Back from Europe
Discussion
Following our recent thread on mileage, I've now done nearly 7000 miles in 2 months in my DB9 - having just returned from an awesome trip around Europe.
My parents live down near Torrevieja on Costa Blanca, Spain so the vague plan was, over 12 days to get to them, stay for 2-3 nights then make my way back to London. My misses was going to be joining me so I had to make sure we had just enough time in nice places to keep her happy on the long drives in between (Also I agreed to listen to an audio book whilst travelling
).
My initial plan was to get to my parents ASAP leaving us enough time to take the somewhat scenic route back. This meant ferry to Santander followed by Autovias all the way but after attending the Trinty meet in March, David (DavidV12V) on here told me of some roads I should take in north west Spain whilst I was in the area. I duly adjusted my plans and added a stop in Salamanca - and boy am I glad I did. The mountain roads were superb, very little traffic and a great mix of wide single carridgeway fast roads with tight small twisty mountainous roads. Salamanca wasn't half bad either
Highly recommended if anyone is around that area.
After staying at my 'rents for a couple of nights, we headed north towards home. We stayed over for a single night in Barcelona, Nice (Cape Ferrat), Val d'Isère ski resort (to visit a friend working there) followed by Bern, Konstanz and Luxembourg. Granted it was somewhat hurried, and I would have much preferred to have done the same trip with 3 weeks instead of 1 but we saw a lot and always managed to get to our destination well before 6pm meaning we had the entire evening to explore and have dinner etc.
Anyway, I made some very brief points of my observations:
Cheers,
EDIT: Maps link http://goo.gl/YtPYv
My parents live down near Torrevieja on Costa Blanca, Spain so the vague plan was, over 12 days to get to them, stay for 2-3 nights then make my way back to London. My misses was going to be joining me so I had to make sure we had just enough time in nice places to keep her happy on the long drives in between (Also I agreed to listen to an audio book whilst travelling
).My initial plan was to get to my parents ASAP leaving us enough time to take the somewhat scenic route back. This meant ferry to Santander followed by Autovias all the way but after attending the Trinty meet in March, David (DavidV12V) on here told me of some roads I should take in north west Spain whilst I was in the area. I duly adjusted my plans and added a stop in Salamanca - and boy am I glad I did. The mountain roads were superb, very little traffic and a great mix of wide single carridgeway fast roads with tight small twisty mountainous roads. Salamanca wasn't half bad either
Highly recommended if anyone is around that area.After staying at my 'rents for a couple of nights, we headed north towards home. We stayed over for a single night in Barcelona, Nice (Cape Ferrat), Val d'Isère ski resort (to visit a friend working there) followed by Bern, Konstanz and Luxembourg. Granted it was somewhat hurried, and I would have much preferred to have done the same trip with 3 weeks instead of 1 but we saw a lot and always managed to get to our destination well before 6pm meaning we had the entire evening to explore and have dinner etc.
Anyway, I made some very brief points of my observations:
- Given it was my first Autobahn experience, I found the lanes seemed far wider than our own, giving more margin for error and space between cars - necessary for the added speed?
- I reached silly speeds on some sections of the autobahns but the lane discipline, for the most part, was impeccable. People made a genuine effort to get out of the way.
- Contrary to what I heard, only 20% of the autobahns that my route took me on were limited - mostly to 120 or 130kph. The rest were derestricted.
- Italian drivers have little concept of lane discipline. Even when driving in France, Germany etc, Italian registered cars were constantly straddling lane dividers and straying outside their lanes.
- Spain's quieter A roads have great road surfaces and markings. The overtaking sections are carefully considered and signed with solid/dotted lines and full signs when the road goes between the two states. This makes it amazingly easy to line up overtakes and make progress.
- Rush hour traffic in Monaco is awful. The only reason I can think of why you’d drive a supercar there is for the immense challenge of not damaging them when driving in stop-start traffic on steep, narrow streets and around tight corners. I had two occasions when I needed a 3 point turn-like maneuver to turn a steep, tight corner and avoid oncoming traffic - thou probably due to my bad driving !
- Out of all the cities we visited, in terms of ‘nice car spotting’, Zurich and Monaco come top - Zurich was like walking straight into the City of London - tonnes of 911s and luxo barges. Barcelona seemed surprisingly void of any nice metal - same story for Bern, Luxembourg, Konstanz - not even a 911. I saw a few tasty motors on the autobahns but they were on trailers - probably getting a ride to the Ring. Certainly demonstrated that London is indeed a very rich city versus other big european cities in terms of wealth - perhaps unsurprisingly.
- On the motorways throughout my trip, I didn’t see a single traffic cop on the side of the road looking for speeding. I was cruising a little over the limit (indicated) so was on the look out but not a single find.
- Spain’s speed cameras/radars are well signed but the actual camera units are very inconspicuous and if you miss the sign, you won’t see the camera - it looks like a small electrical junction box at ground level.
- Switzerland has *lots* of speed cameras on the motorways (far more than UK) - particularly when leaving Geneva towards Bern/Zurich. They were grey and otherwise unmarked but quite visible being in the central reservation. Everyone stuck to the limits accordingly.
Cheers,
EDIT: Maps link http://goo.gl/YtPYv
Edited by jamespconnor on Wednesday 18th April 10:35
Great write up James, so pleased you had a fantastic trip.
I spent yesterday driving 730 miles, from Bilboa, Northern Spain, to Portimao in Portugal, it's great to drive a DB9 as it's intended covering continents with ease. I'm going to spend three days travelling back to Bilbao, so should be a bit more leisurely on the way home.
I spent yesterday driving 730 miles, from Bilboa, Northern Spain, to Portimao in Portugal, it's great to drive a DB9 as it's intended covering continents with ease. I'm going to spend three days travelling back to Bilbao, so should be a bit more leisurely on the way home.
Oh - almost forgot...
Streets of Salamanca:
Barcelona:
Outside the Monaco Casino:
Inside:
And for dinner:
From this, our hotel on Cape Ferrat, Nice:
To this, a piste-side bar at Les Menuires, 4 hours later (still wearing shorts/flipflops!):
Bern next, via Lake Geneva:
Still in Bern... or as Ron Burgundy would say at San Diego Zoo, "I immediately regret this decision"
Zurich for lunch:
Stuttgart after a blast on the autobahns...
More pics.
Streets of Salamanca:
Barcelona:
Outside the Monaco Casino:
Inside:
And for dinner:
From this, our hotel on Cape Ferrat, Nice:
To this, a piste-side bar at Les Menuires, 4 hours later (still wearing shorts/flipflops!):
Bern next, via Lake Geneva:
Still in Bern... or as Ron Burgundy would say at San Diego Zoo, "I immediately regret this decision"
Zurich for lunch:
Stuttgart after a blast on the autobahns...
More pics.
Edited by jamespconnor on Wednesday 18th April 11:47
Well done James, I'm taking a close look at that route as I plan a trip to Spain myself to link up with my wifey and kids during the summer break as they are with my in-laws who live very close to where your 'F' is plotted. I was thinking of maybe taking the tunnel to France first though and then a trawl along the back roads and scenic stuff to Spain. Loving the pics.
Sounds like a fantastic trip...
I would like to do this sort of thing myself but must confess to being 'scared' to leave the Aston over night without secure parking.
Is there a resource on the interweb that recommends hotels with secure parking or do you guys just wing it..
I know I'm probably being overly sensitive, but it seems wherever I go I end up with a scratch or a ding...
I would like to do this sort of thing myself but must confess to being 'scared' to leave the Aston over night without secure parking.
Is there a resource on the interweb that recommends hotels with secure parking or do you guys just wing it..
I know I'm probably being overly sensitive, but it seems wherever I go I end up with a scratch or a ding...
Jockman said:
They anywhere near La Manga ??
BTW that is the exact route my parents will be taking in June on the way back up to the ferry in Northern Spain
My parents are very near La Zenia, just south of Torrevieja on the N332 so they're close to La Manga and Murcia airport.BTW that is the exact route my parents will be taking in June on the way back up to the ferry in Northern Spain
Do you frequent La Manga, Jockman?
CatalystV12V said:
Sounds like a fantastic trip...
I would like to do this sort of thing myself but must confess to being 'scared' to leave the Aston over night without secure parking.
Is there a resource on the interweb that recommends hotels with secure parking or do you guys just wing it..
I know I'm probably being overly sensitive, but it seems wherever I go I end up with a scratch or a ding...
I share your sensitivity. Here is how I went about it, I didn't book ahead, merely peeked at some possibilities at a suitable wifi cafe/McDonalds (I would like to do this sort of thing myself but must confess to being 'scared' to leave the Aston over night without secure parking.
Is there a resource on the interweb that recommends hotels with secure parking or do you guys just wing it..
I know I'm probably being overly sensitive, but it seems wherever I go I end up with a scratch or a ding...
). I used the Hotel.com website (iPhone app) for this which generally tells you (in the description, facilities or sometimes buried in some of the user reviews) if the hotel has garaged parking (in the Hotel.com iPhone app, you can add them to the shortlist and view them offline afterwards). I then tune my satnav to these hotels in order of preference and turn up - take a quick look around, including the garage and make a decision about that night there and then. First priority was always the garage, if it wasn't up to my car's standards, we moved on (My misses was miffed by some of my eliminations as the hotel were often very nice but the area, car park/garage etc gave me a bad feeling so I walked). Unfortunately you often get stiffed for an extra €10-30 for parking but I didn't consider this in anyway optional for my car so just added it onto the room when considering prices of hotels. There's plenty of hotels with parking regardless of areas (city centres, suburbs, resorts etc) and I only turned away from 4 or 5 hotels during our trip. Added hint: After looking around - Don't book with the hotel front desk, go outside and book on Hotel.com - in all cases, the front desk quoted me anywhere between €10 and €80 more expensive than the same room on Hotel.com - most wouldn't budge, despite my objections. And buy 10 nights get 1 free with their loyalty scheme works in their favour too.
The only one I regret, thankfully with no damage/scratch to show for it, is the Barcelona Royal Ramblas hotel - the parking entrance was an exceptionally tight curve. Imagine a travelling funfair helter-skelter - then imagine driving a DB9 up it. Getting out was a nightmare. I thanked the heavens I had a manual DB9 afterwards since, despite the strong smell of clutch (much to my nervousness) after negotiating the tight very steep exit ramp, I'm not sure I could have done it with a sportshift/flappy paddle box.
Edited by jamespconnor on Wednesday 18th April 13:23
- Got me looking forward to my Pyrennes & Alps trip later in the year! jamespconnor said:
My parents are very near La Zenia, just south of Torrevieja on the N332 so they're close to La Manga and Murcia airport.
Do you frequent La Manga, Jockman?
I know La Zenia fairly well - my parents live fulltime in La Manga James, so I tend to be over there at least 3 times a year.Do you frequent La Manga, Jockman?
Never driven there...yet
Nope, near Malaga, didn't look at the map 
I thought you might have heard of it, I knew I should have just put near Malaga
I'll be around here for a few long weekends during the summer - http://g.co/maps/53hh8
I thought you might have heard of it, I knew I should have just put near Malaga
I'll be around here for a few long weekends during the summer - http://g.co/maps/53hh8
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