Notes from seven countries

Last month, we took a break from the madness of work and headed over to mainland Europe with Herman for a two-week tour of seven countries.

It’s taken me a few weekends to sort out all the photos on Flickr, and whilst I’ve posted a few notes on Facebook, I’d thought I put up something here to round it off, mostly disconnected thoughts on travel related topics…

Preparing Herman

This was Herman’s (and my) first time driving abroad and on the wrong side of the road so some preparations were in order. This included the purchase of high visibility jackets, an extra warning triangle, a fire extinguisher and some sticky things to put on the headlights.

I’d heard rumours on teh interwebs that the French police in particular liked to stop les rosbifs and fine them for not having prominently displayed hi-vis jackets, so we were prepared!

“I’m driving on the right”

Something I state out loud to my self and the world in general on a regular basis, in particular when setting off or coming off a motorway.

Only once in two weeks did I find myself scaring the shit out of someone coming the other way and that was because I didn’t realise it was a two-way road…. Oh and another time when I went the wrong way down a one-way street in Davos, but that doesn’t really count as I was still over on the right!

Blinky Blinky

The French indicate left to overtake someone and keep indicating left until they’ve passed the other car(s) and then pull back in to the right.

This sort of makes sense on small two-way road, but makes no sense at all on three or four lane motorways. The crazy French will sit in the middle lane for ages with left indicator blinking away with absolutely no intention whatsoever of moving into the left lane.

Trumpet

The Italians love to drive right up your trumpet when you’re in the outside lane, flash they lights at you and generally be aggressive, but when you pull in to let them pass, they crawl past you at 1km/h and then slow down. Crazy.

The Swiss love their speed limits and will often break quite hard when moving from one limit to the next. Clearly the Swiss treat speed limit signs as an instruction to drive exactly at that speed and not as a maximum. Crazy.

Love and Hate

I loved Luxembourg. Very friendly, pretty place. Very surprising as I was expecting it to be quite dull.

I hated Geneva. Well, that’s a bit strong, but I found it a bit shabby, a but unwelcoming, although the series of tunnels through the mountains going in to Switzerland from France were lots of fun.

Nice / Monaco / Col de Turini

We stayed in a super hotel on the Nice sea front with valet parking and close proximity to stuff you want to do/see after three days driving. There is a relaxed poshness about the place. Very civilised.

Monaco, just down the road, felt quite different. Hilly, cramped, chaotic. We got to drive around what was the Formula 1 GP circuit from the previous weekend. Was a strange feeling as I recognised the place from having driven around it many times in Gran Turismo. Feels much more claustrophobic in real life, however.

From here we took our first proper hurtle to the Col de Turini. The roads of this twisty, hilly, ex-rally stage are quite dusty and the trees make for poor visibility from corner to corner, making the whole thing quite nervy at speed, so this was more of a nice day out in the country.

Italian Lakes / San Bernadino Pass

From Nice, we headed east into Italy, then north to Lake Como on the southern edge of the Alps.

The lake has three legs and we were staying on the west side in the middle in Menaggio, but used the ferry to visit Varenna and Bellagio across the water. Each town has its own style, so you need to see all three before you can say you’ve done the lake. The three days there were very relaxing and by this time all the stressed of past weeks had gone.

Como was also a staging point for our second hurtle – the San Bernadino Pass. We were doing these roads in the same order as the Top Gear boys and knew that this was going to be more fun than the Col de Turini, and as a driving road, it certainly was. Better tarmac, wider, sweeping open roads and more hairpins. But like the TG boys, I found this one a bit lacking. Perhaps if I didn’t know what was coming up in the next few days, I’d have been satisfied, but instead just gave me a thirst for more.

Road to Davos

From Lake Como, we were heading for Davos in Switzerland, and Lena found on teh interwebs a small picturesque village called Soglio, just inside the Swiss border. We told Kate (our satnav) to take us there and blimey, was this a treat.

It’s a small town perched on the top of a mountain with snowy peaks in the distance and green hilly bits all around. Very Sound of Music.

Continuing on to Davos took us over the Flüelapass, which in my mind, was better than the San Bernadino Pass and Col de Turini, and this was just on the way. I knew I was going to like this place.

Arriving in Davos, we met up with my old chum Mark and had beer and the next day we had a wander around the hills. Good to stretch the legs!

Davos to Stelvio via Bormio

Hurtling-wise, this was the main event and the original reason for the whole trip (for me at least). The planned route would take us over three passes (Flüela, Ofen, Stelvio) and then back the same way. Five or so hours driving in total.

The weather didn’t look so good on the morning of the trip as cloud had descended and we couldn’t see the top of the mountain. It was also cold and raining a little. Heading up the Flüelapass, it started to snow and at the top it was slippery and all a bit concerning.

On the other side, it brightened up but it was still quite exciting.

The Ofenpass is almost a forgotten bit on the way to Stelvio, but was easily better than the Col and SB passes. Here there are longer bends with good visibility so you can get some speed up relatively safely.

Just when you think things can’t get better, you arrive at the Stelvio pass. Hard to describe, so probably best to just look at the pics. Hairpin after hairpin in the most stunning of surroundings.

Driving heaven (just don’t look over the edge!).

Black Forest

After Switzerland, and the three main driving bits done, we headed north to Baden-Baden in the German Black Forest for three days relaxing.

For me, driving- and scenery-wise, this was going to be an anti-climax, and it was. The German roads were rubbish (single lane, full of trucks going 70km/h) and it was only a bit hilly rather than Alpine.

Baden-Baden itself was very nice though, with a very pleasing hotel with funky pool, great places to eat and drink, and a trip back into France to the Châteu du Haut-Kœnigsburg. That trip took in the famous Black Forest High Road, but I wasn’t that impressed. So far, German roads weren’t doing it for me at all.

Heading north to Belgium, however, is where we found some de-restricted sections of autobahn and Herman could legally stretch his legs. The road surfaces weren’t all that smooth, but was still able to get up to around 130mph with a bit more to go. The tricky part at this speed is someone doing only 70mph pulling into your lane ahead and you having to break heavily. I imagine this being very dangerous if you’re doing 180mph! Also, there was never anyone driving up my trumpet trying to get past, so all in all, a bit of fun and we made good time.

Belgium

Last leg of the journey was a night in Spa.

Spa was disappointing… No, that’s not true. I expected it to be a bit dull and it was. The weather was rubbish too. We did, however, have a relax in the swimmy spa complex at the hotel.

Better was the trip to the chunnel the next day. We stopped in Sint-Niklaas, where it was lovely and hot and sunny and they were holding the Belgian beach volleyball finals on the big main square. Then on to Ghent, which was really rather picturesque; a cross between Amsterdam and Bruges, I think.

Somewhere we’d like to visit again, probably by car, over a long weekend.

Stats

So a brilliant two weeks, probably the best holiday (vs trips, backpacking, etc) I’ve ever had.

Distance driven: about 2790 miles

Average mpg: about 31 (not bad considering)

Countries visited: seven (missed out on eighth, Liechtenstein)

Stress levels: very low

Worst drivers: Italian

Worst roads: German