Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, France Route Advice Please!

[M3S]

Hello all. Long time lurker and lowly CS owner here. Over the years I've read a lot of excellent route advice on here and was hoping I could ask for some more.

In the summer myself and a few others are doing a bit of a road trip. The route is so far something like this…

***********************

Start in London

Through Belgium via my friends brewery in Vleteren, plus maybe via Spa depending what is on.

Black Forest

Nurburgring

Through Germany to the BMW Museum in Munich

Then over to Switzerland to do Gotthard / Furka / Grimsel / Susten

Back home via France.

***********************

Questions…

1. Black Forest isn't finalised yet but it should be pretty straight forward hopefully, however if anyone has a good route or some must do's that would be great.

2. Nurburg to Munich. This is looking like a long drive with not much action. Are we just going to have to suck it up or is there anything worth doing?

3. Munich to the Swiss passes. Is it worth a detour to Glossglockner? Anything else?

4. Thinking of doing Reims on the way back as I love a bit of history. I know there is some good roads to be had in eastern France but I'm not really finding anything easily. Advice would be great.

5. Finally, any petrol advice? One of us is taking an E60 M5 so I know he's going to have a fairly whopping fuel bill…

That's all. Sorry for the fairly epic post, I just want this to be as good as possible so any advice / pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers guys.

Mes

[hoshy]

hi,

just a few thoughts.

When on way to Munich you could break the journey up by visiting Nürnburg or Regensburg- Regensburg has a really nice old town and is a great place for an overnight stay - lots of students Nearby by there's also Walhalla which is quite cool. But Munich itself is a pretty major party town - bars in the evening then for proper late night stuff you can go to the Kunstpark (http://www.kultfabrik.de/) which is an out of town area with loads of bars and clubs, been many a night there post 6 am

There are quite a lot of nice roads around the black forest. I tend to pick out a couple of towns that are in the right general direction then use the TomTom feature for "Winding roads" a feature aimed at bikers but is great for finding backroads when in the countryside - it's taken me on to some unpaved roads a couple of times but that was just adding to the fun

Baden-Baden would be a good place to stay - there's lots of spas and saunas etc if it's an all boys trip you should check out some sauna clubs, that's a real eye opener ;-) http://www.fkkdeluxe.de/eng/home/

The B500 is highly rated in the black forest too: http://www.ultimatedrives.net/top-10...route_ID=20007

Freiburg in the south of the black forest is also a nice town to pass by - another student town and quite pretty. From there to the passes you mentioned is basically driving straight south passed Zurich which is nice, but damned expensive - I did all the passes you mentioned a couple of years ago in my M3 Evo - had a GREAT TIME!

Going home via France you have some choices.. .personally I'd try to get down to Nice and Monaco if time permits - it's a bit more of a trek but you're kind of in the area When I did it this year (Nice to Frankfurt) I found a pretty nice route via the mountains (waypoints were: Cuneo, Tende, Cul de Turino) if you don't want to go so far south perhaps you could go from the passes towards via Bourg-Saint Maurice and Chambery and then Lyon - looks like some nice driving around there but I have no experience.

For fuel in Germany I'd recommend the Aral pertrol stations - they have 102 octane :D

Beware of the speed limit signs in Germany, they have the normal national limits signs like in the UK and on the Autobahn is does indeed mean as fast as you want but... they also use verz similar ones to clear other previously imposed limits such as no trucks overtaking, they have a greyed out images of the sign that's being cleared in the background - if you're not paying attention you can miss than and end up doing 250 in a 120 zone Also, speed limit signs that say "Bei Nässe" underneath mean the limit only applies in the wet.

Don't speed in Switzerland- if you get caught they'll really fuck you up (financially)

Probably not many direct answers to your questions there but some thoughts at least.

[northernjim]

avoid france...........it's only to be used to get somewhere else generally!




sounds a great trip tho vleteren sounds good tho is that the westvleteren brewery?


I have heard good things about the grossglockner road, never been tho.


Reims is great, champagne tours are pretty interesting too.......... zero help for you but there you go that's another cs owner for you

[M3S]

Originally Posted by hoshy

hi,

just a few thoughts.

When on way to Munich you could break the journey up by visiting Nürnburg or Regensburg- Regensburg has a really nice old town and is a great place for an overnight stay - lots of students Nearby by there's also Walhalla which is quite cool. But Munich itself is a pretty major party town - bars in the evening then for proper late night stuff you can go to the Kunstpark (http://www.kultfabrik.de/) which is an out of town area with loads of bars and clubs, been many a night there post 6 am

There are quite a lot of nice roads around the black forest. I tend to pick out a couple of towns that are in the right general direction then use the TomTom feature for "Winding roads" a feature aimed at bikers but is great for finding backroads when in the countryside - it's taken me on to some unpaved roads a couple of times but that was just adding to the fun

Baden-Baden would be a good place to stay - there's lots of spas and saunas etc if it's an all boys trip you should check out some sauna clubs, that's a real eye opener ;-) http://www.fkkdeluxe.de/eng/home/

The B500 is highly rated in the black forest too: http://www.ultimatedrives.net/top-10...route_ID=20007

Freiburg in the south of the black forest is also a nice town to pass by - another student town and quite pretty. From there to the passes you mentioned is basically driving straight south passed Zurich which is nice, but damned expensive - I did all the passes you mentioned a couple of years ago in my M3 Evo - had a GREAT TIME!

Going home via France you have some choices.. .personally I'd try to get down to Nice and Monaco if time permits - it's a bit more of a trek but you're kind of in the area When I did it this year (Nice to Frankfurt) I found a pretty nice route via the mountains (waypoints were: Cuneo, Tende, Cul de Turino) if you don't want to go so far south perhaps you could go from the passes towards via Bourg-Saint Maurice and Chambery and then Lyon - looks like some nice driving around there but I have no experience.

For fuel in Germany I'd recommend the Aral pertrol stations - they have 102 octane :D

Beware of the speed limit signs in Germany, they have the normal national limits signs like in the UK and on the Autobahn is does indeed mean as fast as you want but... they also use verz similar ones to clear other previously imposed limits such as no trucks overtaking, they have a greyed out images of the sign that's being cleared in the background - if you're not paying attention you can miss than and end up doing 250 in a 120 zone Also, speed limit signs that say "Bei Nässe" underneath mean the limit only applies in the wet.

Don't speed in Switzerland- if you get caught they'll really fuck you up (financially)

Probably not many direct answers to your questions there but some thoughts at least.

Fantastic post mate. Thanks a lot! However much they're not direct answers, everything is helpful at this stage. I like the sneaky pointing out of "lots of students" too...



I'm really looking forward to the fun fuel in Germany.

And yeah, one of our group has done lots of driving in Switzerland, we're well aware of the issues. They have just changed the law to be even more strict and give them even more power since the turn of the new year. They can take your car and put you straight in prison I hear. Don't fancy that!

Anyway, thanks a lot for your thorough response and linkage!

[M3S]

Originally Posted by northernjim

avoid france...........it's only to be used to get somewhere else generally!




sounds a great trip tho vleteren sounds good tho is that the westvleteren brewery?


I have heard good things about the grossglockner road, never been tho.


Reims is great, champagne tours are pretty interesting too.......... zero help for you but there you go that's another cs owner for you

Ello Jim, a fellow beer fan I see? It's not Westvleteren but that will be visited during the trip. I'm actually best mates with the owner of the Struise brewery just up the road. They have actually named two beers after me now. One of them a 39%er which was fun...

Grossglockner has been added now. It looks too good not too.

Nice to know Reims is worth doing too. I like posh booze, what can I say...

[northernjim]

good beer is bloody marvellous IMO I would like to visit some proper breweries one day Duvel, Erdinger, Franziskaner etc

Apart from Brugges, I can't think of anything else to visit in belgium apart from the breweries! ( whoops Spa is in Belgique isn't it! )



nb I have sneaked on the motorways in switzerland without the motorway pass a few times but I think they will probably be looking out for me now so would reccommend buying it ( am sure your man will know about that) its just a pain if you are only going on 1 motorway



re hoshy's speed warning - my sat nav is ideal for europe as it displays the speed limit for you ideal for the deristricted 'bahns

[M3S]

Originally Posted by northernjim

good beer is bloody marvellous IMO I would like to visit some proper breweries one day Duvel, Erdinger, Franziskaner etc

Apart from Brugges, I can't think of anything else to visit in belgium apart from the breweries! ( whoops Spa is in Belgique isn't it! )



nb I have sneaked on the motorways in switzerland without the motorway pass a few times but I think they will probably be looking out for me now so would reccommend buying it ( am sure your man will know about that) its just a pain if you are only going on 1 motorway



re hoshy's speed warning - my sat nav is ideal for europe as it displays the speed limit for you ideal for the deristricted 'bahns

Jim, if ever you are passing by and want to visit Struise, give me a shout on Cutters, I'll make sure they open something nice for you.

I think the Swiss pass works out to something like £27 so it's not really an issue in the big scheme of things given the total cost of the trip. Will just suck it up and forget about it.

Good call on the nav system giving the speed limits. Mine does the same, I'll have to get some amusing screen shots!

[Yanto]

Originally Posted by northernjim

avoid Lancs...........it's only to be used to get somewhere else generally!

EFA

[Mark CSL]

real eye opener ;-) http://www.fkkdeluxe.de/eng/home/

This is dirty hoshy When are we going is it in the 2013 tour

[s.mac]

Jim when you letting me know the plans for May