European Trip Summer 2012 - Noobie's Report

[c3m]

After asking on the forums a few weeks back about a European road trip, I decided to post a quick summary of my experience. This was my first road trip and I think it went quite well. If you only care about photos, scroll down - I hope you enjoy them.

Route

We were travelling for 6 days - starting on a Sat morning and returning on the following Thurs. Our route was:

1. Day 1: London -> Folkestone -> Calais -> Collogne -> Frankfurt
2. Day 2: Frankfurt -> Zurich -> Luzern
3. Day 3: Luzern -> Innertkirchen -> Gletsch -> Andermatt -> Disentis -> Bonaduz -> Thusis -> Davos (the best roads of the whole trip)
4. Day 4: Davos -> Susch -> Zemez -> Arnoga -> Bormio -> Sluderno -> Nauders -> Munich
5. Day 5: Munich -> Luxembourg City
6. Day 6: Luxembourg City -> Bruges -> Calais

The best roads were part of day 3 - we went through the Furka, Oberalp and a few other passes (forgot their names). Stelvio turned out underwhelming - it was just lots of hairpins and you can't really push hard / it's not as enjoyable as the other passes.

The unrestricted parts of autobahn were quite fun, takes a little bit of getting used to but after that, it's easy to go quite fast.

Car

I took my 330Ci for the trip and it was quite adequate - since I bought the car in Feb, it was like a bonding journey. We didn't encounter any faults with the car or anything else, so quite happy. Since the car had xenons, we didn't put those beam converters as they don't work with the xenon beam. I always drove with the lights on and never go flashed - apparently, xenons are centrally aligned.

Make sure you top up your washing fluid as we run out on the day we got back - check all of your other fluids as well (coolant, oil) and your tyre pressures. I had 1L top-up oil in the boot + 1L of coolant, just in case (I always try to be on the safe side). I also got AA's EU breakdown cover and extended my comprehensive insurance cover (you need to check if it's already included with your policy or not). Call your insurer to get a green card at least two weeks before the trip.

You must also take the original V5 and your licence paper counterpart - we got pulled over by the Polizei on the German autobahn and were also thoroughly checked at the UK border control on the way back.

When entering Switzerland, you must buy a Vignette to use the motorways (40 Swiss francs). I didn't really push the car to the max just for safety reasons but the roads are so good that you can easily do silly speeds. I also bought a GoPro camera which I mounted on the roof during the days in the mountains - the results turned out okay (see photos section).

Hotels

We booked all of our hotels via hotels.com as this was my first trip and I wanted to research the hotels beforehand. No problems encountered, all the hotels were quite nice. The only two niggles were that the hotel in Luzern didn't have working WiFi and the hotel in Davos was packed and we got the last parking spot. So make sure you phone the hotels to reserve a parking spot if possible (the one in Lux operated on a first-come-first-served basis).

Checklist

This is a partial checklist that I hope people will find useful.

1. Sunglasses
2. Manuals (car, camera)
3. Car Documents (V5, Insurance, Breakdown Cover)
4. Driving Licence Paper Counterpart
5. Green Card
6. Device Cables (iPods, iPhones, cameras)
7. Device Chargers
8. Notify your bank so that you can use your debit / credit cards (some of them don't require it, so check with your bank)
9. Backup GPS / Atlas
10. Sunscreen
11. Spare Batteries
12. Important Telephone Numbers
13. Tissues / Baby Wipes (useful to keep your hands clean throughout the day)
14. Regulatory Equipment (breathalyser, fluorescent vest etc)
15. Basic Medication (paracetamol, nurofen, plaster)

Notes

1. Swiss Socket Converters: Little did I know that the Swiss decided to come up with their own socket plug (which differs by a few mm form the standard EU one). Hotels usually have converters but be prepared. We got 2 converters from our first hotel and I forgot to return them on checkout (oops), so we used them for our second night.
2. Cars in Germany: Most of them seemed to be basic spec but were driven really hard. I had much less powerful cars keeping up with me up until their limits - I was quite surprised that those cars are driven at their vmax on the autobahn.
3. German Polizei: We got pulled over on the authobahn by undercover cops, they checked our documents and the car (looked at the serial numbers and compared them against the V5 etc, I presume checking if it's not stolen). If you're the nervous type, just keep calm since it's just a routine check.
4. Driving on the right: No real problems, took me about a day or two to fully adjust, after that it was all fine. Got honked a total of two times (first two days) but that was about it.
5. GPS: We definitely required a GPS to guide us through. We used the car's stock GPS which was more than adequate and never got lost (I had the 2012 maps). We also had a backup Garmin which we found quite useful in pedestrian mode when in the city centres (when we were walking on foot).

Photos

[ironictwist]

Great little write-up & snaps

Now you just need to tag along with a bunch of PH'ers armed with walky talkys as you head across the continent...It add's a whole different dimension to a trip like this when your with other like minded folk

[c3m]

ironictwist said:

Great little write-up & snaps

Now you just need to tag along with a bunch of PH'ers armed with walky talkys as you head across the continent...It add's a whole different dimension to a trip like this when your with other like minded folk

Thanks! That's exactly what I'm planning to do next summer - I think the whole trip would have been even more fun if I tagged along with a bigger group

Do any such events get organised in this forum or somewhere else?

[ironictwist]

c3m said:

Thanks! That's exactly what I'm planning to do next summer - I think the whole trip would have been even more fun if I tagged along with a bigger group

Do any such events get organised in this forum or somewhere else?

Oh it is, thats for certain!

Check out my profile, link to past threads talking about the experience are in there I warn you though, it becomes really REALLY addictive.

[Bodo]

Looks like you had a great time! Good choice of route too.

[c3m]

ironictwist said:

Check out my profile, link to past threads talking about the experience are in there I warn you though, it becomes really REALLY addictive.

Just checked out your previous trips - good stuff, really jealous now! Maybe I can join in for Summer 2013.

Bodo said:

Looks like you had a great time! Good choice of route too.

Thanks! I did the routes just by Googling for all the passes in Switzerland, then checking out where they are on Google Maps and planning a route which covers most of them. All in all, quite happy with the results, especially for a first trip.

[Spy]

Sounds like you had good time mate !

Do you mind posting the hotels you used and what you thought of them, for example:
- Quality
- Value for money
- Secure Parking

Thanks

[c3m]

Spy said:

Sounds like you had good time mate !

Do you mind posting the hotels you used and what you thought of them, for example:
- Quality
- Value for money
- Secure Parking

Thanks

Yeah, no problem. In terms of quality, they were all good, nice and clean (maybe I'm not picky?) and I can't really complain about any aspects. We were staying for one night in each, so parking was the most important part (which I've covered below in more detail). In terms costs, I think it was, on average, 50-60 EUR per night per person which I found reasonable (breakfast included in that price).

1. Frankfurt: Hotel Am Berg Situated very centrally and they have a driveway as part of the hotel. You have to call them to reserve a place - felt secure due to the location being in a quiet residential area.
2. Merlischachen (Luzern): Schloss The car park is situated right next to the entrance. The hotel actually operates multiple buildings in this little village and it felt quite secure.
3. Davos: Edelweiss They have a large car park in front of the hotel, all places were taken except one, I wasn't worried about security at all (though the cars were parked super tight and I could barely get out). Make sure you phone them to reserve a place. This was the best hotel of all, the alarm clock was iPhone compatible, so I could just plug in my phone to charge overnight.
4. Buchenhain: Waldgasthof Buchenhain Lots of parking, the hotel is at the end of a road in a secluded place (though the train station is opposite the hotel, goes directly into Munich centre in 15 mins).
5. Luxembourg City: Le Chatelet Quite a fancy hotel, they have a private car park in the back (gated). Costs 15EUR which I paid it for the peace of mind (not that my car is that expensive for anyone to steal, I just always try to be on the safe side). The car park got full by the early evening, so you must arrive early (you can't pre-book a spot).

I'm happy to answer any further questions if needed.

[Bodo]

c3m said:

1. Frankfurt: Hotel Am Berg Situated very centrally and they have a driveway as part of the hotel. You have to call them to reserve a place - felt secure due to the location being in a quiet residential area.

Really!? If you had asked me to recommend a good hotel in Frankfurt for not much money, it'd be this! I always let visitors live there (it's 1.5km from me), and the wallpapers in some rooms are well popular with anyone. Also, it's well maintained and has a friendly family owning it.

[c3m]

Bodo said:

Really!?

Sorry, I didn't quite get which part the exclamation refers to :P I didn't have any complaints about the hotel and we were quite happy - the breakfast was the best of all other hotels. My only niggle was that something was wrong with the shower, there was no cold water pressure which made it a bit annoying but otherwise, top notch, very friendly stuff (and the guy spoke extremely good English with the typical German accent).

[Jmracing66]

Nice report and good photots.

130mph and still 20mpg

[Spy]

Thanks for the hotel info

[BlackCup]

Looks fantastic, i am definately going to do this one day, really good of you to post all the info up it looks really helpful.

Matt