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Ok - as some of you know, I recently undertook an arduous trip driving around Europe, from my home in the middle of England, down to the southern tip of Europe at the Rock of Gibraltar. Along the way we took in 12 countries - and most of the places we stayed in weren't the usual touristy type areas - well, not for us Brits anyway.

Luxembourg - this was our first port of call, after taking the ferry to France, then driving through Belgium (I've been to Belgium before). I must say the roads in Belgium are really good to drive on, and what I really liked was that the central reservation between the two carriageways, was full of trees, so you couldn't see the other side of the road. I could imagine this is really good if there is an accident, as it reduces the chances of rubber-necking.
Anyway, Luxembourg. I actually really liked it. The city itself had a mix of old and new, and despite being a "major" capital city of Europe, it's not too big or overwhelming. Seems though that it is easy to find the red-light district though, so try to avoid that!! It's a place I definately would like to explore further in the future - I'd consider living there too!!

Munich, Germany - well, the best thing about driving in Germany has to be the Autobahn's. No speedlimits on many of the roads, so it's foot down. I only managed 130mph - when you aren't used to driving at those kind of speeds, its a bit nervy I can tell you.
Munich is nice, we stayed on the outskirts and the area we were in was actually a big residential area (looked like one of the more afluent suburbs of Munich). The hotel was spread over 5 bulidings, so as to blend in to the background, which it did perfectly. The place was very relaxing indeed.

Innsbruck, Austria - Warning to those driving to Austria - you need to purchase a Vignette to drive in Austria on the motorways - it's like a pre-payment toll I guess. There are only a couple of roads that have additional tolls, one of which was a tunnel that was about 16km through a mountain!
Innsbruck I found to be a dirty and run down kind of place. I know this is a top venue for skiing trips (and has hosted the Winter Olympics twice), but personally I found it very dated and very tourist un-friendly! Wanting to buy a coffee at 10:30am was nigh on impossible, and the supermarket didn't sell crisps (potato chips)! However, the sweets I bought there have gone down a treat at work!! The rest of Austria is very pretty, and the drive through the Alps is breathtaking.

Vaduz, Liectenstein - Ok, this is a place people go to so they can say they've visited yet another country. It's an incredibly small country, but incredibly picturesque all the same. I'd probably say that it was the highlight of the trip for me. Vaduz is a very small and very clean city. We didn't have much time to look round, but what we did see mixed stunning old architecture with new, and it did it very well. The highlight is the royal palace. Look up to the mountains from anywhere in Vaduz, and the palace looks down on the city - must be a fantastic vantage point for the crown prince to see all his serfs!

Veves & Lausanne, Switzerland - we stayed in the pretty village of Chexbres, between Veves and Lausanne, on the banks of Lake Geneva, with the Alps all around. Its a shame the hotel wasn't up to the standards of the surrounds - my dad described it as quaint, I would have described it as awful!!
Veves - nice town (which is most famous for being the headquarters of Nestlé) with a few shops and a big market for you shoppers.
Lausanne - home of the olympics, well, the Olympic Committee and museum anyway. The museum was well worth a visit, and holds all kinds of memorabilia from the Olympics, going back to the ancient Greek games.

Monaco - Ok, this place is very heavily populated, and the traffic is awful - but we managed to do the one thing we came to do - drive around the same streets that make-up the famous Formula 1 circuit. That was the one highlight of Monaco!

Beaulieu sur mer, South of France - This place is a traditional French town on the south coast of France. Its a very touristy town, catering for the many hundreds of yachts that park in the marina each night. Whilst it was a really nice place, it wasn't for me!

Salou, Spain - This is a traditional Spanish sea-side resort on North-Eastern Spain - Catalan country! I first came here in 1985, and 21 years later, the place is much, much busier and dirtier and sleezier!! I really don't like this place at all - indeed I have to be cafeful with my choice of words as my best friends sister lives there! So I'm being polite - avoid!!

Torreviejca, Spain - This place I've been to a couple of times in recent years on golf trips. There are many golf courses in this area which is on the coast near Murcia. But I just thought that on this occasion, without the golf, it was a bit dull!

Ok, Part 2 to come later!

Zoots.

Sounds like a great trip.

One of the spookiest things I saw while traveling was in Innsbruck. We walked into a bar, I went to the back to grab a seat. My buddy comes back with two pints all red faced and spooked out (eventhough he is a redhead you could still see the red on his face). He told me to go to the middle of the bar and order two more beers and look behind the bartender. There in a prominent place was a bust of hitler (in brass) measuring at least 1 foot to 18 inches in height. In a place were most bars display thropy's won by teams sponsore by bars, etc.

I went back to my friend and said "holy sh!t", etc. As we were finishing our beers my friend says: "oh I think there is a parade outside lets check it out". Well, as we were walking past the bar on the way out we realized there was no parade at all. It was marching music coming out of the Juke Box. Crazy stuff, the craziest thing is that this bar was only about a block and 1/2 away from the trains station (we had just arrived from Munich).

Without wishing to generalise, but their are still many Austirans that are on the "far right" - and of course Hitler is one of Austria's famous sons (if famous is the word).

Anyway, I wasn't a big fan of Innsbruck, but I'd love to go back to Austria to see a few other places as the scenary is just so incredible!

zoots

did you travel cough cough spluter rattle rattle clonk clonk style all the way ???

arniegang wrote:zoots

did you travel cough cough spluter rattle rattle clonk clonk style all the way ???

The diesel drove very well thanks very much - I managed to keep up with a Ferrari and a 5-litre Merc on the way to Turin!
Plus: Diesel is much cheaper in Europe than Petrol - saved me many a pretty penny!!

the_zooter wrote:

arniegang wrote:zoots

did you travel cough cough spluter rattle rattle clonk clonk style all the way ???

The diesel drove very well thanks very much - I managed to keep up with a Ferrari and a 5-litre Merc on the way to Turin!
Plus: Diesel is much cheaper in Europe than Petrol - saved me many a pretty penny!!

zoots

was this a dream while you fell asleep in a lay by, you probably passed that McLaren F1 as well whilst zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

arniegang wrote:

the_zooter wrote:

arniegang wrote:zoots

did you travel cough cough spluter rattle rattle clonk clonk style all the way ???

The diesel drove very well thanks very much - I managed to keep up with a Ferrari and a 5-litre Merc on the way to Turin!
Plus: Diesel is much cheaper in Europe than Petrol - saved me many a pretty penny!!

zoots

was this a dream while you fell asleep in a lay by, you probably passed that McLaren F1 as well whilst zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Ha ha - I actually have pics to prove it!!

Zoots thats a great writeup .. waiting for part 2


BTW did you add up your Diesel costs ? I would think such a drive would be costly. Also did you have to service your car at any point ?

what car were u driving?