on Day 6, then to Brussels on Day 7 for another overnight stop prior to returning to Aylesbury via the E44 and Channel Tunnel.
The departure date was set for Saturday 17th of March 2012. We would aim for the cheap and cheerful IBIS Hotel in central Luxembourg for that night and then proceed to the Pension/Guesthouse for the Sunday night and then to proceed to the end goal of the guesthouse in Limone Sul Garda on the Monday 19th March for the formalities to be conducted with the council on the morning of the 20th, (which would have been the late Mrs F’s and mine’s 5th wedding anniversary) with the scattering of the ashes taking place on the morning of the 21st March.
The return trip would be started on the Wednesday 22nd, from Limone via Milan and the Autostrada past Lake Como and skirting around the outside of Zurich to aim for an overnight stop in Strasbourg at a Relais & Chateau establishment and then we would proceed to Brussels and one of the hotels around the Airport and a quick visit in to Brussels, to make our way back to Aylesbury on the Saturday afternoon.
A 900 mile trip in each direction, 10 border crossings in just over a week. The goal was set.
One last thing needed to be done; as arranged with Dave, the XJS would get one last pre-trip checkover and he was also kind enough to provide a small box of spares to be carried in the boot – usual simple stuff like spare bulbs and consumables that we might need during the trip.
There was also a Last Minute Scare, in respect of Austrian driving regulations; my understanding, as I read it at the time, was that snow tyres were compulsory in winter, particularly in Tyrol, given how mountainous it is and how snowy it can get. I suddenly had a vision of a big bill to replace 4 Pirelli P6000’s that the XJS was currently wearing to snow tyres for the duration of the trip, which filled me with trepidation; Instead, I invested in some suitable snow chains, which I hoped would do the job, if it came to it and if caught by the Austrian fuzz, I would plead ignorance and thow myself upon their mercy and have done with it.
It was time to be ready for the biggest road trip of my life.
© text & photos Fubar2 2025
