Right we'll ive finally had the chance to sort through the pics and put them togeather so here it is.
First off a warning, this is lengthy. I know text is boring but i've tried to explain some stuff and its all sort of worthwhile so give it a chance.
There are also a LOT of photos. Be warned.
Basically, me and my best mate at uni decided about 6 months ago we quite fancied doing a road trip down to the Italian lakes. Of course we didnt have the skill, knowledge or even the maturity to do anything of the sort, so you can imagine my surprise when I found myself packing the car on a Thursday evening a few weeks back, and then waking up at my mates house in London at 3am on the friday morning to catch our ferry:
The whole car was raised on its coilovers to make it a bit easier around the terrain of European campsites, especially as there would be a lot of weight in the back with all the gear.
We went to go outdoors and bought all sorts of guff: a big old tent, airbeds, some chairs, sleeping bags, a cooker and i got hold of a gas bottle.
Had one dry run at putting the tent up in my back garden, which didnt go too well:
Aside from ringing the insurance company to let them know i was going abroad, and putting my mate on the insurance so he could share some of the driving, there wasnt too much that had to be done.
If your going to do this sort of trip yourself though, do remember - if you plan on hitting Switzerland, you have to get whats called a Vignette - its basically their tax disc, and without it you cant drive on their motorways - you can buy them beforehand or at most petrol station in switzerland, but the border guards check every single car for them so get one.
Also, depending on where you are in Europe its now law to carry a warning triangle, a high-vis vest, spare bulbs and the usual guff like headlamp converters and a gb sticker.
Oh and dont forget to get some euro breakdown cover. i had a good searcha round and found the AA to be the cheapest by some margin, whilst also offering the best level of cover.
Anyway, we had roughly planned out our route (in typical man) fasion the day before we set off.
One essential thing to advise anyone who might do this sort of thing and is planning on camping like us, is to get an Alan Rogers guide. Its basically a big book of campsites that people from Alan Rogers have gone and looked at, and decided they are up to scratch. Takes the guesswork out of finding a campsite, and if its in the book you pretty much know its going to be decent. It even gives you an idea of prices to expect and also phone numbers, address' and all sorts of info on the site itself. Mega handy. They do books for most euro countries as well as a general Europe book. Get it here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1906215146/?tag=cliospnet01-21
I'll also have all of mine up for sale (Italy, France, Europe) if anyone is interested.
Booked the ferries online, they were around the £60 return mark from memory, although it was an early sailing.
Anyway enough of the rambling, have some pictures:
Jumping on the ferry
We planned to drive straight down to lake Garda, which is the furthest away of all the lakes, we knew that even setting off at 3am from London wouldnt get us that far down though and planned to stop at a site near lake Luzern in switzerland - this proved to be perfect, we got there around 6 in the evening, although it was pissing it down for our first proper attempt at putting the tent up:
At lest these were happy:
Set off the next morning in some welcome and lovely sunshine for Garda, amazing scenery through Switzerland
We hit a load of traffic as they were staggering people into the St Gotthard tunnel, which i think is standard procedure now folling the horrific fire there in 2001. Anyway we smashed the detour button on the Garmin, and im so glad we did. It took us over the St Gotthard pass, which is essentially the old road over the mountain.
If your going to do the same route as us you HAVE to go over the pass - just put the extra 30mins aside for it, its amazing - switchbacks up the side of the mountain and just generally epic roads combined with amazing views:
Coming back down was awesome fun, if a little hard on the brakes considering the car was packed with camping gear.
The part of that journey when we left switzerland, and went into Italy will stay with me forever. You trickle through the Swiss border, go through some motorway slip roads, and i swear to god we joined the Italian F1 track. It might only have been the A9 to Milan, but the Italians have such a different attitude to driving it was insane, the roads were PACKED yet everyone, us included were doing 100mph. Everyone just sits 2cms off each others bumper, and if there is extra speed to be had by darting between lanes - they'll do it.
I just cant describe in words how fantastic it was, the madness of it all, yet in the perfect Italian sun, with a gorgeous black alfa 159 sat on the boot of a 3-series both doing the ton, weaving in and out of traffic you felt part of something pretty special. Everyone is just so relaxed about it, its completely normal to them.
Its a memory i'll have for a while i think.
Anyway, we stayed at a place called Salo on lake garda which is a lovely little town, with a big waterfront packed with restaurants for a nice meal in the evening
Took a trip out the next day to the north of the lake to a place called Riva del Garda, which is nice if a little touristy and to be honest there isnt much to do there other than sit with a nice drink and watch the world go by.
Either way, the road from Salo to there is a belter, hugging the lake the whole way.
In the opening of Quantum of Solace, where Bond is leathering the aston through the tunnels, it was filmed on that road. i dont mind telling you that i took great pleasure opening the taps in the same tunnell screaming "im james bond!!!" an odd sight im sure but brilliant fun anyway:
After 3 nights on garda we shifted on to the ext lake up, which is Como, the drive over was once again mega, and took us through some seriously long, serious straight and seriously empty tunnells. Needless to say, we had a bit of a play:
Stayed in a nice little place near Menaggio, although there really wasnt much to do.
After 2 nights there we moved on to the last of the lakes which is Maggiore - properly pretty this one. Stayed at a place called Canobbio which i'd been to as a kid about 12 years ago, i even remember the town front which was wierd.
more importantly the waitress at one of the bars on the front was piss-in-your-pants fit. I'd have genuinelly cut bits off myself for the chance, but anyway we couldnt get any pictures without it being obvious and a bit pervy which was a shame.
After 3 nights there we decided to move on a day early up to Switzerland as the lakes were getting a bit boring. The drive from Maggiore to near Interlarken where we were staying was one of the best of the trip, i didnt take nearly enough pictures of it all.
some completely mind blowing roads, from one section which would have completely shamed most go-kart tracks, to bits of the Sustenpass and Grimselpass which gave us mind bending scenery and face melting corners
All these pictures are from the one drive, there was every typre of scenery imaginable:
The view from the bottom, were going up that!
And at the top - you can only see half the road there as well!
The car was properly sluggish up here, pulling all the weight up the insane gradients and at 2Km above sea level the air was pretty thin!
An awesome drive that got us to our next stop in an amazingly pretty place called Lauterbrunnen. Again, i'd been here as a kid with the family and even stayed on the same site so it was lovely to go back again and see what i remembered of it all.
Amazing views to wake up to:
In the nearby town of Interlarken:
The next day we headed up to Grindelwald which is a nice town with all sorts going on, even in summer. One thing we did was to head up the side of one of the mountains in a cable car then throw ourselves back down the side of it on some scooters.
Properly good fun, at one point near the end of the trail we hit the main roads again and i was actually overtaking cars which was a little unnerving!
Cue pictures of me in a silly helmet:
The next day we decided to take a scenic trip on one of the cog railways they have. A cool little day out on a properly old train - i think its from 1884 and some sections of the line are seriously steep. The views at the top were insane though, well worth the cost of the train.
We decided such scenery needed a 'pioneering' pose. I overdid it a bit.
a HUGE thank you at this point has to go to Marby for suggesting we try fit in the Auto & Technik museam at Sinsheim in Germany.
I cant tell you how thankful i am for that tip off. We reorganised the schedule a bit and had an amazing day, there is just so much to see. I took hundreds of photos of the amazing stuff they have there, but i wont put them on here as it would probably break the internet.
Needless to say, this was one of the highlights:
They have so much stuff there it hurts your head. If your planning a trip t the ring however, make the 2 hour journey down there:
http://www.museum-sinsheim.de/museum_sinsheim_english.html
Thanks once again to Marby!
Driving on the Germany autobahns was a strange experience. It has nothing of the excitement or lunacy of the Italian autostradas, but to have the chacne to completely open the car up is pretty exciting.
Even though the car was packed with gas bottles, tents, chairs, pots, pans, an oven and 2 heay bags of clothes amongst other stuff, as well as being full on fuel and with 2 people in it, on a clear stretch just outside Strasbourg we hit a GPS indicated 137mph, which i didnt think was half bad! The speedo was showing 145 but id much rather believe the sat nav.
The holiday was finished off with my first ever trip to the ring, which was completely amazing. We got there mega early, so just watching the places atmosphere grow as more and more people turned up was amazing.
For some mental reason i took just one crap photo but there were some awesome machines there including an Aston DBS, a 911 GT3 RS, and a new 997 GT2.
Had a proper moment on my first lap however. It had been 30 degrees sun all day, and then on one section of the track round near Adenaurer it had just pissed it down so was seriously greasy. Added to the fact the tyres on the back were past their best and we had taken all the weight out the back, i should have seen the trouble coming. Anyway i came round Kallenhard, it understeered like mad so i came off the gas and the back end just came straight round. I wound on a load of lock but it just kept coming. Ended up facing completely the wrong way - up the hill going backwards quite quickly towards the barrier, luckily i managed to throw a load of lock on the other way and get the front to swing back round, so i kept it on the black stuff.
Needless to say though my arsehole took a bite out of my seat, and before we went out for the next lap we waited a good 20 mins for things to dry out. The 2nd lap was amazing though. i know my way around the place from playing it on various games an awful lot over the past few years, so i could really press on which was fantastic. Even had a 911 GT3 towards the end of the lap who just had way less bravery and was taking things steady - made me feel rather good still!
We timed the 2nd lap and came back with 10:12 bridge to bridge which i was very pleased with. The car felt amazing with no weight in (we left everything we could take out in the tent)
Everything we could get out the car went in the tent!
The only picture i took!
And stolen from the ring webcam:
My first lap! They had just opened the gates so everyone flooded out on track.
We actually had the RS pretty quickly - think it must have been ill or im sure it would have murdered me.
Start of the 2nd and best lap!
And the final lap where i booted my mate out for even less weight!
Got up at 4:30 the next morning and belted through Germany, Belgium and France to get to Calais for the ferry home at 11. dropped my mate at his house in London, then drove the last stretch home to Yorkshire, ended up getting home around 8pm.
All in an amazing adventure and something i would do immediately again if i could afford to.
The whole thing came to about £1400, give or take a little, split between the 2 of us. Not the cheapest holiday and im sure we could have got a package holiday to somewhere for much less but that wasnt the point.
I'll remember this for a looong time, and already want to do it again!
Cheers
Tom
First off a warning, this is lengthy. I know text is boring but i've tried to explain some stuff and its all sort of worthwhile so give it a chance.
There are also a LOT of photos. Be warned.
Basically, me and my best mate at uni decided about 6 months ago we quite fancied doing a road trip down to the Italian lakes. Of course we didnt have the skill, knowledge or even the maturity to do anything of the sort, so you can imagine my surprise when I found myself packing the car on a Thursday evening a few weeks back, and then waking up at my mates house in London at 3am on the friday morning to catch our ferry:
The whole car was raised on its coilovers to make it a bit easier around the terrain of European campsites, especially as there would be a lot of weight in the back with all the gear.
We went to go outdoors and bought all sorts of guff: a big old tent, airbeds, some chairs, sleeping bags, a cooker and i got hold of a gas bottle.
Had one dry run at putting the tent up in my back garden, which didnt go too well:
Aside from ringing the insurance company to let them know i was going abroad, and putting my mate on the insurance so he could share some of the driving, there wasnt too much that had to be done.
If your going to do this sort of trip yourself though, do remember - if you plan on hitting Switzerland, you have to get whats called a Vignette - its basically their tax disc, and without it you cant drive on their motorways - you can buy them beforehand or at most petrol station in switzerland, but the border guards check every single car for them so get one.
Also, depending on where you are in Europe its now law to carry a warning triangle, a high-vis vest, spare bulbs and the usual guff like headlamp converters and a gb sticker.
Oh and dont forget to get some euro breakdown cover. i had a good searcha round and found the AA to be the cheapest by some margin, whilst also offering the best level of cover.
Anyway, we had roughly planned out our route (in typical man) fasion the day before we set off.
One essential thing to advise anyone who might do this sort of thing and is planning on camping like us, is to get an Alan Rogers guide. Its basically a big book of campsites that people from Alan Rogers have gone and looked at, and decided they are up to scratch. Takes the guesswork out of finding a campsite, and if its in the book you pretty much know its going to be decent. It even gives you an idea of prices to expect and also phone numbers, address' and all sorts of info on the site itself. Mega handy. They do books for most euro countries as well as a general Europe book. Get it here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1906215146/?tag=cliospnet01-21
I'll also have all of mine up for sale (Italy, France, Europe) if anyone is interested.
Booked the ferries online, they were around the £60 return mark from memory, although it was an early sailing.
Anyway enough of the rambling, have some pictures:
Jumping on the ferry
We planned to drive straight down to lake Garda, which is the furthest away of all the lakes, we knew that even setting off at 3am from London wouldnt get us that far down though and planned to stop at a site near lake Luzern in switzerland - this proved to be perfect, we got there around 6 in the evening, although it was pissing it down for our first proper attempt at putting the tent up:
At lest these were happy:
Set off the next morning in some welcome and lovely sunshine for Garda, amazing scenery through Switzerland
We hit a load of traffic as they were staggering people into the St Gotthard tunnel, which i think is standard procedure now folling the horrific fire there in 2001. Anyway we smashed the detour button on the Garmin, and im so glad we did. It took us over the St Gotthard pass, which is essentially the old road over the mountain.
If your going to do the same route as us you HAVE to go over the pass - just put the extra 30mins aside for it, its amazing - switchbacks up the side of the mountain and just generally epic roads combined with amazing views:
Coming back down was awesome fun, if a little hard on the brakes considering the car was packed with camping gear.
The part of that journey when we left switzerland, and went into Italy will stay with me forever. You trickle through the Swiss border, go through some motorway slip roads, and i swear to god we joined the Italian F1 track. It might only have been the A9 to Milan, but the Italians have such a different attitude to driving it was insane, the roads were PACKED yet everyone, us included were doing 100mph. Everyone just sits 2cms off each others bumper, and if there is extra speed to be had by darting between lanes - they'll do it.
I just cant describe in words how fantastic it was, the madness of it all, yet in the perfect Italian sun, with a gorgeous black alfa 159 sat on the boot of a 3-series both doing the ton, weaving in and out of traffic you felt part of something pretty special. Everyone is just so relaxed about it, its completely normal to them.
Its a memory i'll have for a while i think.
Anyway, we stayed at a place called Salo on lake garda which is a lovely little town, with a big waterfront packed with restaurants for a nice meal in the evening
Took a trip out the next day to the north of the lake to a place called Riva del Garda, which is nice if a little touristy and to be honest there isnt much to do there other than sit with a nice drink and watch the world go by.
Either way, the road from Salo to there is a belter, hugging the lake the whole way.
In the opening of Quantum of Solace, where Bond is leathering the aston through the tunnels, it was filmed on that road. i dont mind telling you that i took great pleasure opening the taps in the same tunnell screaming "im james bond!!!" an odd sight im sure but brilliant fun anyway:
After 3 nights on garda we shifted on to the ext lake up, which is Como, the drive over was once again mega, and took us through some seriously long, serious straight and seriously empty tunnells. Needless to say, we had a bit of a play:
Stayed in a nice little place near Menaggio, although there really wasnt much to do.
After 2 nights there we moved on to the last of the lakes which is Maggiore - properly pretty this one. Stayed at a place called Canobbio which i'd been to as a kid about 12 years ago, i even remember the town front which was wierd.
more importantly the waitress at one of the bars on the front was piss-in-your-pants fit. I'd have genuinelly cut bits off myself for the chance, but anyway we couldnt get any pictures without it being obvious and a bit pervy which was a shame.
After 3 nights there we decided to move on a day early up to Switzerland as the lakes were getting a bit boring. The drive from Maggiore to near Interlarken where we were staying was one of the best of the trip, i didnt take nearly enough pictures of it all.
some completely mind blowing roads, from one section which would have completely shamed most go-kart tracks, to bits of the Sustenpass and Grimselpass which gave us mind bending scenery and face melting corners
All these pictures are from the one drive, there was every typre of scenery imaginable:
The view from the bottom, were going up that!
And at the top - you can only see half the road there as well!
The car was properly sluggish up here, pulling all the weight up the insane gradients and at 2Km above sea level the air was pretty thin!
An awesome drive that got us to our next stop in an amazingly pretty place called Lauterbrunnen. Again, i'd been here as a kid with the family and even stayed on the same site so it was lovely to go back again and see what i remembered of it all.
Amazing views to wake up to:
In the nearby town of Interlarken:
The next day we headed up to Grindelwald which is a nice town with all sorts going on, even in summer. One thing we did was to head up the side of one of the mountains in a cable car then throw ourselves back down the side of it on some scooters.
Properly good fun, at one point near the end of the trail we hit the main roads again and i was actually overtaking cars which was a little unnerving!
Cue pictures of me in a silly helmet:
The next day we decided to take a scenic trip on one of the cog railways they have. A cool little day out on a properly old train - i think its from 1884 and some sections of the line are seriously steep. The views at the top were insane though, well worth the cost of the train.
We decided such scenery needed a 'pioneering' pose. I overdid it a bit.
a HUGE thank you at this point has to go to Marby for suggesting we try fit in the Auto & Technik museam at Sinsheim in Germany.
I cant tell you how thankful i am for that tip off. We reorganised the schedule a bit and had an amazing day, there is just so much to see. I took hundreds of photos of the amazing stuff they have there, but i wont put them on here as it would probably break the internet.
Needless to say, this was one of the highlights:
They have so much stuff there it hurts your head. If your planning a trip t the ring however, make the 2 hour journey down there:
http://www.museum-sinsheim.de/museum_sinsheim_english.html
Thanks once again to Marby!
Driving on the Germany autobahns was a strange experience. It has nothing of the excitement or lunacy of the Italian autostradas, but to have the chacne to completely open the car up is pretty exciting.
Even though the car was packed with gas bottles, tents, chairs, pots, pans, an oven and 2 heay bags of clothes amongst other stuff, as well as being full on fuel and with 2 people in it, on a clear stretch just outside Strasbourg we hit a GPS indicated 137mph, which i didnt think was half bad! The speedo was showing 145 but id much rather believe the sat nav.
The holiday was finished off with my first ever trip to the ring, which was completely amazing. We got there mega early, so just watching the places atmosphere grow as more and more people turned up was amazing.
For some mental reason i took just one crap photo but there were some awesome machines there including an Aston DBS, a 911 GT3 RS, and a new 997 GT2.
Had a proper moment on my first lap however. It had been 30 degrees sun all day, and then on one section of the track round near Adenaurer it had just pissed it down so was seriously greasy. Added to the fact the tyres on the back were past their best and we had taken all the weight out the back, i should have seen the trouble coming. Anyway i came round Kallenhard, it understeered like mad so i came off the gas and the back end just came straight round. I wound on a load of lock but it just kept coming. Ended up facing completely the wrong way - up the hill going backwards quite quickly towards the barrier, luckily i managed to throw a load of lock on the other way and get the front to swing back round, so i kept it on the black stuff.
Needless to say though my arsehole took a bite out of my seat, and before we went out for the next lap we waited a good 20 mins for things to dry out. The 2nd lap was amazing though. i know my way around the place from playing it on various games an awful lot over the past few years, so i could really press on which was fantastic. Even had a 911 GT3 towards the end of the lap who just had way less bravery and was taking things steady - made me feel rather good still!
We timed the 2nd lap and came back with 10:12 bridge to bridge which i was very pleased with. The car felt amazing with no weight in (we left everything we could take out in the tent)
Everything we could get out the car went in the tent!
The only picture i took!
And stolen from the ring webcam:
My first lap! They had just opened the gates so everyone flooded out on track.
We actually had the RS pretty quickly - think it must have been ill or im sure it would have murdered me.
Start of the 2nd and best lap!
And the final lap where i booted my mate out for even less weight!
Got up at 4:30 the next morning and belted through Germany, Belgium and France to get to Calais for the ferry home at 11. dropped my mate at his house in London, then drove the last stretch home to Yorkshire, ended up getting home around 8pm.
All in an amazing adventure and something i would do immediately again if i could afford to.
The whole thing came to about £1400, give or take a little, split between the 2 of us. Not the cheapest holiday and im sure we could have got a package holiday to somewhere for much less but that wasnt the point.
I'll remember this for a looong time, and already want to do it again!
Cheers
Tom
