tcm
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Tcm\'s European Road Trip (a bit boaty)
Like many of you, I've done quite a bit of floating around the external edges of countries, so I thought I'd do a road trip to see some of the middle bits. Of course, Mrs Tcm didn't want to come along on a drive drive driving trip, and son#1 was busy. So son #2 reluctatntly agreed to come. Huh! But I explained that it would be good fun, and not the usual dull boring grown-up tourism. Also, it would only be for a few days, and no museums, promise.
Btw, please excuse my crummy pix, altho thanks due to dogwatch for his how-to photo guide
So anyway, Monday afternoon off thru the chunnel and on to Brussels, quite a compact city with easy list of "must-do" things. Visit the main square (Grand Place):
Then see the Mannekin Pis, nearby
You also have to have moules frites and a chocolate waffle:
This pretty much completes Brussels. Oh, and visit a chocolate shop, if you must.
So, having done Brussels by about 8pm, I thought we may as well press on. Son #2 very cheered up by our high-speed non-boring tourism policy.
To save time, we dozed overnight in the car which was a rubbish idea as it was so hot. So 6am Tuesday morning we got going again, through Germany, into Czech Republic and arrived Prague for lunch.
Prague is even quicker to do than Brussels: the old central parts are quite picturesque, whereas all the communist-built suburbs are rather unsightly and broken. Actually, the one main touristy thing is to walk across the Charles Bridge. All the tourists do this - it's packed.
The food in Prague isn't up to much, so we had Mclunch at the other side of the bridge, walked back over the Charles Bridge and back to the car. Easy. I once spent a whole weekend in Prague, but essentially walking over the Charles bridge and back is About It.
On through Czech Republic. Excellent roads.
We passed a city called Brno, which seems to be er unfettered by planning restrictions:
Into Slovak Republic, and Bratislava seems about the same deal as Brno for city dwellers, erk. I understand the city centre is quite nice? Let's hope so.
Tesco's supermarkets look like this without UK planning restrictions:
We didn't stop at any of these places, on into Hungary. The whole trip from Belgium through Germany and Hungary is very nice countryside, although the windscreen gets plastered with flies.
Our target was Budapest, which is supposedly very interesting city. But the river Danube has an ageing trainline down one side, and the buildings need sorting out. Bit grim, we thought.
However, the new Hotel Kempinski was jolly good, very shiny new and smart. They cleaned the car too! Mind you, hotel car parking was £20 a night.
Wednesday morning left Budapest heading towards Vienna and then Venice. More rolling countryside.
Vienna. Famous for having big Hapsburg buildings, waltzes, trams and chocolate cake. Also, the Prater Wheel featured in the film The Third Man, but it was 35 degrees in the shade so we didn't fancy a turn in these revolving sheds.
Over the Danube, which is green, realy, not blue. There's a floating swimming pool though, which looked quite good.
Sacha Tort chocolate cake, but the service was a bit slow.
So we had McLunch with typical Viennese street scene as backdrop.
Boating interlude: one might think there is a lack of boating in landlocked Vienna, but no! Very prominent yot cub right in the middle of town. Webcam and info at http://www.ycs.at/ycs/webcam/webcam_english.htm
Southwestwards now, towards Venice. Much more intresing sub-alpine countryside. Still in Austria, the city of Klagenfurt is "idyllic" it says in the guidebook, but seemed a bit sterile, really. The main square has a dragonish fountain.
Boating 2: But klagenfurt is also on the borders of the Wortensee (sp?), a very pretty lake, surrounded by mountains like Windermere except with blue water which reachs 25 degrees centigrade in summer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C3%B6rthersee
Through the Dolomites -mountain range, not a load of old BLMC cars. Fab scenery, very twisty motorway.
Boating 3: long queues into Venice carpark proper, so we parked at the airport and took a water taxi. This is 90 euros each way to/from Marco Polo airport, but an excellent boaty trip. 25mins so £65 quid isn't bad really, better value than car taxis in southern France.
The speed limit in the lagoon is 20 km/hr, ahem.
Venice is also doable at speed. Land at St Marks' Square, take some pics, drink at the cafe Florian (or is it florio? anyway, the old one) and check into hotel.
With short people in tow, a pizza at the Rialto is fine, otherwise I spose Harry's Bar is smarter.
We took a boat bus down the Grand Canal and walked back from the Accademia Bridge, which pretty much wraps up Venice.
Boating 4: Thursday morning, back to car on another water taxi. Much smoother when there are no other boats around.
Milan next, but sheesh! - the motorways are chokka, so it took about 2 hours.
Main things in Milan are The Cathedral (which is in process of getting cleaned, very smart)
...and the galleria next door...
Then it's time to visit the main train station. Eh? The train station? Yes! Fabulous fascist architecture, fit for an army to march through:
More illegal parking for a quick pic inside - fantastic. Why on earth does a train station lobby need a ceiling height of 30 metres or more? To look impressive, of course. They seem to be fixing it up, though quite slowly.
Inevitable Mclunch, where son#2 noticed that in Italy at least, a European Quarter Pounder is no longer called a "Royale with cheese" as in Pulp Fiction, but a McRoyale Deluxe.
Up the Aosta valley, through the newly-fixed-up Mont Blanc Tunnel towards Paris.
Then the camera ran out of battery, and we decided we'd had enough road trip, seen paris quite recently anyway, so we carried on home, arriving London 10.30pm Thursday night. 3½ days, 2636 miles, average 29 mpg and 70mph on the dashboard computer anyway.
Like many of you, I've done quite a bit of floating around the external edges of countries, so I thought I'd do a road trip to see some of the middle bits. Of course, Mrs Tcm didn't want to come along on a drive drive driving trip, and son#1 was busy. So son #2 reluctatntly agreed to come. Huh! But I explained that it would be good fun, and not the usual dull boring grown-up tourism. Also, it would only be for a few days, and no museums, promise.
Btw, please excuse my crummy pix, altho thanks due to dogwatch for his how-to photo guide
So anyway, Monday afternoon off thru the chunnel and on to Brussels, quite a compact city with easy list of "must-do" things. Visit the main square (Grand Place):
Then see the Mannekin Pis, nearby
You also have to have moules frites and a chocolate waffle:
This pretty much completes Brussels. Oh, and visit a chocolate shop, if you must.
So, having done Brussels by about 8pm, I thought we may as well press on. Son #2 very cheered up by our high-speed non-boring tourism policy.
To save time, we dozed overnight in the car which was a rubbish idea as it was so hot. So 6am Tuesday morning we got going again, through Germany, into Czech Republic and arrived Prague for lunch.
Prague is even quicker to do than Brussels: the old central parts are quite picturesque, whereas all the communist-built suburbs are rather unsightly and broken. Actually, the one main touristy thing is to walk across the Charles Bridge. All the tourists do this - it's packed.
The food in Prague isn't up to much, so we had Mclunch at the other side of the bridge, walked back over the Charles Bridge and back to the car. Easy. I once spent a whole weekend in Prague, but essentially walking over the Charles bridge and back is About It.
On through Czech Republic. Excellent roads.
We passed a city called Brno, which seems to be er unfettered by planning restrictions:
Into Slovak Republic, and Bratislava seems about the same deal as Brno for city dwellers, erk. I understand the city centre is quite nice? Let's hope so.
Tesco's supermarkets look like this without UK planning restrictions:
We didn't stop at any of these places, on into Hungary. The whole trip from Belgium through Germany and Hungary is very nice countryside, although the windscreen gets plastered with flies.
Our target was Budapest, which is supposedly very interesting city. But the river Danube has an ageing trainline down one side, and the buildings need sorting out. Bit grim, we thought.
However, the new Hotel Kempinski was jolly good, very shiny new and smart. They cleaned the car too! Mind you, hotel car parking was £20 a night.
Wednesday morning left Budapest heading towards Vienna and then Venice. More rolling countryside.
Vienna. Famous for having big Hapsburg buildings, waltzes, trams and chocolate cake. Also, the Prater Wheel featured in the film The Third Man, but it was 35 degrees in the shade so we didn't fancy a turn in these revolving sheds.
Over the Danube, which is green, realy, not blue. There's a floating swimming pool though, which looked quite good.
Sacha Tort chocolate cake, but the service was a bit slow.
So we had McLunch with typical Viennese street scene as backdrop.
Boating interlude: one might think there is a lack of boating in landlocked Vienna, but no! Very prominent yot cub right in the middle of town. Webcam and info at http://www.ycs.at/ycs/webcam/webcam_english.htm
Southwestwards now, towards Venice. Much more intresing sub-alpine countryside. Still in Austria, the city of Klagenfurt is "idyllic" it says in the guidebook, but seemed a bit sterile, really. The main square has a dragonish fountain.
Boating 2: But klagenfurt is also on the borders of the Wortensee (sp?), a very pretty lake, surrounded by mountains like Windermere except with blue water which reachs 25 degrees centigrade in summer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C3%B6rthersee
Through the Dolomites -mountain range, not a load of old BLMC cars. Fab scenery, very twisty motorway.
Boating 3: long queues into Venice carpark proper, so we parked at the airport and took a water taxi. This is 90 euros each way to/from Marco Polo airport, but an excellent boaty trip. 25mins so £65 quid isn't bad really, better value than car taxis in southern France.
The speed limit in the lagoon is 20 km/hr, ahem.
Venice is also doable at speed. Land at St Marks' Square, take some pics, drink at the cafe Florian (or is it florio? anyway, the old one) and check into hotel.
With short people in tow, a pizza at the Rialto is fine, otherwise I spose Harry's Bar is smarter.
We took a boat bus down the Grand Canal and walked back from the Accademia Bridge, which pretty much wraps up Venice.
Boating 4: Thursday morning, back to car on another water taxi. Much smoother when there are no other boats around.
Milan next, but sheesh! - the motorways are chokka, so it took about 2 hours.
Main things in Milan are The Cathedral (which is in process of getting cleaned, very smart)
...and the galleria next door...
Then it's time to visit the main train station. Eh? The train station? Yes! Fabulous fascist architecture, fit for an army to march through:
More illegal parking for a quick pic inside - fantastic. Why on earth does a train station lobby need a ceiling height of 30 metres or more? To look impressive, of course. They seem to be fixing it up, though quite slowly.
Inevitable Mclunch, where son#2 noticed that in Italy at least, a European Quarter Pounder is no longer called a "Royale with cheese" as in Pulp Fiction, but a McRoyale Deluxe.
Up the Aosta valley, through the newly-fixed-up Mont Blanc Tunnel towards Paris.
Then the camera ran out of battery, and we decided we'd had enough road trip, seen paris quite recently anyway, so we carried on home, arriving London 10.30pm Thursday night. 3½ days, 2636 miles, average 29 mpg and 70mph on the dashboard computer anyway.
