kenny g
Sheeple Awake!
Mrs K was in her element driving us all at full tilt. Absolutely fucking terrifying.
Driving to France / Germany
- Thread starter tommers
- Start date
planetgeli
There's no future in England's dreaming
kenny g
Sheeple Awake!
Mossell is beautiful with great wines made on steep slopes in relatively small batches. You need to pay about a Euro to have a slash in service stations in Belgium. Starts adding up. Due to German privacy rules google Maps is not as accurate as in the UK. If we had followed it's directions we would have driven down a flight of stairs to get through a village.
spitfire
Walty McWaltface
Monte
You can't say lavatory without saying tory.
I thought they dropped that because people were doctoring the breathalysers.
Monte
You can't say lavatory without saying tory.
A lot of speed cameras in France are virtually invisible. They are just black posts about 4' tall and the national speed limit on all smaller roads is 80kmh or 50 mph.Thanks.
Apparently waze is OK but that's exactly the kind of nonsense I want to know about.
Can apps such as Waze show location of speed cameras on French roads?
Some countries in Europe have banned such applicationswww.connexionfrance.com
I picked up 4 tickets on the way to my house a few years back and they do send the fines to you in the UK.
No points on your licence luckily and at the time they were only 30 Euros each because I didn't go more than 5kmh over the limit.
What this meant on my next visit was that I was driving along at 50mph with lorries driving 6' behind me sounding their horns and flashing their lights trying to make me speed up.
It's not conducive to relaxed driving.
Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
I picked up 2 fines in Germany a couple of years ago, they sent them to the UK, only €17 each or something stupid, no way to pay online though, so binned them off. They take a picture of the driver, both mine had pics of me looking fabulous at the wheel, if you have a right hand drive car it will show your passenger's face, or like that guy did a few years ago, the Adolf Hitler mannequin placed in the passenger seat...
Sasaferrato
Super Refuser!
Going by the routes described there are no toll roads.
Schmetterling
I saw something nasty in the woodshed!
My home town is shown on that map.
Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
The Ghent ring-road always gives me the willies.
planetgeli
There's no future in England's dreaming
The autobahn was fine. Belgium was a bit hairy.
I did the Antwerp ring road and that was scary as hell.
Sasaferrato
Super Refuser!
Antwerp ring is worse.
A few years ago, I missed my turn and came into Berlin from the East, heading for Charlottenburg in the West. It was interesting.
RiderOnTheStorm
Well-Known Member
Glad you made it ! I'm thinking of taking my campervan to France next year (via the tunnel), so would appreciate any tips & insights you have for there.The autobahn was fine. Belgium was a bit hairy.
I have read the prev posts and thx to all who gave advice.....
Chz
Stark Raving Sane
Had a long drive from my mil's to the Gironde. Main things to note were the three hour wait for the Rayon ferry (this totally negating the time saved by not driving through Bordeaux), and that the car that will do 45mpg at 70 with two people in it only gets 39mpg with 5 people, luggage and going 80.
Monte
You can't say lavatory without saying tory.
...and that was just the women!The autobahn was fine. Belgium was a bit hairy.
Chz
Stark Raving Sane
And an outlier, in a bad way, in potholes!
Sasaferrato
Super Refuser!
Right hand drive makes junctions easy though. You look over and say 'I need to beside that kerb'.You need a first-aid kit in Germany to fully comply with the law.
And yeah, as klang intimated, 160 is a lot faster than 80. Even harder to see in a right-hand drive
Coming back from leave one year, and short on fuel, we went into Wankum to an Aral station because they took the fuel coupons. Having driven down from Fort William overnight, I wasn't at my sharpest. Filled up and set off... on the wrong side of the road. Traffic lights changed, and we are sitting there with three lanes of annoyed Germans heading straight at us. We survived.
planetgeli
There's no future in England's dreaming
Right hand drive makes junctions easy though. You look over and say 'I need to beside that kerb'.
Joining and overtaking on the autobahn? Not so much.
Nothing has beaten the Antwerp ring road for me though and I've driven extensively through Europe as well as some of the rest of the world. Wouldn't recommend Indonesia either personally. Great place. Just get someone else to do the driving and keep your eyes shut.
Sasaferrato
Super Refuser!
I've driven the Antwerp ring quite a few times. The worst was hitting in rush hour, where an accident had reduced it to one lane.
Joining etc, your passenger door mirror becomes your main mirror.
tommers
Fuck it, it's fine.
OK, so we went UK -> Reims -> Nancy -> Colmar -> Freiburg / Black Forest -> Heidelberg -> Cologne -> Gent -> UK. 10 days, 9 nights. Spent 3 nights in the Black Forest, and 2 in Gent. Stayed in a mix of AirBnBs and hotels. We went to these places cos we wanted to keep the driving down to at most 3 hours a day, and usually 2. Usually got going about 11 and to the new place by about 2.
We didn't really know anything about any of these places before we went there, but there was pretty much always something going on. For example in Freiburg they have a huge open air farmer's market on a saturday morning and you can get "Europe's longest cable car" from the mountain (Schauinland) where we were staying down into the town. Reim and Cologne have amazing cathedrals. The square in Nancy is stunning (Place Stanislas) and they have a sound & light show every night in the summer, which is brilliant.
We did the boat tour in Gent and also took a kayak out onto the river, which was a laugh. Belgian waffles are always good and we went to a great little pub on one of the evenings which my 12 year old daughter liked cos there was a picture of boobs on the wall. (Trollekelder). Gent's a great place, like Amsterdam but without all the twats, would recommend it.
Driving wise, everything was great. The French motorways were pretty much empty. We had that badge thing that somebody mentioned before, that was really good. Think it cost about 30 euros in tolls. Autobahn was fine, just like a normal motorway but people were doing 100 in the fast lane. Cologne requires the clean air thing but is really easy to get into and out of. The only thing to think about is Gent - they do a park and ride but the one we used had no ride. It was just a normal bus into town. We had booked an early train back, so we moved the car into a car park in town on the last night. That was loads cheaper then leaving it there all the time (like 6 euros instead of 60). They also have their own clean air licence thing. There really are very few cars in the centre.
Oh, and you can use tesco vouchers to pay for the Euro Tunnel, and they count double, so it makes it loads cheaper. Petrol is also generally cheaper, but not by loads.
I'd recommend it. Even the kids seemed to like it.
We didn't really know anything about any of these places before we went there, but there was pretty much always something going on. For example in Freiburg they have a huge open air farmer's market on a saturday morning and you can get "Europe's longest cable car" from the mountain (Schauinland) where we were staying down into the town. Reim and Cologne have amazing cathedrals. The square in Nancy is stunning (Place Stanislas) and they have a sound & light show every night in the summer, which is brilliant.
We did the boat tour in Gent and also took a kayak out onto the river, which was a laugh. Belgian waffles are always good and we went to a great little pub on one of the evenings which my 12 year old daughter liked cos there was a picture of boobs on the wall. (Trollekelder). Gent's a great place, like Amsterdam but without all the twats, would recommend it.
Driving wise, everything was great. The French motorways were pretty much empty. We had that badge thing that somebody mentioned before, that was really good. Think it cost about 30 euros in tolls. Autobahn was fine, just like a normal motorway but people were doing 100 in the fast lane. Cologne requires the clean air thing but is really easy to get into and out of. The only thing to think about is Gent - they do a park and ride but the one we used had no ride. It was just a normal bus into town. We had booked an early train back, so we moved the car into a car park in town on the last night. That was loads cheaper then leaving it there all the time (like 6 euros instead of 60). They also have their own clean air licence thing. There really are very few cars in the centre.
Oh, and you can use tesco vouchers to pay for the Euro Tunnel, and they count double, so it makes it loads cheaper. Petrol is also generally cheaper, but not by loads.
I'd recommend it. Even the kids seemed to like it.
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