I recently had the pleasure of being the pampered passenger in a Mercedes CL 63 AMG coupe driving from Stuttgart to Baden Baden in Germany for lunch…. As you do!

Having just recently arrived in Europe I was not brave enough to take up the offer to drive this beautiful machine as it had been years since I had driven on right-hand drive roads in a left-hand drive car.

And this was a very-big, very-expensive car, that wouldn’t leave you with a lot of change from half a million dollars in Australia. Being a passenger was exotic enough for me at that point.

The AMG seats were wide yet cocooning and the dash was beautiful and expansive. And it is so spacious – just like sitting in first class on Qantas. I moved the seat right back and thought wow, is this ever going to stop! Legs stretched right out in front of me. The tinted sunroof just topped it all off nicely, letting in the green glow from the tall trees.

This big coupe has a beautiful shape, too. It reminded me of a tapering rower’s body – the great shoulders, the trim waist and oh what a bottom. Ours was finished in silver which showed the shape to perfection.

We drove purringly (is there such a word? – if not, there should be, just for this car) through picturesque little villages, over rolling hills and through land that was greener than green – all made the better by the pure luxury I was sitting in. This CL Mercedes is elegant and stylish. It made me feel elegant, sitting there in my ripped surfer jeans.

The contrast of the discrete elegance of the car, the Aussie casualness of the clothes and foreign looking verdant landscape just made the experience pop.

What a pleasure to quietly pull up at the restaurant in this fabulous German vehicle feeling wonderfully refreshed after two hours driving.

Thank you to Wolfgang, David, Neil, Chris and especially my driver Ewan for a fabulous drive, a great lunch and even better company.

And on the way back to Stuttgart on the autobahn … pure power at very high speeds in perfect safety.  Ahh, I can only dream. And next time – I’m driving!