Europe Road Trip 2014

[Goldenballs13]

So myself and Jip and our other halves went on a 2 week road trip around Europe.

We visited 7 countries, all be it popping into some purely because the roads took us through, and covered 2430 miles door to door. We took Jip's BMW 335D Touring (with 139k on the clock) which didn't miss a beat, and even averaged 40mpg with a roof box!

This was the rough planned route:



Itinerary was as follows:

2 nights in Marseille
2 nights in St. Tropez
3 nights in Nice (pop into Monaco)
2 nights in Lake Como
3 nights in Prutz, Austria
1 night in Strasbourg
1 night in Lille (because Jip ballsed the insurance up!)

So 2am on the first day we set off for Dover, myself driving as it was the first time I had been behind the wheel of a) the BMW, and b) an auto! Arrived in Calais at 7 local time and set off for the monster drive down to Marseille. 864 miles later we arrive at our first stop. Didn't plan for anything special, we just wanted a bed for the night.

Marseille harbour


Marseille was rather a dump to be honest, apart from right down at the dock you could really see the damage from the recession. Anyways onwards and upwards to St. Tropez!

We were camping from here onwards until Wow what a difference a couple of miles makes! The shear wealth of the place was staggering.

Here was the view from the campsite:


And some general bits around St. Tropez:





Next was Nice, which was really very nice (sorry)



Popping into Monaco was rather lavish, but wet! Managed to drive all the way round the track too

No idea how this got into/out of a very right car park

Outside the casino

Down a back alley somewhere..had a couple of Enzo's in there too.

This guy also had '4 you' on the back of is ginormous boat:

Didn't realise the track still had the curbs?


Popped into a lovely small place just down from Monaco called Menton


Onwards to Lake Como, car was getting rather grubby by this point

But the view was rather good... until it rained!


The roads were now getting much nicer than just motorways, and the scenery was fantastic on the way to Austria, and along the Stelvio! The rain really did start to set in when we were at the top.






Now off to Strasbourg, and we saw this on the way:

Tried taking some photos but it promptly booted it!

Anyway Strasbourg was lovely


This also came passed on the way home:

We were thinking new 1 series convertible?

Then after a brief overnight stop in Lille, and making our way back to the dump that is Calais, 2430 miles later we were home!

[littleredrooster]

So, driving down through France, you managed to avoid the Massif Central, the Millau bridge, the Route Napoleon and the French Alps. But you did see the central flatlands. Hmmm...

[Goldenballs13]

littleredrooster said:

So, driving down through France, you managed to avoid the Massif Central, the Millau bridge, the Route Napoleon and the French Alps. But you did see the central flatlands. Hmmm...

haha we've all done a lot of france, but none of us had done the south much, and so we were more interested in blasting straight to the south.

[Goldenballs13]

Double post

[Jip]

Lovely toll roads though!