austin
Well-Known Member
.....by car .........
A very little one that's harder to pack than the bike.
I blame a life-long friend of mine who, earlier this year, was waxing lyrical about a trip he had planned down to the toe of Italy in his MG-F. Roof down, warm air ruffling the hair, lightweight camping, etc etc. I was smitten!
We had already had a couple of short trips this year on the bike that hadn't gone so well, mostly on account of shitty weather, a bike that wasn't running too well (fixed now though), a new helmet that I wasn't getting on with and a new Blue tooth communication set up that wasn't working properly. We also remembered last year's bike trips - being either freezing cold a lot of the time in Scandinavia, soaking wet in Portugal, or unbearably hot in Spain.
A couple of weeks later, and as some of you will already know we got a bit giddy in a Mazda dealer after just going to look at an MX5 they had in. Long story short...we ended up buying a brand spanking new one and trading in our our nice sensible Seat Leon. The MX5 is our only car now and is in many ways even less practical than a bike. The boot is tiny and not a good shape for packing, the cabin is tiny with no proper glovebox or nooks and crannies for storing stuff. We actually have to take less stuff with us than when we go by bike. We sit just as close to each other - shoulder to shoulder instead of thigh to thigh and still have to shout above the wind noise whether the roof is up or down. It is however an immensely enjoyable car to drive, in fact it is the only car I have ever owned that I would say I enjoy driving. Here it is, erm fully loaded up (trust me it is)
A fly in the ointment for our plans though was Anne's mum who has not been well all year. Since before Christmas she has needed daily visits to make sure she was eating, drinking and taking her tablets. We moved her into a care home in the Spring and then had to deal with her house - emptying it and getting it ready to rent out to put toward the care home fees. In July we finally got to the bottom of her ill health - an untreatable Bowel Cancer with a diagnosis of weeks to months before it would kill her. Strangely the diagnosis seemed to perk her up and she has mostly been better than ever since. Its probably the drugs and all the attention she gets now.
Aside from all that the 2018 British summer was kind to us and we managed several 1-2 week long trips away in the new car to the Isle of Mull, Wales, and Dorset and Cornwall, but as autumn loomed we were hankering after a longer trip. So with Anne's mum in the middle of a good spell of health we booked the car onto a last minute channel tunnel with a vague plan to head towards the Balkans for a quick tour around Serbia, Bosnia and Albania before heading home. Little did I know how slow the car would be compared to the bike.
I didn't take enough photo's for an illustrated narrative so here's the main points and a few pictures.
Mid-afternoon Eurotunnel, then 60 French motorway miles to our only pre-booked accommodation - an F1 Hotel in Arras, northern France. £30 a night, fantastic value.
Day 2. Set the Sat Nav to avoid motorways and tolls resulting in a very pleasant drive across the Ardennes of North France and Belgium into Luxembourg and a night on a Camper-Van packed campsite in DieKirch about 30 miles north of Luxembourg City. Nice site and nice town but the camper van section looked exactly like a carpark. As the only tent campers there we had the tent section to ourselves so it was actually quite pleasant for us. Also very cheap at only 15 Euro a night.
Then 2 nights in Germany as we headed south and east and just a few miles on the Autobahns to avoid Stuttgart, Munich and some other congested places. The derestricted parts of the Autobahn are insane to drive on with the big Mercs, Audis and BMWs cruising down at 130+mph. One Porsche came past us at what must have been 170 or more - foot hard down it was deafening and rocked our little car so much Anne nearly jumped out. I never saw it coming in the mirrors. Overtaking at anything less than about 90 mph required a long hard check of the mirrors for something coming insanely fast from miles away but nevertheless always seemed to result in a Merc or something doing some last minute braking then sitting about 6 feet from your bumper (still doing 90) while I cleared the lorries I had pulled out to overtake. The most insane thing though was the little Hyundai Getz's, Kia Rio's or whatever being thrashed within a mph of their life and topping what seemed to be 100mph. I was mostly happy to cruise roof down at 65-70 or so just speeding up for those hairy overtakes.
We decided we much preferred the rural back roads and Germany from that perspective is one of our favourite places. The roads are fantastically surfaced nicely curvy and a pleasure to ride or drive on. There's plenty of picturesque towns and villages with a nice mix of Medieval and Modern buildings especially in Bavaria. "Bakkeries" were our favourite stops for freshly made sandwiches, coffee and the best selection of the best cakes you will ever eat. Progress though in the car was slow. The MX5 is a plenty fast car but maintaining the rapid progress you can make on a bike requires way too much driving effort. 60mph in the car through a series of curves that would be an easy joy on the bike at 70 or more is hard work and feels like I am driving like a loony. Same with overtakes - the car has good acceleration but you still need a much bigger gap and of course the steering wheel is on the wrong side. Then there's the towns, queues you cant filter to the front of etc etc . Keeping a bike-like pace is do-able for a short while but not all day like you can easily do on a bike. So, despite long days sat in the car doing 200 non-motorway miles was hard work and I was exhausted at the end.
Austria arrived eventually and after looking at several "camping" sites at the North end of the Grossglockner pass that were stuffed full of Caravans or camper vans with no tent pitches at all we got onto Booking.com and booked the nearest cheapest hotel we found - the "Begrgasthaus Biberg". If I had thought about I would have realised that Berggasthaus translates into Mountain Inn and when I got the email with details it said it was at 1500 metres (about 5000feet ) on a dirt road. After getting lost and driving up a mountain bike trail, we eventually got on the right dirt road that zig-zigged its way up the valley side. Very steep, very tight gravelly hairpins that resulted in a bit of opposite lock despite the traction control kicking in. Great fun and after about 5 miles of this a very hot car and exhilarated Austin & Anne rolled onto the grassy frontage of the Guest House. Awesome it was.....
We went over the Grossglockner pass the next day, the highest pass in European Alps. It pissed down and was foggy nearly all the way up. No good views but a nice drive anyway and plenty of bikes wobbling their way round the endless hairpin bends.
About 1 mile in (it costs 35 euros to drive the road).
At the top - the Edelweiss visitor centre. I think its 2600 metres. There was still some snow patches on the car park.
With all the stops and what have on the Grossglockner - the main visitor by the glacier is well worth a visit with a good history of roadsport over the road and motorcycle museum too. But, we only did about 60miles for the day so stayed at the south side and got an early start aiming for Slovenia.
It was Sunday so loads of bikes on the very tight Alpine roads as we crossed Austria Eastwards and then South into Italy briefly and then into Slovenia. I liked Slovenia - a lot. Great roads, although the surface was more like the UK than the super smooth roads of Germany and Austria. The alpine scenery was stunning and loads of cafes and inns catering for bikers and fast cars - of which there we plenty mostly with Italian plates. We ended up in a town called Bovec which bills itself as the adrenaline capital of Slovenia with just about every adventure sport and adrenaline filled adventure on offer. Watching people parachuting, para-ascending, mountain biking, 4x4ing, rock climbing, white water rafting from a cafe chair in the sun in the square of Bovec was good enough for me. The campsite was the "Eco Adrenaline Camp" just out of town which as a nice mix of hostel and camping and good central feature of a covered camp kitchen and a communal fire. We stayed two nights to have a day exploring the area....
River in a narrow gorge
and a loon jumping in....
Waterfalls a long walk into the mountains. This just one of a bout 6 similar drops linked by deep pools. It was hot and sweaty getting up there and we both had quick skinny dip in the ice cold crystal clear alpine water. I guess that's another bucket list type thing ticked.
More narrative and pics later but this one made me smile (in Austria I think).....
A very little one that's harder to pack than the bike.
I blame a life-long friend of mine who, earlier this year, was waxing lyrical about a trip he had planned down to the toe of Italy in his MG-F. Roof down, warm air ruffling the hair, lightweight camping, etc etc. I was smitten!
We had already had a couple of short trips this year on the bike that hadn't gone so well, mostly on account of shitty weather, a bike that wasn't running too well (fixed now though), a new helmet that I wasn't getting on with and a new Blue tooth communication set up that wasn't working properly. We also remembered last year's bike trips - being either freezing cold a lot of the time in Scandinavia, soaking wet in Portugal, or unbearably hot in Spain.
A couple of weeks later, and as some of you will already know we got a bit giddy in a Mazda dealer after just going to look at an MX5 they had in. Long story short...we ended up buying a brand spanking new one and trading in our our nice sensible Seat Leon. The MX5 is our only car now and is in many ways even less practical than a bike. The boot is tiny and not a good shape for packing, the cabin is tiny with no proper glovebox or nooks and crannies for storing stuff. We actually have to take less stuff with us than when we go by bike. We sit just as close to each other - shoulder to shoulder instead of thigh to thigh and still have to shout above the wind noise whether the roof is up or down. It is however an immensely enjoyable car to drive, in fact it is the only car I have ever owned that I would say I enjoy driving. Here it is, erm fully loaded up (trust me it is)
A fly in the ointment for our plans though was Anne's mum who has not been well all year. Since before Christmas she has needed daily visits to make sure she was eating, drinking and taking her tablets. We moved her into a care home in the Spring and then had to deal with her house - emptying it and getting it ready to rent out to put toward the care home fees. In July we finally got to the bottom of her ill health - an untreatable Bowel Cancer with a diagnosis of weeks to months before it would kill her. Strangely the diagnosis seemed to perk her up and she has mostly been better than ever since. Its probably the drugs and all the attention she gets now.
Aside from all that the 2018 British summer was kind to us and we managed several 1-2 week long trips away in the new car to the Isle of Mull, Wales, and Dorset and Cornwall, but as autumn loomed we were hankering after a longer trip. So with Anne's mum in the middle of a good spell of health we booked the car onto a last minute channel tunnel with a vague plan to head towards the Balkans for a quick tour around Serbia, Bosnia and Albania before heading home. Little did I know how slow the car would be compared to the bike.
I didn't take enough photo's for an illustrated narrative so here's the main points and a few pictures.
Mid-afternoon Eurotunnel, then 60 French motorway miles to our only pre-booked accommodation - an F1 Hotel in Arras, northern France. £30 a night, fantastic value.
Day 2. Set the Sat Nav to avoid motorways and tolls resulting in a very pleasant drive across the Ardennes of North France and Belgium into Luxembourg and a night on a Camper-Van packed campsite in DieKirch about 30 miles north of Luxembourg City. Nice site and nice town but the camper van section looked exactly like a carpark. As the only tent campers there we had the tent section to ourselves so it was actually quite pleasant for us. Also very cheap at only 15 Euro a night.
Then 2 nights in Germany as we headed south and east and just a few miles on the Autobahns to avoid Stuttgart, Munich and some other congested places. The derestricted parts of the Autobahn are insane to drive on with the big Mercs, Audis and BMWs cruising down at 130+mph. One Porsche came past us at what must have been 170 or more - foot hard down it was deafening and rocked our little car so much Anne nearly jumped out. I never saw it coming in the mirrors. Overtaking at anything less than about 90 mph required a long hard check of the mirrors for something coming insanely fast from miles away but nevertheless always seemed to result in a Merc or something doing some last minute braking then sitting about 6 feet from your bumper (still doing 90) while I cleared the lorries I had pulled out to overtake. The most insane thing though was the little Hyundai Getz's, Kia Rio's or whatever being thrashed within a mph of their life and topping what seemed to be 100mph. I was mostly happy to cruise roof down at 65-70 or so just speeding up for those hairy overtakes.
We decided we much preferred the rural back roads and Germany from that perspective is one of our favourite places. The roads are fantastically surfaced nicely curvy and a pleasure to ride or drive on. There's plenty of picturesque towns and villages with a nice mix of Medieval and Modern buildings especially in Bavaria. "Bakkeries" were our favourite stops for freshly made sandwiches, coffee and the best selection of the best cakes you will ever eat. Progress though in the car was slow. The MX5 is a plenty fast car but maintaining the rapid progress you can make on a bike requires way too much driving effort. 60mph in the car through a series of curves that would be an easy joy on the bike at 70 or more is hard work and feels like I am driving like a loony. Same with overtakes - the car has good acceleration but you still need a much bigger gap and of course the steering wheel is on the wrong side. Then there's the towns, queues you cant filter to the front of etc etc . Keeping a bike-like pace is do-able for a short while but not all day like you can easily do on a bike. So, despite long days sat in the car doing 200 non-motorway miles was hard work and I was exhausted at the end.
Austria arrived eventually and after looking at several "camping" sites at the North end of the Grossglockner pass that were stuffed full of Caravans or camper vans with no tent pitches at all we got onto Booking.com and booked the nearest cheapest hotel we found - the "Begrgasthaus Biberg". If I had thought about I would have realised that Berggasthaus translates into Mountain Inn and when I got the email with details it said it was at 1500 metres (about 5000feet ) on a dirt road. After getting lost and driving up a mountain bike trail, we eventually got on the right dirt road that zig-zigged its way up the valley side. Very steep, very tight gravelly hairpins that resulted in a bit of opposite lock despite the traction control kicking in. Great fun and after about 5 miles of this a very hot car and exhilarated Austin & Anne rolled onto the grassy frontage of the Guest House. Awesome it was.....
We went over the Grossglockner pass the next day, the highest pass in European Alps. It pissed down and was foggy nearly all the way up. No good views but a nice drive anyway and plenty of bikes wobbling their way round the endless hairpin bends.
About 1 mile in (it costs 35 euros to drive the road).
At the top - the Edelweiss visitor centre. I think its 2600 metres. There was still some snow patches on the car park.
With all the stops and what have on the Grossglockner - the main visitor by the glacier is well worth a visit with a good history of roadsport over the road and motorcycle museum too. But, we only did about 60miles for the day so stayed at the south side and got an early start aiming for Slovenia.
It was Sunday so loads of bikes on the very tight Alpine roads as we crossed Austria Eastwards and then South into Italy briefly and then into Slovenia. I liked Slovenia - a lot. Great roads, although the surface was more like the UK than the super smooth roads of Germany and Austria. The alpine scenery was stunning and loads of cafes and inns catering for bikers and fast cars - of which there we plenty mostly with Italian plates. We ended up in a town called Bovec which bills itself as the adrenaline capital of Slovenia with just about every adventure sport and adrenaline filled adventure on offer. Watching people parachuting, para-ascending, mountain biking, 4x4ing, rock climbing, white water rafting from a cafe chair in the sun in the square of Bovec was good enough for me. The campsite was the "Eco Adrenaline Camp" just out of town which as a nice mix of hostel and camping and good central feature of a covered camp kitchen and a communal fire. We stayed two nights to have a day exploring the area....
River in a narrow gorge
and a loon jumping in....
Waterfalls a long walk into the mountains. This just one of a bout 6 similar drops linked by deep pools. It was hot and sweaty getting up there and we both had quick skinny dip in the ice cold crystal clear alpine water. I guess that's another bucket list type thing ticked.
More narrative and pics later but this one made me smile (in Austria I think).....
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