Back from Europe - pics -56k nono
I've now done nearly 7000 miles in 2 months in my DB9 - having just returned from an awesome trip around Europe.
My parents live down near Torrevieja on Costa Blanca, Spain so the vague plan was, over 12 days to get to them, stay for 2-3 nights then make my way back to London. My misses was going to be joining me so I had to make sure we had just enough time in nice places to keep her happy on the long drives in between (Also I agreed to listen to an audio book whilst travelling
).
My initial plan was to get to my parents ASAP leaving us enough time to take the somewhat scenic route back. This meant ferry to Santander followed by Autovias all the way but someone on Pistonheads told me of some roads I should take in north west Spain whilst I was in the area. I duly adjusted my plans and added a stop in Salamanca - and boy am I glad I did. The mountain roads were superb, very little traffic and a great mix of wide single carridgeway fast roads with tight small twisty mountainous roads
. Salamanca wasn't half bad either! Highly recommended if anyone is around that area.
After staying at my 'rents for a couple of nights, we headed north towards home. We stayed over for a single night in Barcelona, Nice (Cape Ferrat), Val d'Isère ski resort (to visit a friend working there) followed by Bern, Konstanz and Luxembourg. Granted it was somewhat hurried, and I would have much preferred to have done the same trip with 3 weeks instead of 1 but we saw a lot and always managed to get to our destination well before 6pm meaning we had the entire evening to explore and have dinner etc.
http://goo.gl/YtPYv
Anyway, I made some very brief points of my observations:
* Autobahn lanes seemed far wider than our own, giving more margin for error and space between cars.
* I reached silly speeds on some sections of the autobahns but the lane discipline, for the most part, was impeccable. People made a genuine effort to get out of the way.
* Contrary to what I heard, only 20% of the autobahns that my route took me on were limited - mostly to 120 or 130kph. The rest were derestricted.
* Italian drivers have little concept of lane discipline. Even when driving in France, Germany etc, Italian registered cars were constantly straddling lane dividers and straying outside their lanes.
* Spain's quieter A roads have great road surfaces and markings. The overtaking sections are carefully considered and signed with solid/dotted lines and full signs when the road goes between the two states. This makes it amazingly easy to line up overtakes and make progress.
* Rush hour traffic in Monaco is awful. The only reason I can think of why you’d drive a supercar there is for the immense challenge of not damaging them when driving in stop-start traffic on steep, narrow streets and around tight corners. I had two occasions when I needed a 3 point turn-like maneuver to turn a steep, tight corner and avoid oncoming traffic - thou probably due to my bad driving
!
* Out of all the cities we visited, in terms of ‘nice car spotting’, Zurich and Monaco come top - Zurich was like walking straight into the City of London - tonnes of 911s and luxo barges. Barcelona seemed surprisingly void of any nice metal - same story for Bern, Luxembourg, Konstanz - not even a 911. I saw a few tasty motors on the autobahns but they were on trailers - probably getting a ride to the Ring. Certainly demonstrated that London is indeed a very rich city versus other big european cities in terms of wealth - perhaps unsurprisingly.
* On the motorways throughout my trip, I didn’t see a single traffic cop on the side of the road looking for speeding. I was cruising a little over the limit (indicated) so was on the look out but not a single find.
* Spain’s speed cameras/radars are well signed but the actual camera units are very inconspicuous and if you miss the sign, you won’t see the camera - it looks like a small electrical junction box at ground level.
* Switzerland has *lots* of speed cameras on the motorways (far more than UK) - particularly when leaving Geneva towards Bern/Zurich. They were grey and otherwise unmarked but quite visible being in the central reservation. Everyone stuck to the limits accordingly.
This trip was one of the only in recent memory when I just wanted to carry on for weeks and weeks! Severely recommended to anyone who hasn't taken a trip around Europe!
Cheers,
EDIT Added Pic.
I've now done nearly 7000 miles in 2 months in my DB9 - having just returned from an awesome trip around Europe.
My parents live down near Torrevieja on Costa Blanca, Spain so the vague plan was, over 12 days to get to them, stay for 2-3 nights then make my way back to London. My misses was going to be joining me so I had to make sure we had just enough time in nice places to keep her happy on the long drives in between (Also I agreed to listen to an audio book whilst travelling
).My initial plan was to get to my parents ASAP leaving us enough time to take the somewhat scenic route back. This meant ferry to Santander followed by Autovias all the way but someone on Pistonheads told me of some roads I should take in north west Spain whilst I was in the area. I duly adjusted my plans and added a stop in Salamanca - and boy am I glad I did. The mountain roads were superb, very little traffic and a great mix of wide single carridgeway fast roads with tight small twisty mountainous roads
. Salamanca wasn't half bad either! Highly recommended if anyone is around that area.After staying at my 'rents for a couple of nights, we headed north towards home. We stayed over for a single night in Barcelona, Nice (Cape Ferrat), Val d'Isère ski resort (to visit a friend working there) followed by Bern, Konstanz and Luxembourg. Granted it was somewhat hurried, and I would have much preferred to have done the same trip with 3 weeks instead of 1 but we saw a lot and always managed to get to our destination well before 6pm meaning we had the entire evening to explore and have dinner etc.
http://goo.gl/YtPYv
Anyway, I made some very brief points of my observations:
* Autobahn lanes seemed far wider than our own, giving more margin for error and space between cars.
* I reached silly speeds on some sections of the autobahns but the lane discipline, for the most part, was impeccable. People made a genuine effort to get out of the way.
* Contrary to what I heard, only 20% of the autobahns that my route took me on were limited - mostly to 120 or 130kph. The rest were derestricted.
* Italian drivers have little concept of lane discipline. Even when driving in France, Germany etc, Italian registered cars were constantly straddling lane dividers and straying outside their lanes.
* Spain's quieter A roads have great road surfaces and markings. The overtaking sections are carefully considered and signed with solid/dotted lines and full signs when the road goes between the two states. This makes it amazingly easy to line up overtakes and make progress.
* Rush hour traffic in Monaco is awful. The only reason I can think of why you’d drive a supercar there is for the immense challenge of not damaging them when driving in stop-start traffic on steep, narrow streets and around tight corners. I had two occasions when I needed a 3 point turn-like maneuver to turn a steep, tight corner and avoid oncoming traffic - thou probably due to my bad driving
!* Out of all the cities we visited, in terms of ‘nice car spotting’, Zurich and Monaco come top - Zurich was like walking straight into the City of London - tonnes of 911s and luxo barges. Barcelona seemed surprisingly void of any nice metal - same story for Bern, Luxembourg, Konstanz - not even a 911. I saw a few tasty motors on the autobahns but they were on trailers - probably getting a ride to the Ring. Certainly demonstrated that London is indeed a very rich city versus other big european cities in terms of wealth - perhaps unsurprisingly.
* On the motorways throughout my trip, I didn’t see a single traffic cop on the side of the road looking for speeding. I was cruising a little over the limit (indicated) so was on the look out but not a single find.
* Spain’s speed cameras/radars are well signed but the actual camera units are very inconspicuous and if you miss the sign, you won’t see the camera - it looks like a small electrical junction box at ground level.
* Switzerland has *lots* of speed cameras on the motorways (far more than UK) - particularly when leaving Geneva towards Bern/Zurich. They were grey and otherwise unmarked but quite visible being in the central reservation. Everyone stuck to the limits accordingly.
This trip was one of the only in recent memory when I just wanted to carry on for weeks and weeks! Severely recommended to anyone who hasn't taken a trip around Europe!
Cheers,
EDIT Added Pic.
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