My European Road Trip

[wurlycorner]

Excellent stuff, thanks for sharing the story and pics carisma and well done for doing the trip in the first place, the kind of thing I definitely want to do as well

I'd also like to know how comes the car managed to stay spotlessly clean!

[CARRisma]

Im assuming in some of the countries, you were driving on the opposite side of the road. Was this difficult to do, or do you get used to it quite quickly.

39.1 is amazing for mpg. Out of curiousity whats the mileage on your lude? Mines over £180k now and that's another reason which puts me off doing a road trip.

Yeah, it can take a while to get used to it, especially pulling out of T Junctions. It's easier if there's cars in front 'cos you can just follow what they do.

When I filled up with petrol at Dover at the start of the rip, my car's odometer was reading 152,552 miles.

Great list of roads.
We came up to the Oberalpstrasse via the Nufenen and the St Gotthard, later driving the Furka in the westerly direction. I'd say the Nufenen rivals the Furka, particularly for scenery.
We missed the Umbrail, heading south and coming back up via the Gavia instead. My ADAC atlas says it's 2501m, by the way (8203ft). SatNavs often get the heights wrong - I've sailed at + / - 200ft, if the things are to be believed!
I agree with you about the Stelvio. It's too busy, too repetitious and yet difficult to get a flow going.

It looks like you had better weather than we did. It was raining and foggy when we drove the Furka and then the Grimsel.

Great pictures, too. Let us know any plans for next year!

I'll consider Nufenen for the next trip which won't be for another few years.

If I arrived at Furka ahead of schedule, I was gonna also give either St Gotthard Pass or Grimsel Pass a try but we arrived later than planned so didn't, Maybe next time.

Firstly how is your car so clean in every pic despite all the driving U had been doing

I'd also like to know how comes the car managed to stay spotlessly clean!

I gave The Lude a wipe down most mornings. I brought a quick detailer spray along with me in addition to my large water container (which I use for car shows) and a bucket.

A clean shiny Prelude = a happy Adam

I wanna do another European Road trip again some time, but won't be for a few years. For the next one, I'll head down to the south of France first so travel in the opposite direction. I'll include Route Napoléon next time, along with Nufenen (mentioned by @Sailor) St Gotthard Pass and Grimsel Pass. I'll venture into Austria too as there's some nice roads there apparently. I'll definitely do Furka again and Black Forest route / B500 hoping that none of it is closed. Oh, maybe Lake Como too. We was gonna drive the Monaco F1 circuit but only managed a part of it due to not having a detailed map so I'll plan that better next time.

My original plan was to join in one of the many European car rallies. You pay a fee, maybe £200 or so and drive along in a convoy. I'm glad I decided against it because:

1) I prefer to drive along at my own pace, rather than having a slow vehicle holding me up or a knob jockey bothering me from behind (hmm, that sounds a little gay),
2) I could go when I wanted,
3) My route was custom planned so suited me,
4) I didn't want organisers stickers / decals over my pride & joy,
5) I saved myself £200 - £300 by researching it and sorting it myself.

All hotels were booked along the route via Expedia and were paid for on the day in their currency using my debit card. When I booked them online during March, the total cost for the 7 hotels would have been £370.10. We left the UK on the day of the Brexit vote so woke up in Germany after the decision to leave the EU had been made. Subequently, the financial markets went a bit tits up affecting the currency conversion rate. This resulted in the total bill being £439.22 (increase of £69.12) which is on average about an extra £10 more per hotel.

[norks27]

Really appreciate the detailed write up, absolutely fantastic trip and the Prelude looked so damned sparkly, (superb photos).

[Free Ranj Egg]

@carrisma - So your lude has done some reasonable mileage. Fair play on the mpg then mate.

This thread has pushed me that bit further to sort my car out and take it out on a Euro road trip.

[Sailor]

Quick question for @CARRisma

On what date were you on the Furka? We were there on 11 June and there seemed to be a bit more snow then. It would be good to get a better feel for optimum timings. I don't have quite the same view, but near enough to compare.

Your pic:


Our pic:



Your pic:


Our pic:

[CARRisma]

Quick question for @CARRisma

On what date were you on the Furka? We were there on 11 June and there seemed to be a bit more snow then. It would be good to get a better feel for optimum timings. I don't have quite the same view, but near enough to compare.

We drove in the south westerly direction on the evening of Friday 24th June and the north easterly direction the next morning. Looks like there was more snow when you went and only two weeks difference.

[CARRisma]

Here's the original route that was planned:



Ignore the numbers, they were necessary in MS Autoroute to plan my exact route on specific roads rather than going via the quickest / optimum route.

The actual route though did differ but not by a lot. The biggest change was a veering off more to the west after Monaco rather than driving up Route Napoléon.