Best of the last 6 weeks....
Discussion
Well its been a while since I was on here, April 28th IIRC. But I've had an epic 6/7 weeks travelling and being a bum so I thought I'd share a few of the best pics and bore you all senseless....
First stop was Kenya for 3 weeks
Then it was 1 day back in the UK and off to Tuscany with my brother for my best friends wedding
Day 1 - Reading to Reims
Day 2 - Reims to Bern (The most expensive and quiet capital city I have ever been to), quick stop over here.... £100 to get a McDonalds.... we left sharpish. Oh tunnels.... lots and lots of tunnels..... with a gopro running. Much fun was had and several locals deafened I'm sure
Day 3 & 4 - Bern to Zermatt (via the Lauterbrunnen Valley). Awesome day with one downer, 20 miles from our destination on an Alpine pass (that wasn't sign posted as closed and the barriers were up) a snowplow blocked the road and turned us around...... 200 mile diversion around the perimeter of Switzerland.... ouch! Zermatt is not a place to go during May, its still nice and the hotel was good but being a ski hotspot in the off season it was a ghost town. We had 2 days downtime here to veg and drink.
Day 5 - Zermatt to Lecco. One of the best days, we went via the Simplon Pass as the Stelvio was sadly shut.... it was anything but a second best. The views were incredible and the roads fun. I'm gutted I've not got a wide angle lens for the camera so will be making that a future purchase. We met with the Bride and Groom in Lecco and celebrated
The SatNav insisted that this was car sized.... the hill was stupidly steep and the 10' I had to reverse up to get to a turning spot left a nice smell of clutch in the car.
Day 6 - Lecco to Garda. Smallest distance covered this day which was nice, we ate, drank and met some English girls who worked there and were pleased (its fair to say) about some young(ish) fresh, English speaking meat
- we partied with them all night, had a great time, I drank my own weight in whiskey..... 
Day 7 - Garda to Asciano. Ouch. My brother had to do all the mileage as I still couldn't stand up at 1pm. Scariest moment of the road trip and one I hope to never experience on the roads again; on a motorway, my brother was following an Audi doing 15mph under the limit, near the end of the days driving so we were chilled and cruising - thankfully. I was awake at this point and sobering up, I'm not sure what my exact words were but I know there was a lot of swearing. There was a car on the wrong side of the motorway driving down the fast lane towards us...... The audi in front completely s
t themselves and hit the anchors and onto the hard shoulder, Dan killed the speed quite rapidly and this old Italian lady drove passed us and on her way..... amazing how adrenaline sobers you up. Sadly we didn't have the gopro running at this point but it was surreal 
Day 8 - 15 - Wedding, Asciano, Sienna, Florence. Not much driving but meeting with our friends and their families for the wedding. Really great week, too much food and far too much drinking. Groom/best mate wanted to drive my car to the church so was made up when I let him.
A mate having his headblown off.... or after too much red wine, horrible creature
The brides awesome car:
8am post wedding 6 in a beetle drive (private road)
Day 15 - 17, Asciano and Monaco. Monaco is silly, thats all I can really say. Amazing place, money and cars everywhere. As it was a week on from the GP all the barriers and rumble strips were still up. We ran the gopro and did a couple of laps, really fun experience. Sat evening again so we went out and partied.
Don't speed around the track kids....
Final days - Monaco to Home via Paris. My brother needed to get back Reading to sign a load of legal stuff for his house so 952 miles in a day. We broke it up so I did the middle 500, he dumped me at Disney and I spent 3 days in Paris catching up with a friend who's working over there for 6 months:
Blatent, "I have a hot friend" photo
Summary
3,000 miles, £800 in fuel, £200 in tolls, £900 in hotels....not bad for 3 weeks really. I want to do it all again. With the Stelvio pass being closed I have my excuse. I am also thinking of the Monaco GP next year.
Good things
The car. Fricking awesome, to do just shy of 1,000 in a day and not kill us, make us have bad backs or any other issue is incredible.... I'd love to try a DB9/S to see if that's even better.
The Alps are simply awesome.... a camera cannot capture how vast it really is up there
People's reactions and friendliness all over the trip
Bad bits
Crazy person scaring the crap out of us going the wrong way down a motorway
£100 McDonalds and
this bit of phantom damage:
It happened on a full day of driving, we were both in the car, had the radio off and heard nothing. Even when filling the car one of us was in the services and the other with the car.
All fixed now though, I know an incredibly talented bodyshop chap in Wales near home whom I've used for years. I've seen him turn rusted wrecks into better than showroom condition. The colour match is perfect and he had spare paint so my scratched rear light (like it from the dealer, should have noticed) was rectified as well (£160)
Things I'd do differently
I'd buy a telepass for Italy, France's booths were quiet but some of the Italian ones were chaos yet the Telepass lanes empty.
More cars on the trip would be fun
I will never drive from Paris to Monaco again, its not hard but takes an age, almost £160 in fuel and £80 in tolls.... there's a night train, so for €80, slap the car on the train in Paris and collect it from Marseilles. Save the money and time basically.
Anyway, enough of this. I need to update my CV and find a new contract, although this life is leisure is pretty damn good. See some of you soon I guess
First stop was Kenya for 3 weeks
Then it was 1 day back in the UK and off to Tuscany with my brother for my best friends wedding
Day 1 - Reading to Reims
Day 2 - Reims to Bern (The most expensive and quiet capital city I have ever been to), quick stop over here.... £100 to get a McDonalds.... we left sharpish. Oh tunnels.... lots and lots of tunnels..... with a gopro running. Much fun was had and several locals deafened I'm sure
Day 3 & 4 - Bern to Zermatt (via the Lauterbrunnen Valley). Awesome day with one downer, 20 miles from our destination on an Alpine pass (that wasn't sign posted as closed and the barriers were up) a snowplow blocked the road and turned us around...... 200 mile diversion around the perimeter of Switzerland.... ouch! Zermatt is not a place to go during May, its still nice and the hotel was good but being a ski hotspot in the off season it was a ghost town. We had 2 days downtime here to veg and drink.
Day 5 - Zermatt to Lecco. One of the best days, we went via the Simplon Pass as the Stelvio was sadly shut.... it was anything but a second best. The views were incredible and the roads fun. I'm gutted I've not got a wide angle lens for the camera so will be making that a future purchase. We met with the Bride and Groom in Lecco and celebrated
The SatNav insisted that this was car sized.... the hill was stupidly steep and the 10' I had to reverse up to get to a turning spot left a nice smell of clutch in the car.
Day 6 - Lecco to Garda. Smallest distance covered this day which was nice, we ate, drank and met some English girls who worked there and were pleased (its fair to say) about some young(ish) fresh, English speaking meat
- we partied with them all night, had a great time, I drank my own weight in whiskey..... Day 7 - Garda to Asciano. Ouch. My brother had to do all the mileage as I still couldn't stand up at 1pm. Scariest moment of the road trip and one I hope to never experience on the roads again; on a motorway, my brother was following an Audi doing 15mph under the limit, near the end of the days driving so we were chilled and cruising - thankfully. I was awake at this point and sobering up, I'm not sure what my exact words were but I know there was a lot of swearing. There was a car on the wrong side of the motorway driving down the fast lane towards us...... The audi in front completely s
t themselves and hit the anchors and onto the hard shoulder, Dan killed the speed quite rapidly and this old Italian lady drove passed us and on her way..... amazing how adrenaline sobers you up. Sadly we didn't have the gopro running at this point but it was surreal Day 8 - 15 - Wedding, Asciano, Sienna, Florence. Not much driving but meeting with our friends and their families for the wedding. Really great week, too much food and far too much drinking. Groom/best mate wanted to drive my car to the church so was made up when I let him.
A mate having his headblown off.... or after too much red wine, horrible creature
The brides awesome car:
8am post wedding 6 in a beetle drive (private road)
Day 15 - 17, Asciano and Monaco. Monaco is silly, thats all I can really say. Amazing place, money and cars everywhere. As it was a week on from the GP all the barriers and rumble strips were still up. We ran the gopro and did a couple of laps, really fun experience. Sat evening again so we went out and partied.
Don't speed around the track kids....
Final days - Monaco to Home via Paris. My brother needed to get back Reading to sign a load of legal stuff for his house so 952 miles in a day. We broke it up so I did the middle 500, he dumped me at Disney and I spent 3 days in Paris catching up with a friend who's working over there for 6 months:
Blatent, "I have a hot friend" photo
Summary
3,000 miles, £800 in fuel, £200 in tolls, £900 in hotels....not bad for 3 weeks really. I want to do it all again. With the Stelvio pass being closed I have my excuse
. I am also thinking of the Monaco GP next year.Good things
The car. Fricking awesome, to do just shy of 1,000 in a day and not kill us, make us have bad backs or any other issue is incredible.... I'd love to try a DB9/S to see if that's even better.
The Alps are simply awesome.... a camera cannot capture how vast it really is up there
People's reactions and friendliness all over the trip
Bad bits
Crazy person scaring the crap out of us going the wrong way down a motorway
£100 McDonalds and
this bit of phantom damage:
It happened on a full day of driving, we were both in the car, had the radio off and heard nothing. Even when filling the car one of us was in the services and the other with the car.
All fixed now though, I know an incredibly talented bodyshop chap in Wales near home whom I've used for years. I've seen him turn rusted wrecks into better than showroom condition. The colour match is perfect and he had spare paint so my scratched rear light (like it from the dealer, should have noticed) was rectified as well
(£160)Things I'd do differently
I'd buy a telepass for Italy, France's booths were quiet but some of the Italian ones were chaos yet the Telepass lanes empty.
More cars on the trip would be fun
I will never drive from Paris to Monaco again, its not hard but takes an age, almost £160 in fuel and £80 in tolls.... there's a night train, so for €80, slap the car on the train in Paris and collect it from Marseilles. Save the money and time basically.
Anyway, enough of this. I need to update my CV and find a new contract, although this life is leisure is pretty damn good. See some of you soon I guess
Edited by ds2000 on Sunday 23 June 22:14
Thats the route
Thanks folks, post travel blues have definitely landed.
Jockman, you are 100% spot on, the local town hardly had any supermarkets so €7 for a huge demijohn of the red seemed a steal....... Poor old Tommy was hanging.
Tony -
- shes a lovely girl as well Stupidly it was the wedding blessing yesterday back at home and at 5am I had about 1l of the damn stuff. Tasted good at that time, my poor head was pounding this morning.
we walked in and thought someone had been in with a shotgun and taken his head off. His words when we woke him (In a thick Welsh accent) "fk me, thats never happened before" - the evil ones of the group did think it was a shame he was pointing that way and not towards the Groom's brother. We burnt the sheets for fear of the maid finding them and as he stripped the bed he found a 400g hunk of spam he'd taken from the fridge..... he is a creature Wow! Thanks for brightening my Monday morning. While you've been gone we've had a lot of boring, sad and miserable threads so great to join you on your adventures via the photos.
Don't worry about the Stelvio - there are many better passes than that (but still a good excuse to go back)
Glad the car came back ok. Don't risk lending it to ANYONE on a wedding day again tho'. We did that with our V8S while you were away (new son-in-law) and he wrote it off!
Don't worry about the Stelvio - there are many better passes than that (but still a good excuse to go back)
Glad the car came back ok. Don't risk lending it to ANYONE on a wedding day again tho'. We did that with our V8S while you were away (new son-in-law) and he wrote it off!
Molly and Rob, I'm so sorry to hear about your car In fairness to my friend Chris he knows I'd have murdered him if he'd been pratting about in it* I hope your son in law is ok (and his knee caps recover soon 
). And Rob, yes Sarah's been a good friend for a while
Cockers - yes I did thanks my ol fruit, oddly the AM satnav seems to be better in Italy than the UK. Still have a £200 data bill on my phone from the "fk it, where's google maps" moments. That route was definitely not the one I wanted to take home but Dan had to get back. I was hoping to go via Toulouse and visit Oradour-sur-Glane. Just more excuses to go again! Managed to set a ruddy camera off as well but 100km in a 90km but thus far no ticket......
In fairness to my friend Chris he knows I'd have murdered him if he'd been pratting about in it* I hope your son in law is ok (and his knee caps recover soon ). And Rob, yes Sarah's been a good friend for a while - not suggesting that was the case with you
Cockers - yes I did thanks my ol fruit, oddly the AM satnav seems to be better in Italy than the UK. Still have a £200 data bill on my phone from the "f
k it, where's google maps" moments. That route was definitely not the one I wanted to take home but Dan had to get back. I was hoping to go via Toulouse and visit Oradour-sur-Glane. Just more excuses to go again! Managed to set a ruddy camera off as well but 100km in a 90km but thus far no ticket......Edited by ds2000 on Monday 24th June 09:41
Edited by ds2000 on Monday 24th June 18:19
ds2000 said:
Molly and Rob, I'm so sorry to hear about your car In fairness to my friend Chris he knows I'd have murdered him if he'd been pratting about in it* I hope your son in law is ok (and his knee caps recover soon ). And Rob, yes Sarah's been a good friend for a while
Cockers - yes I did thanks my ol fruit, oddly the AM satnav seems to be better in Italy than the UK. Still have a £200 data bill on my phone from the "fk it, where's google maps" moments. That route was definitely not the one I wanted to take home but Dan had to get back. I was hoping to go via Toulouse and visit Oradour-sur-Glane. Just more excuses to go again! Managed to set a ruddy camera off as well but 100km in a 90km but thus far no ticket......
You can ignore any ticket you may get me old china, In fairness to my friend Chris he knows I'd have murdered him if he'd been pratting about in it* I hope your son in law is ok (and his knee caps recover soon ). And Rob, yes Sarah's been a good friend for a while - not suggesting that was the with you
Cockers - yes I did thanks my ol fruit, oddly the AM satnav seems to be better in Italy than the UK. Still have a £200 data bill on my phone from the "f
k it, where's google maps" moments. That route was definitely not the one I wanted to take home but Dan had to get back. I was hoping to go via Toulouse and visit Oradour-sur-Glane. Just more excuses to go again! Managed to set a ruddy camera off as well but 100km in a 90km but thus far no ticket......Edited by ds2000 on Monday 24th June 09:41
. I got one from Italy 
I agree with you about the additional cars on a trip though. Having done one on my own and one with a group, the group was good fun I was amazed we didn't get stopped tbh, no GB sticker on the car (bought a magnetic one forgetting the car doesn't do magnets *facepalm*), headlight deflectors not fitted as we didn't drive at night but all was well
I shall duly ignore any ticket if it does arrive. Not 100% sure it was me but I was 10kmph over the limit
I shall duly ignore any ticket if it does arrive. Not 100% sure it was me but I was 10kmph over the limit
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