Well thought you lot might appreciate seeing some of the photos from our recent holiday….especially given the current weather in the UK ;-)
Anyway instead of jetting off this year to some far flung land we decided to do something different, namely take the car on a bit of a road trip! This is something I’d been looking to do ever since picking up the Z4 Coupe in February earlier this year. It was not an out and out road trip, in the sense that we drove every day, instead we picked four destinations with some good roads and a fair bit of distance between them.
Bristol (UK) – Ashford (UK, Kent):
First destination was the overnight stopover at the Holiday Inn in Ashford in order to catch the 06:45 Seafrance Ferry to France!
Only one pic….before we left!
Ashford (UK) – Thones (France, French Alps):
Waiting for the ferry…
The first day was an eight hour slog on the French autoroutes, which despite being the first weekend of August were remarkably clear, aside from a 20 minute hold up in Reims queuing to collect a ticket, in typical continental queuing style….
Some pics on route
My better half doing a stint of driving.
Arrival:
Pics from the three and a bit days there…..
Thones (France, French Alps) – Meersbruck (Germany – Bodensee):
We decided to take a pretty scenic route via Chamonix, over the Alps into Switzerland…..getting to Chamonix took some time, some tricky roads together with plenty of traffic as we neared Chamonix.
Into Switzerland the traffic cleared and we climbed up through the Alps and into the heart of Switzerland. The mountain pass was great fun, quite a few good hairpins, combined with some long winding straights (if you know what I mean….).
Pics from the three days on the Bodensee.
Meersbruck (Germany – Bodensee) – Schonach (Germany – Black Forest):
The fourth destination was a little trek north westerly to a lovely little town in the Black Forest. We took in the Rheinefall on route, which meant a detour back into Switzerland!
The roads surprised me in the Black Forest, lots of fun winding fast roads working their way up and down the various valleys of the Black Forest – great fun!
Pics from the four days in the Black Forest.
Schonach (Germany – Black Forest) – Auderath (Germany – Eifel region nr. Nurburg):
Well the final destination for this road trip was a little village about 20kms from the most famous race circuit there is…..the Nurburgring or the Nordshleife!
On route we stopped off a Hockenheim to take a look at the circuit.
Then a few miles further up the autobahn, at a service station….we bumped into these two…..!
Took a few photos, tried to have a chat with the drivers but they weren’t interested! Obviously out on some roads trials.
On from here we took a detour off the autobahn and up the Rheinestrasse for a picturesque drive along part of the Rheine.
Spent a great two days at the Nurburgring, taking in the sights and sounds – it was a fantastic couple of days, a must for any petrol head. I took the car on one lap on Thursday evening during the Touristfahren, decided I’d try one lap and maybe do a few more on Friday.
Touristfahren, is basically ‘anything goes’….
The lap was fantastic, I took it extremely cautiously having only driven it on the Xbox previously…..It was a pretty eventful lap, with three separate incidents….firstly after the first set of corners, near Hocheichen, we had just been overtaken by a Porsche 911, who them slammed on the anchors, we then saw a biker running across the track to go and collect his bike… Next, we found an old BMW 5 Series in the wall at Adenauer Forst, and then a second car against the wall just around the corner. Finally as we came over Eschbach, we found a biker who’d plough straight on!
As you can imagine it was pretty nerve racking for a first lap, that together with having to constantly watch your rear view mirror…seeing all sorts approaching, from stripped out VW Polos on slicks, to Porsche 911 GT3s. The adrenalin was certainly flowing by the end of the lap……unfortunately this is the only pic I got….too many other things to think about.
I decided not to do any further laps and instead take time to reflect and be grateful I got round in one piece on my first lap!! I’d love to go back and have another go or two!
So that really topped off a great mini-roadtrip through France, Switzerland (briefly) and Germany.
Summary as follows:
Miles: 2,360
Fuel consumption: 29.1mpg
Average speed: 47.1mph
Nights: 14
Top speed: 130mph – Satnav (Needless to say on the de-restricted autobahn - I chickened out, although the car was still pulling extremely well)
Countries: France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium
Hope you enjoyed the read and pics!
Cheers
Paul
Anyway instead of jetting off this year to some far flung land we decided to do something different, namely take the car on a bit of a road trip! This is something I’d been looking to do ever since picking up the Z4 Coupe in February earlier this year. It was not an out and out road trip, in the sense that we drove every day, instead we picked four destinations with some good roads and a fair bit of distance between them.
Bristol (UK) – Ashford (UK, Kent):
First destination was the overnight stopover at the Holiday Inn in Ashford in order to catch the 06:45 Seafrance Ferry to France!
Only one pic….before we left!
Ashford (UK) – Thones (France, French Alps):
Waiting for the ferry…
The first day was an eight hour slog on the French autoroutes, which despite being the first weekend of August were remarkably clear, aside from a 20 minute hold up in Reims queuing to collect a ticket, in typical continental queuing style….
Some pics on route
My better half doing a stint of driving.
Arrival:
Pics from the three and a bit days there…..
Thones (France, French Alps) – Meersbruck (Germany – Bodensee):
We decided to take a pretty scenic route via Chamonix, over the Alps into Switzerland…..getting to Chamonix took some time, some tricky roads together with plenty of traffic as we neared Chamonix.
Into Switzerland the traffic cleared and we climbed up through the Alps and into the heart of Switzerland. The mountain pass was great fun, quite a few good hairpins, combined with some long winding straights (if you know what I mean….).
Pics from the three days on the Bodensee.
Meersbruck (Germany – Bodensee) – Schonach (Germany – Black Forest):
The fourth destination was a little trek north westerly to a lovely little town in the Black Forest. We took in the Rheinefall on route, which meant a detour back into Switzerland!
The roads surprised me in the Black Forest, lots of fun winding fast roads working their way up and down the various valleys of the Black Forest – great fun!
Pics from the four days in the Black Forest.
Schonach (Germany – Black Forest) – Auderath (Germany – Eifel region nr. Nurburg):
Well the final destination for this road trip was a little village about 20kms from the most famous race circuit there is…..the Nurburgring or the Nordshleife!
On route we stopped off a Hockenheim to take a look at the circuit.
Then a few miles further up the autobahn, at a service station….we bumped into these two…..!
Took a few photos, tried to have a chat with the drivers but they weren’t interested! Obviously out on some roads trials.
On from here we took a detour off the autobahn and up the Rheinestrasse for a picturesque drive along part of the Rheine.
Spent a great two days at the Nurburgring, taking in the sights and sounds – it was a fantastic couple of days, a must for any petrol head. I took the car on one lap on Thursday evening during the Touristfahren, decided I’d try one lap and maybe do a few more on Friday.
Touristfahren, is basically ‘anything goes’….
The lap was fantastic, I took it extremely cautiously having only driven it on the Xbox previously…..It was a pretty eventful lap, with three separate incidents….firstly after the first set of corners, near Hocheichen, we had just been overtaken by a Porsche 911, who them slammed on the anchors, we then saw a biker running across the track to go and collect his bike… Next, we found an old BMW 5 Series in the wall at Adenauer Forst, and then a second car against the wall just around the corner. Finally as we came over Eschbach, we found a biker who’d plough straight on!
As you can imagine it was pretty nerve racking for a first lap, that together with having to constantly watch your rear view mirror…seeing all sorts approaching, from stripped out VW Polos on slicks, to Porsche 911 GT3s. The adrenalin was certainly flowing by the end of the lap……unfortunately this is the only pic I got….too many other things to think about.
I decided not to do any further laps and instead take time to reflect and be grateful I got round in one piece on my first lap!! I’d love to go back and have another go or two!
So that really topped off a great mini-roadtrip through France, Switzerland (briefly) and Germany.
Summary as follows:
Miles: 2,360
Fuel consumption: 29.1mpg
Average speed: 47.1mph
Nights: 14
Top speed: 130mph – Satnav (Needless to say on the de-restricted autobahn - I chickened out, although the car was still pulling extremely well)
Countries: France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium
Hope you enjoyed the read and pics!
Cheers
Paul
ldman: