European delivery -- lots of gratuitous photos
06-21-2014, 11:45 AM
#31
Drifting
Thread Starter
Oh and one more thing. We used Google maps a fair bit, but it's quite optimistic on trip duration. Plan to add a lot more time to your travel time if you're driving routes that are at all off the main highways. And summer time means construction, which you'll run into on the mountains and elsewhere. We often nearly doubled some of our driving times including only a few brief stops. So plan accordingly and don't get too ambitious with each day's itinerary.
06-22-2014, 05:51 PM
#32
Drifting
Thread Starter
Hi crgkart,
Thanks for your message.
I've chosen to post a bit of my itinerary here in the public forum (rather than send it solely to you) so anyone else can review this too. Good luck with your planned ED. If you're planning on staying in Germany and south, then you may want to consider a few of the places we went to. Below is our itinerary in a little more detail. We were on a fairly tight schedule, so much of our route included toll freeways (faster but less scenic) to get us from one region to another. I won't bore you with these parts of the route, since they're fairly obvious to figure out with a map or nav.
Arrive in Stuttgart/Zuffenhausen (factory tour, etc).
Drive north and stopped at Nurburgbring then on to Holland via Venlo, and travelled to various cities including Nijmegen, Rotterdam, Leiden, etc. I have lots of family here, so we spent a fair bit of time here.
Drive south from Nijmegen through Belgium to Namur. The roads in this area are nice and the scenery is beautiful on the way to Dinant and beyond. Gentle rolling hills with a mix of forested and open fields. See map. Stayed in Haybes, France (near Fumay) at a cute, small hotel (Le Clos Belle Rose).
Drive to Epernay (visited Moet et Chandon and the champagne avenue) then traveled through a number of small towns in France (Beaume, Tournus, Bourg-en-Bresse) on the way to Switzerland (Geneva area). Some of these towns were worth a stop, but we had limited time. A really nice part was the last little bit crossing over the Jura mountains from Saint-Claude into Switzerland.
Stay in Geneva area and took boat from Nyon to Yvoire France for the afternoon. Also drove in the roads in the Jura mountains again.
Drove hard through the Alps, but managed to get in a couple of gorgeous passes (Col de telegraph and Col du Galibier). See map. Very worthwhile if you have the time to do these. We arrived in Saint-Remy-de-Provence and stayed at the very lovely Mas des Carrasins hotel. We passed through Les Baux-de-Provence, which was a very worthwhile stop. We did not manage to see Avignon, the Pont du Gard, etc. We were also a little early to see a lot of lavender in bloom (better in July/Aug), so we skipped Gordes and that area (but will have to return some day). While in Saint-Remy, we were sure to see Saint Paul asylum where Vincent van Gogh lived his final years and some roman ruins. Cute little city.
Drove to Aix-en-Provence for a little stroll through the market. Not exactly the size of city we wanted to spend time in (too large, as we were hoping to use the car to get to less accessible locales), but worth a stop based on other people's recollections of past trips there. Drove along the coast of the Cote d'Azur, starting around St. Raphael on the way to Grasse and Saint-Paul-de-Vence (beautiful high mountain road between these two latter towns) and then on the Eze. Dinner at the Chateau de la Chèvre d'Or was spectacular with a fabulous drink overlooking the coast from high up on the mountains before a starred sunset meal. My suggestion: get the soufflé with sorbet baked inside!
http://www.chevredor.com/uk/restaura...evre-carte.php
Visited Monaco and Menton then doubled back to Cap d'Antibes. Absolutely outstanding stay at the Hotel du Cap Eden Roc. Obviously didn't do much while we were here (other than swim, relax, eat, etc), but did explore Cap d'Antibes on foot.
Traveled up through western edge of Italy with deliberate detour off main highways past Lago Maggiore. Continued up over the mountains to Tasch, Switzerland (cannot take car further) then train into Zermatt. Wonderful hiking here up trails toward Sunnegga and then along the 5-seenweg trails (fairly strenuous uphill but can also take the Sunnegga funicular up the mountain instead).
Traveled to Interlaken via Grimselpass (many other passes in the area including Furka, etc--the map shows these passes as windy bits in the road, and as you can see there are many), but we didn't have time for more. Kept going all the way through Switzerland and up to Baden-Baden. Stayed near the city centre. We didn't stay at the Brenners hotel, but it would be another great choice.
Caracalla spa in Baden-Baden was really relaxing, then we traveled through the Black Forest on the way back to Stuttgart. Avoid taking only the larger routes through these scenic hills and forests. The smaller roads (I show one detour off 500 on the map below) are less traveled and more twisty.
We admittedly did a ton in a short time, especially since we really wanted to stay a number of days in Holland to visit family there. So we blasted through a lot of connecting areas on highways that were less interesting. Given more time, we would have selected a few other sections of B roads instead. But don't limit yourself to an itinerary. If you can, build in extra time each day to diverge off the beaten path and find a wonderful scarcely-travelled gem.
Hope you have a wonderful trip!
Thanks for your message.
I've chosen to post a bit of my itinerary here in the public forum (rather than send it solely to you) so anyone else can review this too. Good luck with your planned ED. If you're planning on staying in Germany and south, then you may want to consider a few of the places we went to. Below is our itinerary in a little more detail. We were on a fairly tight schedule, so much of our route included toll freeways (faster but less scenic) to get us from one region to another. I won't bore you with these parts of the route, since they're fairly obvious to figure out with a map or nav.
Arrive in Stuttgart/Zuffenhausen (factory tour, etc).
Drive north and stopped at Nurburgbring then on to Holland via Venlo, and travelled to various cities including Nijmegen, Rotterdam, Leiden, etc. I have lots of family here, so we spent a fair bit of time here.
Drive south from Nijmegen through Belgium to Namur. The roads in this area are nice and the scenery is beautiful on the way to Dinant and beyond. Gentle rolling hills with a mix of forested and open fields. See map. Stayed in Haybes, France (near Fumay) at a cute, small hotel (Le Clos Belle Rose).
Drive to Epernay (visited Moet et Chandon and the champagne avenue) then traveled through a number of small towns in France (Beaume, Tournus, Bourg-en-Bresse) on the way to Switzerland (Geneva area). Some of these towns were worth a stop, but we had limited time. A really nice part was the last little bit crossing over the Jura mountains from Saint-Claude into Switzerland.
Stay in Geneva area and took boat from Nyon to Yvoire France for the afternoon. Also drove in the roads in the Jura mountains again.
Drove hard through the Alps, but managed to get in a couple of gorgeous passes (Col de telegraph and Col du Galibier). See map. Very worthwhile if you have the time to do these. We arrived in Saint-Remy-de-Provence and stayed at the very lovely Mas des Carrasins hotel. We passed through Les Baux-de-Provence, which was a very worthwhile stop. We did not manage to see Avignon, the Pont du Gard, etc. We were also a little early to see a lot of lavender in bloom (better in July/Aug), so we skipped Gordes and that area (but will have to return some day). While in Saint-Remy, we were sure to see Saint Paul asylum where Vincent van Gogh lived his final years and some roman ruins. Cute little city.
Drove to Aix-en-Provence for a little stroll through the market. Not exactly the size of city we wanted to spend time in (too large, as we were hoping to use the car to get to less accessible locales), but worth a stop based on other people's recollections of past trips there. Drove along the coast of the Cote d'Azur, starting around St. Raphael on the way to Grasse and Saint-Paul-de-Vence (beautiful high mountain road between these two latter towns) and then on the Eze. Dinner at the Chateau de la Chèvre d'Or was spectacular with a fabulous drink overlooking the coast from high up on the mountains before a starred sunset meal. My suggestion: get the soufflé with sorbet baked inside!
http://www.chevredor.com/uk/restaura...evre-carte.php
Visited Monaco and Menton then doubled back to Cap d'Antibes. Absolutely outstanding stay at the Hotel du Cap Eden Roc. Obviously didn't do much while we were here (other than swim, relax, eat, etc), but did explore Cap d'Antibes on foot.
Traveled up through western edge of Italy with deliberate detour off main highways past Lago Maggiore. Continued up over the mountains to Tasch, Switzerland (cannot take car further) then train into Zermatt. Wonderful hiking here up trails toward Sunnegga and then along the 5-seenweg trails (fairly strenuous uphill but can also take the Sunnegga funicular up the mountain instead).
Traveled to Interlaken via Grimselpass (many other passes in the area including Furka, etc--the map shows these passes as windy bits in the road, and as you can see there are many), but we didn't have time for more. Kept going all the way through Switzerland and up to Baden-Baden. Stayed near the city centre. We didn't stay at the Brenners hotel, but it would be another great choice.
Caracalla spa in Baden-Baden was really relaxing, then we traveled through the Black Forest on the way back to Stuttgart. Avoid taking only the larger routes through these scenic hills and forests. The smaller roads (I show one detour off 500 on the map below) are less traveled and more twisty.
We admittedly did a ton in a short time, especially since we really wanted to stay a number of days in Holland to visit family there. So we blasted through a lot of connecting areas on highways that were less interesting. Given more time, we would have selected a few other sections of B roads instead. But don't limit yourself to an itinerary. If you can, build in extra time each day to diverge off the beaten path and find a wonderful scarcely-travelled gem.
Hope you have a wonderful trip!
