Day Three: Strasbourg to Zell Am See

Today turned out to be a rather uneventful run from France, through Germany and into Austria, which was just what we wanted!

I had planned to take a slightly circuitous route to avoid the main congestion hot spots around Munich but in the end we decided to plough on as TomTom assured us the delays weren't too bad, and he was proved right yet again.

As the Autobahns were pretty busy we didn't get many chances to give the Porsche a good run.  I found an empty stretch and touched 145mph, still well short of the 170mph rated top speed.  Generally we were able to run at an effortless 100mph keeping pace with the rest of the traffic.

We were treated to some lovely scenery as we approached our destination, the forecast clouds and rain absent once again!

The hotel is at the end of our very own twisting Alpine Pass.  To say the room is 'bijou' (AKA small!) would be an understatement but the place is certainly full of character!

Angela's Postscript

Hoorah! It is hot in the mountains too ... very peaceful and quiet and beautiful ... I only had the courage to go 125mph on the Autobahn, I closed my eyes when Andy was going really fast!

Day Two: Strasbourg

The weather forecasts were all telling us it would be raining with thunderstorms in Strasbourg today, and so it dawned - bright sun, warm and blue skies!  How do they get it so wrong?!

After a leisurely start following our late night (so leisurely I had to nip down to breakfast, sorry 'le petit déjeuner', before they closed and bring it back to the room while Angela stayed in bed!) we jumped on the tram for short ride into town to see the sights of Strasbourg.

Firs stop the Cathedral with the Astronomical Clock (and a lot more besides) ...

Refreshments on the way to the Cathedral

Strasbourg Cathedral

After a spot of lunch we took in a river cruise around Strasbourg and up to the European Parliament building ...

Tomorrow we leave France behind (for now) and head for Austria.

Angela's Postscript

"Andy was like an ice cream in a microwave, he melted! ... delicious food ... lovely old buildings ... hotel room OK but I especially like their idea of air conditioning which starts at 21C"

Day One: Stratford to Strasbourg

Well the day had finally arrived - the start of our European Tour!  Amazingly everything packed into the car as planned, no surprise bags appearing at the last minute, so we were ready to go on time.

 

We hit the road but our delight wasn't to last - motorway warning signs telling us the M20 was closed and Operation Stack was in force, some trouble at the tunnel or channel ports then.  A quick check on the Eurotunnel website confirmed the worst; delays due to a technical issue.

We pressed on regardless, well what else could we do, and thanks to TomTom's guidance and Angela's driving we arrived at our allotted check in time - to find chaos!  The tunnel was running again but with 90 minutes delay to the timetable, and they move a lot of cars in 90 minutes ALL of which were in the car park!  Anyway, a bit later than intended we got onto the train - France here we come!

So finally on French soil our first stop (fuel stops aside) was a small village called Longeauval, or more precisely a small wooded area just outside called High Wood.  This was the site of one of the many 'Battles of the Somme' during the First World War and it was here that my Grandfather, Harold Beach, fought as part of the 15th Royal Warwickshire Regiment.  Although they were a reserve force they saw action during the 1916 offensive to retake ground gained by the Germans during the first years of the war.

High Wood as it looks today

As best as I can ascertain he fought here on 30th July 1916 and was injured taking a bullet to the kneecap.  It meant he could take no further part in hostilities and was repatriated to the UK sometime in August.  He was, for sure, one of the lucky ones.

Adjacent to the wood is a small cemetery, one of many we saw dotted around the French countryside. I scanned the register and found a grave belonging to a soldier in the same regiment as my Grandfather, Private E King who was killed 30th August 1916.  Did he know my Grandfather?  I'll never know, but I paid my respects and signed the visitor book nonetheless.

With that we set course for Strasbourg eventually arriving just before midnight.  Good job we have a day just for sightseeing tomorrow!

Angela's Postscript

Due to the apparent 'bias' in my posts last year (I have no idea what she's talking about!) Angela has decided she'll do a short postscript on each day, so here goes ....

"Eurotunnel Terminal super-stressy ... I drove most of the way ... Andy slept most of the way ... hotel bed comfy ... good shower ... NO WINE!!!"

Ready To Go (well, nearly!)

Well, we've finally got everything together and ready to go.  All we have to do now is pack it in the car.  Will it all fit?  Yes, of course it will!

The Countdown Begins!

In less than one week we will be departing the UK for our three week 'Riviera Tour' taking in France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and sneaking through a few more countries en route.  Unlike 2014 which was a 'dash through the passes', this year we'll be taking time to exlore the local area and do a bit of sightseeing.

The first week will see us retrace our 2014 Alpine Tour, albeit in reverse and with a few new passes and interesting roads thrown in for good measure.

We'll be spending week two in a villa outside St Tropez where we will be joined by our respective children to officially mark Angela's fiftieth birthday (even though it was in March!).

The third and final week we continue our journey, heading for home with a very leisurely meander through France.

Follow our progress on the blog - fingers crossed for a trouble free run!

Collecting the car from PCT after its
pre-trip inspection

The Final Word ... Angela's Blog Postscript

Andy took over 12 hours of footage which he has managed to cut down to 30 minutes!  He says 'we' edited it but I had very little input....he managed to delete almost all of day 2 and he says there was never any footage of our 'tiff'.  So for those of you not the slightest bit interested in cars, roads, bridges or tunnels here is a synopsis of the holiday according to Angela!...Andy Beach's European Driving bootcamp...

....in no particular order...hotels: ranging from fantastic 5 star with concierges who parked the car and carried all of our luggage to the room with delicious food to basic but clean and comfy

...weather: we had cold but fresh and sunny, torrential rain and thunder storms through overcast but warm to bright hot sunshine

...clothing ranged from uggs, jeans, jumper, winter coat and scarf through to maxi dresses and flip flops (I did have to do an on the move change, as I was driving, to take my layers and uggs off and drove for a while in my bra)

...my face looks like it's been roasted for a couple of hours on gas 7/200/180 fan and the rest of me remains white!

..the 'tiff' went like this, Andy shouted at Angela so she skidded to a spectacular halt in a layby, got out of the car and told him he could "fstarking drive"

...inspector gadget as he is now known has been torturing me with unnecessary electronic devices that fstarking beep all day long, forget Chinese water torture there is now Beach Beep Torture!!!

...we have had a lovely adventure and have had some great experiences, definitely recommend it but it's not for the faint hearted (I am typing this on the iPad whilst Andy is driving at 215kph/135mph!!! on the autobahn to see how fast the car will go!), the different countries, languages and food (not to mention service stations) has been interesting and the scenery fantastic...

....we didn't have time to do any shopping (even though he teasingly drove past the Gucci, Valentino and arpels and Van Cleef shops 4 times in Monaco and seemed not to hear my protestations to buy me something shiney! - I bet that didn't get to final edit either!)

...the trip was exhausting but an exhilarating challenge and my admiration for Ewan mcgreggor and Charlie boorman and the top gear team reached a whole new level! In my mind I likened andy and myself to the cool, handsome and daring Ewan and Charlie but when the videos were played back we bore more than a likeness to The Two Fat Ladies!...

...I am, of course, my whitty, debonaire self and thank my straight man for feeding me so much material to take the piss out of him, my favourite being:

Angela: "what are you TRYING to do?"

Andy: "I really don't know how to do this selfie thing"

Angela: "it's easy, just point the [phone] camera at yourself and take a picture"

Andy: "but I want the arc de triomphe in the background"

Angela: "but it's not there!!!!!!!...sighs and shakes head (and confiscates phone)

..the Nurburgring, I'm at a loss for words!...you would need a chainsaw to cut thought the testosterone in the air!...it has reinforced my opinion that all men are mad and some of them are fstarking mental/crazy/insane...there we were having a nice little pootle around the track, taking in the scenery, planning where to set up our picnic and 50 million lunatics come racing past us at 4 million mph (I mean 6 million kph!)...forget all the rules you're told in the briefing someone forgot to tell these boys that they can't overtake us by flying over the top of our car on a blind double left hand apex hairpin carousel thingy!...I don't think I've ever said this before but I was too scared to drive!  I shall not be taking up     a career in racing, I'll settle for motoGP in the comfort of an armchair, that's how exciting I want to get!

We loved the trip and will do another one.....next time I'll be in charge of the publications!

...hmmmm...wonder what he's planning next :) 

Video Highlights of the Alpine Tour

The long awaited video of Andy and Angela's Alpine Tour has finally arrived!  From over 12 hours of material we've chosen just 30 minutes of the key highlights showing the emotion and the excitement generated by this trip.Capturing some of those special moments ("You are a pain in the arse") and revealing for the first time the growing emotional bond ("my next road trip I'm planning to do ... alone!") this is a not-to-be-missed documentary of our trip from Stratford to ... Stratford.  Enjoy ......

(For those of you where 30 minutes is just not enough we also have a feature length DVD with nearly 3 hours of extended coverage ... contact us for a special signed copy!!)

Use this link if the video does not appear on your screen
http://youtu.be/RdwURfgwSqo



And here's a couple of extras you might enjoy ....