Today’s message to all our ViaRETRO readers is a simple one: Remember to stop and enjoy your hobby every so often!
The above may well seem rather obvious. Many will no doubt scoff while they convince themselves that they do that all the time. To be honest, that would probably have been my initial reaction too. Yet, during this whole Corona lockdown, flights were of course cancelled, forcing me to drive between my place of work in Luxembourg and Denmark where my family lives. It’s a journey I’ve undertaken more times than I dare to count! Every time, I’ve passed right by Dusseldorf – home of Classic Remise. I’ve previously visited on a couple of occasion many, many years ago while it was still called Meilenwerk and it’s a truly amazing place. However, despite being in the vicinity so often during the past half year or so, not once have I taken the time to drop by and revisit this amazing classic car mecca.
But only a bit more than a week ago, I finally stopped for a pitstop rather than keeping my right foot planted and leaving Dusseldorf in my wake. So what changed?
Well, maybe it was simply because I finally found myself behind the wheel of my beloved Reliant Scimitar GTE again. As our more regular readers may recall, I encountered a bit of a headgasket issue a while back and left my shooting brake with Jürgen Jesse Oldtimerwerkstatt in Trier, Germany so they could sort out the Essex V6 and also issue the Scimitar with its first TÜV (the German version of the MOT). However, with that sorted, most government offices were shut down leaving me unable to actually register the Scimitar in Germany. But only weeks ago, the old English number plates JCP 221 S had finally been swapped for new German number plates TR-GO 78H and I was again legal to drive my 3-litre grand tourer. I’m sure that was at least part of the inspiration which made me stop at Classic Remise.
Either that, or perhaps it was my good friend Steen who was keeping me company on this particular drive. He’s every bit the classic car geek that I am, and enjoying the various aspects of our classic car hobby is of course usually a lot more fun when there’s a social element included. What ever the reason, it was great to spend a few hours wandering aimlessly around at the Classic Remise! It comes highly recommended…
The atmosphere created within the old locomotive roundhouse is quite extraordinary! Frankly, I struggle to think of a more spectacular building for an all-encompassing classic car centre. The shops placed within the centre are interesting and diverse, the classic cars are (obviously) stunning and I might add that the breakfast served in the restaurant was very good too. But before I leave you to enjoy the rest of the pictures from our visit, let me just point out that no matter how great the Classic Remise is, I could have really substituted it with just about any other destination which caters for our classic car hobby. The point is, whenever you travel, just remember to check if there’s something interesting worth dedicating a few hours of your life to. We seem to always be in such a rush these days, but it’s soothing for your soul when you stop to catch your breath again while being surrounded by classic cars. See you out there…
