Tuesday, July 23: With the help of Pa and Ma, we managed to depart at 07:00 after a hearty breakfast.
The Simca proved to be a splendid little car. We picked up a hitchhiker near Huizen and dropped him in Amersfoort, passing by the Royal Palace at Soestdijk and close to Soest where - sad thought - my favorite Aunt Netty had died the day before. It did not take long to cross the border to Germany and to get on the famous Autobahn, where I drove as fast as 130 km/hr. 		Turned right at Cologne, drove to the river Rhine and walked to the magnificent Dom, awfully difficult to photograph:


Cologne DOM (click to enlarge)
First cup of coffee in Germany at 11:15, Rose felt fine and my German came out easily, and at 12:00 on the way out of Cologne we picked up the next hitchhiker, a Music student. We passed through Bonn, then Frankfurt, overtaking numerous truly loaded Dutch cars - one even had an upside down table on top - through Mannheim to Heidelberg (946,000 Google links!!) where we became worried by a knocking sound in the engine. A Shell agent referred us to a Simca dealer who declared the engine "kaput" but promised to take a look at it, warning us that it might cost as much as DM 500...

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Ben Oostdam's Autobiography:

SUMMER 1963 TOUR, p.7
Rose instantly regained her belly ache and at 17:00 we checked into a small hotel where she went to bed immediately, while I walked back to the garage to get her pills and was greeted with the excellent news that the car had already been fixed for a mere DM 3 !! Hurrah!
Later, I walked alone around the lovely town and climbed the mountain for a marvelous view of the castle and river Neckar, drank two cheap beers (40 pfennig each) and ate a giant knackwurst before returning at 22:00 to my woman who by that time was sleeping like a Rose.