A bit of a road trip (Prague)
Discussion
Although the festivities are in full swing and there's a long weekend ahead of merry fun it is, after all, the shortest day of the year and thoughts inevitably look forward to warmer, lighter days ahead, specifically at the end of June.
For us that means a dance competition in Prague. Wife and daughter are already booked to fly and stay with the other kids and parents (one or two of whom are actually male).
I haven't booked. Yet. Because this is me and I can't shake the urge to turn it into a road trip- I've spent too long on planes with work. I did this for the last event- drove down to San Sebastian in Spain from our place (Sussex/Kent border).
So, is it an insane idea to take 2010 Vantage Roadster to Prague?
I mean:
Does anyone know of any Aston-friendly places in or near Prague for a ~ 10 day stay that aren't hideously expensive....?
For us that means a dance competition in Prague. Wife and daughter are already booked to fly and stay with the other kids and parents (one or two of whom are actually male).
I haven't booked. Yet. Because this is me and I can't shake the urge to turn it into a road trip- I've spent too long on planes with work. I did this for the last event- drove down to San Sebastian in Spain from our place (Sussex/Kent border).
So, is it an insane idea to take 2010 Vantage Roadster to Prague?
I mean:
- it's only let me down once and although that was never explained it did fix itself immediately afterwards.
- And I do already have European cover with my insurance.
- And I bought the car this year for the experiences, not (just) to look at it.
- And as an oil company employee it's just recycling money- recycling is good.
Does anyone know of any Aston-friendly places in or near Prague for a ~ 10 day stay that aren't hideously expensive....?
)I did a trip to Prague in December 2015 in my then 15-year-old BMW 330 Coupe and got home to Surrey on the 24th December. It wasn't an uneventful trip but was very memorable:
Surrey > Calais > Antwerp > Cologne > Frankfurt > Munich > Neuschwanstein Castle > Vienna > Prague > Pilsen > Nuremburg > Frankfurt > Cologne > Lille > Calais > Home.
The shaft snapped on my power steering pump in the underground parking at the hotel in Nuremburg, so I did the whole drive back without power steering. It actually made the high speed motorway stuff in Germany much better, but manoeuvring anywhere else was a pain. As it was just before Xmas, getting a pump sourced and fitted and getting back in time for Xmas just wasn't going to happen. Munich, Vienna and Prague just before Christmas are magical. In Prague I stayed at the Castle Residence Praha for one night. It was pretty deserted but a totally safe place for an expensive car. I spent my day in Prague doing a Segway tour where I crashed and smashed an expensive camera lens. Still a great trip though and highly recommended. Surely exactly what an Aston is intended for.
Surrey > Calais > Antwerp > Cologne > Frankfurt > Munich > Neuschwanstein Castle > Vienna > Prague > Pilsen > Nuremburg > Frankfurt > Cologne > Lille > Calais > Home.
The shaft snapped on my power steering pump in the underground parking at the hotel in Nuremburg, so I did the whole drive back without power steering. It actually made the high speed motorway stuff in Germany much better, but manoeuvring anywhere else was a pain. As it was just before Xmas, getting a pump sourced and fitted and getting back in time for Xmas just wasn't going to happen. Munich, Vienna and Prague just before Christmas are magical. In Prague I stayed at the Castle Residence Praha for one night. It was pretty deserted but a totally safe place for an expensive car. I spent my day in Prague doing a Segway tour where I crashed and smashed an expensive camera lens. Still a great trip though and highly recommended. Surely exactly what an Aston is intended for.
Do it! I'd suggest buying a code reader for the journey though. Just gives you some extra diagnostic capability should something go wrong.
Disclaimer: I'm not an Aston owner (so couldn't help on what model to buy), but as an owner of a mid 2000's Jag, a code reader has been massively useful in sorting faults etc, plus it doesn't take up much space.
Disclaimer: I'm not an Aston owner (so couldn't help on what model to buy), but as an owner of a mid 2000's Jag, a code reader has been massively useful in sorting faults etc, plus it doesn't take up much space.
Karlovy Vary is definitely worth a visit and Hotel Pupp is particularly nice place to stay. I think it’s the hotel used in Casino Royale, so a bit of fun if you’re in an Aston.
Also, Pilsner Urquell brewery/museum in Plzen is fun.
Cafe Louvre in Prague is a great place for coffee and cake and used to be frequented by the likes of Einstein and Kafka!
We’ve driven over in various cars, but never an Aston. It’s a bit of a slog usually, but might be more of an event in something nice.
Also, Pilsner Urquell brewery/museum in Plzen is fun.
Cafe Louvre in Prague is a great place for coffee and cake and used to be frequented by the likes of Einstein and Kafka!
We’ve driven over in various cars, but never an Aston. It’s a bit of a slog usually, but might be more of an event in something nice.
I have a 2008 V8 Vantage N400 with 60,000 miles on the clock. Two years ago I drove it 3,000 miles in two weeks across France and Spain, and then last year took it to France for a week. Absolutely no regrets, but the two trips weren't without incident!
The first trip, the air condititioning condenser packed up as we were getting off the ferry in Santander, less than ideal! Driving through Spain in July without Air Conditioning, especially driving in city centres like Valencia where the heat was crazy, was not great. We ended up changing various plans so we could set off at 5am for any long stretches to enable us to reach our destinations before the mid-day heat. My wife was less than impressed! However, this was just unfortunate and could happen to any car (has recently happened to my 2017 Ford Ranger).
Also on that same trip, a lorry I was following on the motorway shed a large bit of plastic sheeting which I couldn't avoid. I immediately pulled over on the side of the motorway just outside Barcelona, which in rush-hour (following one of our 5am starts) is no fun experience, as the hard shoulder is barely a cars width. During a very small break in traffic I ran to the passenger side of the car and found the sheet of plastic stuck in the wheel and 'melted' to the underside of the car, and no doubt various components. I ripped it off in a hurry, tied what was left of the plastic round the barrier at the side of the road, and got underway. Ignoring the burning smell of melting plastic, I carried on for some hours until the red warning appeared on the dash on a motorway in France, this led to us being recovered and taken to a closed garage (it was a Saturday, and it was France!), and essentially dumped by the side of the road and told the garage would open on Monday! Many phone calls later, I thought sod-it and tried restarting the car, no red warning, so off we went. Made it home fine (albeit with some burning smell) and got Bamford Rose to do a full check of the car (and peel of bits of plastic from various bits of the underside of the car). Problem solved.
The trip last year was mentally traumatic when I heard for the first time the noise made by a stone being stuck in the brake calliper. Luckily, the problem fixed itself immediately when I quickly reversed at full lock into someones driveway to get off the single track road I was stopped on. Unbeknown to me, this is exactly the right thing to do in order to release a stuck stone! When arriving at my destination, the kind folk on this forum told me what the issue and noise had been, so put my mind at rest and the remainder of the trip went brilliantly.
So...things have gone wrong for me on each road-trip but totally random and no fault of the car, so you can drive to Prague without worry and enjoy your trip, because a roadtrip in these cars is brilliant. So good in fact, I will be driving through Germany and through the Alps this year, and again through France. The nods of appreciation from folk around Europe is greater than any other car I've experienced, they really do appreciate an Aston.
The only thing I would say is that Aston Dealers and Specialists are few and far between when driving around Europe so if something does go wrong, the likelyhood of getting it fixed easily and quickly is low, so get breakdown insurance with repatriation just in case, a lesson I nearly learnt the hard way on the first trip noted above, as I didn't have it and repatriation would have cost about £3k based on the quotes I received on the day.
The first trip, the air condititioning condenser packed up as we were getting off the ferry in Santander, less than ideal! Driving through Spain in July without Air Conditioning, especially driving in city centres like Valencia where the heat was crazy, was not great. We ended up changing various plans so we could set off at 5am for any long stretches to enable us to reach our destinations before the mid-day heat. My wife was less than impressed! However, this was just unfortunate and could happen to any car (has recently happened to my 2017 Ford Ranger).
Also on that same trip, a lorry I was following on the motorway shed a large bit of plastic sheeting which I couldn't avoid. I immediately pulled over on the side of the motorway just outside Barcelona, which in rush-hour (following one of our 5am starts) is no fun experience, as the hard shoulder is barely a cars width. During a very small break in traffic I ran to the passenger side of the car and found the sheet of plastic stuck in the wheel and 'melted' to the underside of the car, and no doubt various components. I ripped it off in a hurry, tied what was left of the plastic round the barrier at the side of the road, and got underway. Ignoring the burning smell of melting plastic, I carried on for some hours until the red warning appeared on the dash on a motorway in France, this led to us being recovered and taken to a closed garage (it was a Saturday, and it was France!), and essentially dumped by the side of the road and told the garage would open on Monday! Many phone calls later, I thought sod-it and tried restarting the car, no red warning, so off we went. Made it home fine (albeit with some burning smell) and got Bamford Rose to do a full check of the car (and peel of bits of plastic from various bits of the underside of the car). Problem solved.
The trip last year was mentally traumatic when I heard for the first time the noise made by a stone being stuck in the brake calliper. Luckily, the problem fixed itself immediately when I quickly reversed at full lock into someones driveway to get off the single track road I was stopped on. Unbeknown to me, this is exactly the right thing to do in order to release a stuck stone! When arriving at my destination, the kind folk on this forum told me what the issue and noise had been, so put my mind at rest and the remainder of the trip went brilliantly.
So...things have gone wrong for me on each road-trip but totally random and no fault of the car, so you can drive to Prague without worry and enjoy your trip, because a roadtrip in these cars is brilliant. So good in fact, I will be driving through Germany and through the Alps this year, and again through France. The nods of appreciation from folk around Europe is greater than any other car I've experienced, they really do appreciate an Aston.
The only thing I would say is that Aston Dealers and Specialists are few and far between when driving around Europe so if something does go wrong, the likelyhood of getting it fixed easily and quickly is low, so get breakdown insurance with repatriation just in case, a lesson I nearly learnt the hard way on the first trip noted above, as I didn't have it and repatriation would have cost about £3k based on the quotes I received on the day.
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