Travelling in Europe

[murramor]

I will be travelling on a Eurrail pass from 24 September to 30 September.  I will be starting in Amsterdam and ending in Pisa.  I will be visiting Carjoy and a supplier of 50cc racing bike parts in Holland but other than that I have no plans other than going wherever my fancy and the train takes me.  Does anybody have any suggestions for anything of interest to a Matra enthusiast  that can be reached by train and taxi.  Unfortunately my French is non-existent so I hesitate to turn up anywhere where communication would be a problem!

[Spyros]

Not too far in Germany : 2 others part suppliers close to Achen : Simon and Jürgen Roterberg.

[Anders Dinsen]

Hi Ron

It sounds like an excellent plan!

It may be too far from your main-route, but the best place to go for a Matra enthusiast is the museum in Romoratin. It's a small and cosy town south of Paris, and the museum is really worth a visit. I was there in June (a detour on the way to Le Mans):

http://www.matrasport.dk/Gallery1/Events/20080610_musee_matra/index.html

But if that's too far to go, you should at least pay a visit to the Collection Schlumpf in Mulhouse in Alsace. This is one of the best and biggest automobile collections in the world - I'm afraid there are no Matras, but there's a magnificent collection of Bugattis for example. It's well worth a visit:

http://www.collection-schlumpf.com/en/schlumpf/

I also think Simon will be worth a visit. I have never had the pleasure of visiting his business, but I think his collection of Matra parts (and Renault Alpine parts) is probably the biggest in the world.

Since you don't feel confident in French, Simon is probably a better choise than Politecnic near Grenoble.

URL to Simon: http://www.simon-auto.de/

Jürgen is also a nice guy, of course :-)

And if you fancy a trip to Prague, you could also pay our freind Michal a visit. (It's been a while since we last saw him here, though)

Cheers,
Anders