Europe Trip 2011

[simonsheil]

Just got back (well a fortnight ago) from a short 2 week trip around Europe so though I would post a few details and pics.

Car taken was my Passat CC 2.0tdi 170bhp. There were 3 of us in it with the boot loaded to the gunnels.
Total mileage: 3376miles
Driving time: 70:55
Average Speed: 55mph
Fuel Used: 340.6 litres
Mpg (calculated): 45.1
Fuel Cost: £449.26

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Left the confines of Cumbria midday Saturday and commenced the short 390 mile to Dover, ready to catch the 2200 Norfolkline crossing to Dunquirke. Arriving in France at 0100 in the morning drove through the night to arrive in Todtnau and a ride on the alpine coaster (as previously found by postmanpat).
As per last year’s trip carried on down to Interlarken and a visit to trumelbachefalle.
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Next day took an excursion up to Bern.
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Next day was a drive down to Milan, going over Susten pass (got the oil up to 120°c), Furka pass and Nufen pass. This included a visit to the Rhone glacier were they were in the process of cutting a new ice tunnel as well as some interesting parking.
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From Milan the journey ventured on to Pula in Croatia, a lovely area, friendly, reasonable prices and steeped in history from the Romans, Austro-Hungary Empire and Yugolslavia including Titos favourite summer retreat. Also worth noting very good quality roads.
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Following Pula the journey ventured on to Zagreb, again a lovely city and in full preparation for the visit of the pope the following day.
The Pope Stage
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From Zagreb to Budapest on first the excellent Croatian and then Hungarian roads. Budpest itself is a fabulous city with some fantastic culture and I think would be quite easy to lose a fortnight in. At the fall of communism rather than destroy the statues they put a park in on the outskirts, hello Engles and Marx. Fantastic thermal baths as well.
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From Budapest to Prague with a brief stop off at Bratislava and a stop by the German police to check the papers. The change in roads was somewhat noticeable and the motorway from Slovakia to Prague is somewhat rough and well-populated by Skoda’s. Quite liked Prague for a visit but could not see me spending more than a couple of days there.
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From Prague to somewhat closer to the UK and Antwerp, a lovely little city with good food.

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From Antwerp the journey home and back to the tranquillity of Cumbria.
The car performed great throughout with no problems proving to be an excellent mile muncher. The good size fuel tank and economy meant only 5 fuel stops for the whole trip, while the adaptive cruise and lane assist made the motorway cruising a doddle. The climate control was excellent in the 30°c plus temps for most of the holiday and the climate seats played there part. Xenons allowed setting via the MFD to tourist mode avoiding headlight adaptors while the revised dash coding allowed all the display (with the exception of the speedo) to use km units; handy on the cruise speed selector and the sat nav which performed excellently despite my reservations about it finding all the addresses with the exception of Croatia (not included) and proving accurate on journey times.

[red_mamba]

Nice road trip :)

[matt2e]

Thank you Alan Whicker..... great images by the way :fing02:

Matt.

[Scooby-Doo]

Brilliant photos,very interesting,3376 miles in a fortnight, umm did you say this was a holiday ???????????
Each to his own I suppose,I like to do an impression of a cabbage on my hols,dead boring to some.

[MisterB]

WOW ! :biggthump

What's the car full spec? I see you went for a number of extras, including a nice set of Chicago wheels. And no roof-rack ! You did travel light.

[JonMarsh]

Impressive trip! You've visited many places that I'd also like to go to but had not considered doing it as a road trip. What did you do about accomodation? I'd love to have some advice as it looks very appealing.

[simonsheil]

WOW ! :biggthump

What's the car full spec? I see you went for a number of extras, including a nice set of Chicago wheels. And no roof-rack ! You did travel light.

170 tdi GT Moonlight Blue, Xenons, Chicago, MDI, Automatic Cruise Control, Lane Assist, Climate Seats, digitial tyre pressure monitor, ambient lighting, rear sun blind, badge deleition.

Lugage wise it was not too bad, boot was packed, with one massive camera case in the car. That said some accomodation was self catering so I had a big box of food etc and another box of oil/washer fluid etc for the car.

[simonsheil]

Impressive trip! You've visited many places that I'd also like to go to but had not considered doing it as a road trip. What did you do about accomodation? I'd love to have some advice as it looks very appealing.

Accomodation was all pre booked albeit less than 2 weeks before the trip. An advantage was we were off season so there was still plentiful choice.

Mostly we aimed for appartment accomodation, particuarly poupular in Eastern europe but available most places, gives more space and the possibility of cooking in if you want. We just used a variety of web sites and had very reasonable accomodation for £750 for 3 of us for 13 nights.
We also used late rooms for a couple of hotel bookings.

[simonsheil]

Brilliant photos,very interesting,3376 miles in a fortnight, umm did you say this was a holiday ???????????
Each to his own I suppose,I like to do an impression of a cabbage on my hols,dead boring to some.

I have done pure driving holidays encountering 1500 miles of mountain passes in a fortnight and although enjoyable they can get a bit tediuos.

This time I had a traditional long first leg, ariving at first destination around 8.00 in the morning and stop by 12.00. If you can drive through the night and survive its a cheap ferry crossing and the roads are deserted (Sunday Morning). We then had 2 nights in locality before taking a drive to Milan; thi could of been 3 hours if not for a few enjoyable mountain passes.

We then had a long leg (6 hours) to croatia again followed by a couple of nights and then a shortish drive up to Zagreb (couple hours), and only 4 hours up to budpest for 3 nights. Drive to Prague was about 4 hours and then the long 8 hours across to Antwerp.

Primarily all the main driviving is on Motorway and very unstresful, plus with regular breaks it never felt overly liking a driving holiday with only 2 long days once in Europe out of the 12 days.

[FastEddieVW]

Nice to see a Cumbrian leaving the county marra, haha! Nice car mate, looks a fantastic trip too!