Europe in a week

 

 

In 1989 I was newly returned to Castrol. Although I was effectively going back to my old job I had a new team in a new location. I was anxious to re-establish myself. I was given in addition an entirely new project to provide support for a new soldering  product for the electronics industry which was to be bought in from a small Belgian company. We needed 25 litres of the product for development.

At the same time I was to visit Opel cars at Russelsheim to talk about and demonstrate a new water based corrosion preventive. Also I was due to give a presentation at a Dutch trade fair.

I persuaded my boss that the efficient way to do all of this was to take a car ( a Volvo 740 saloon, my temporary company car ) across the channel, take the demo equipment with me and call in Belgium at the local operating company on route and pick up the keg of development product. To accompany me I took Brian, the guy on my team who led on corrosion preventives.

Castrol had a good reputation at Russelsheim which I had visited before. We had introduced them to their first water based product which had been successful. I was slightly embarrassed to be congratulated and thanked during my earlier visit; particularly as I hadn’t developed the product myself but had inherited it when I took over the area of corrosion preventives. On this second visit I was to demonstrate another product which again I hadn’t developed myself. This product was a viscous paste which needed special spray equipment.

I set out on a Sunday afternoon to collect my colleague from Abingdon. I was slightly put out that his young son was too shy to meet me; he just stood at the top of the stairs and shouted his goodbyes to his dad. We crossed by Hovercraft which was a disappointment  as the spray makes it impossible to see anything. We spent the first night near Lille and then on to Russelsheim. This was a total flop. The spray equipment totally failed just giving a dribble from the spray nozzle. I had carefully checked the equipment before leaving and the cause wasn’t clear. We were disconsolate.

Our German colleagues tried to cheer us so the trip was a total write off by guiding us the bridge at Remagen. This bridge on the Rhine was on our route north and was the place where during the war the Americans bounced the German forces in 1945 to cross the Rhine. The river was a huge natural obstacle and by successfully controlling the crossing points the German army could have imposed delay and casualties The bridge has now been demolished with only a stub remaining although there is a nearby railway bridge. Of great historic interest but on a grey day hardly a spectacular tourist site.

We left to head north to Antwerp. The next day we made a brief foray into Holland and then back to Antwerp. It is traditional on such occasions that the local unit provides some evening hospitality. On this occasion we were taken to what was considered a posh restaurant. The evening was firstly notable for the chef who came to list our choices. He was a completely incongruous figure; a huge man dressed in chefs whites who had a very high pitched voice. The service was extremely slow and Walter our host was a wine bore. I’m sure his scholarship of wines was exceptional but I for one soon found he told us far more than I wanted to know. An already slow meal seemed to take an age and I was glad to escape back to our hotel.

I had other business with Castrol Belgium but I can’t recall exactly what. On Friday afternoon they suggested a visit to the company whose soldering product I was about to represent. This seemed a good idea and off we went. We were shown around the factory by the boss man and then back to his office for drinks. Fizzy water only as we were  driving. 

This was all an eye opening experience. The factory was as old fashioned as I have ever seen. I had the impression the buildings were ready to fall down at any time and the equipment was simply pre historic. The boss mans office was a huge contrast, luxurious and decorated all around with African memorabilia, spears, shields and the like. As he told us proudly he had spent a long time in the Belgian Congo before its independence.

Consequently it was early evening before we eventually left Antwerp for a ferry back about midnight. Because we were talking equipment out and bringing goods and equipment back we had copious documentation. At every border we had faithfully stopped and got it approved ( and we had crossed a lot of borders ). At the port we heard the dread news that there was an hour queue to process documents. We were both very tired after a long week, the goods were in the car boot, we just looked like tourists so we soon decided to skip the paperwork and get on the boat. Of course we sailed straight through customs. To his great credit the stores manager when we returned sorted out the paperwork without complaining although I’m sure he muttered under his breath.

In retrospect I should have stopped in the south of England but home beckoned and after fighting sleep all the way arrived back home at five or so in the morning. Even with a co-driver it was a lot of driving and a lot of hours in the car. The next week I had plenty of joshing about our European tour, with plenty of remarks about joy-riding around. I was never to do anything like it again- it was air travel for me from then on.