(AT THE BOTTOM HIT "OLDER POSTS" TO CONTINUE THROUGH THE TRIP)

The plan.

8 days road trip and a handful of sights we wanted to see (nurburgring, swiss alps, millau viaduct, spa, monaco to name a few)

Rallye James from Performance-On-Track was the instigator and came up with the idea for this trip....and this route...


route by Lee Marshall, on Flickr

Friday 13th (May)- Morning drive down to Dover to meet up and catch an early afternoon ferry to arrive in Dunkerque late afternoon. Check into hotel then have the evening free to have a look round Dunkerque and get food.

Saturday 14th - Drive through Belgium to Adenau. Arrive in Adenau mid afternoon, check in to hotel (Eddy's) and watch the VLN into the evening.

Sunday 15th - Spend the morning at the 'Ring. Leave after some lunch. Drive south to Mulhouse (where the S1 Rallye was made). Arrive early evening.

Monday 16th - Drive down through Switzerland to Milan. Drive motorway through the Alps and along Lake Lucerne, then over the San Gotthard Pass and possible Furka Pass time permitting. Arrive a little later in the evening, possibly 7pm, depending how it goes.

Tuesday 17th - Five minute trip down the road to visit Monza if there's anything to see there, then a shorter day of driving as a bit of a break. Down to Monaco to arrive early afternoon and spend the rest of the day there. Half hour drive though Nice to hotel.

Wednesday 18th - Backtrack slightly and head up the Alps to the Col de Turini and then back down a slightly different route possibly part of the Route Napoleon. From there we head to Montpellier (a bit of motorway if we need to make some time up) for our overnight stop.

Thursday 19th - A long day of driving, will keep it mostly to motorways with an odd detour, plenty of stops along the way. Leave as early as possible, arrive at the Millau Viaduct before noon all being well, have an hour or so break around this point before heading on to Dijon.

Friday 20th - Return to Dunkerque. Leave Dijon and travel to Reims via a recommended 'A road'. Have a break there and a nose around the old F1 paddock.

Saturday 21st - Ferry to Dover late morning to arrive around noon, then drive home.

Friday 13th May

I left mine about 9am and headed straight off to pick up my passenger, Mark, for the week. Loaded the clio and off we went. We met Ed and Zoe in the Red R26 at Birchanger Green Services and headed down to Maidstone to meet James and Matt in the 106 Rallye. After a quick break we headed straight down to Dover with plenty of time to spare. After a Burger King which took an age to order, we were ready to board and soon enough on our way over the channel! Bye Bye UK!!!

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We disembarked and after a quick detour and a trip through Dunkerque's Total oil refinery, we arrived at our hotel for the night, the cheap but cheerful F1. A little bit of poor french was spoken and we were booked in.

Our next mission was to sample the town's nightlife. A quick drive down through the dangerous streets of Dunkerque and we were on the seafront where we attempted to find somewhere that sold food other than mussels. We had thought we'd found somewhere, although after sitting down with a drink and letting Mark speak some 'fluent' french to the waitress, we decided there was nothing on the menu that either we could understand, or was appetising.


Dunkerque Beach, Day 0


Dunkerque Beach, Day 0

A quick walk back where we came from and we came across a nice little pizzeria. Well, nice except that the bloke and his wife were seemingly overrun with orders and there was no apparent queueing system. But half and hour later we had pizza. Epic pizza at that. I mean almost Pinocchio's rivaling. Only almost though...

We spent the rest of the evening in a bar, with a huge fish tank, half a giraffe and a buffalo's head on the wall (I assume that's just how they do things here?), before retiring to our rooms and after a bit of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire 'en francais', getting some kip ready for an early start.

Saturday 14th May

An early start it was, woken by a crazy frenchman at 4am who had locked himself out and was banging on the door for half an hour. We eventually got up at 7am, showered and headed off. The first french stretch down to Lille was exceptionally smooth and clear and we made good progress.

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The Belgian border crossing was made obvious by the deep ruts in the road and we crashed our way onwards bound for Spa. This was all very civilised, sat at 70mph to conserve the fuel, and although James managed to go the wrong way around a roundabout in a service station. We reached Spa slightly ahead of schedule and proceeded to do the normal and just walk into the paddock. We just caught part of a bike trackday as we watched Eau Rouge before they stopped for lunch and then we set about exploring the rest, finding the GP start straight and the podium.

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Thumbs up from me

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Our next stop was only two miles away (up some random single track lane) where Peugeot nutter James arranged to meet some of the Dutch Rallye owners club on a trackday...we didnt mind as we are all Peugeot fans and most had owned 106's previously...only to find they'd buggered off to lunch! Eager to catch some of the VLN race, we made tracks instead.

We cruised at 70mph again, only until Ed and I decided to have a little hoon to around 140mph, as we crossed the border into Germany...past a Police car but he didnt seem bothered lol. We then left the motorways behind and got on the back roads (We recommend the L10 to Hillesheim to anyone in the area) and before long we were in Nurburg. It was 3pm by now, so we got straight to Brunnchen to watch some racing. It was heaving! Car park full, cars parked all over the road and in fields! Still, we found a spot and sat watching a variety of cars, from a load of Clio 200s to Merc SLSs, a Viper, a Lexus LFA that sounded immense and the one off Ferrari P4/5C. Epic.

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We had a quick lap to the entrance which was deserted and then went down to Adenau to meet Eddy. We were given the basement suite to ourselves, which is quite nice, although gutted that there's no balcony

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We did 'the usual' and headed straight to the Rewe beer supermarket to stock up and then decided on a meal at Sabine's family's Pistenklause restaurant. Unbelievable meal And the service was outstanding, real German efficiency. James proceeded to draw a nice PoT logo on the wall seeings as that seemed the norm. We had a little wander around the village, a peer through the BMW M Centre at the new E90 M3 Ring Taxi and a look at some R8s on a couple of lorries and then left for Eddy's again.


Dinner is served in the Pistenklause...

We finished the evening with the obligatory track walk and a few Bitburgers on the communal balcony.

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Sunday 15th May

Keen for an early start up to the entrance, we woke at 7am and had our traditional breakfast at Eddy's, complete with donuts. We unpacked into one of his garages and it began to rain, i could have cried. My first ever track experience...my first ever time at the ring and it was raining!!. It was quite quiet with not too much in the car park, so James and Ed bought tickets and went for a 'slow' lap in the rain. Rack went out in traditional 4 up style and soon left the Megane behind. In fact, James was only passed by a 5 series and a rather twitchy Scooby! James is a true ring hero. The lap was so funny and that rallye gets some stick!!!!

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Deciding the rain was getting heavier, we next headed to the visitor centre, parking the cars in German flag formation, as we had done the Belgian flag for Spa. At this point Mark thought it would be a safe bet to purchase a rain coat as he'd left his at home...boy was it needed!

For the next round, James left his car in the car park and joined me in the Clio. This made me feel so much calmer about going out. It was so nice having someone telling you where the corners are etc etc. We flew round! All this time we were getting nice clear laps and it made the experience even better. A dry line soon emerged and it was time to take the Rallye for a real lap Four up, with a full tank of fuel. This time James overtook a Speedster (VX220) and only got passed by the 'taxi' Aston Vantage and a GT3RS. Epic 8v win! Me and Ed decided we'd go out for another lap now the track was dry. This time James joined Ed in the Megane and it sooned disappeared from my sights. Having someone that knows the track with you is such a help! I gave the clio stick and put in what i thought was another good lap. Gutted there is no photos though

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We returned to Adenau and had our Pinocchios before loading up our kit from Eddy's garage and finished our time at the 'Ring with some viewing from Hatzenbach.

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Once again James managed to find some dutch Rallye owner who he'd met at Pugfest previously and showed him an epic picture he had taken of the Rallye on track.

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At 3pm, after the heavens opened, we then pressed on as we had four and half hours to our hotel for the night just over the border in France. We made our first stop two hours later at Hockenheim, where after been told we couldn't go into the paddock by an angry German, we decided on the open grandstands instead.

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We watched a little bit of motorbikes on track and then headed on again... Into torrential rain, standing water and roadworks. An hour after leaving Hockenheim, we had done around 15 miles.

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So, after roadworks, more roadworks, some more rain and standing water and more roadworks (avoid the A5 at all costs!) we checked in at 9:30pm local time and spent the rest of the evening in our rooms planning tomorrow.

After a quick check of the webcams it seemed there had been significant snowfall in the alps that afternoon which could disrupt us, though we are headed to Andermatt to attempt the Furka and the Gottard or even the Lukmanier.