How it all started. A Dutch friend of mine based here in Cyprus found a Porsche 944 (English Right Hand Drive) in Holland for sale - quite unusual! The price was very affordable (€9000) and as it was registered in Holland, importing it to another EU country (Cyprus -also an RHD country) would attract no import duty and no VAT, saving more than 30% in additional costs. My friend Simon de Konig (of the family that created the worldwide KONI shock absorber company), offered to call the owner and interrogate him in his native Dutch language and came back with advice he was fairly confident the 944 was good deal (selling a RHD car in Europe LHD countries is never going to realise the true value of the car). Simon suggested getting his business partner based in Holland to inspect the vehicle to see if it was legitimate and worth the money. He did and it was. Deal done!

This was in December and we decided to make some alterations to the car while in Holland (re-powder coating the wheels from black- ugh - back to silver, some new electrics and the like). The plan that was formulated to get the car into Cyprus was genius - we decided to wait for the Greece-to-Cyprus ferry to commence operations in early June - a 31 hour overnight voyage where we travel with the car on a ro-ro/passenger ferry that only operates in the summer. We booked that for a 3 June departure with a first class cabin for the sleepover and booked direct flights for Daniel and I, from Paphos to Eindhoven in Holland for 22 May. Simon’s friend met us after a train ride to Geldermaison where he was storing the car. And we started our 10 country, 2875 km tour back to Cyprus (plus another 1200 Km by ferry). 

My first actual view of the 944 was a surprise to actually see what excellent condition the 39 year old car was in. After some paperwork to officially register as the new owner on Dutch 14 day export plates as well as insurance for the trip and we were on our way, with advice we should always try to fill the gasoline tank with hi-test fuel (97 RON or better) not always readily available). A bit backwards at first ,as we drove to Amsterdam to visit Daniels Aunt Dolara and uncle Damir and their two daughters (sadly Damir was in Saudi at the time). After overnighting we were officially on our way back to Cyprus.

First stop - Luxembourg after a 5 hour easy drive getting used to the 5 speed manual transmission and learning about all the switches, knobs, levers and idiosyncrasies and driving an RHD car on the right side of the road – you need a passenger to see around traffic to pass and to handle the motorway toll booth activity. While sure that Luxembourg is a picturesque place to visit, we didn’t spend much time there with a promise to return some day and get to know the city better. 

Saturday had us driving to Mulhouse in France by way of Germany (avoiding the expensive French toll roads) to visit the restaurant of my business partners son. On checking into the hotel, Daniel said “Look at that!” pointing to a flat screen TV advertising a local auto Museum. OMG, here we were in the location of the world famous Schlumpf Brothers auto museum (now the French National Musee´ de l’Automobile). Dumping our luggage, we quickly drove to the museum and spent 2-1/2 hours wandering around the most extensive collection of classic cars (mostly Bugatti’s) one could possibly imagine. That was a big plus for the trip that was totally unplanned out of sheer ignorance! We could have spent days there but had to leave at closing time to make our dinner date at the NIJI Italian restaurant. And what a dinner it was! Highly recommended if ever in Mulhouse for the National Musee´ de l’Automobile. 

Sunday was a bit of a bust as we had planned to drive the Gottard Pass in Switzerland, but the WAZE GPS had different plans and redirected us off the road due to bad traffic jams and before we could recover, we were well on our way to the 17 Km Gottard bypass tunnel. Damn! In any case we arrived Ok at the Lucerne/ Como area where we met with my business partner Fred Tschernutter and Sara his wife who had driven up from Milan. Next to the Park Hotel where we stayed, is a fabulous restaurant (Baba du Lac) that made missing the Gottard Pass a bit easier to overcome.

Next stop – Ferrari Land! Maranello and the Ferrari factory, Fiorana test track and the Ferrari Museum. We gorged ourselves on Ferrari memorabilia, the Museum and a factory tour (a bit of a bust as it was a bus ride with no possibility to actually enter any of the buildings).

The next day we drove to Modena, Enzo’s birthplace and a separate museum dedicated to the man himself and his passion for F1 and dedication to endurance sports car racing - LeMans, Daytona, Sebring and the like. 

Had we been photographing with an SLR 35 mm camera, we would have runout of film pretty quickly – ahhh… the attributes of the Apple iPhone – instead we ran out of battery power!

After 2-1/2 days at Maranello and Modena we headed out to San Marino - a tax free enclave situated in the north eastern part of Italy, that is a country within a country with no borders and NOT a member of the European Union (huh!). Pretty much a law onto themselves, San Marino boasts a 15% corporate tax rate and ranks as one of the lesser known of the worlds tax havens – all of the best bits about Italy, food, style, Italian hospitality and none of the stifling Italian bureaucracy that is eating Italy and the EU to death.

The castle and surrounding village on the top of the granite mountain is a site to behold and should be on everyone’s bucket list, especially if you have. passion for everything Italian (I do!) and I’m Welsh by ancestry. Our hotel was a little hole in the wall with terminal character (and a pretty good restaurant) located on the lower village town square.

We had hoped to park the 944 on the well-lighted square for the night, but weren’t allowed as there was the weekly town market commencing early the next morning. We worried about parking the car in the nearby municipality car park (all previous nights the 944 was locked in each hotel’s gated car park) but were advised not to worry as car theft in San Marino is practically unheard of since the whole town is blanketed with CCTV camera surveillance.

The car survived the night and we headed out for the longest drive of the trip – a six hour, somewhat boring motorway trip down the east coast of Italy to Barletta, where we had a two day stopover at a friends’ B&B where we met up again with Fred and an investor, Mr. Genaro at the Tea Garden. We had at our disposal Genaro’s latest 2025 Maseratti Quattroporte chauffeured by Fred who gave us a tour of Barletta (serious Mafia country) and again some fabulous restaurants. The two day – kick-back rest was much appreciated after some 2000km of driving up to that point. We managed a bit of business and got caught up on emails and the state of the world in general (phuqt!).

The final leg in Italy ended in Brindisi on Saturday 31 May after a short two hour run to the ferry port. We boarded the ro-ro ferry and sailed to Igoumenitsa in Greece arriving late evening at our hotel. Sunday was fun day as we drove out to that mountainous part of Greece with some lovely twisty-turny B roads that showed what the 944 was designed for – fast roads with lots of tight turns (what we missed due to our misadventure to cross the Gottard Pass). My, my… what that little 5 speed, 2.5 litre pistol can do with a fast tarmacked, curvy mountainous road, is a joy to behold. We were too wrapped up in enjoying the ride and completely forgot to take some video footage of that experience. Ending up at a remote seaside village we spent a couple hours on the beach and sampled the local cuisine at a lovely Greek restaurant in the town square. Then more mountain roads where I relearned my heel-and-toe throttle blips between gear changes – heaven!

The last day of driving was down the Greek coast to the city of Piraeus (a seaside suburb of Athens) where I had spent several weeks during my service engineering days in the late 70’s monitoring the installation of a metering system being plumbed onto a crude oil FPSO bound for Indonesia. We eventually found the ferry port and without much ado boarded the Daleela ro-ro/passenger ferry for the 30+ hour trip to Limassol in Cyprus. Smooth sailing all the way made more comfortable with our 1st class cabin, though the food was rubbish! Next time (will there be a next time? Surely!), a serious grocery shopping session prior to boarding would be wise. The WiFi was very limited and so not much to do computer and phone-wise.

Our early Wednesday morning arrival was welcome and our departure from the ship went without any problems. But next was the potentially difficult part – officially importing the 944 into Cyprus. There have been numerous horror stories from our club members regarding vehicle importation into Cyprus. Fortunately, Simon had preceded us by about one year when he imported an EU registered Audi convertible. Simon knew all the pitfalls and was amazing in getting all the correct documentation in order before we even departed on the adventure. Still, I was a bit stressed about the car being impounded and us having to find our way back to Paphos from Limassol without a car.

We queued with the other cars (mostly Cyprus registered – so no problems for them) and finally when it was our turn, the customs guy approached and asked for my passport and the Dutch ownership document (logbook) and walked over to the customs booth. OK – here we go…. I thought. The guy returned after two minutes, handed me my passport and logbook with a cheery “OK – on your way!”. Wow! Simon – you nailed that! So here we are in Cyprus with a 39 year old Dutch registered 944 Porsche that will shortly be registered with FIVA on a classic car Cyprus registration plate. Such a deal…. No? (photos to follow)...

22 May 2025 Thursday
Depart PFO for Eindhoven. 05:55 Arrive 09:25
Airport bus to Eindhoven train station
Train to Geldermaisen (Stopover at Hertogenbosch/Den Bosch)
Arian will collect us at Geldermaisen station
Collect Porsche and documentation
Drive to Damir’s at Cycladenlaan 76, 1060 lx. 77Km
Overnight at Damir’s
23 May Friday
Depart Damir’s at 10:00 for Luxemburg, 4 hours 30 minutes
Arrive at Mandarina Hotel 218 Route D'Arlon, 8010 Luxembourg 417 Km
24 May Saturday
Depart Mandarina Hotel for Mulhouse, France
Arrive Brit Hotel - 53 Rue De Bâle, 68100 Mulhouse, France
NIJI Ristorante Italiano – 65 Rue de Mulhouse 68170 Rixheim, France 335 Km
25 May Sunday
Depart Brit Hotel at 10:00 for (Lucerne/Como Area) 4 hours 10 minutes
Arrive Park Hotel, Via Nazionale, 142, 23821 Abbadia Lariana LC, Italy 364 Km
26 May Monday
Depart Park Hotel at 10:00 for Maranello
Arrive Maranello Suites Via Vittorio Alfieri 17, 41053 Maranello, Italy 246 Km
27 May Tuesday
Ferrari Museum Tour
28 May Wednesday
Depart Maranello Suites Via Vittorio Alfieri 17, 41053 Maranello, Italy
Enzo Ferrari Museum Modena 22Km
Arrive Hostaria da Lino Piazza Grande 47, 47893 San Marino, San Marino 174 Km
29 May Thursday
Depart Hostaria da Lino Piazza Grande 47, 47893 San Marino, San Marino
Arrive Il Giardino del Tè Bed & Breakfast – Via Vecchia Canosa, 40 – 76121 Barletta
518 Km
30 May Friday
Il Giardino del Tè Bed & Breakfast – Via Vecchia Canosa, 40 – 76121 Barletta
31 May Saturday
Depart Il Giardino del Tè Bed & Breakfast – Via Vecchia Canosa, 40 – 76121 Barletta
Arrive Brindisi Ferry - Biglietteria Terminal Traghetti 183 Km
Ferry to Igoumenitsa – check into El Greco Ethnikis Antistaseos 86, Igoumenitsa
46100 Greece
2 June Monday
Depart El Greco Ethnikis Antistaseos 86, Igoumenitsa 46100 Greece
Arrive Piraeus Ferry. 431 Km
4 June Wednesday
Arrive Limassol port to Mesa Chorio. 70 Km

Total Driving Km – 2,837       Total Sea Km – 1,151

Countries – The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, San Marino, Greece, Cyprus – 10 Countries