calais to cologne fastest route

[hman]

I am contemplating driving to cologne in early november leaving early morning to arrive at cologne around 10.30 - 11am.


Whats the best route to take (fastest and least conjested), at the moment my route planner is saying calais to antwerp, aachen, cologne - anyone got experience of this trip?

cheers

[Chris71]

Yep, did this several times when I was a Fordie. Take the E40 the whole way. Watch out for speed cameras in Holland and Belgium - zose crazy Dutch like hiding them in broken down cars and the like.

[Hugo a Gogo]

that's handy, cos the e40 doesn't go through Holland

it goes calais, brussels, liege, aachen, cologne and onwards (to kazakhstan!)

E314 turns off at leuven and goe through a little bit of holland above maastricht then joins back at aachen

Edited by Hugo a Gogo on Wednesday 30th September 11:42

[dcb]

Chris71 said:

Yep, did this several times when I was a Fordie. Take the E40 the whole way. Watch out for speed cameras in Holland and Belgium - zose crazy Dutch like hiding them in broken down cars and the like.

I've done the E40 Calais to Koln road many times over the last
twenty years.

The only speed camera I am aware of on the E40 is near Herstal,
where the road goes over the Maas.

The Dutch & Belgies really don't seem to bother much about speeding
on motorways, providing you don't take liberties.

There doesn't seem to me to be much traffic doing over
about 150 kmh.

There is an interesting variation to the usual E40 route.
Just east of Brussels, at Leuven, turn off onto the A2,
pass Genk, into NL, pass Heerlen, German border and
pick up the A4 near Aachen.

You have to have your wits about you for this variation,
but it does seem to save a few miles and it's quieter than
the road around Liege.

[Hugo a Gogo]

the Leuven - Heerlen road is the E314 in Belg

IME, the belgians do like to stop german plated cars and hand out big on-the-spot fines

within 20kmh of the limit, where clear, is safe as houses though

same applies in Germany (cameras notwithstanding)

[Chris71]

Sorry - spent so much time driving around the Belgian/Dutch border when I was working in Genk I've forgotten which countries are en-route. Semantics aside, the E40 is straightforward, convenient and reasonably quiet. My route used to skirt the Brussels ring road, which can be a bit of a pain at peak times, but it's no worse than the M25 or something.

[1560]

20km after BXL,
just before extit "BERTEM" is another speedcam direction Liege

on the Ringroad around BXL is another between "ASSE" and "Grimbergen"

also watch out on the long bridge on the Ringroad, section is 90km/h and they
sometimes put a "speedcam hidden in a small container" in the middle of the road!!!!

[hman]

:UPDATE:


Ok, I drove to cologne, it took 2 hours bucks to folkestone, 35 mins on eurotunnel and 3- 3.5 hours to cologne.

Pretty good going, got to the de-restriceted autobahn bits and managed to get to 155mph before a young driver in a hatchback suzuki switched lanes into my lane and I had to brake as hard as I could from 155 - 50mph. It was rizla paper close- I was sure I was going to pile into him.

So for the rest of the trip in the deristricted part I kept to a steady 130mph - in hindsight I think a 105 mph difference in closing speed would have been hard to judge in a rear view mirror but the fact remains that he was chatting to his girlfriend and only noticed me at the point where I almost crushed his car.

Couple of things about this trip which suprised me.

Autobahns are quite often two lane roads- leaving you not a lot of room to gain huge speeds without people switching lanes.
Dutch volvo drivers think they own the road.
Belgian drivers dont use their mirrors enough.
Belgian drivers like to stay in the outside lane.
Brussels is worth avoiding if at all possible, the ring road is like the north circ in rush hour.
The french and (the majority) of german drivers seem to be on the ball and made those parts of the journey very quick.


I realised before I went that I needed a lot of music for the journey as I was doing this mmission solo, downloading podcasts of music and radio shows onto my phone then playing the phone through the car was a free way of ensuring entertainment for the journey.

Last thing, Eurotunnel are quite flexible about you missing your crossings, if you turn up within 2 hours of your booked crossing time they will get you on the next "available" train.

Which was nice as brussels was like a car park and I swore alot about not taking the route to antwerp instead- this made me about an hour late for the crossing.

[Chris71]

hman said:

Ok, I drove to cologne, it took 2 hours bucks to folkestone, 35 mins on eurotunnel and 3- 3.5 hours to cologne.

Just got back from Cologne too. You weren't there for the PMW Show by any chance?

[hman]

Unfotunately I was in a business meeting for 2 days, the subject...... fire engineering.


BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

[Chris71]

My trip was only slightly more exciting. Three days walking around a racing trade show. It left me with rather sore feet and an innexplicable yearning for a 2CV race car...

[hman]

^^^^^

LOL its the lean angle that makes most yearn for one.

[Chris71]

Looks quite physcial this 2CV lark...



I believe that's the car from the show in the foreground.

[nickwilcock]

Yup, the Brussels Ring is awful. But Antwerp isn't a lot better - and there are a lot of road works going on between Ghent and Antwerp as well. The Dutch are doing a lot of upgrade work on motorways, thanks to EC handouts.

I prefer to take the Norfolk Line crossing (amazingly good value) from Dover to Dunkerque - pay the small 'First Class' supplement for priority loading/unloading and executive lounge. Then Dunkerque A16 /A12 to Brussels ring; take the E314 towards Aachen/Genk/Hasselt just east of Brussels and follow the motorway all the way to Cologne.

Belgians LOVE to tailgate, the Dutch love elephant racing, German autobahns are mostly 2 lane and stuffed with 130 kph speed limits.....then it's 100 80 60 contraflow time due to the enormous amount of autobahn repair work going on at present. I found 150 kph the practical max on unrestricted parts, because so many people fail to use their mirrors before pulling out in front of you.

But I did clock a legal 225kph at one stage - just to say that I'd achieved the 'Double Castle'!

A major issue these days is the vast number of long distance East European trucks - many of whose drivers have a cavalier disregard for fatigue regulations.

[-Pete-]

I've nearly always done Calais Dunkerque Lille Charleroi Namur Aachen Köln. Brussels can be a pain in the behind. There are speed cameras in Lille, otherwise you just have to not drive faster than the locals and you'll be ok.

Don't take your radar detector, make sure you have one refelective jacket per occupant inside the car (not the boot), assume all Belgian drivers are blind, and you should be ok.

[dcb]

nickwilcock said:

German autobahns are mostly 2 lane and stuffed with 130 kph speed limits

I'd agree with you about the two lanes, but I just checked the
speed limit map on

http://www.autobahnatlas-online.de/index_e.html

In fact the ADAC has it that some 70% of the network is
unlimited, which agrees with the maps.

For the specific case of the Aachen - Koln road, except for a short
limited section near Eschweiler, it's almost all unlimited, so it is not clear
to me where you get the idea that there are lots of limits.

And it's four lanes each way in the area of Frechen.

nickwilcock said:

I found 150 kph the practical max on unrestricted parts, because so many people fail to use their mirrors before pulling out in front of you.

In think anyone not checking their mirrors properly where
there are plenty of folks doing 200-250 kmh will not last long.

Whatever your perceptions, I know the reality is that mirror use
in unlimited sections is somewhere between excellent and universal.

[hman]

dcb said:

nickwilcock said:

German autobahns are mostly 2 lane and stuffed with 130 kph speed limits

I'd agree with you about the two lanes, but I just checked the
speed limit map on

http://www.autobahnatlas-online.de/index_e.html

In fact the ADAC has it that some 70% of the network is
unlimited, which agrees with the maps.

For the specific case of the Aachen - Koln road, except for a short
limited section near Eschweiler, it's almost all unlimited, so it is not clear
to me where you get the idea that there are lots of limits.

And it's four lanes each way in the area of Frechen.

nickwilcock said:

I found 150 kph the practical max on unrestricted parts, because so many people fail to use their mirrors before pulling out in front of you.

In think anyone not checking their mirrors properly where
there are plenty of folks doing 200-250 kmh will not last long.

Whatever your perceptions, I know the reality is that mirror use
in unlimited sections is somewhere between excellent and universal.

beg to differ with the last comment there, read my earlier post about the young driver.

perhaps he was a one off?