Marvin's UK trip #2

[Marvin16x]

Hi all,

7 weeks of summer jobbing at DAIMLER have come to an end and it's now time to sort out the final bits before our second UK road trip starts.

Some of you might remember that we did the same thing two years ago.
My mate Felix, me and the old red(ish) Benz, from Stuttgart up to Inverness and back.
It was such a great experience that we decided to do it again as soon as possible.
Now the time has almost come, we shall be off in a little more than two weeks.

There are still a few things on the car I need to address before we leave, such as replacing the front brakes, both camber plates and engine oil plus some minor stuff, but apart from that everything looks and feels fine.
Really hoping the car will behave like last time – good mileage, no loss of oil and coolant, old tyres that simply keep rolling ...

Now, let's get to the actual topic.
I've come up with a route that will lead us counter-clockwise around Britain, starting in Dover on the 18th and getting back there by the 3rd of September at the latest.
Edinburgh, by far the coolest and most majestic city I've ever been to, will be the northernmost point of this year's trip.
We need to be there on the 24th to see a rock band that we had already seen a while back in Stuttgart, and it was brilliant

Unfortunately, I had to leave out northern Scotland for reasons of time.
But if you have a look on the map you will realise that there's actually plenty to see on our way around England and Wales already, and we only have about 16 days for that anyway.

We're taking the ferry at Dunkerque this time to hopefully avoid being confronted with all those traffic and refugee issues in Calais.

Dover – London (spend 1-2 days there) – East Coast – Peak District – back to East Coast via York – Edinburgh (concert) – Glasgow – Ayrshire (our special beach, Electric Brae ) – Galloway Forest Park – Lake District – Yorkshire Dales – Preston (to say hello to Mark! ) – Snowdonia – South West Wales – Brecon Beacons – Cotswolds – Southwest England – Isles of Scilly (maybe) – Isle of Wight – Dover.

Like last time I will keep this thread as our kind of travel diary, so everyone who feels like is welcome to follow us on our trip.
We're looking forward to maybe meeting up with some of you guys on the way.

Also, we appreciate every bit of advice or information you have for us.
And we don't say no to unwanted leftovers either!

All right, that shall be it for now.

See you soon,
Marvin

 

[Marvin16x]

Hey guys,

hope you all had a great weekend.

I certainly did. Went to Cologne on Friday to pick Felix up, he had studied there for three months and now needed to get back to Stuttgart.
The weather was great on Friday evening, so we decided to go to town so I could finally see the Kölner Dom for the first time in my life.
However, we ended up at a concert of the very band we intended to see in Edinburgh on the 24th instead!
We couldn't believe our eyes when we accidentally noticed a rather small poster saying Seether would be playing in Cologne, on that day, at that time.
It couldn't have been more spontaneous and less expected than that!

Anyway. So we had a great night on Friday, then went back the 450 kms to our home near Stuttgart yesterday.
Car behaved very well, averaging some 45 mpg fully laden

Last week, a local chap with his own little shop and I took care of a few things on my car that still had to be dealt with:
replacing front brake discs and pads, brake fluid, camber plates, engine oil and filter, air filter. Also put some air into the tyres.
They were quite flat (only 26 psi / 1.8 bar, I went for 35 psi / 2.4 bar)

Now I need to go to bed. Will pick up Felix tomorrow morning at 8. We'll try to get as far as possible, preferably all the way to Dunkirque,
so we won't have to be in a hurry on Tuesday morning getting to the ferry dock in time (7 am) ...

All right, I shall update this thread once in Merrie Olde England sipping at a bottle of glorious Old Golden Hen

Bunch of proper cars at Nitrolympx Dragster Racing at Hockenheimring last weekend.

Ready for all those nasty passes that lie ahead!

 

[LTD]

Marvin

Let us know when you intend to be in Glasgow.

I'll try to arrange a trip to Yadgar for you and Felix

 

[flango]

Marvin

Let us know when you intend to be in Glasgow.

I'll try to arrange a trip to Yadgar for you and Felix

If we can arrange this I'll make one unless I'm away

 

[Druk]

Hey Marvin.

You'd be more than welcome back at chez Druk but we're away for your dates. Good luck in the best city in the world when you get here.

 

[guydewdney]

Theres a little x in sw england, north coast, thats pretty close to me. What do you intend on visiting there?

 

[Meldrew2]

If we can arrange this I'll make one unless I'm away

+1 if I can.

 

[Mike Walker]

Marvin Hi
North Kent here so not far from London. Whereabouts will you be aiming for after arriving on this side of the channel?

 

[Marvin16x]

Good morning guys,

we're on the ferry now after having spent the night in a Dunkirque car park. Got there yesterday evening without any issues on the way. Unfortunately the weather turned to the worse over night so we woke up in pouring rain and missed the 8 am ferry. Got there in time but not early enough. Anyway, it seems to be quite a common thing so we didn't have to pay any more money to get the 10 am ferry.

Thanks Steven, we're really looking forward to another traditional Scottish supper and will let you know when we'll be getting to.Glasgow. Once in Dover, we'll do some more planning. Might skip East Anglia.

Derek, that's a pity, we would have loved to bob in once more. Enjoy the time where ever you two will be then

guydewdney, I have no idea why I've put that little cross there. There might be a nice beach or so. Need to check on my Google map again. But we'll definitely enter Cornwall via that route so if you want to catch up, sure!

Mike, North Kent is pretty much where we're heading to next, but not yet sure when exactly. We'll be using Dartford Crossing again to get past London.

EDIT: the ferry wifi wouldn't upload the above so now let's try it again with my new ee sim card.
So as the weather's really bad we'll be off to Morrisons now and then up to leave London behind. Maybe into Suffolk and Norfolk but really not too sure about it. They say it will be better tomorrow so putting some more miles on the clock seems like the best thing to do today.

some pics of the lovely sunset last night in Dunkirque.

 

[Marvin16x]

Hey from my bed in Ashbourne!

We're now in the very south of Peak District NP and ready to discover some beautiful roads and locations on our way north tomorrow.

Spend the last night in a car park between Dartford Crossing and Cambridge. Even had to pay for it, 8 quid each! Noise from departing Ryanair birds included (Stansted). Anyway, woke up to sunshine and warmth this morning which was a lovely surprise!

Left there at 10 and enjoyed some sunny hours in Cambridge. Again, we felt like having been thrown back in time. Awesome!

Arrived in Ashbourne past six. Got there via Peterborough, Nottingham and Derby. Getting around Nottingham was quite a pain in the butt, but we eventually got through in time and safely.

Plan for tomorrow, Thu 20/08:
Peak District, getting to Scarborough (maybe the Moors as well)

Plan for Friday 21/08:
Up the East Coast to Edinburgh and Glasgow by late afternoon? Meet up possible? Would be awesome.

Need to be kind of quick about getting back south again, we really want to spend most of the time in Lake District, Wales and the Southwest!

 

[Marvin16x]

App's having a bad day again..

who can find me on the 3rd?

 

[LTD]

Plan for Friday 21/08:
Up the East Coast to Edinburgh and Glasgow by late afternoon? Meet up possible? Would be awesome.

I'll bang up a thread for Friday in the GTG area Marvin - let's see what happens .....

I'm sure something can be arranged if you are in Glasgow that evening .....

 

[d w124]

Such a shame you can't make it to mercland's GTG on sunday

 

[d w124]

Your roof box is huge

 

[del320]

Your roof box is huge

You must tell Druk where this is - he and Bette are always on the lookout for luxury accommodation.

 

[Marvin16x]

Morning everyone,

I struggle everyday to sleep a bit longer than until 6 am, but it's just too bright to fall back asleep. And I'm also surprisingly fit already, full of motivation. Felix however doesn't seem to have any issues whatsoever with natural brightness coming in through the windows. He'd lie there until noon lol

Anyway. We're now somewhere on an A614 parking north of Hull. Yesterday was filled with some lovely driving through Peak District. We spent some more time around Castleton again, but this time climbed Mam Tor to see it all from above. Was really beautiful.

I'm afraid I can't yet show you the pics I've taken with my DSLR, they're a little better than those taken with my mobile phone. But should be enough to get an idea.. ;-)

Our next little stop is Scarborough, then through the North York Moors and along the coastline up to Edinburgh and Glasgow. Quite some distance again but should be alright if we leave early.

 

[WDB124066]

You're a man after my own heart there Marvin - I used to do pretty much the same when I was younger but in a Triumph. God bless ya boy!

 

[Mike Walker]

Lovely pictures of a beautiful location. Hope you got my message re your mobile number ok?

 

[Marvin16x]

Morning everyone,

Greetings frae Scotland. Crossed the border yesterday after having spent entire Friday driving up from Hull via Scarborough (too many people though) and the coastal route up to Bamburgh castle - what an impressive building in such special surroundings. Got a few good shots but none with my mobile phone unfortunately.
I'll post proper pics once back home.

The next morning we went to Holy Island but were an hour early, the road was still flooded which made for some nice pics at least. Knowing that we wanted to spend some more time in Edinburgh city though, we left right after and took a hilly inland route to approach this lovely city from the Southwest. Got there at about noon and enjoyed a couple of hours of great festival vibes and just very little rain.

Just like two years ago, we spent the night in the car at bp Harthill between Glasgow and Edinburgh. Our phone batteries went flat and being on the road between these two cities we had no idea how to find a cheap hostel, so after a while decided to go to that fuel station to charge our phones (they have plenty of sockets) and park the red benz amidst a bunch of lorries. lol

Anyway... we survived another night and shall soon be off to Ayr, followed by a Galloway forest park crossing to finally reach beautiful Lake District tonight.
We have some 10 days left, enough to see the best spots on our way back to Dover I think! Excited!

 

[Marvin16x]

Time for another update.

After leaving our spot between Glasgow and Edinburgh we got to Greenock a while later followed by an absolutely fantastic scenic drive down to Largs. A beautiful seaside town that greeted us with lots of sunshine and a somewhat Californian charm... Spent a while in the area and then continued on our way south to Ayr, where we luckily found a great B&B for little money - because we shared a single room. It was the only room that was left (Felix had to sleep on the floor - on a matress at least)

Since we had nothing left to eat and were awfully hungry we made the mistake and went to a local Indian restaurant and spent 25 quid each on stuff that was literally nothing but hot. Didn't taste a lot of the veggies that came with the hot.. lol
Cobra ain't a bad brew though but really, we should have saved these £50 for another night in a decent bed or 600 km worth of fuel... But it was nice anyway! Unfortunately it was pouring down when we left to walk back to the place. meh

The next day we left Ayr to take the scenic route across Galloway forest park where we stopped at Loch Doon first, to be attacked by midges once our steaks were in the pan.Ate them really quickly and spent minutes on killing the ones that got inside the car. Then left to finally reach Maryport on England's west coast at about 7 pm. Spent the night at Barrie's, he's an old fella from the 190 forums who provided us shelter two years ago already.

Today we enjoyed our day exploring the Western parts of the Lake District which are simply spectacular. Climbed to the top of the mountain at Honister pass and had some ice cream by the lake.

Now south of Whitehaven sleeping in the car by the sea. Rainy and stormy, but it's supposed to calm down over night. Tomorrow another day in the District and then down to Wales.

Regards
Marvin