The epic failure of bringing Cheech to Ireland, European Road Trip.
- Thread starter Mikey
- Start date
probably closer to 2000.... thanks to mikey at this stage for his excellent documentation....
Well we're hear, car is running rough after it's trip. It did well though and was pushed hard in the last 100KM.
It turned out to be a 13 hour drive including stop offs and petrol.
Are you sure you are on the right ferry? That doesn't look like an Irish Ferries ship!!! (I use to work on it and it was white and green
)
I'm not sure if people want this information but it might be handy if your going sometime, you will travel through four great countries on route but will see some incredible sights.
Food: Germany is really cheap for food, you will get a decent lunch including beer for about €5 each, dinner goes up to about €10 max. A cheap bottle of wine is €3 and if you fancy some top notch wine expect to pay €10. You would probably feed yourself in Germany for 15 a day at a push. We didn't eat in Holland or Belgium but the motorway petrol stations had the essentials and a clean piss out. France is a different story, we had breakfast at a motorway stop off for 15 a head - ill planned and not thought out I'm sure the food is better and cheaper with a bit more research.
Fuel: Andre said the trip costed €130 in fuel from Haltern An Sea to Cherbourg, roughly 850 KM. I thought that was quite good although it could be done cheaper as Andre is running a 1200 gearbox with a 1600 engine. That also impacted on high speeds, bear in mind that is was West Germany, five hours away from the Volkswagen Factory so eight hours in a bug. Diesel is your friend in this department.
Ferry: Booked with time including driver and passenger €120,00 for this and I opted for a cabin €65.
Accommodation: Big thanks to Andre for accommodation in his place while in Germany, we stayed in B&B Hotels (www.hotelbb.com - Noyelles Godault)at €40 a room (off peak) I would suggest this place as it has excellent parking space and ultra safe.
Roads: Might seem like a silly item but something to be aware of the roads in Europe, a lot of people drive illegal on the Autobahn. If you are doing 100MPH you by law need half of that in braking distance and can be pulled over and fined - I didn't know until Andre showed me people doing it. German Roads are excellent with Motorway stop offs every 30KM. You wouldn't notice that you've crossed the border into Holland as the roads are on par with Germany, fog was an issue on Friday night. The roads in Belgium are just shit specially in a lowered bug, from one piece of tarmac to another you can drop a few inch's with pot holes in Ireland. French roads are quite good and you won't have a problem there, not as much motorway stop offs but still plenty, you won't go stuck for petrol.
Tolls: We didn't have any tolls in Germany, Holland and Belgium. Although France was covered with them a right pain in the rear as you lose so much time slowing down, queueing up and handing the money over. We spent over €30 on tolls one way.
Ferry: Boarding the ferry was interesting as they asked up to go up one tear, and the bug scrapped across the ramp with a fair bang - no damage was caused. Leaving Rosslare they raised the ramp with us on it to get the car on without damage. We probably should have sought attention of a steward in Cherbourg to avoid that. Irish Ferrys were excellent, arrived on time. They even have a bar Duts but it closes at 1AM.
Essentials: We didn't have enough of the essentials needed, you just need them no option. Like a fanbelt which caused us trouble, jump start leads, fire exthugshers, jack, torch, hi viz jackets, cigarette charger to keep your phone charged you will never know when you need to ring a recovery truck. If you are a AA member they will tow you back to your home address while in Europe I think that is good value fuckers want to know why you like drink though.
Time: Leave plenty rushing for the ferry wasn't an enjoyable experience for both of us, pushing the engine to the limit hoping that the fan belt would hold up and the weather did get worse. I suggest one day from Germany to get into France for about five hours driving. It was nine hours for us to cover France including stop offs, I would suggest getting close to the ferry the night before. So my advice 3 days each way to have a bit of comfort and do a bit of sight seeing. I will post up a picture of a part of France that takes 4 hours to cover and it is only 250KM or so,
Launage: I can only speak English but naturally enough Andre speaks German. German people don't like speaking English even if they have it, it came across to me like Irish people having to speak Irish to a foreigner. Although you can get around Germany with English and no real problems. France is a different story they're incredible ignorant, I don't think my French helped. I did watch a box set of Only Fools and Horses Merci.
Weather: It was very cold but mild by times, no snow maybe Jene Bynres prayers helped.
I would do it again in the morning but with more time, accomadation planned and set route that you stick too.
Food: Germany is really cheap for food, you will get a decent lunch including beer for about €5 each, dinner goes up to about €10 max. A cheap bottle of wine is €3 and if you fancy some top notch wine expect to pay €10. You would probably feed yourself in Germany for 15 a day at a push. We didn't eat in Holland or Belgium but the motorway petrol stations had the essentials and a clean piss out. France is a different story, we had breakfast at a motorway stop off for 15 a head - ill planned and not thought out I'm sure the food is better and cheaper with a bit more research.
Fuel: Andre said the trip costed €130 in fuel from Haltern An Sea to Cherbourg, roughly 850 KM. I thought that was quite good although it could be done cheaper as Andre is running a 1200 gearbox with a 1600 engine. That also impacted on high speeds, bear in mind that is was West Germany, five hours away from the Volkswagen Factory so eight hours in a bug. Diesel is your friend in this department.
Ferry: Booked with time including driver and passenger €120,00 for this and I opted for a cabin €65.
Accommodation: Big thanks to Andre for accommodation in his place while in Germany, we stayed in B&B Hotels (www.hotelbb.com - Noyelles Godault)at €40 a room (off peak) I would suggest this place as it has excellent parking space and ultra safe.
Roads: Might seem like a silly item but something to be aware of the roads in Europe, a lot of people drive illegal on the Autobahn. If you are doing 100MPH you by law need half of that in braking distance and can be pulled over and fined - I didn't know until Andre showed me people doing it. German Roads are excellent with Motorway stop offs every 30KM. You wouldn't notice that you've crossed the border into Holland as the roads are on par with Germany, fog was an issue on Friday night. The roads in Belgium are just shit specially in a lowered bug, from one piece of tarmac to another you can drop a few inch's with pot holes in Ireland. French roads are quite good and you won't have a problem there, not as much motorway stop offs but still plenty, you won't go stuck for petrol.
Tolls: We didn't have any tolls in Germany, Holland and Belgium. Although France was covered with them a right pain in the rear as you lose so much time slowing down, queueing up and handing the money over. We spent over €30 on tolls one way.
Ferry: Boarding the ferry was interesting as they asked up to go up one tear, and the bug scrapped across the ramp with a fair bang - no damage was caused. Leaving Rosslare they raised the ramp with us on it to get the car on without damage. We probably should have sought attention of a steward in Cherbourg to avoid that. Irish Ferrys were excellent, arrived on time. They even have a bar Duts but it closes at 1AM.
Essentials: We didn't have enough of the essentials needed, you just need them no option. Like a fanbelt which caused us trouble, jump start leads, fire exthugshers, jack, torch, hi viz jackets, cigarette charger to keep your phone charged you will never know when you need to ring a recovery truck. If you are a AA member they will tow you back to your home address while in Europe I think that is good value fuckers want to know why you like drink though.
Time: Leave plenty rushing for the ferry wasn't an enjoyable experience for both of us, pushing the engine to the limit hoping that the fan belt would hold up and the weather did get worse. I suggest one day from Germany to get into France for about five hours driving. It was nine hours for us to cover France including stop offs, I would suggest getting close to the ferry the night before. So my advice 3 days each way to have a bit of comfort and do a bit of sight seeing. I will post up a picture of a part of France that takes 4 hours to cover and it is only 250KM or so,
Launage: I can only speak English but naturally enough Andre speaks German. German people don't like speaking English even if they have it, it came across to me like Irish people having to speak Irish to a foreigner. Although you can get around Germany with English and no real problems. France is a different story they're incredible ignorant, I don't think my French helped. I did watch a box set of Only Fools and Horses Merci.
Weather: It was very cold but mild by times, no snow maybe Jene Bynres prayers helped.
I would do it again in the morning but with more time, accomadation planned and set route that you stick too.
Sweet jesus Mikey, are you colouring in the fucking photos or what????? Upload the bastards will ya!
If you've taken over 1,000 photos this is going to be a loooooooooooooong process
If you've taken over 1,000 photos this is going to be a loooooooooooooong process
Sweet jesus Mikey, are you colouring in the fucking photos or what????? Upload the bastards will ya!
If you've taken over 1,000 photos this is going to be a loooooooooooooong process
Have to upload them to the PC, then Photobucket. Yes it will be looooooooooooooong I reckon about 3 and half days to the end of the thread lol.