Discussion
So we are leaving rome and headed to cannes. Rome was awesome, driving through tunnels and Roman arches was surreal.
Met a couple of lovely American ladies and spent the three days driving around rome with some fair company. I've now got an invitation to indiana now, which I'll certainly take up.
Last night finished with a rather surreal beach party so im currently nursing a headache whilst my mate drives.
Anyone got any recommendations for cannes?
Met a couple of lovely American ladies and spent the three days driving around rome with some fair company. I've now got an invitation to indiana now, which I'll certainly take up.
Last night finished with a rather surreal beach party so im currently nursing a headache whilst my mate drives.
Anyone got any recommendations for cannes?
We drove France,Belgium,Luxembourg,Germany,Austria,Hungary,Serbia,Bulgaria,Greece where we stayed for about a week then came back home, via Macedonia,Serbia,Croatia,Slovenia,Italy where we stayed in Pisa for 2 nights,then it was Switzerland,Germany Luxembourg,Belgium,France,home.4515 miles .
I'll get round to replying to all of your comments in goid time, sorry if it looks like im being rude and ignoring. I'm in cannes now, in an apartment above a supercar dealership! Pics to follow.
However! We had a blowout today! I've got four brand new tyres on the car on freshly reconditioned alloys so wasn't expecting troubles, but one has a slow puncture and one completely ate itself. Luckily I was only doing 50 but it still caused the traction control to kick in. Bit faster round a corner on some of the sketchy roads around here and I could have crashed.
Cooper tyres. At 120 for rears I assumed they'd be fine. Wasn't expecting performance but certainly wasn't expecting death.
However! We had a blowout today! I've got four brand new tyres on the car on freshly reconditioned alloys so wasn't expecting troubles, but one has a slow puncture and one completely ate itself. Luckily I was only doing 50 but it still caused the traction control to kick in. Bit faster round a corner on some of the sketchy roads around here and I could have crashed.
Cooper tyres. At 120 for rears I assumed they'd be fine. Wasn't expecting performance but certainly wasn't expecting death.
To add to that last comment..
Luckily I had a full size spare, not normally a thing on these cars. Lugging a front mv1 wheel around turned out to be a very good call. Poor car is now running around on mismatched colour wheels and one wrong size on the rear but a can of tyre seal would have been completely useless
Luckily I had a full size spare, not normally a thing on these cars. Lugging a front mv1 wheel around turned out to be a very good call. Poor car is now running around on mismatched colour wheels and one wrong size on the rear but a can of tyre seal would have been completely useless
Well gents, I'm back.
I'm going to try and update the rest of the thread in time order. And add a bit of depth to the story.
First of all, the alps:
I don't get any time off work this winter and as snowboarding used to be my main hobby, it was really important to me that I got to do that this summer. My mate on the other hand was bugging me to visit him in Rome and that's when it all got a bit out of hand. He's not much of a skier and I generally don't do beach holidays, but as we both compromised, we ended up with an awesome holiday.
I got 5 days on the slopes in the end, at about 3600 metres. Les deux alpes in the summer has a big snowpark with jumps and the such, which was perfect for me. If anyone is into freestyle skiing or boarding, besides whistler in Canada, it's pretty much the place to go!
We stayed in an apartment with a cool Spanish couple. We ended up getting on pretty well and I'll probably head over to spain to see them at some point for a bit of snowboarding. The apartment itself was tiny. In the photos you can see that neither me nor my mate are short, but we somehow made it work.
I'm bloody fed up of French sausages. Just had to put it out there.
The drive to lake como from the alps was immense. It was at this point that the brakes started to go on the car, so I couldn't risk driving as fast as I'd liked. If the car was properly set up we could have hooned it! As it was, I hadn't owned the car long enough to figure out its foibles so I had to take it easy, because getting it wrong on the alpine passes was to fall off a 1000 metre cliff.
I can honestly say, I've never seen such stunning countryside before, and I've been to a few places. The variety and the enormity of the mountains was just incredible. Also the roads were a dream. On the uphill sections, where I could open up, I was grateful for the 3 litres under the bonnet, and even had a bit of a giggle with the DSC switched off.
Not too much of a giggle though!
When we got to lake Como it was bloody late at night and we needed some grub. At this point I handed over any pretence of organising anything to my mate, as I didn't know the language. We got pizza and beer.
His dad was born in a villa next to the lake just after the war and he wanted to get a picture, however the security wouldn't let us in, so we swam round the back and got a couple of photos to show his old man.
From there, we had an absolute epic of a drive to Rome.
Now, I've got some beef with the Europeans. The germans have the best motorway system and its free. The French make you pay on average, ten million euros a day to drive on their motorways, and the Italians really take the biscuit by doing the same then having major delays for roadworks. I was completely threaders by the time we go there with constant stopping for some bloody Mario requiring another 20 euros.
Which by the way, is roughly 500 pounds with the current exchange rate!
Rome:
As I mentioned, we met a couple of pretty American girls and so had some fair company for the duration of our stay here. I'm also completely in love. Happy to admit it.
The city is a complete clusterf
k. I picked up about thirty dings on my car from inconsiderate moped riders and other vehicles, but at the same time we were driving past the collesium and the pantheon, which made it all rather worthwhile.
Cannes:
The drive there was an absolute nightmare. We were going to drive through Monacco and go on the F1 circuit, but a few hours before had a horrendous blowout. I just had a proper look at the wheel and it's got some rather severe cracks in it. Completely fked. So if anyone has a spare MV1 wheel painted black, I'd be rather grateful. As the wheel was a spare front wheel so wrong width and it was getting on late, we decided to go straight to Cannes.
And blimey, there are some rather nice cars there.
They rent supercars for roughly 100 euros for twenty minutes. You see a lot of young guys cruising up and down the strip in these cars and it's all a bit cringeworthy, but there are some other genuine cars driving along too.
I know my 3er is old and not that special, but to my eyes at least it's still a handsome thing and felt perfectly at home with all the exotic metal. I wish it had been sitting on matching wheels as I felt a bit silly, but at least I wasn't paying over the odds to cruise along the Riviera in an open top sports car, I already had mine
The nightclub scene there is a bit crass too. Cocktails for 20 euros a pop seems a bit much, but what really annoyed me was the obvious "sugar daddying" going on. Girls going on holiday there purely to pick up rich old men.
Maybe I'm jealous because I'm not a rich old man.
Certainly when I am a rich old man, I'll go back there....
My favourite bit of the trip, apart from the mountains, was the beach near cannes. Absolutely stunning, right up until a naked French bloke sits down next to me and I realise we've broken into a nudist colony. It was worse than Germany, 1986.
Paris:
The drive to paris was horrendous.
We got there at 2am, parked in a typically terrible Parisien parking spot, and then wok up at 640 to leave the place again. The hotel was cheap, thanks to a friend of a friend, otherwise it would have been a complete waste of money.
However we did get to drive around the entire city at 7am on a sunday. There wasn't a single car in sight and I did a powerslide around the Eiffel tower, to emulate one of my favourite French films, Taxi.
On the way to Dunkirk we decided last minute to hop off to Vimy Ridge battlefield and war graves. One of the posters on here earlier mentioned that a battlefield trip would be worthwile and he was right, particularly as the two of us are in the Military. it is always good to pay respects to those gone before us and also wake up to the reality of our job.
The preserved shell holes from WW1 are a very sobering sight.
From there we went to the ferry, and an Immigrant did look at the car but clearly realised he'd have to cut himself into component parts if he wanted to fit.
Pictures to follow. Apologies for mistakes in grammar/etc.
I'm going to try and update the rest of the thread in time order. And add a bit of depth to the story.
First of all, the alps:
I don't get any time off work this winter and as snowboarding used to be my main hobby, it was really important to me that I got to do that this summer. My mate on the other hand was bugging me to visit him in Rome and that's when it all got a bit out of hand. He's not much of a skier and I generally don't do beach holidays, but as we both compromised, we ended up with an awesome holiday.
I got 5 days on the slopes in the end, at about 3600 metres. Les deux alpes in the summer has a big snowpark with jumps and the such, which was perfect for me. If anyone is into freestyle skiing or boarding, besides whistler in Canada, it's pretty much the place to go!
We stayed in an apartment with a cool Spanish couple. We ended up getting on pretty well and I'll probably head over to spain to see them at some point for a bit of snowboarding. The apartment itself was tiny. In the photos you can see that neither me nor my mate are short, but we somehow made it work.
I'm bloody fed up of French sausages. Just had to put it out there.
The drive to lake como from the alps was immense. It was at this point that the brakes started to go on the car, so I couldn't risk driving as fast as I'd liked. If the car was properly set up we could have hooned it! As it was, I hadn't owned the car long enough to figure out its foibles so I had to take it easy, because getting it wrong on the alpine passes was to fall off a 1000 metre cliff.
I can honestly say, I've never seen such stunning countryside before, and I've been to a few places. The variety and the enormity of the mountains was just incredible. Also the roads were a dream. On the uphill sections, where I could open up, I was grateful for the 3 litres under the bonnet, and even had a bit of a giggle with the DSC switched off.
Not too much of a giggle though!
When we got to lake Como it was bloody late at night and we needed some grub. At this point I handed over any pretence of organising anything to my mate, as I didn't know the language. We got pizza and beer.
His dad was born in a villa next to the lake just after the war and he wanted to get a picture, however the security wouldn't let us in, so we swam round the back and got a couple of photos to show his old man.
From there, we had an absolute epic of a drive to Rome.
Now, I've got some beef with the Europeans. The germans have the best motorway system and its free. The French make you pay on average, ten million euros a day to drive on their motorways, and the Italians really take the biscuit by doing the same then having major delays for roadworks. I was completely threaders by the time we go there with constant stopping for some bloody Mario requiring another 20 euros.
Which by the way, is roughly 500 pounds with the current exchange rate!
Rome:
As I mentioned, we met a couple of pretty American girls and so had some fair company for the duration of our stay here. I'm also completely in love. Happy to admit it.
The city is a complete clusterf
k. I picked up about thirty dings on my car from inconsiderate moped riders and other vehicles, but at the same time we were driving past the collesium and the pantheon, which made it all rather worthwhile. Cannes:
The drive there was an absolute nightmare. We were going to drive through Monacco and go on the F1 circuit, but a few hours before had a horrendous blowout. I just had a proper look at the wheel and it's got some rather severe cracks in it. Completely f
ked. So if anyone has a spare MV1 wheel painted black, I'd be rather grateful. As the wheel was a spare front wheel so wrong width and it was getting on late, we decided to go straight to Cannes.And blimey, there are some rather nice cars there.
They rent supercars for roughly 100 euros for twenty minutes. You see a lot of young guys cruising up and down the strip in these cars and it's all a bit cringeworthy, but there are some other genuine cars driving along too.
I know my 3er is old and not that special, but to my eyes at least it's still a handsome thing and felt perfectly at home with all the exotic metal. I wish it had been sitting on matching wheels as I felt a bit silly, but at least I wasn't paying over the odds to cruise along the Riviera in an open top sports car, I already had mine
The nightclub scene there is a bit crass too. Cocktails for 20 euros a pop seems a bit much, but what really annoyed me was the obvious "sugar daddying" going on. Girls going on holiday there purely to pick up rich old men.
Maybe I'm jealous because I'm not a rich old man.
Certainly when I am a rich old man, I'll go back there....
My favourite bit of the trip, apart from the mountains, was the beach near cannes. Absolutely stunning, right up until a naked French bloke sits down next to me and I realise we've broken into a nudist colony. It was worse than Germany, 1986.
Paris:
The drive to paris was horrendous.
We got there at 2am, parked in a typically terrible Parisien parking spot, and then wok up at 640 to leave the place again. The hotel was cheap, thanks to a friend of a friend, otherwise it would have been a complete waste of money.
However we did get to drive around the entire city at 7am on a sunday. There wasn't a single car in sight and I did a powerslide around the Eiffel tower, to emulate one of my favourite French films, Taxi.
On the way to Dunkirk we decided last minute to hop off to Vimy Ridge battlefield and war graves. One of the posters on here earlier mentioned that a battlefield trip would be worthwile and he was right, particularly as the two of us are in the Military. it is always good to pay respects to those gone before us and also wake up to the reality of our job.
The preserved shell holes from WW1 are a very sobering sight.
From there we went to the ferry, and an Immigrant did look at the car but clearly realised he'd have to cut himself into component parts if he wanted to fit.
Pictures to follow. Apologies for mistakes in grammar/etc.
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