Driving to Prague in late June - Any tips...

[SELON]

More or less finalised the schedule...


Summer Tour 2015

Football, cars, roads, WW2, scenery, and a bit of Bond...and bonding with my son.

Saturday 27th June Day 1 - Drive to the Black Forest. An hour or so from Stuttgart. Long stint, but worth it.

Sunday Day 2 - Short one hour drive to Porsche factory for a visit to the museum and hopefully factory tour.
Drive on to Nuremberg for the overnight stay.

Monday Day 3 - Tour around Nuremberg. Short drive and arrive at Casino Royale (thanks Terence).

Tuesday Day 4 - U21 Final in Prague.

Wednesday Day 5 - Start return leg. 2.5hour drive. Stop at Colditz castle. Tour of the castle.

Thursday Day 6 - 4 hour Drive to Mohnesse Dam, Arnsberg (Dambusters)
Late lunch

Then 45 minute drive to Dortmund FC stadium (my lad is a football fan!) for the tour at 4:15pm

Leave stadium at 6pm and drive to hotel for night. Plan to stay at Wesel, on the Rhine, unless I find somewhere better.

Friday Day 7 - 4 hour drive to Calais. Back in London for tea time

Just the hotels and crossings to book now.

[SELON]

Summer Tour 2015 - bookings all made! Tried to get a nice mix of hotels - in the cities the parking was number one concern, hence some of the choices to stay In the countryside or in suburban hotel with good parking. Had some kind help finding the hotels. Seem to be good choices at the moment but time shall tell.

Football, cars, roads, WW2, scenery, and a bit of Bond...and bonding with my son.

Day 1 - Drive to the Black Forest, staying at Gernsbach. Long stint...

Day 2 - Cross country across the Forest - hopefully a scenic route early on Sunday morning...to Porsche factory for a visit to the museum.

Drive on to Nuremberg for late afternoon and evening walk around town and the overnight stay.

Day 3 - Tour around Nuremberg. Cross country to Flossenberg (WW2) and then onto Grand Hotel Pupp (Casino Royale).

Day 4 - Short 2 hour drive to Corinthia Hotel Prague and the U21 Final in Prague.

Day 5 - 2.5 hour drive to Grimma and Colditz castle. Tour of the castle.

Day 6 - 4 hour Drive to Mohnesse Dam, Arnsberg (Dambusters)
Late lunch

Then 45 minute drive to Dortmund FC stadium (my lad is a football fan!) for the tour at 4:15pm

Drive to the Schloss Lembeck nr Dorsten for the night...

Day 7 - 4 hour drive to Calais. Back in London for tea time

Just the wait till June now! Here are some pics.

Grand hotel Pupp...


Corinthia Hotel Prague...


Grimma...


Schloss Lembeck...

Edited by SELON on Tuesday 10th February 20:01

[hashluck]

Sounds fantastic!

[tonyhall38]

Enjoy ...looks great.....don't forget the 'johnnies '......

[pilgrim7777]

Mike
Fantastic news that you have got everything organised ... It's going to be a great experience..Had things been a bit different I would have joined the convoy with a slightly different agenda.
Have brilliant trip..I shall watch with interest an account of your journey.

[SELON]

Thanks for that guys....Sound advice Tony!

Looks to be a lovely part of the world with plenty of history and scenery.

Still planning the exact roads to drive - bought a couple of good road atlas' for that part of the world. Can't rely exclusively on the SatNav!

It's too much to hope for England to get into the Final!

Will send the updates in July.

All the best,
Mike

[pauls7]

Hi, I took part in The Rally for Heroes event last year that also went to Prague. The Czech Republic has a zero tolerance for drink and drive, so the only advice would be to stay off the booze whilst there. Otherwise have a great time.

[SELON]

Will do! I aim to be sensible.

And I shall wear one of Mr Halls 'johnnies' if I do get breathalysed!

Just in case

[SELON]

Added a lunchtime pit stop at the old circuit Reims to the first day schedule.
A 2.5 hour drive from the Eurotunnel...according to SatNav.


Next thing is new tyres and car to be serviced...

[SELON]

Reims. First stop of day one.

Did the obligatory drive by..

[hashluck]

That's funny was just talking about this last night, shall be going in October en route the Alsace

Have a great trip

[mikey k]

Liking the Alpine's
Have a great trip!

[SELON]

hashluck said:

That's funny was just talking about this last night, shall be going in October en route the Alsace

Have a great trip

After a lovely lunch at the restaurant at Thillois corner (La Garenne?) which I can highly recommend we spent the afternoon driving to the Black Forest and through Alsace (not sure where it ends!) and are now ensconced in our lovely hotel drinking Riesling.

Lovely places to go.

[SELON]

mikey k said:

Liking the Alpine's
Have a great trip!

Will do Mikey. Those Alpines. Mint condition. Fabulous cars.

Apart from these lovelies, car spotting in France on the way down has been quality not quantity...
1x 991 911 GT3
D reg mint looking blue Esprit at Eurotunnel
Numerous 911 specials at Reims. Real beauties.
1 x Morgan 3 wheeler
1 x Ferrari 348 (number ..0001!) at Reims
1 x yellow McLaren 12c at Reims
1 x MX5 (gotta love an MX5 on tour) met a few times...
1 x black GB plate vantage

And a few good bikes and bikers!

[SELON]

And this...which I thought was a stationary item...(not talking about the Aston )

[SS972]

Nice trip, let me know if you find nice scenic roads form the black forest to Stuttgart as we are planning our annual German tour in October

[SELON]

We stopped at Loffenau for the night in the Forest. Quaint little village not fit from Baden Baden (so good they named it twice?). Hotel was found using tripadvisor. Nice place. Rustic, but the food was good (lots) and the welcome very friendly and the rooms were clean and simple. Perfect for a night stopover.

Location: Obre dorfstrasse 4, 76597, Loffenau
Hotel Metzgerei Sonne

Driving to Stuttgart: Loffenau is on the L564. We followed that, some lovely twisty bits, hairpins up the hills. Not the stelvio, but very nice nonetheless. Probably good for a 10 minute blast before hitting some nice villages.

Around Kullenmuhle we took the 4331 to get to Birkenfeld (to extend our drive in the forest and then pick up the A8) - small road, nice but slow as we kept hitting villages and respected the 50kph speed limits. Would suggest taking the L340 at Kullenmuhle and follow that across until the L338 and go more laterally toward Stuttgart (I can't vouch for those roads as I didn't drive them but there look to be some twisty bits and I would recommend avoiding the 4331 for a spirited drive!).
General idea seems to be: if you see groups of bikers coming the other way, you're on a good driving road!!!

Walked around Nuremberg old town last night, now off to Czech after breakfast! Found some routes there online in a bikers forum!

[SELON]

The road from Nuremberg to Karlovy Vary is a lovely mixture of derestricted Autobhan and scenic roads (via Flossenberg). Just followed the SatNav default route. The 230 up from Marianske Lazne to Karoly Vary is as good as many Welsh roads, with quite a few miles of twisty stuff in a nice valley.

Pulling up in front of the Grand Hotel was quite special. Sadly for the onlookers, I was in rags and shorts as I got out!
But the car was lovely!



Familiar pose for my co-pilot cleaning the bugs off...

[SS972]

Thanks for that

[SELON]

Left Karlovy Vary and made it to Prague...
Car parked ... it's with a Lamborghini and a Corvette.






A stop at the Royal Brewery...fit for a king apparently...



Something very Homer Simpson about this one...