I woke up to another warm and Sunny day in Germany. I had a long drive ahead of me so didn’t want to hang around too much.

The TV weather forecast last night showed temperatures in the East of the country to 34 – but also issued a severe weather warning for heavy rain and thunderstorms, for a large part of the country.

The Autobahns of the old East Germany are great to drive on: No traffic, with plenty of opportunity to go fast.

Today I went on a day trip with Renate, Uwe and Richard. We went as far North in Germany as you can go.

Tønder (German: Tondern) is a town in Southern Denmark. On a quiet Sunday afternoon we had a walk around the town, popular with German tourists.

We drove up to the Nolde Museum, located near Seebüll.

Over the weekend I can enjoy not having to do any driving. A well earned rest. I’m in shorts again today as the temperature climbs to 30 degrees. No wind, no clouds. Too hot when it’s like this!

I had an early start today since I had to be at VW’s headquarters at 10:15 to start my guided tour of the factory here in Wolfsburg.

For the first time I had to drive in the ‘Rettungsgasse’ (Emergency Lane) formation. This means cars on the left hand side get as far over to the left as possible – cars on the right get as far over to the right as possible – and emergency vehicles go through the middle.

My first full day in Germany started with the realisation that I am more than half way to Itzehoe. Approx 500 miles down – just over 400 to go.