GRcade

OnlyShallow wrote:
My summer road trip is taking shape. Colmar - Lauterbrunnen - Lake Como - Rovinj - Venice - Other Italian lake - Freiburg - Clervaux - Bruges - home. Roughly 2500 miles over 18 days.

Road trip starts today

Nice. I'll be in lake como on Saturday. My friend got a car from her au pair family and promptly handed it back because it's a £40k Mercedes and Italy is full of awful drivers. Think we've got an Audi to bomb about in now though. Excited for a tiny Italian road trip.

I got back from Florence last week. Italy crew unite!

Got back from my road trip yesterday. 2556 miles, 9 countries. Epic times.

Managed to fit in all the greatest hits and some more.

OnlyShallow wrote:Got back from my road trip yesterday. 2556 miles, 9 countries. Epic times.

Managed to fit in all the greatest hits and some more.

I would very much like to do this trip at some point in the far flung future - how driving intensive was it?

Off to Canada tomorrow for a fortnight. Haven't even planned that much in terms of what to see or do like I usually would, will just be glad of the break. Weather looks decent at the moment, mid-20s and no rain. This'll be my 4th trip out there - it's so good.

Lotus wrote:Off to Canada tomorrow for a fortnight. Haven't even planned that much in terms of what to see or do like I usually would, will just be glad of the break. Weather looks decent at the moment, mid-20s and no rain. This'll be my 4th trip out there - it's so good.

Where are you flying too?

OnlyShallow wrote:Got back from my road trip yesterday. 2556 miles, 9 countries. Epic times.

Managed to fit in all the greatest hits and some more.

Sounds awesome, what countries did you drive through?

I've done two awesome road trips in my life.

The first was from Toronto to Mount Rushmore (South Dakota). I didn't do any driving though which I really regret (I was only 20/21 so hire companies didn't want to touch me!).

The second was in Australia. We went from Melbourne to Adelaide, all the way up the middle to Darwin and then all the way back down the East coast through Cairns, Brisbane, Sydney and Canberra before going back to Melbourne. I drove every inch of the trip and loved it.

Hime wrote:

Lotus wrote:Off to Canada tomorrow for a fortnight. Haven't even planned that much in terms of what to see or do like I usually would, will just be glad of the break. Weather looks decent at the moment, mid-20s and no rain. This'll be my 4th trip out there - it's so good.

Where are you flying too?

Ottawa. Was originally planning to go to Calgary, but for some reason (not sure if there's some kind of event going on there or something) it was really expensive. Anywhere else in Canada was reasonable - even on the west coast - but for some reason Calgary/Edmonton was way overpriced. Not sure how much there is to do in Ottawa, so probably looking to branch out into Ontario.

Lotus wrote:

Hime wrote:

Lotus wrote:Off to Canada tomorrow for a fortnight. Haven't even planned that much in terms of what to see or do like I usually would, will just be glad of the break. Weather looks decent at the moment, mid-20s and no rain. This'll be my 4th trip out there - it's so good.

Where are you flying too?

Ottawa. Was originally planning to go to Calgary, but for some reason (not sure if there's some kind of event going on there or something) it was really expensive. Anywhere else in Canada was reasonable - even on the west coast - but for some reason Calgary/Edmonton was way overpriced. Not sure how much there is to do in Ottawa, so probably looking to branch out into Ontario.

Are you going to explore the cities or scenic areas? I've done a few multistops and road trips in the States and fancy seeing more of Canada.

Just got back from New York and Nashville, both absolutely amazing and I will definitely be returning. Timings got a bit messed up due to Harvey but first world problems and all that.

Just booked a short trip to Köln.

I've only been once and it was about 10 years ago.

Has anyone been recently and have any ideas for things to do ?

I'm off for 3 nights at the end of Oct by myself.

Corazon de Leon wrote:

OnlyShallow wrote:Got back from my road trip yesterday. 2556 miles, 9 countries. Epic times.

Managed to fit in all the greatest hits and some more.

I would very much like to do this trip at some point in the far flung future - how driving intensive was it?

I learned from my last trip two years ago, so it wasn't bad (last time I drove to Croatia in 2 1/2 days and was strawberry floated by the time I got there). It was just under 60 hours driving time in total and the most stressful part was driving to Dover on the first day as the M25 had 10 mile tailbacks and my satnav took me through Enfield.

I strawberry floating hate Enfield now.

Moggy wrote:

OnlyShallow wrote:Got back from my road trip yesterday. 2556 miles, 9 countries. Epic times.

Managed to fit in all the greatest hits and some more.

Sounds awesome, what countries did you drive through?

I've done two awesome road trips in my life.

The first was from Toronto to Mount Rushmore (South Dakota). I didn't do any driving though which I really regret (I was only 20/21 so hire companies didn't want to touch me!).

The second was in Australia. We went from Melbourne to Adelaide, all the way up the middle to Darwin and then all the way back down the East coast through Cairns, Brisbane, Sydney and Canberra before going back to Melbourne. I drove every inch of the trip and loved it.

England (I'm counting this as it took about 5 hours to get to Dover and I ended up doing autobahn speeds to catch the ferry), France (Arras then Colmar), Switzerland (Lauterbrunnen), Italy (Lake Orta then Lake Garda), Slovenia (Postonja), Croatia (Rovinj for 5 nights), Italy again (Venice for 2 nights then Lake Como), Germany (Freiburg), Luxembourg (Clervaux) and finally Belgium (Bruges, it's a strawberry floating fairytale).

I drove it all too, as my gf doesn't want to drive my car as it is "too long" and Italian autostradas give her the total fear.

Moggy wrote:

OnlyShallow wrote:Got back from my road trip yesterday. 2556 miles, 9 countries. Epic times.

Managed to fit in all the greatest hits and some more.

Sounds awesome, what countries did you drive through?

I've done two awesome road trips in my life.

The first was from Toronto to Mount Rushmore (South Dakota). I didn't do any driving though which I really regret (I was only 20/21 so hire companies didn't want to touch me!).

The second was in Australia. We went from Melbourne to Adelaide, all the way up the middle to Darwin and then all the way back down the East coast through Cairns, Brisbane, Sydney and Canberra before going back to Melbourne. I drove every inch of the trip and loved it.

That Australia one is a lot of driving! How long did it take you?

Hime wrote:

Lotus wrote:

Hime wrote:

Lotus wrote:Off to Canada tomorrow for a fortnight. Haven't even planned that much in terms of what to see or do like I usually would, will just be glad of the break. Weather looks decent at the moment, mid-20s and no rain. This'll be my 4th trip out there - it's so good.

Where are you flying too?

Ottawa. Was originally planning to go to Calgary, but for some reason (not sure if there's some kind of event going on there or something) it was really expensive. Anywhere else in Canada was reasonable - even on the west coast - but for some reason Calgary/Edmonton was way overpriced. Not sure how much there is to do in Ottawa, so probably looking to branch out into Ontario.

Are you going to explore the cities or scenic areas? I've done a few multistops and road trips in the States and fancy seeing more of Canada.

Bit of both hopefully. I've never been to Ottawa, so going to stay there and see all that, then venture out into some smaller cities and hopefully some country, etc. I've done Toronto and Montreal, so really it's Ottawa and anything else.

Tomous wrote:

Moggy wrote:

OnlyShallow wrote:Got back from my road trip yesterday. 2556 miles, 9 countries. Epic times.

Managed to fit in all the greatest hits and some more.

Sounds awesome, what countries did you drive through?

I've done two awesome road trips in my life.

The first was from Toronto to Mount Rushmore (South Dakota). I didn't do any driving though which I really regret (I was only 20/21 so hire companies didn't want to touch me!).

The second was in Australia. We went from Melbourne to Adelaide, all the way up the middle to Darwin and then all the way back down the East coast through Cairns, Brisbane, Sydney and Canberra before going back to Melbourne. I drove every inch of the trip and loved it.

That Australia one is a lot of driving! How long did it take you?

We were there a month but that wasn't solid driving as we'd spend at least a few days in each place.

Moggy wrote:

Tomous wrote:

Moggy wrote:

OnlyShallow wrote:Got back from my road trip yesterday. 2556 miles, 9 countries. Epic times.

Managed to fit in all the greatest hits and some more.

Sounds awesome, what countries did you drive through?

I've done two awesome road trips in my life.

The first was from Toronto to Mount Rushmore (South Dakota). I didn't do any driving though which I really regret (I was only 20/21 so hire companies didn't want to touch me!).

The second was in Australia. We went from Melbourne to Adelaide, all the way up the middle to Darwin and then all the way back down the East coast through Cairns, Brisbane, Sydney and Canberra before going back to Melbourne. I drove every inch of the trip and loved it.

That Australia one is a lot of driving! How long did it take you?

We were there a month but that wasn't solid driving as we'd spend at least a few days in each place.

How many spiders did you see? That chances of me seeing a huntsman reduces the likelihood of me going to Australia significantly.

Hime wrote:How many spiders did you see? That chances of me seeing a huntsman reduces the likelihood of me going to Australia significantly.

In the entire month we spent time camping, in hotels, in hostels and at a relatives house. In that entire time and over thousands of miles, I saw zero spiders.

In fact I saw bugger all living wildlife (plenty of roadkill though!). Some emus, a few kangaroos and a possum that was living in the roof of my great-aunts garage. We ended up going to Melbourne zoo just to see that there were living creatures in Australia.

Fake edit: I did see a snake in an outback pub, it was slithering around near our table outside. No idea if it was dangerous but the locals didn’t seem to take much notice of it so we just assumed it was fine.

Hime wrote:

Moggy wrote:

Tomous wrote:

Moggy wrote:

OnlyShallow wrote:Got back from my road trip yesterday. 2556 miles, 9 countries. Epic times.

Managed to fit in all the greatest hits and some more.

Sounds awesome, what countries did you drive through?

I've done two awesome road trips in my life.

The first was from Toronto to Mount Rushmore (South Dakota). I didn't do any driving though which I really regret (I was only 20/21 so hire companies didn't want to touch me!).

The second was in Australia. We went from Melbourne to Adelaide, all the way up the middle to Darwin and then all the way back down the East coast through Cairns, Brisbane, Sydney and Canberra before going back to Melbourne. I drove every inch of the trip and loved it.

That Australia one is a lot of driving! How long did it take you?

We were there a month but that wasn't solid driving as we'd spend at least a few days in each place.

How many spiders did you see? That chances of me seeing a huntsman reduces the likelihood of me going to Australia significantly.

What time of year will you go? I just spent a month there in August and didn't see too many big ones really. Saw one large spider that scuttled out of someone's wetsuit as they put it on - but other than that it wasn't too bad. Swam with jellyfish, sharks, puffer fish and stingrays though

I was there in April (not this April, years ago!) if that helps Hime. April is obviously the month where the spiders are avoiding hiding in wetsuits.

I want to do a trip like that moggy - take six weeks or two months and go right around Australia and New Zealand. GF reckons she'd only be interested in going back to Sydney, stopping in at Melbourne and then moving on to NZ, but I'm not going 15,000 miles or whatever just for two cities.