European jaunt

Post by **lewd lude lover** » Sat Jun 22, 2013 12:36 pm

yeah, just had a look. 270e for two drivers and you get 4x 25 minute sessions. O will be staying at the ring on sunday.

I seriously cant wait to get chance to ask some aston martin WRX owner for a passenger ride

89 UKDM BA4 4WS (resto job!) · Post by **wurlycorner** » Sat Jun 22, 2013 4:08 pm

Yep, I know LLL, all true...
I still wanna do it though. With prep/time to save, no reason why it can't be done, either.

Angus · Post by **Angus** » Mon Jun 24, 2013 1:52 pm

Europe would be far more fun than the Highlands, which is a good ten degrees colder than Englandshire and usually wet. Europe just gets warmer the further inland and south you go.

I'd suggest a run to Speyer and Sinsheim in SW Germany. Look up the "Auto & Technik Museum", which has two sites there. Both are fantastic. They'd possibly arrange photoshoots and stuff for a club run given a bit of notice - they like that kind of thing.

You can get a ferry from Dover for under £50 return if you wait for a deal to turn up (currently £19 each way on DFDS, I think). At regular prices, I got a return trip for around £70 a couple of weeks ago. You can get a Travelodge room on the M2 near Gillingham for £20, again booked in advance, to stay over night and get an early ferry.

Get to Dunkirk/Calais in the morning, then head for somewhere like Ypres or Lille for a look, then down to Luxembourg to camp overnight. Kockelscheuer campsite is on the edge of Lux City, and an excellent cheap site. Luxembourg city is nice enough, and plenty places to eat there. A great playground, too. Ensure tank is as empty as possible before getting to Lux - petrol is far cheaper there than surrounding countries. Fags are also much cheapness.

From there, you can head down through a bit of France then across to Germany, aiming for the Stuttgart road. Sinsheim and Speyer Museums need a day each, but they're only about 20km or so apart. Again, there are campsites in the area (though they take a bit of finding, except the naturist one).

Along the road a bit, Ulm has the highest cathedral spire in Europe. A fellow needs a good head for heights at the top of there. The missus is a climber so loved it, but I nearly jobby myself - you end up at the top in a little room that can just about squeeze two people in. Not going back.

Alternatively, it's not much further to the north side of the Alps (just the length of Switzerland!). Furka and Nufenen Passes, or St Gotthard, or St Bernard. All great fun - I'd recommend Furka, stopping at the Rhone Glacier to catch some rays and walk through the ice tunnel.

And then it's not much further to the Turin, Milan, Verona motorway. and while you're there, might as well pop down to Pisa and Florence ...

Perhaps Drumnadrochit would be easier, right enough.

Post by **4thgenphil** » Mon Jun 24, 2013 1:59 pm

angus aka " trip adviser in a lude "

Post by **Donald** » Mon Jun 24, 2013 2:01 pm

Great bit of info there

mercutio · Post by **mercutio** » Mon Jun 24, 2013 2:35 pm

great info

Post by **ddoubledanny** » Mon Jun 24, 2013 3:25 pm

If Europe was where everyone wants to go what about the auto Bahn always fancied that would be epic

Angus · Post by **Angus** » Mon Jun 24, 2013 5:37 pm

Autobahn = mostly over-hyped. Germany ALWAYS has roadworks EVERYWHERE on the autobahn. They're very speed-limit conscious too (not all autobahn is limit-free). When you go anywhere near a junction, for example, they all slow right down - particularly if it's near a town.

The reason, apparently, is that if there's an accident and it can be shown you were speeding you get the absolute book thrown at you. It took me a while to figure out why a Porsche that had flown past me at over 200kmh shortly before was now tootling along at just over 100. A German friend explained it to me.

Because of this sensitivity to safety, the smallest of autobahn incidents can cause a 20-mile tailback - which is a real pain in the butt when you finally get there and it's just some bloke changing a tyre on the hard shoulder. Also, you HAVE to drive at a constant 100mph to just about keep up with the traffic - otherwise you're moving out of the way every 30 seconds to let someone past (which most people do, unlike in the UK).

Some fun is to be had at above-mentioned roadworks, though, because rather than close a lane they just make the existing ones narrower. This gives you about 6 inches clearance if you want to overtake a lorry. Hugely entertaining waiting for the truck to swing the other way slightly so you can boot it and zip past.

(Most autobahns, like elsewhere in Europe, are only two lanes.)

For maximum motorway fun, try the Italian autostrada. The Turin - Venice one is long and straight, but the one that goes down towards Pisa is full of tunnels, quite sharp corners and windy bits up and down hills. The locals' driving is utterly horrendous on that road - every time there's a corner they all go for the inside line, completely ignoring the white lines between lanes. And they seem to be able to make 20 year old rusty little Fiats go at 120mph effortlessly.

(We drive from Aberdeen to northern Hungary once a year to see Mrs's family, taking a different route each time so we can stop off and see stuff. Camping is the order of the day.)

Post by **Donald** » Mon Jun 24, 2013 6:41 pm

^ +1 the run from Turin to Genoa is decent, mad hills and curves. Coast wise, Genoa to Pisa to Florence is fairly boring IMO (once you get away from Genoa), but coming through inland northern Italy the run from Modena to Florence is impressive. I imagine Turin - Genoa - Modena would be an excellent drive.

mercutio · Post by **mercutio** » Mon Jun 24, 2013 7:09 pm

yeah the motorway from rome to Florence and from Florence to venice is ridiculously straight and boring but fast going from Italy to the south of france is entertaining through the tunnels going from france through Switzerland over the san Bernard to Italy is amazing

Lude Generation

European jaunt

Re: European jaunt