Coffee-Orange?

Day 10 Summary

10 days after we all set off we have arrived home. Over 4000km driven, 10 countries in all:
France, Monacco, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourgh, Belgium, Holland and United Kingdom. I admit we didn't all drive all of them but I think the minimum visited was 7 maximum 9 by a single car. Not sure our Carbon Footprint was particularly good but what a holiday...
Now wishing we'd turned left again at Calais and headed south again towards Nice. Unfortunately at various times over a 12 hour period we all turned north and headed towards home.
Andy G & Ste headed home overnight covering 5 countries in 12 hours. Phil L & Mike followed close behind stopping in Sandgate. Jon & Phil, Claire & Jayne, Andy & Katherine all arrived in the UK within about 90 minutes of each other via various means of transport and even managed to arrive home within 20 minutes of each other. The further north we travelled, the more cloud we found. Welcome home...

Homeio!

Home by half four. Mum and dad had sorted a meal for us and bread and milk - what stars! What a great (but tiring) holiday! Thanks all! Cant wait to see the vids and piccys.

Radio One!

Onto the M6 and had just switched on radio one when we get a text from Andy M saying he had texted the jo whiley show about 'the cheap way round'. Knowing radio one, i decided to email from my phone as i could add more details and hopefully hook them into reading it out - and it worked! If you have access to Bbc iPlayer, listen again to Jo whiley on radio 1 for today - at about 15.30. My email was as follows:

Re road trips. Just heading back from a road trip round europe- 10 people, 5 cars, 9 days. Two MGs, old beamer, and two modern cars. France, italy, austria, germany, luxemborg and belgium. Driven the petrol head routes - The Le Mans straight, the Col de Turini and the Stelvio Pass. Ended up in Munich at Oktoberfest. Brilliant time had by all. Now just heading back up m6 to manchester- spot the cars by 'the cheap way round' door magnets- we were inspired by Ewan and Charlies biking tours. Claire, phil and Jayne in a 206 somewhere near Birmingham- say hi!

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Tea and bacon butties

Chunnel quick but no tea and coffee facilities. Most disappointing. Jayneio readio her bookio and Claire had a napio. Straight off the chunnel and over to Sandgate where my Aunty Anne lives (Mike's mum). We were greeted with huge smiles and a mug of tea and a sausage and bacon butty - wonderful! Anne and her boyfriend David live in a lovely flat overlooking the beach. I'd not seen my Aunty since my brother Mark's wedding so it was great to catch up a bit. Our Phil paid for his keep by fixing Anne's wireless network!
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Nearly there....

Miracles Do Happen

We've cleared the M25!!

M25 Take Two

Phil & Jon are hoping the M25 is better this time round...

Café D'anio

Location: situated on the Sandgate riviera just minutes from the Chunnel this idilic location is a must for the weary traveller.
(Score 5/5)
Menu: although the menu is limited the food is of a high quality with a seemingly limitless supply of coffee-orange.
(Score 4/5 no black pudding)
Hospitality: can always expect to recieve a warm greeting for returning customers and new customers alike.
(Score 5/5)
Internet Facilities: these appeared to be broken on arrival but the connection was re-established during our stay.
(Score 2/5)

In Summary: bestio stopio thisa sidea tunnelio.

On the Chunnel!

How exciting! Very impressed with efficiency so far. Am getting ready for brain to do a somersault once we are back driving on the correct side of the road again. Jon and phil on earlier train and so we got told off at the border cos we'd booked on jons credit card and obviously didnt have it with us. Got through ok though. Now sat waiting to go. Phil w just rung us from his bag - a phantom phonecall. Guess they have arrived either at Mikes or his mums. Off for a cuppa there in a bit and to collect Phil L. Blighty here we come!
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The Last Boarder Crossing

Our last day, our last boarder crossing....
It's brass monkey weather, cold, damp and foggy, real foggy. Only 150km still to go on foreign soil and then back to good old Blighty for tea and cakes. What Ho!
Unfortunately the poor weather has upset the old girl - the car dear boy, the car. She really didn't want to get going this morning. She appears to be more suited to the warmer climes of jonnie foriegner...
Still it'll nice to be back home in a country where things work, the signs, petrol pumps and people make sense.

Day 9 Summary

Nine, Nine Get Out!
So we left Germany and drove through Luxembourgh and into Belgium. What can we say about Belgium, specifically Ghent... It's an industrial holeio twinned with Rotherhaminio.
Andy M & Katherine went to the Nurburgring; then to Brugge via Holland.
Ste & Andy G have decided to set of late and drive through the night to catch a early Chunnel. We think they're already there... muchio earlyio...also via Holland.
Phil L & Mike.... erm ... missing in action - we have no idea but expect them to reach the UK early Sunday.

So that's nearly it, approximately 3800km & 15 tanks of fuel we're nearly back where we started...

More tomorrow but for now sleep is needed....

Tiredio

11 hour day, from Munchen to Saarbrucken to Luxemburg to Brussels to random place in middle of nowhere, aka Belgium. Thoughtie language was french but appears to be a mix with dutch. So gettin nowhere. At least they speak english. Nightie nightie.

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Muchio Sleepio Needio

Philio muchio drivio. Muchio sleepio needio. Beerio. Snorio

Zzzzzzzzio

Muchio Crapio Hotelio

Crapio viewio. Muchio sleepio needio. Muchio driveio dunnio.

European Service Stations Tour 2009

Another country, another service station... I've list count as to how many we've visited but based on the RV8's tank having a range of 300-350km it's lots!

So my 206 does 110!

Then seems to max out. Not bad for a little car

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Driving like a german

Jon behind the wheel on the autobahn again. Oh the satisfaction of overtaking a porche in a 206!

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Day 8 To Summerise

Oktoberfest - there is much beer. There are many costumes. The men look silly but the ladies, the ladies, the ladies, they look lovely. There's lots of money to be made if you're a trader, €7 for 0.5l beer, €3 for a head sized pretzel, €7 for half a chicken, €23 for a silly hat - ever felt had Ste?
There's beer, lots of it.
Ste, Phil L, Andy M & Mike did the sights, all 2 of them...
Did I mention there was beer?
There's a fairground, you can all be silly on the dodgems if you have a mental age like ours!
There's pretzels as big as you head (photo to follow soon).
There's beer....

Must go, another 517 miles to drive tomorrow...darn it, that'll be today then.

Beer, Beer, Beer, Beer.....

Do you do a diet coke?

Don't drink and drive

I have a confession to make....

I think this could be the first time I've ever been drink driving... but do dodgems count?!!

(Photos to follow)

Munich

Once again we all did our own thing however this time we managed to only split into 2 groups...mainly. Jayne, Claire & Jon did the sights (of which there are many). Everyone else did a walk through a couple of parks ending up at the English Garden, by the Chinese Restuarant listening to an Umpar band.?!
Once we'd all met up again it was off to Oktoberfest. can I suggest turning up at 18:00 on a Friday isn't the best of ideas of you want to get into a beer tent. Anyway, finally we found a beer garden that we could fit into. Much hilarity was had. Anyway, due to much travelling to be done we're back to the hotel by 23:30...next time there will be more time for beer, pretzels the size of yer 'eed and half chickens....so long as I've managed to take out a loan...

Oktoberfest!

Need i say any more? ...

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Munich by day

Is lovely. Jon, Jayne and I walked round the center of the city and loved the architecture and cafe culture again (although it was mostly beer gardens on the main streets instead of cafes). Everyone else headed for the English garden to the north of the city and found an Umpa-Lumpa band playing by the bar. (Brass band to you and me, and yes this park was so big, it had 3 pubs and a place to surf the river!)

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Day 7 In Summary

Ok I'll try but it's likely to be feagmented. I'm tired, driven all day in 2 different cars and haven't really caught up with everything that's happened, but here goes...
Andy M, Katherine, Ste and Andy G went up Stelvio Pass. The cars survived without fire or incident. Andy G got to sit in a Lambogini it the top due to his 'I am the Stig' T-shirt. Ste hung out of his MG window to try to identify a squeek whilst moving resulting in the bonnet up, the car up on it's jack and Ste banging the brakes with a wrench. British engineering knowhow at it's best...
Phil W, Jon, Phil L, Mike, Jayne & Claire drove Passo de Rombo and ended up in Innsbrook.
Phil W met up with a very lovely lady in Innsbrook.
Jon had to blag a lift with another car to Munich.
Jon discovered Claires 206 can do 108 mph.
Mike discovered he could effectively weld the front end of his car to the back end of Claire's through Munich's rush hour traffic.
We discovered our hotel appear to be at the end of the runway....

I can think of worse places to be

Ok, do we had to lift the bonnet to let things cool....and? With a location like this it was a real hardship to gave to hang around 30 minutes whilst engine and coolant temperatures came below that of a small star.
Must apologise for photo, mountain too high, iPhone camera too pants, didn't want number plate on web

Magnetic Door Plates

Have now been legally tested upto 108 mph. They're still attached which unfortunately means that the one that Phil W & Jon have lost was probably due to 5 fingured discount or their inability to attach it properly.
Oh yeah, the Peugeot can reach 108 and was only foiled from reaching 110 mph by a lack of an additional 5 miles of road and some roadworks!

Passo de Rombo

I'm one of the happiest people alive! I've spent today driving Phil W's RV8 from Lake Garda to Innsbruck via the Passo de Rombo (SS44) between Italy and Austria. Ok, it was no Stelvio Pass as some where driving today but I got to drive it all up to a height of 2509m. It needed a little time to cool if at the top and yet another bonnet opening session to aid cooling but other than that it was fine. I've got to drive muchio twistio roadio in very nice cario. Had a great dayio. As you can tell my Italian is coming on in leaps and bounds....I've learnt from the Andy Major school of linguistics. ... You can also tell it takes very little to impress me really. Give me a good road to drive, a nice car to drive it in and some excellent weather and scenery and I'm happy....

Missing in Action

If anyone happens to be in the Lake Garda or Bellzano areas of Italy would you mind keeping your eyes open for a "cheapwayround" magnetic door plate. Phil W & Jon appear to have misplaced one of theirs... now it's either been 'borrowed' by some light fingered Italian or we rather hope is attached to the front end of some lorry travelling along the E45...

On the autobahns

And the speeds are frighteningly fast.
Jon is now driving, much to my relief as i was not looking forward to it. Currently my car does 108!
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Austria!

Is gorgeous! Shame we just drove through it today but we did have time to do one of the shorter mountain passes. All picture postcardy. Will definitely be coming back!

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Life is tough

I'm wondering if you ever tire of scenery and weather like this?

Spot the delibrate mistake

They placed a sign where it could be hit....

We is cultured we is

Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whole misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

Day 6 - To Summerise

Can't tell you much about today as we all did our own thing and I've no idea what most people did. This is what I do know:
Phil W & Mike drove Stelvio Pass a la Top Gear in the RV8. Apparently it's worth the drive. I think Andy M & Katherine, Ste & Andy G are planning to blow up their engines tomorrow on the same pass.
As you've probably worked out by now Claire, Myself, Phil L & Jayne all went to Verona which is a beautiful city and must be visited at some point in your lifetime. I think we're all planning return visits at some time. We managed to catch up with Hannah Brownlow who's out in Verona "studying" as part of her degree. I managed Nottingham Trent, she's in Verona?! I think I may have missed a trick there...

Verona - we were well cultured so we were

Finally we found her - the statue of the famous Juliet and the balcony. It was in a small courtyard down some narrow side alley and seemed to be the point at which all tours finished so the tourists could rub the statue Juliets breast in order to meet their next love. In the side alley there was a graffiti wall with "love messages" all over it. So i had to join in. (Dont worry, i wasnt defacing an old building, there was canvas attached to the walls for this purpose). After meeting Hannah, she asked us he we'd seen Kate Moss and took us to see a statue of a contorted woman who definitely looked like her. Also she showed us a statue of The first King of Italy, curiously named
King (whatever is name was) the second. She wasnt sure what had happened to the first. (Answers on a postcard to: Random King Statue, Near Ye Olde Roman Arena, That Big Piazza, Pretty Town Near That Big Lake, That Country That Looks Like a Boot)
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Verona and swallowtail crenellations

Swallowtail crenellations: Apparently it is like the negative space of the "golden arches" that appear along the battlements of the town walls to signify that the town wanted to stick two fingers up to the Pope and back the German Emperor instead. Thus said Hannah, Phil L(')s cousin who had just started uni in Verona this week and we met up with her this afternoon.
Gettin(g) to Verona today was fun, we got to the outskirts with no problems and then proceeded to get thoroughly lost in the town center, the scariest moment being when the italian drivers seemed to ignore a roundabout and go round it the wrong way. We of course were very relieved that we werent at the front of the queue as we would have gone the other way and caused a huge crash. We also found the italians were very good at putting very small route signs at the far side of junctions, so we spent a good while doubling back on ourselves. Eventually we reached the center of Verona and found the roman arena and a few piazzas on the tourist route. Jayne had read up on Verona and was trying to work out on the map where things were as the signage for pedestrians was just as bad as for drivers!
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Caffe Culture

After soaking up the culture in Verona we have a guided tour from someone who we don't think is actually Italian nor works for the Verona Tourist Board... she's the one on the left...

"I've never wanted to do it"

I think Jayne meant cupping Juliet's right breast for new love rather than anything else...