My European Road Trip

There's a town called Bormio at the foot of Stelvio. It's a really good overnight stay and plenty of pubs to keep you amused.

I'm off to Europe in August so will be keeping an eye on your planning and hopefully steal some of your ideas. :thumbsup:

Similar to Taz X, the only thing set in stone is that im getting on a train in Englandshire, driving round Europe, getting on a train in Frenchville, and battering back up to Scotland.
 
glad you had a good trip, i am counting down, less than 4 weeks to go now, i'm already in holiday mode
 
Taz x said:
glad you had a good trip, i am counting down, less than 4 weeks to go now, i'm already in holiday mode
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I bet you can't wait. Here's some pics to wet your apetite

1st pic is travelling the toll roads to interlaken, passing an Aston and a Z4M Coupe in front, cool.

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After staying over in Interlaken, I did the Grimsel and Furka (as seen in Goldfinger) passes.

here's a pic in the morning as you can see the Z picked up a few bugs on the way, by the end of the two weeks the car was covered in them, yuck.

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Here's a Pic on the Furka Pass, we were so lucky with the weather as until the day i arrived they had had the same rain we experianced in the UK back in June.

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I also did the San Bernadino Pass which was great as it was possible to go a bit faster on this as it wasn't quite so busy.

Next up a pick of the Lovely hotel we stayed at up in Davos, we actually had to get in a cable car to get it it as it was up in the mountains so the views were amazing

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The next Day I tried to drive the road they did in top gear out of Davos to Stelvio via Bormio. It started off as a fantastic road (the best so far) but it didn't go on as long as I expected and in fact i think i may have taken slightly the wrong route as i ended up driving through alot of villages half way through on the way to Bormio, having said that i set the satnav up with waypoints as per various websites that show the route?

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The in the afternoon it was time for the Stelvio. This really so so crazy and dangerous if you are mad enough to drive fast as it's so busy with bikers and people like us, but it was still great fun and good to tick off as a road I have now driven.

Here's a pic of me at the top

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A zoomed in shot of the northern section I am about to drive on the way down.

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And a 458 also at the summit

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After driving down the other side (which was much better than the southern side in my opinion) I then drove onto Lake Garda which I stayed at for Three nights using it as a base camp. Me and my mate hired a speed boat out In lake Garda which i highly recomend if anyone decides to go there and the following day took a train to Venice which was beautifull but a little busy.
 
Then it was time for the Mecca of Supercars Modena, starting at Ferrari in Maranello

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Then onto the Lamborghini Family Museum which I highly recomend as opposed to the Factory museum. You have to make an appointment and Fabio Lamborghini the Nephew of Feroccio Lamborghini gave us a guided tour following which I bunged him a few quid for him to give me a spin in his classic Lambo which was so cool, all the people in the village know him as he is a local.

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I must say i was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked Modena as we had a great meal and decided to take a walk round that evening and stumbled across a street Jazz Singer and her band, she had an amazing voice and the guys were great also it really felt like I was in the real itally now compared to the more touristy Lake Garda.

Here's a dodgy image from my phone

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The next day
 
Next up I travelled down to Florence which luckily included part of the Mille Miglia route through the Futta and Ritocossa passes, this was a great drive through the Apenine Mountains and was better than the previous roads as there was far less traffic.

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We stopped of here at the top at this Bikers Cafe

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The next day and a half was spent in the lovely Florence this place is soo cool probably the stand out venue of the trip
 
Next I drove the Monte Carlo stopping off for lunch in the beautifull Portofino

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Here's a shot of me outside the Casino in Monte Carlo

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Also a pic of a testarossa like the one in Miami vice which was parked in the hotel car park, it was so wide it only just fitted in the space

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Following on from Monaco I popped over to Nice the next day which i really liked (and it was alot cheaper than Monaco) :wink:

Then up to our next hotel in Vence

the next day i drove round the Gorge Du Verdon which was really impressive with lots of stopping off points for photos

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It was time to journey home after this so I drove Route Napoleon which was mega, 5 hours of driving on mostly empty roads through the mountains and arrived at Annecy another lovely location.

Here's a pic near the lake the next morining where there was a military ceremony wher they gave out medalls for troops serving in Afghanistan.

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Then it was off to our next stopping off point at Dijon and let me tell you the roads were great an unexpected bonus with twisty bits along with glenter sweeping roads that were all great fun :thumbsup:

The final day was spent travelling back to Calais then home and I decided to drive the National roads to Reims and then got back on the toll roads. The national roads from Dijon through Troyes and up to Reims were so pretty with Vinyards and fields as the scenery and roads lines with trees on either side. They weren't very twisty just long straights between villages and towns but you could drive really fast and i overtook alot of people. :thumbsup: so didn;t loose much time versus the toll roads and I saved myself some cash :wink:

Hope you enjoy the pics
 
panic is beginning to set it

you look to have planned everything so well, so far I have bought a tent and planned a very rough route, I'm now panicing thinking I may end not finding places to stop

yesteday I checked with orange, they suggested internet would work out aboyt £1 per min, so taking the laptop could become very expensive
 
Taz x said:
panic is beginning to set it

you look to have planned everything so well, so far I have bought a tent and planned a very rough route, I'm now panicing thinking I may end not finding places to stop

yesteday I checked with orange, they suggested internet would work out aboyt £1 per min, so taking the laptop could become very expensive
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If you can afford a few hotels alot of them do free wi fi which would help you out in planning as you go round
 
mason storm, nice pics, looks like you had a great time.

Taz x, your road trip is shaping up to be legendary :D I think only Aebous could match you for the potential for it to be mayhem.
 
Taz i wouldn't worry too much about finding accommodation, there're normally plenty of B+B's or the such like wherever you go, i would just recommend you pick a sensible time in the day to start looking for a place to stay, preferably just before shops shut, then you won't end up in the middle of the night hunting around blindly.
People are generally very helpful and if somewhere is full they'll know someone who has space most likely.
Take a simple phrase book if your french is anywhere near as poor as mine. Also if you have a rough idea of where you might head you can always print off some numbers and addresses by doing a search here in the uk before you go, do town searches and a wide area. Iphone apps for hotels are pretty good or if you have a smartphone see if there is one for your phone, will probably pull down less data than a laptop :thumbsup: :driving:
 
Taz just dont do what I did and drive the Paris peripherique on a Red Day (start of a particular holiday period, in this case 18 July) when what would have been a 45 minute cruise turned into a 4-hour nightmare which barely saw me get to the ferry in time....which brings me to the frenchies talent for bureaucracy......I got bounced off the boat because of my dogs pet passport - the vet had pyt both the tick and worm treatments on the same poage when they should have been on different ones.

So thanks to the jumped up little Vichy bastard on the Sea France desk who made me trawl Calais at 1am to find a vet who, for 60 euros, supplied another rubber stamp to 'normalise' things - everything in France has to have a frickin rubber stamp :headbang:

But the specific car bureaucracy is to remember to carry your V5 as the gendarmes get very excited if they stop you for any reason and you can't prove ownership.
 
I just got back from France yesterday.

Here is a cautionary tale - don't speed!
I got stopped for doing 94 kph in a 70 kph limit and it cost me 90 euros. The gendarme said I had gone through a radar trap and his colleague further down the road had the gun on me. I did see his colleague when I passed, but he had the gun down by his side and was crossing a zebra crossing at the time - I was sitting still at the zebra letting him cross. I think the gendarme further up the road saw the sports car with a UK registration and just pulled me in. The first think he said was "Avez vous argent?" I only had 2 x 50 euro notes and had to go into the baker shop to get change for him. The thing is - I reckon I was only doing about 80 kph, and if I said I had no money he would have sent me on my way. I did ask to see the proof of the speed, but he pretended he couldn't speak English.
 
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