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There are a number of places in Europe I've always wanted to visit - BMW World in Munich, the Stelvio Pass, the Alps and Monaco. Being able to combine them all in a single trip for about the same as I'd normally pay for a holiday is hugely appealing..
Euro Trips
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Worth looking at the route the Pistonheads alpine tour are doing for ideas on the first part of your trip. It encompasses an awful lot of what is good in Germany, the Alps, Stelvio etc:
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/...d=0&nmt=RE:+The+2012+PistonHeads+Alpine+Tour+
The thing about your proposed route Fox is that it doesn't lend itself to encompassing the Route Napoleon which is an amazing road to drive. Might be worth, if you'll extend it to 22 days, to go from Monaco up the Route Napoleon to Grenoble then across a bit and down over the Millau bridge to rejoin the French southern coast and onwards to Spain.
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/...d=0&nmt=RE:+The+2012+PistonHeads+Alpine+Tour+
The thing about your proposed route Fox is that it doesn't lend itself to encompassing the Route Napoleon which is an amazing road to drive. Might be worth, if you'll extend it to 22 days, to go from Monaco up the Route Napoleon to Grenoble then across a bit and down over the Millau bridge to rejoin the French southern coast and onwards to Spain.
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It is indeed. I looked up train times and I think you can get to Monza in under an hour, making it a good place to base yourself for the Italian GP.
one thing you could try is the trains that you load your car onto, and over night they take you down to south Europe, then have a more relaxed drive home, will allow you more time at destinations and less rush? Depends what you are after.
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[TW]Fox;20632085 said:
If you are thinking of going to Munich,then the "Deutsches Museum" is a must.The best museum i have ever been to.
http://www.deutsches-museum.de/en/information/
[TW]Fox;20632085 said:
Then you should do Europe. I drive to PL twice a year minimum because I enjoy the drive everytime.
As your going to Germany anyway you should certainly try and pop across the border to Wroclaw in PL, such a fantastic city, great food and will be very cheap...although I am slightly biased..
The person who took me to Paris had a holiday home there, she spoke it fluently as far as I could tell and she even told me that there was nothing to be done about it, it was just the way some French treat foreigners, which seemed incredible to me at times because some of the places we went to meant it was either our custom or no custom, you would have thought they would be grateful for some business.
Spain was just as bad outside of the cheesy tourist destinations and even there I felt like people were treating their customers as absolute mugs.
The only place I felt welcome now I think about it was Germany.
Paris is quite different to the rest of France though!
NickXX, Nozzer, MrMatteh and myself had a storming ****up with a load of French dudes in Belgium. There was initially some mutual disrespect but that all fell by the wayside as time went on. Also, perhaps the most enlightening thing was being in a tent with a broad spectrum of continental Europeans and they could, for the most part, speak more than one language enough to hold conversation with each other. One common criticism of the British was their complete inability to speak to anyone else, and that is where a lot of the friction lies.
Loads of that, Only problem I can see is doing it within budget. Eating in the main cities etc can cost a fortune, Everything was geared towards when the pound was strong and the euro weak, So of course when say a pizza cost 8 euro that was more like £5 or so now it's so close to 1-1 silly things like a pizza cost you £8 min. Even little package holidays self catering in places like Crete now cost a lot more being there than the cost of the holiday.
I've done several bike trips to Europe. There's already some good advice here, but to add a fee comments...
Don't dismiss Belgium - the WW1 cemeteries such as Tyne Cot are well worth a visit, and don't require any interest in military history to be genuinely moving. Same for the Menin Gate at Ypres, although you may have done these at school.
When travelling in France there aren't really many travel lodge type places by the side of the road, so you generally need to reach cities. We usually alternate, and do a few nights in a formula 1 which are ridiculously cheap no frills accommodation at 30 euros per room including breakfast, and then have a few nights in somewhere much nicer. You can always find somewhere to stay though - we never book anywhere in advance as that just puts pressure on to get to places. If you're in smaller towns, park up and head for tourist information, as they will ring round the local hotels and b&bs for you. The only time this nearly failed was when we ended up in Ypres to find the Belgium rally was there, but even then Tourist Information managed to find the only remaining room in town! I quite
I've bed and breakfasts as you come across some real characters.
Food - we're lucky that we both enjoy any food at all, so we generally play lucky dip, and just find a restaurant and point at random food. It's a good way of trying new things. Food is generally cheaper and better quality than the equivalent in the UK, however in Germany it was very mixed, but we did find an awesome little restaurant at the end of the D500. If you're in a big tourist city like Rome, just move away into the back streets and you get better food at half the price.
Spain - the main roads are stunningly good quality, but the roadside motels often double as strip joints and brothels for truckers!
Right, got to go to work, but will add more stuff later
Don't dismiss Belgium - the WW1 cemeteries such as Tyne Cot are well worth a visit, and don't require any interest in military history to be genuinely moving. Same for the Menin Gate at Ypres, although you may have done these at school.
When travelling in France there aren't really many travel lodge type places by the side of the road, so you generally need to reach cities. We usually alternate, and do a few nights in a formula 1 which are ridiculously cheap no frills accommodation at 30 euros per room including breakfast, and then have a few nights in somewhere much nicer. You can always find somewhere to stay though - we never book anywhere in advance as that just puts pressure on to get to places. If you're in smaller towns, park up and head for tourist information, as they will ring round the local hotels and b&bs for you. The only time this nearly failed was when we ended up in Ypres to find the Belgium rally was there, but even then Tourist Information managed to find the only remaining room in town! I quite
I've bed and breakfasts as you come across some real characters.
Food - we're lucky that we both enjoy any food at all, so we generally play lucky dip, and just find a restaurant and point at random food. It's a good way of trying new things
. Food is generally cheaper and better quality than the equivalent in the UK, however in Germany it was very mixed, but we did find an awesome little restaurant at the end of the D500. If you're in a big tourist city like Rome, just move away into the back streets and you get better food at half the price.Spain - the main roads are stunningly good quality, but the roadside motels often double as strip joints and brothels for truckers!
Right, got to go to work, but will add more stuff later
[TW]Fox;20634915 said:
I was chatting to a colleague yesterday who had been on a guided tour around CERN in Geneva, certainly something a bit different to your traditional euro-trip.
He described it like being inside a 'technological cathedral' which sounded pretty impressive to me, might be worth a punt if your travelling through or nearby?
And Austria.
I drove around Bavaria a couple of years ago, some really great places there. Go to Berchtesgaden to see Hitler's Eagle's Nest and take a boat trip on Konigssee. There is also a nice toll road called Rossfeldstrasse, had great fun up there with my rental Zafira!
If you are interested in architecture go to see the castles Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau.