Ricey Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 This is a long one so get a brew! We've just completed our little Euro trip so I thought I'd put a sort of mini write up/guide on for those that are interested or thinking of doing it themselves (and those who are truly bored and will read any old crap). We also met up with Thomas Sorensen while we were out there and went to the Hockenheimring and the Auto Museum for the day which was really cool........Thomas took me out for a spin in his car which was like a missile! Route Day 1 - Chester to Dover (5 hours) and Dunkirk to Bruges (2 hours) Day 3 - Bruges to the Black Forest (Germany). This route also took us through a bit of Holland. (8 hours!!!!!!!) Day 6 - Black Forest to Saint Quentin (5 hours) Day 7 - Saint Quentin to Dunkirk (2 hours) and Dunkirk to Chester (8 hours with a special mystery stop off ) Cost Total distance - 1650 miles Total accommodation cost - £425 Total fuel cost - Still waiting for bank account to update but I'd reckon around £400 (so roughly 4 tanks door to door) Total Ferry cost - £78 (2 people return) Total spends (bearing in mind we don't drink) - £400 Toll roads - £30ish Random things to remember - Laptop with anything important downloaded (PDF's for the ferry port directions)...most hotels have free Wi-Fi these days so its deffo handy to have. - Preprogramme your sat nav with ALL of your destinations before you leave. Saves a right load of messing about. - If you come up against a closed road or a new road that your sat nav doesn't have in it don't panic. Either pull over and tell it you've hit a road block (and it'll recalculate) or in the event of a new road - keep going until it can redirect you (worst that can happen is you go a little out of your way and this only tends to happen on motorways). - Travel sickness pills. Carla gets motion sickness on an elevator so this was a bit of a worry - Boots own brand travel pills and she managed the whole journey without a single squeak or whine. - Pain killers/Ibruprofen gel.......I actually didn't end up using these but my back was pretty sore by the end of some days! - 2 pin plugs. - Chargers for everything - in car charger for sat nav is an abolute must.......forget it and your doomed. - Charge you sat nav fully every night so it can sit in the cubby (with the charger plugged in it won't fit)......without putting it in the cubby you won't be able to see it because of the sunshine. - Don't in your knackered state wearily bleat 'Oui' when asked if you want breakfast at the hotel - check the price. We weren't really listening to the bloke as we'd been awake for about 36 hours when checking into Bruge.........that little mistake cost us £32 for 2 breakfasts . There are loads of little places to get brekkie so your hotel is usually a bad option. - Without a passenger your are going to have a right ball ache with toll roads to set the nav to avoid if your go alone. Ferry I was a little wary of this as I'd never been on a ferry and to my mind the only thing I'd done that was anywhere similar was checking in at an airport - I was therefore expecting the usual airport confusion and utter disorganization. Nothing of the sort though - its really easy to get there, drive upto a window hand over your docs and go and wait in the 'lane' that you are allocated. Thanks to a certain local hero called Lexx we were upgraded to VIP which meant we were first on the ferry and had a nice quiet first class lounge to snooze in Coming back on the French side is just as easy - make sure you know what port your going to and just follow the road signs (Because your sat nav probably won't be able to take you the full way). Driving I clicked with it straight away.......roundabouts are probably the only thing that is a little hard to get your head around because your natural instinct is to look right. Overtaking takes a little bit of care too - always good to have a good peek over your shoulder rather than relying on the wing mirror alone. They seem to take driver safety very seriously over in Europe too. There are proper rest area's at least every 10 miles (probably more frequently to be honest)......and by 'rest area' I do not mean 'small, dank, ****-stained, patch of grass with a collection of jizzy rubbers from last nights lorry driver cottaging session'. They are proper, safe, slip road off the motorway, screened by trees, reasonable toilet facility, picnic benches and lorry/car parking splits - usually with some stunning vista at the back to gaze out upon. French/Belgian driving was surprisingly pretty good which brings us to Germany.........they are bonkers. They take driving VERY seriously - on Autobahn they drive right up one another arse at 120mph....initially it appears they are aggressive bad drivers but shortly you realize that they are actually VERY good drivers - they never kick off, instead just patiently waiting for you to pull over and finish your overtake, traffic slows down and they all get straight on the hazards to help out fellow motorists. The 3 lanes are basically used as driving (inside), overtaking (middle), warp (outside). Everyone from kids to grannies drives fast and drives well - passing your test over there cost in the region of 2.5k with a lot of theory. One thing to remember though - Germans don't seem to ever acknowledge or thank you when you let them in. I don't believe they're being rude I think thats just their way so don't get wound up by it. As soon as we got back in the UK - the driving was back to appalling again......and I do mean APPALLING. Same type of roads, same volume of traffic....total chaos. Why people sit in the middle lane, doodling along with nothing in the slow lane it beyond me. Seriously in 1650 miles of driving the only bad driving I saw was in the UK and it was practically the entire journey back. I was trying to drive as I'd done in Europe - no chance.....these mongs actually force you to drive badly yourself. Other things - Toll roads in France can soon rack up a few £'s and some are new so update your sat navs in case TomTom gets lost. - On a lot of motorways when a new road is joining via a slip, the slips becomes the slow lane and the fast lane merges into the middle lane (much safer when you think about it). - Speed cameras........I didn't see a single one but I know for a fact we went passed loads. They are well hidden and I don't know how it works if you get pinged. Be wary and courteous of the speed limits. - The food in Germany is something of........well.......an acquired taste. Well worth researching before you go in case you are a little fussy with fodder. - The Zed is an EXTREMELY rare sight on Europe's roads........Porsches - no one could care less........Zed - they cannot get enough of it. Once the Nissan badges are off theres also a lot of confused staring and head scratching going on too. You will honestly feel like a celebrity for the week. - Aftermarket zorst..........anything louder than a Scorpion would cause some pretty bad hearing damage. If you had a K1 I reckon you'd be left with about 3% brain functionality by the time you got back. One the way back me any Carla did something we've been talking about for a very long time, we've been together 5 years now and decided that it was about time we took the plunge............and met Husky .......... unfortunately the dozy pooch tried to be smart and gave us GPS coordinates for the farm from Straw Dogs as opposed to his house so we had a little 15 mile tour of the West Midlands coutryside. He sure cooks mean Fajitas though Here's the piccies; Belgium A clearly over excited Carla A wall of beer (all Belgian)! Scary-ass statues in the fish pond! Not entirely sure the white chocolate 'spunk' is really necessary! I fed ducks today Germany The tunnel where Carla thought it would be a great idea to take a picture.....with the flash on!! Oncoming drivers blinded Those crazy crazy Germans Some of the most stunning driving roads and scenery in Europe.......no match for Angry Birds Some windfarm porn for Andrew! Hockenheimring Ground clearance! Trying to keep up with Thomas at 120mph State of the car now we're back! Its also covered in green pollen from the Black Forest! Hope this is at least a bit of use and I haven't bored you all too much! Last word on the Zed and its performance over the journey...........I love this car anyway (yes, yes I know there are better more capable cars out there) but now I'm simply in awe of it. Its an amazing, comfortable, versatile, fun, capable and beautiful car. The drive from Dobel to Baden-Baden was like 40 mins on the Nurburg with 200ft drops........not once did I feel anything other than totally confident in the car.......even after we passed the biker who was only saved from the 200 ft drop by the 2 trees he crashed into! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoogyRev Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 Nice Pics , Looks like you had a great time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vik54 Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 Looks like a good trip...much fun! and the Dawg can cook?! I've seen the pics on Faceplant of the dishes he concocts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neilp Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 looks like great fun mate! Hope you werent having too much fun sooking those choco-cocks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richt Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 Great write up and pics, would love to do something similar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leonk Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 Great write up and looks like you both had an amazing time!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATTAK Z Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 Thanks for sharing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The G Man Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 Nice one Did you get the chance for a "spirited" Autobahn run? Thomas, your friend, wasn't trying at 120 I've always found the Germans very capable drivers, the French though, tend to drive up the backside of a lorry and at the last second, indicate and pull out Glad you had a great experience, now, get yourself to the South of France for a special odyssey , get married there, not to Husky though It really is the best driving in Europe Planning on getting down there later in the year Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
choptop Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 Good write up and pics. Thanks for sharing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricey Posted April 26, 2011 Author Share Posted April 26, 2011 Nice one Did you get the chance for a "spirited" Autobahn run? Thomas, your friend, wasn't trying at 120 I've always found the Germans very capable drivers, the French though, tend to drive up the backside of a lorry and at the last second, indicate and pull out Glad you had a great experience, now, get yourself to the South of France for a special odyssey , get married there, not to Husky though It really is the best driving in Europe Planning on getting down there later in the year 120 was as fast as I got before carla started with threats of extreme violence. Thomas has about an extra 100 bhp so keeping up with him was a challenge.....just as we both hit 120mph we also hit a traffic jam......God bless the Brembo's! By the time we got out of the jam it was restricted again - much to carlas delight Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricey Posted April 26, 2011 Author Share Posted April 26, 2011 Actually I've just realised that piccie of us in convoy with Thomas isn't the autobahn one.....just a normal road....lol probably only doing 30 mph and here's me giving it the large one with claims of 120mph! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadMac Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 Thats brilliant, I was just trying to convince the Mrs once the Z arrives to pretty much do the same thing! Love Germany, and I especially love Bruges. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The G Man Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 Actually I've just realised that piccie of us in convoy with Thomas isn't the autobahn one.....just a normal road....lol probably only doing 30 mph and here's me giving it the large one with claims of 120mph! I knew what you meant though Although you can go scary fast on the de-restricted roads, you can all too soon be sending your foot through the brake peddle if you don't pay attention Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK350Z Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 Great write up mate, thanks for the thought! If you were closer I could probably tell you what they were... You're spot on with the German driving observations anyway, can you imagine the road rage you would get in the UK if you "courteously" flashed people to move over? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 This is a long one so get a brew! I fed ducks today Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RisingPower Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 I take it you didn't buy anything from the chocolate shop then? Nah, excellent writeup and some great pics Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricey Posted April 26, 2011 Author Share Posted April 26, 2011 I take it you didn't buy anything from the chocolate shop then? Nah, excellent writeup and some great pics WTF I was so mesmirised by the fact that a high end choc shop would have choc-cocks that I didn't notice what was in the bag in the bottom right of the piccie Belgians man - crazy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RisingPower Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 I take it you didn't buy anything from the chocolate shop then? Nah, excellent writeup and some great pics WTF I was so mesmirised by the fact that a high end choc shop would have choc-cocks that I didn't notice what was in the bag in the bottom right of the piccie Belgians man - crazy. Gotta love them belgians Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andlid Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 sounds like a sweet trip and not very expensive either! well done both of you, now wish that was me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will370z Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 Good write up and nice tips, very helpful. Looks like you had a great time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
x.laura.x Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 Cracking pictures Aww the little cute ducklins Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carla Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 We had a super time, I loved every minute of it. Bruges is wonderful I only nagged at Paul once! When he decided to practically floor it towards a bend with a 200 foot drop! Was cheap too so plenty of funds left for a second holiday this year Thinking south if France? Driving? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andlid Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 post the video Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andlid Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 We had a super time, I loved every minute of it. Bruges is wonderful I only nagged at Paul once! When he decided to practically floor it towards a bend with a 200 foot drop! Was cheap too so plenty of funds left for a second holiday this year Thinking south if France? Driving? will scout biaritz for you guys in may/june Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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