Gav525's Euro Road Trip 2019

RubberLover

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Brilliant thread. Have always wanted to do this myself and just making the urge stronger.

Thanks for the updates and sharing your adventure!
 

gav525

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Day 6.....think we're at 2200ish miles now. Not much to report really as left the hotel in Austria this morning, turned right onto the autoroute and sat nav basically said go straight for 230km,then turn off and go straight for another 200odd kms ffs.

6hrs driving, 300 and something miles and 25.9mpg. Boring, but needs must to get to places.

Budapest itself seems good, driving round it wasn't too bad and have a good underground parking spot. Noticed a few English plated Ferraris in there also so guess they're here for the F1 an all.

Spent the afternoon at some outdoor pool thing drinking, and will spend the next few days mainly eating and getting blocked. Will stick a few F1 photos up as there'll be no driving done til Monday now.

Pretty much the view for the day lol
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This afternoons craic
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And one I took last night in Austria, loved that place
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FM155

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Is that Paul Stewart behind Jackie giving you the beady eye lol?
 

gav525

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Is that Paul Stewart behind Jackie giving you the beady eye lol?

One of the bouncers at the hotel lol. Saying that could've been anybody, there were a few people came and went who people were taking photos of that we had no clue who they were 🤔
 

FM155

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One of the bouncers at the hotel lol. Saying that could've been anybody, there were a few people came and went who people were taking photos of that we had no clue who they were 🤔
Aye, guessed that but he does have a passing resemblance to PS, like he ate him or something lol.

Sir Jack is a ledge, not many from that era of F1 survived to tell the tale. :cool:

I was in tears watching the Jim Clark & Graham Hill documentaries on BBC2 a few years back with footage of holidays with all of them together with their families and now he's the only one left.
 

Cossers

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Totally agree with Andy, really appreciate you taking the time out of your holidays to post the pics and smack the keyboard :grinning:

This really is on my to do list now, tbh that’s what like is, right here and now and memories, your making great ones.
 

gav525

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Cheers for the comments lads, good to know it's of interest to some. Wish I was better at writing blogs or whatever, but sure it gives yous an idea of a euro road trip and hopefully helps yous plan your own.

Leaving Budapest at 6am tomorrow morning as want to miss the morning rush hour, plus we've near 1000km to bang out. Not looking forward to that at all! Tomorrow night is just a stop off South of Milan in a place which refers to itself as a wine hotel. Sounds good to me! They have a wee vineyard and outdoor pool, so hopefully get a dip and a few glasses of vino.

Budapest has been great, got roasted at the F1 today! Wee river cruise tonight to finish it off for us.

Few of the other cars in the car park. Was happy enough leaving the car here, not so sure I'd want to leave it on the street here really.

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Yesterday's fun, brilliant craic
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And a few from the track
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And that's tomorrow boring route 😴
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Cossers

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Have to say, still a real soft spot for an Aston, esp the darker grey ! Mmmm
 

Daviddunlop83

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Already 5w40 in it as that's what Merc spec. If I was keeping it I'd probably do the 507 bonnet with the vents, but it's £3k!

And autobahn sounds good in practice but reality is way different. Got a good few runs in the Mini last year, but the ones we were on this year were too busy. Seemed to be every time I hit 150mph, a Dacia Duster would pull out doing 60mph so hard on the brakes. Always a fecking Dacia an all 😂
And no matter how fast you go, you will always be passed by a middle aged business woman in a diesel Octavia estate, while eating her breakfast and on the phone

Hit 174mph on the bike on the autobahn a few months back, but then the side winds tried to blow me into the central reservation. Plus my helmet was pushed so far into my face I couldn't breathe, and the wind blowing through my helmet meant I couldn't see either 😂 Great fun!

I’ve only been on it once in a rental car going skiing. On the way back to the airport we saw an Audi, into the tree backwards, tree snapped lying on the roof, with the ambulance guy trying to cut his was through the windscreen with some type it saw. Must have just happened as the ambulance has abandoned on the opp side of the road, no police or fire there yet.

Road was covered in slush, god knows what speed the Audi was doing.
 

gav525

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Right, that was a long day lol. Ideally wouldn't have done that, but it would have meant losing a day in South of France so had to be done.

Left at 6.30am, then hit a 2hr tailback in Ljubljana in Slovenia due to a crash. Luckily Google maps came to the rescue and we found a good few back roads to get round it. Merc sat nav with live traffic is sh1te, I swear she sleeps half the time as sometime she's on the ball, others she hasn't a clue!

Got to the wee wine resort I'd booked and absolutely blown away by how class it is! Only 6 rooms, loads of wine and apparently very tasty food. Rooms are class as well. Got wine tasting later this evening and dare say we'll buy a load to take home. Kinda gutted we've already paid for next hotel as we'd stay here an extra night easy!

Plans for tomorrow are down to the coast, then along the Italian and French riviera, into Monaco for a wander round and lunch then on out to the place we've booked for 3nights to chill outside Cannes.

Budapest last night from the wee boat cruise
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The results of todays drive
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Another vignette added to the screen today for Slovenia
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Slovenian diversion through the sticks, bonus class volvo shot
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Plenty of this drunk today.had actually filled up in Austria before entering Hungary as I'd read I couldn't get 97 octane or above there. Brough octane booster with me in case, but luckily that full lasted until we crossed into Slovenia today and could fill up again with good stuff
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Home for tonight
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Cossers

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Jeezzz! That some amount of miles in a day, no wonder your floating in the pool lifeless! Lol

You latest place looks lovely, is it a spa or something? Nice stablemate with the amg

Would you quit with the grey cars, doing my nut right in! :grinning:
 

quattro Rick

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Not cleaning the car is grand and all, but that rear screen being barely cleaned by the wiper is slightly annoying 😂 get some of @Big Pimp s glass cleaner to sort that out!

Can't believe your fuel cap says 98 Ron 😮 near sure the rs6 says 95 Ron

Some brilliant scenery again and that mpg is impressive
 

gav525

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Jeezzz! That some amount of miles in a day, no wonder your floating in the pool lifeless! Lol

You latest place looks lovely, is it a spa or something? Nice stablemate with the amg

Would you quit with the grey cars, doing my nut right in! :grinning:

It's good to get a dip after all the driving like. It's called a wine resort, never heard of one til I saw it on Booking.com but would definitely 100% come back! It's called Prime Alture, real secluded wee place. Food has been unreql, just ate half a horse there(actual horse lol, had to try it), and working my way through the wines. Was a bargain as well, £115 a night I think it was.

You'll be in a grey Aston next I bet 😀

Not cleaning the car is grand and all, but that rear screen being barely cleaned by the wiper is slightly annoying 😂 get some of @Big Pimp s glass cleaner to sort that out!

Can't believe your fuel cap says 98 Ron 😮 near sure the rs6 says 95 Ron

Some brilliant scenery again and that mpg is impressive

Lol, I hate cleaning the car when I'm at home let alone a road trip. Hateful job! The rear screen wash will move that dirt tomorrow, had to come up a dusty track to get here earlier. The front is crusted over with dead bugs an all now, will take some cleaning when I get back, if I have time.

Yes they say 98 but can take 95 as standard. However with the map on mine it has to be run on 97 or above all the time, preferably 99 though.
 

gav525

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Great stuff. Some jaunt that.

Have you tried Waze sat nav? I love it. Handy for alerting you to traffic and cops too.

Actually hadn't used it on this trip yet mate, good call though especially coming into France! Will get it downloaded.

See to be honest, in the whole trip I've seen one police car on the main roads, and it was going the opposite way. The police in Slovenia earlier at the garage smiled and have a thumbs up which was good, wondered why they kept looking over and was a bit paranoid lol.
 

andy9eleven

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I’d be careful in France. Read reports recently that the cops are really out to get the Brits atm with fines. Don’t know if any truth in it but papers were quoting big increase in numbers of requests from DVLA for details of U.K. drivers.

Definitely planning a Euro road trip for next year so enjoying reading this.
 

gav525

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I’d be careful in France. Read reports recently that the cops are really out to get the Brits atm with fines. Don’t know if any truth in it but papers were quoting big increase in numbers of requests from DVLA for details of U.K. drivers.

Definitely planning a Euro road trip for next year so enjoying reading this.

No you're exactly right mate. Limits have been reduced on country roads and they hate UK drivers taking the pi55.

There was a guy on the S1000RR forum and his mate had the 2 bikes taken off them, had thousands of euro fines and weren't allowed to collect the bikes there and then so had to fly home first then go back for them, pay storage costs etc.

Not worth it at all really.

The only place I'll be messing about is at the old Reims circuit as want the wife to video a few drive bys 😂
 

gav525

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Day 9 and just under 3000miles done. Great meal and wine had last night, tried horse for the first time much to the wife's disgust, good eating. That one we have at home may watch itself as its getting on a bit now 🍽️🐴

Nice wee short day today down to the hotel in Villeneuve-Loubet. Never been up the Cote D'Azur before so good to see.

Had a 3hr drive down to Monaco for lunch and a lap of the track. Couldn't park outside the Casino ffs as police had it blocked off ☹️ Love Monaco, such a buzz about the place and could walk around all day just looking at boats, cars and people.

Washed the back window before I left for @quattro Rick 😂
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Most expensive fill of the trip so far 🤮
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On the starting grid
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Going up the hill after turn 1
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Was snapped by some car spotters going round the Fairmont hairpin 😂
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Some class boats, love Rivas

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Nice wee classic Peugeot cruising around
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This guy was booting it off every speed bump which sounded lovely! I was also doing the same. He then proceeded to be a cock and overtake a whole line of traffic forcing oncoming cars to swerve 🙄
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And another good parking spot. That's one of my main reasons for booking places, good secure parking, no stupid tight spaces or up on the kerb. Always check it out using Google Street View an all to be sure. Europeans take the meaning of bumpers when parking literally lol
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