Road Trips: Routes, Photos and Videos!

Day 8 - Home

Our Eurotunnel home was late in the day, so we were in no rush to get to Calais.

A nice breakfast....

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As usual for most trips, we stopped off in Luxembourg to take advantage of cheap diesel (€0.95 / litre) and have a relaxed lunch. I say relaxed, but there was a band trying to entertain people.

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The closer we got to Calais, the worse the weather got. At one point on the motorway, we had to crawl at 15kph due to the fact the rain was so heavy we couldn't actually see the road. We made it in time and again managed to catch an earlier train.

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Erm, i'm sure this should have some info and a boarding letter on it?

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Thanks for reading. Videos to follow shortly.

Interested in coming next year? PM Me.
 
Thank you for sharing all that! Looks amazing mate. How comes you and the mrs drove in separate cars then?
 








 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Of course, if anybody does fancy Passo Gavia, have a look here.....





Starts off fairly civilised, smooth roads, safety barriers, two lanes, etc. Then that soon changes :laugh:
 
A little follow up to July's road trip.

So.....i just happened to be in Austria again last month ;) so i tackled the Grossglockner again. However, this time i was outta bed super early and at the toll station for 5am :eek: Made it to the top in no time at all and in time for the sunrise :smashin:

And believe it or not, the photos are in order!

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And you may be asking what it is like driving up the Grossglockner in the pitch black, with no street lighting and no other cars......well, here you go :)

And once again, i have to apologise about the sound quality. After fixing the placement issue, seems there is a break in the cable, as the sound cuts in and out and crackles like crazy.

 
Anybody any plans for 2018 yet?
 
His story/figures are a bit fishy. And i’m 99% sure those Irish plates aren’t legal.
 
Breaks the law and then talks about having detectors to avoid breaking the law, even though he has broken the law with time he has claimed :facepalm:

More fishy than a Spanish trawler.
 
Introduction

So......2018. The 4th proper, out and out road trip. Each year the route and itinerary change, with tweaks to driving miles per day, countries visited, passes driven, hotels stayed at and activities on the rest days. As usual, no road trip is without incident (well, it seems in my case anyway!) and you'll read more about them in the following write up. 2018 also saw us embark on the longest road trip yet, at 9 days and most miles driven at nearly 2800. My Croatian friend has been banging on in my ear about how beautiful Croatia is and how amazing the food and drink is for many years now. So last year i said to her, "ok ok, i'll go on the next road trip." Fast forward to 2018 and here we are. And she wasn't wrong!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading :)

2018 Euro Alpine Road Trip

Day 1 - Lets leave this crappy weather behind......hold on, the UK is in the worst heatwave since 1976!

Usually when people go away for a summer break it is for the good weather, but here in the UK, we've had weeks and weeks of hot summer (28° or higher) so i was actually looking forward to some cool mountain air. Even leaving the house at 5am for the Eurotunnel the air was hot and sticky. As a side note, those of you reading the UK news would have read about the Eurotunnel delays caused by the hot weather. Looks like we got lucky departing when we did as there were no delays for us.

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After the brief train journey, the sat-nav route was loaded and Liectechstein was our final destination for the day. I've never been to Liectechstein before, so was another country to cross off the list. I will say this though, it's bloody expensive! You can think of Liectechstein of an extension of Switzerland in terms of costs, rules/laws and infrastructure.

A little something to help with the long drive ahead.

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And a milestone.

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As usual, we go via Luxembourg for the cheap diesel (0.98p/litre) but we got stuck in traffic in Belgium for what seems like hours.....well actually, it was. Lost two hours in Belgian roadworks which meant that at 14:00 we were still only 100 miles from Calais, and 500 miles still to drive! Refuelling in Luxembourg at 15:46, meant we had a long final drive to the hotel.

We arrived at the hotel at 21:45, a full 15 mins before checkin closed. Nothing like cutting it fine.

Total mileage of the day?

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Only one thing to do after a long drive......food and beer!

What to choose?

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The hotel

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Total driving time (including stops/fuel ups/Eurotunnel/etc) - 17 hours / 705 miles
 
2018 Euro Alpine Road Trip

Day 2 - New Roads

A bright and early starts with a typical German breakfast of meat, cheese and bread.

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Hmmmm, weather doesn't look too good, but it's still early.

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Stopping off for an early driving break en route to the Austrian Furka Pass

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But's not long before he arrive at our first mountain pass

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And only a short drive to the first major pass, the Silvrettastrasse.
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Apologies for the finger :(

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Bit of an issue trying to leave the top though :laugh:

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And you can never have too many beer glasses

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En route to the Hahntennjoch Pass, we tackled the Flexenpass.....bloody foggy!

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There are mountains over there, i promise!

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The summit, including a fresh water spring.

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join two photos together

"European Watershed, North Sea, Black Sea"

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After a short drive and a few hairpins, we reach the summit of the Hahntennjoch Pass

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Ready to descend

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View of the little people below, just outside of Imst :)

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Final roads of the day are Haimingerberg Landesstrasse and Hauptstrasse.

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Reward for a hard day's driving!

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Mileage to date

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Getting back to the hotel, i fancied another beer and the GF returned with this......

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Total driving time (including stops/fuel ups/etc) - 9 hours / 207 miles
 
2018 Euro Alpine Road Trip

Day 3 - The Sella Pass......finally!

Another German breakfast of chees, meat and bread and we were on our way again.

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Today was the day i decided to use my cheap Chinese GoPro knockoff camera. I attached it to my tow hook eye mount and screwed it into the bumper. Dead, it wouldn't even turn on! I tested before travelling and all good. After plugging in some charge it came to life, so left it to charge whilst we continued on to the summit of our first pass of the day, the Timmelsjoch. However, at the summit i had a little thought.....where is my tow hook cover? Yup, on the floor on the Austrian side of the Timmelsjoch! So if anybody finds a tow hook cover from a LCI E90 in Azurite Black....it's mine!

We tackled the Timmelsjoch back in 2016 and the weather was awful and to be honest it wasn't much better this time around :(

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More fog

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Looked like the German R8 Owners Club was also in attendance

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But thankfully, the Italian side was much nicer weather :)

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The hairpinned road of the descent

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Then onto the Jaufenstrasse / Passo Giovo......

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And some amazing cake from here!

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Then it was Penserjoch

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And finally, the Sella Pass! In 2016 we had to give it a miss, due to running out of time and then in 2017 we were due to drive it on a Wednesday that it was closed to combustion engined vehicles.

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More roadworks!

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And the first of many that night!

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Total driving time (including stops/fuel ups/etc) - 10 hours / 272 miles
 
2018 Euro Alpine Road Trip

Day 4 - New Countries

Woke up to a fantastic view from the hotel room. Maybe we'll get some decent weather?

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Mmmmmm, cakes for breakfast!

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Passo Del Predil

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Just over Passo Del Predil takes us into Slovenia. Our first time in Slovenia and it really is beautiful. Our view whilst we have a bite to eat.

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Working our way down through Slovenia, we took a wrong turning and i suggested we turn around and take the correct turning, but i was overuled. We ended up on a gravel road for about 5 miles. We eventually civilisation and tarmac.

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Before we knew it, we were in the queue for the border / customs for Croatia. A quick glance at the passports and we were on our way again. Our hotel was in the coastal town of Malinska on the largest island of Croatia, Krk. To access Krk, you can use the bridge, or the ferry. We opted for the bridge, very quick and a cheap toll. The view from the car park just after the bridge.

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One thing we noticed straight away about Croatia....it was face melting hot! Which means one thing.....BEER!!! Some local brew, Karlovacko.

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And some food.

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Some more local brew, this time, Ozujsko

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