June/July 2010 Road Trip
Discussion
Inspired by reading a few other Road Trip threads today, on various forums, I decided that I'd finally put up a thread/photos about the trip a mate and I did in the summer last year.
We started out on Saturday 26th July. I'd packed the car the previous night, but had to work the Saturday. Finished at 5 and jumped in the car down to our Hotel for the night - Travelodge Ashford.
An early start on Sunday as we caught the 6.20am EuroTunnel.
First stop around 9am at a service station on the A26:
The car was looking pretty clean at this point. From memory it was around 27 degrees, not bad for early morning!
As we had a LONG drive today, we didn't stop here for long, but pushed on to Reims circuit - got there around 10.30:
We stayed here for about an hour, had some breakfast that we'd brought with us. Before leaving we chatted with a group of Brits who had just finished a similar route of Europe, except they'd gone the other way around!
We'd filled up with fuel the night before, but we'd done around 220 miles so filled up at the Carrefour nearby. 400 miles later, and around 7pm, we arrived at our overnight halt in Clermont-Ferrand:
A nice dinner in the Hotel, and we went to bed. Up at 7am the next day, we knew we had another LONG driving day ahead of us. We had to get to Monaco, but I wanted to stop off at Millau (for obvious reasons...).
At our first stop of the day, mid morning:
These first few days mostly involved driving on autoroutes, in order that we could spend the time we wanted in the primary areas! Next stop - lunch at another service station:
We came off the Autoroute just before it became a Toll for the Viaduct. Here's the first view we had:
Pretty amazing! It was nearing 35 degrees by this point, as the Pharmacist's in Millau were showing on their outdoor displays! Driving on the autoroute's at 80/85 with the windows down and air con on can't have been too economical! FUN though.
They're the last photos I took on Monday. After doing 600 odd miles on Sunday, we had more than 400 to do today thanks to the detour we took so I could see the Millau Bridge.
We stayed in a really nice campsite near a town called Tourettes Sur Loup about 30 miles from Monaco - it was right in the bottom of the valley so was quite cool - nearer 25 degrees, so sleeping wasn't too bad in the tent! Unfortunately I didn’t really think about writing a blog while I was there so I don’t have any photos of the camping location!
The next day we had a lie in – we didn’t have much to do today, so just wanted to chill out with two aims: Drive the Col de Turini and spend some time in Monaco.
Half way up the Col de Turini:
This was a simply amazing road. Both sides of the mountain were almost completely deserted, and we saw very little traffic all morning. Lots of 2nd gear hairpins and lots of opportunities for a bit of over-exuberant throttle. The views were also stunning – a few more pics:
From here we drove out to Monaco for lunch. What a fabulous place? We walked almost the entire GP circuit, before getting quite substantially lost! By now it was in the high 30’s! Few photos from Monaco:
The sea was so beautiful!
My first Rapide:
Some of the boats were amazing, and most of them seemed to have British Ensign’s:
Nice to see some more Brits:
Some customary shots of fancy cars in and around Monaco - there was something going on at the Casino, which made taking photos a bit difficult despite there being millions of pounds of supercars there!
My first real life California:
That’s it for today. From here we drove into Italy, then onto Switzerland and Germany. I’ll try and get some more up this week! Hope you liked it so far? We managed just over 4,000 miles in a fortnight – it was hectic!
Oh, and we managed to get luggage for a fortnight for two, a tent, chairs, beds, cameras and food and all other associated stuff in the ‘5! :-)
Comments welcomed!
We started out on Saturday 26th July. I'd packed the car the previous night, but had to work the Saturday. Finished at 5 and jumped in the car down to our Hotel for the night - Travelodge Ashford.
An early start on Sunday as we caught the 6.20am EuroTunnel.
First stop around 9am at a service station on the A26:
The car was looking pretty clean at this point. From memory it was around 27 degrees, not bad for early morning!
As we had a LONG drive today, we didn't stop here for long, but pushed on to Reims circuit - got there around 10.30:
We stayed here for about an hour, had some breakfast that we'd brought with us. Before leaving we chatted with a group of Brits who had just finished a similar route of Europe, except they'd gone the other way around!
We'd filled up with fuel the night before, but we'd done around 220 miles so filled up at the Carrefour nearby. 400 miles later, and around 7pm, we arrived at our overnight halt in Clermont-Ferrand:
A nice dinner in the Hotel, and we went to bed. Up at 7am the next day, we knew we had another LONG driving day ahead of us. We had to get to Monaco, but I wanted to stop off at Millau (for obvious reasons...).
At our first stop of the day, mid morning:
These first few days mostly involved driving on autoroutes, in order that we could spend the time we wanted in the primary areas! Next stop - lunch at another service station:
We came off the Autoroute just before it became a Toll for the Viaduct. Here's the first view we had:
Pretty amazing! It was nearing 35 degrees by this point, as the Pharmacist's in Millau were showing on their outdoor displays! Driving on the autoroute's at 80/85 with the windows down and air con on can't have been too economical! FUN though.
They're the last photos I took on Monday. After doing 600 odd miles on Sunday, we had more than 400 to do today thanks to the detour we took so I could see the Millau Bridge.
We stayed in a really nice campsite near a town called Tourettes Sur Loup about 30 miles from Monaco - it was right in the bottom of the valley so was quite cool - nearer 25 degrees, so sleeping wasn't too bad in the tent! Unfortunately I didn’t really think about writing a blog while I was there so I don’t have any photos of the camping location!
The next day we had a lie in – we didn’t have much to do today, so just wanted to chill out with two aims: Drive the Col de Turini and spend some time in Monaco.
Half way up the Col de Turini:
This was a simply amazing road. Both sides of the mountain were almost completely deserted, and we saw very little traffic all morning. Lots of 2nd gear hairpins and lots of opportunities for a bit of over-exuberant throttle. The views were also stunning – a few more pics:
From here we drove out to Monaco for lunch. What a fabulous place? We walked almost the entire GP circuit, before getting quite substantially lost! By now it was in the high 30’s! Few photos from Monaco:
The sea was so beautiful!
My first Rapide:
Some of the boats were amazing, and most of them seemed to have British Ensign’s:
Nice to see some more Brits:
Some customary shots of fancy cars in and around Monaco - there was something going on at the Casino, which made taking photos a bit difficult despite there being millions of pounds of supercars there!
My first real life California:
That’s it for today. From here we drove into Italy, then onto Switzerland and Germany. I’ll try and get some more up this week! Hope you liked it so far? We managed just over 4,000 miles in a fortnight – it was hectic!
Oh, and we managed to get luggage for a fortnight for two, a tent, chairs, beds, cameras and food and all other associated stuff in the ‘5! :-)
Comments welcomed!
Thanks for the response to my first post! Here we go with another few days of travel then.
We stayed at the campsite near Monaco for a 2nd night, before getting up reasonably early, having a nice breakfast there and hitting the road around 9am.
We drove through into Italy, and stopped at the Hotel Maranello - an amazing hotel and brilliant service!
We had a lovely evening meal there, before heading to the Ferrari and Lamborghini Museums/Factories, the following day. While I would wholly recommend these, the Lambo one is very small and neither Sam nor I reckoned they were "value for money", despite us both thoroughly enjoying them!
If I list every photo we took here we'd be here for ages, so just a taster (I'll post more if you'd prefer!)
Another R8, this time in the Ferrari Museum's car park:
F50,F40 and 458 together:
We stayed a second night at the Hotel Maranello, before beginning another long days driving up through Italy to Switzerland. We then planned to camp at "Campofelice" which is just on the banks of Lake Maggiore, just into Switzerland. A particularly strange town, as although you are theoretically IN Switzerland, everyone and everything is still in Italian! We stayed here for four nights.
Once we'd set up camp (it was about 4pm by now) we headed up into the Mountains. I wanted to experience the San Bernadino pass before dinner! And what can I say - WHAT a road! We drove it about 10 times in total over the next four days - never got boring.
The car was looking decidedly grubby by this point!
I'll post again in another couple of days - this has taken a while to put up including resizing the photos!
Over the next few days we did the Julierspass, Furkapass, San Gottardo, Stelvio/Bormio, Splugenpass, Simplonpass, the Villadossola, Dommodossola, . We also went to St Moritz and a few other great towns. Then, the 'Ring! :-)
We stayed at the campsite near Monaco for a 2nd night, before getting up reasonably early, having a nice breakfast there and hitting the road around 9am.
We drove through into Italy, and stopped at the Hotel Maranello - an amazing hotel and brilliant service!
We had a lovely evening meal there, before heading to the Ferrari and Lamborghini Museums/Factories, the following day. While I would wholly recommend these, the Lambo one is very small and neither Sam nor I reckoned they were "value for money", despite us both thoroughly enjoying them!
If I list every photo we took here we'd be here for ages, so just a taster (I'll post more if you'd prefer!)
Another R8, this time in the Ferrari Museum's car park:
F50,F40 and 458 together:
We stayed a second night at the Hotel Maranello, before beginning another long days driving up through Italy to Switzerland. We then planned to camp at "Campofelice" which is just on the banks of Lake Maggiore, just into Switzerland. A particularly strange town, as although you are theoretically IN Switzerland, everyone and everything is still in Italian! We stayed here for four nights.
Once we'd set up camp (it was about 4pm by now) we headed up into the Mountains. I wanted to experience the San Bernadino pass before dinner! And what can I say - WHAT a road! We drove it about 10 times in total over the next four days - never got boring.
The car was looking decidedly grubby by this point!
I'll post again in another couple of days - this has taken a while to put up including resizing the photos!
Over the next few days we did the Julierspass, Furkapass, San Gottardo, Stelvio/Bormio, Splugenpass, Simplonpass, the Villadossola, Dommodossola, . We also went to St Moritz and a few other great towns. Then, the 'Ring! :-)
Looks like a great trip, still planning on getting a 5 (hopefully this year) but waiting to see what happens with work. Planning a trip (on a much smaller scale) down to the south coast and on to have a tour of the Isle on Wight in the spring.....hoping I get some good news before the weather warms up and the 5 prices go up again. Will follow the post with interest.
rdodger said:
Hi RFN
Looks like you had a good trip. I spoke to you at Reims (black GTM Libra).
We are off again this June. I have sold the Libra and will hopefully have my 5 supercharged by the time we go. At least I will have AC :-)
Hi rdodger :-)Looks like you had a good trip. I spoke to you at Reims (black GTM Libra).
We are off again this June. I have sold the Libra and will hopefully have my 5 supercharged by the time we go. At least I will have AC :-)
Thanks for your post - I only realised when I got home I didn't get any pics of your Libra, which was (to me) the most interesting of the cars there!
Cool trip man,
Looking at those shots of monaco makes me really to be on the med in summer
5's are perfect for these trips once you're off the motorways.
So nice to just park up next to some alpine lake/coastal spot and just dive in.
Need to do another trip asap!
Here's mine at lake garda
Good times!
Looking at those shots of monaco makes me really to be on the med in summer
5's are perfect for these trips once you're off the motorways.
So nice to just park up next to some alpine lake/coastal spot and just dive in.
Need to do another trip asap!
Here's mine at lake garda
Good times!
Edited by Scho on Thursday 20th January 10:39
raf_gti said:
Nice write up 
Looking to do something similar using my stag do as justification
How did you find the '5 over the journey and did you work out what the average consumption was?!
Thanks - need to get the rest put up really. Will try and do so this weekend/early part of next week.Looking to do something similar using my stag do as justification
How did you find the '5 over the journey and did you work out what the average consumption was?!
The '5 was amazing. Obviously it's got air con and things so despite the fact that the temps were into the high 30s and even 40s every day we were on the road, we managed! Got an amazing tan.
Car averaged 33mpg over the 4,000 miles. Not bad considering the roof was only up for the two times it rained (and each time only for about an hour or two) over the fortnight.
rfn said:
raf_gti said:
Nice write up
Looking to do something similar using my stag do as justification
How did you find the '5 over the journey and did you work out what the average consumption was?!
Thanks - need to get the rest put up really. Will try and do so this weekend/early part of next week.Looking to do something similar using my stag do as justification
How did you find the '5 over the journey and did you work out what the average consumption was?!
The '5 was amazing. Obviously it's got air con and things so despite the fact that the temps were into the high 30s and even 40s every day we were on the road, we managed! Got an amazing tan.
Car averaged 33mpg over the 4,000 miles. Not bad considering the roof was only up for the two times it rained (and each time only for about an hour or two) over the fortnight.
Looking forward to posting my own 'followed TomTom and got lost'blog later in the year
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