European Road Trips - Collection of write ups & experiences

European Road Trips - Collection of write ups & experiences

Author
Discussion

Zed 44

1,242 posts

155 months

Tuesday 6th October 2015
quotequote all
The Pyrenees

Some pictures.













and a video

https://youtu.be/MCgRl99f7oY

Edited by Zed 44 on Thursday 13th December 13:50

Davey S2

13,074 posts

253 months

Wednesday 4th November 2015
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scott1205

13 posts

129 months

Sunday 8th November 2015
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http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

My write up from Germany, German & Swiss Alps, Black Forest and Paris.

Oi U

211 posts

145 months

Tuesday 5th September 2017
quotequote all
This thread hasn't been updated recently so here is the link to my Baltic writeup:

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...


mikey k

13,011 posts

215 months

Tuesday 5th September 2017
quotequote all
good reminder!
Forgot to link one of my best ones!

5.5k miles to Norway and back!

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=16...

Rosanne

420 posts

191 months

Tuesday 14th November 2017
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Every year we drive down to our house in Tuscany. I have always avoided going through Switzerland due to a number of reasons, but principally because I always believed that you had to buy a years toll ticket costing £90 even if you just spent a few hours in transit on their roads. I have now learned differently. The £90 ticket only applies if you use their motorways and not on their lesser roads. Not only that, but , as I might have imagined, many of the roads are gorgeous. Apparently, the Gothard Pass is very picturesque. Also, I have heard of
their " Five Passes " route. Anyone ever done either ?

Oh, yeah. The other thing that I learned, is that if you speed excessively, they confiscate your car - PERMANTLY !

generationx

6,644 posts

104 months

Tuesday 14th November 2017
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I did Cologne to Milan and back in May in my new Alfa

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

A glorious week!

kiethton

13,883 posts

179 months

Tuesday 14th November 2017
quotequote all
Rosanne said:
Oh, yeah. The other thing that I learned, is that if you speed excessively, they confiscate your car - PERMANTLY !
Always wondered how this would work in practice - how can they confiscate an asset that potentially does not belong to you - one very good reason to put your foot down and get away!

VerySideways

10,237 posts

271 months

Tuesday 14th November 2017
quotequote all
Rosanne said:
Every year we drive down to our house in Tuscany. I have always avoided going through Switzerland due to a number of reasons, but principally because I always believed that you had to buy a years toll ticket costing £90 even if you just spent a few hours in transit on their roads. I have now learned differently. The £90 ticket only applies if you use their motorways and not on their lesser roads. Not only that, but , as I might have imagined, many of the roads are gorgeous. Apparently, the Gothard Pass is very picturesque. Also, I have heard of
their " Five Passes " route. Anyone ever done either ?

Oh, yeah. The other thing that I learned, is that if you speed excessively, they confiscate your car - PERMANTLY !
The vignette costs 40CHF for a year, though they allow you to use it for 14 months i.e. Dec 1st to Jan 31st) and if you are caught driving on a motorway without one then the fine is 200CHF.

And yes, the speeding fines are fairly horrific - once you exceed a certain threshold the fine becomes income dependant.
One particular motorist was fined £650,000 and no i haven't mistyped that.

Five passes? I think the area you are talking about is what i like to call the "Andermatt 8" - it's basically a set of passes which are all within spitting distance of the town of Andermatt. Look at it on a map and it's roughly a figure of eight.

The passes are:
Nufenen (also known as Passo della Novena)
Furka
St Gotthard
Susten
Grimsel

Next to St Gotthard (and often photographed) is the Tremelo pass, though for a large portion it's cobbled and so not much fun to drive.
Nearby is also the Oberalp pass, which is good fun to drive, then U turn and drive again smile

Rosanne

420 posts

191 months

Wednesday 15th November 2017
quotequote all
VerySideways said:
The vignette costs 40CHF for a year, though they allow you to use it for 14 months i.e. Dec 1st to Jan 31st) and if you are caught driving on a motorway without one then the fine is 200CHF.

And yes, the speeding fines are fairly horrific - once you exceed a certain threshold the fine becomes income dependant.
One particular motorist was fined £650,000 and no i haven't mistyped that.

Five passes? I think the area you are talking about is what i like to call the "Andermatt 8" - it's basically a set of passes which are all within spitting distance of the town of Andermatt. Look at it on a map and it's roughly a figure of eight.

The passes are:
Nufenen (also known as Passo della Novena)
Furka
St Gotthard
Susten
Grimsel

Next to St Gotthard (and often photographed) is the Tremelo pass, though for a large portion it's cobbled and so not much fun to drive.
Nearby is also the Oberalp pass, which is good fun to drive, then U turn and drive again smile
Your reply is brilliantly helpful. Many thanks. I do feel, though, that as a means of transitting from Calais to Tuscany, Switzerland may well still be best avoided. The routes you kindly describe seem really to be tours to do when staying in Switzerland, and as for the speeding fines, I've never known hubby to pussyfoot along when at the wheel of our Bentley when abroad ( last year in France we got stopped for speeding twice in the space of ten minutes, even though we took a detour off the first road in order to avoid the French police from radioing ahead to warn the next lot ! ).

VerySideways

10,237 posts

271 months

Wednesday 15th November 2017
quotequote all
Rosanne said:
Your reply is brilliantly helpful. Many thanks. I do feel, though, that as a means of transitting from Calais to Tuscany, Switzerland may well still be best avoided. The routes you kindly describe seem really to be tours to do when staying in Switzerland, and as for the speeding fines, I've never known hubby to pussyfoot along when at the wheel of our Bentley when abroad ( last year in France we got stopped for speeding twice in the space of ten minutes, even though we took a detour off the first road in order to avoid the French police from radioing ahead to warn the next lot ! ).
Happy to help - these roads are my livelihood so i do try and keep abreast of things smile

If you're not inclined to stick rigidly to the speed limit then Switzerland possibly not the best place for you.
When you're on the way through France you might consider using an app called "Waze". Basically it means that if another Waze user spots the police on your route, you should (hopefully) get some warning of where they are. Also useful for rerouting around traffic jams and so on.

In France if you're up to 19kmh over the limit it's an on-the-spot €45 fine, but in my experience the french police don't tend to worry too much if you're up to 10kmh over on the motorway - but in a Bentley on British plates you're always going to struggle to fly under the radar biggrin

Dave R D

185 posts

134 months

Wednesday 26th September 2018
quotequote all
Italy 2018 trip in Ariel Atom and Nomad


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWUx8ynlzAg

Full story and more pictures and videos on Ariel club forum Italy 2018 trip

MckRob85

110 posts

70 months

Tuesday 19th February 2019
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Bit of an anti-climax after some of these amazing European adventures, but I had to attend to a bit of business up in Scotland and decided to write it up on DriveTribe.

https://drivetribe.com/p/the-le-monde-24-hours-Da0...

There's a catchy URL if ever there was one.


f1ten

2,161 posts

152 months

Tuesday 19th February 2019
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Any where Scottish highlands and timmeljoch austria are my two pence worth

Lordbenny

8,575 posts

218 months

Wednesday 20th February 2019
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Here’s one of the 8 Cannonball’s myself and my Mrs organised...

The first private hire of the Red Bull ring was one of the many highlights!

What a blast they were!

https://youtu.be/CE6JqCglDYg


Ionut tega

2 posts

49 months

Sunday 23rd February 2020
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I have a uk car insured to travel in uk also europe .
I check if on ask mid is show insure and it was green
I travel with my family in Europe by car
i been stop by police to do a check and they told my my car is not insured . I show them the certificate of insurance. But they don’t believe me that my car is insured
Police check on ask mid and was red
. They remove the plate no. And took v5 registration of my car
I been left on the middle of nowhere on the road
Police would nt care about us
They told my to go to court
I have to pay big fine points on my license.
Maybe community work or even jail
Now my car is park in europe with out plate no on the side of the road . I had to return to uk because my son have to go to school
Insurance company send me a lott of letter saying that i am insured on that time police stop me
But i am already on the system registed as driving without insurance in europe
At the moment police have my document and i am in uk without car



Ionut tega

2 posts

49 months

Sunday 23rd February 2020
quotequote all
I returned to uk by plane . I have to buy tickets for my family

Watchman

6,391 posts

244 months

Monday 24th February 2020
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As requested, my Arctic Circle trip blog:

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Edited by Watchman on Sunday 5th April 01:07

cardigankid

8,849 posts

211 months

Friday 20th March 2020
quotequote all
This is the best thread I have ever found.

Finlandese

540 posts

174 months

Tuesday 6th April 2021
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I guess this would be the proper place for this.

A film I made about my road trip from Finland to Italy in a classic Alfa Spider (and a bit more)a couple of summers ago.
Twists and turns, childhood dreams and a bit of mid-life crisis included! :-D

https://youtu.be/eWYuc2c9mI0 (in english)



Edited by Finlandese on Tuesday 6th April 14:26