OP
OP
Haylands
Active Member
- Joined
- May 22, 2012
- Messages
- 72
- Car
- 2000 CL500
You can tell on acceleration, just sounds more mean....
Thanks, they are a lovely coupe...
Been real busy since the trip so haven't had time to post, we did ten countries in seven days with two days of no driving,
Started in England, then across from Dover to France, then Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland and finally Luxembourg.
We did 2,640miles at an average speed of 67mph and did 24.7mpg, and I'm pleased to say the CL didn't miss a beat the entire way.
First day we drove from Hull to Dover, then the slowboat across the channel, into France, across to Belgium, through the Netherlands and into Germany, first night stop over was near Cologne on the Saturday night.
Up early on Sunday and headed for the Ring... at £25 a lap I decided that we would only do one, (I'm a southerner but have lived in Yorkshire for too long!!!) must say I was very impressed with the circuit, some lovely fast sweeping bends, I did a fair bit of youtubing before we left and actually managed to remember a lot of it, took it easy for the first few K's then opened it up a bit for the rest of the lap, Deb said she even enjoyed it and she doesn't like cornering real fast (funny girl) she said she only closed her eyes once!!! The brakes were getting very hot by the end of the lap so we pulled straight off the circuit and drove 20 miles to cool them off.... Then the autobahn to Munich, it was Sunday so the traffic was light and not too many HGV's. The CL is limited to 250kph/155mph and it was nice to prove this!! it actually pulled really well to 253kph before it slowed and kept that speed, wonder what it would do with it removed. It was rock steady with no issues. It certainly does eat up motorways....
We spent Sunday and Monday night in Munich and had a good look around the city, found some very nice beer and food, while the Merc had a rest for a day.... it was the week before Octoberfest but we still managed to try plenty, the wheat beer was lovely....
Left Munich Tuesday morning and headed south, through Austria and then a mountain road into Slovenia, stopped in Ljubljana for lunch but couldn't find anywhere at all remotely close to the center to park, so headed out the city and ended up in McDonalds for lunch!!!!! Then headed for Venice, into Italy and the driving gets fun, they only have one rule on the road, if you're in front..... you win!!! join in and it's kind of fun, Got to Venice and parked the car up for another day off, got a 15min water taxi ride to our Hotel, as I'm far too lazy to walk 1/2 mile to the waterbus stop, then wished I had as it cost £70 for the Taxi!!!?!?!??! Everything about Venice is great, it's just a magical place, we thoroughly enjoyed our time there, did all the touristy bits and again ate and drank well... we had a helicopter ride over the islands which was great fun.
Left Venice Thursday morning and headed up to Lake Como for lunch, found a nice bar overlooking the lake, then we set off for the Sustenstrass Pass, after much reading this is supposed to be a nicer driving road than the Top Gear Davos to Stelvio road.... I have to say the Merc is no sportscar, more a Grand Tourer and it's too heavy for the quick direction changes these switchback roads are full of.... so it was just a gentle drive but did have some spectacular views. We came down the North side of the pass and found a lovely skiing chalet to stay in with a very good cook and a great beer!!
Friday morning and our last full day, we just headed North, meandered around mostly off the main roads, worked our way up to Strasbourg then on towards Metz, thought, lets make the 10 countries then, so headed for Luxembourg, I booked us into a central hotel on my Iphone while Deb piloted the Merc... the hotel turned out to be very nice and had a rooftop restaurant overlooking the city so we had a very pleasant last nights meal.
Left the following morning and had a slow drive up through France to get to Calais for the 3pm boat, we always use the VIP service now, it's a little bit more but you get priority boarding and disembarkation and access to the VIP lounge where you get waited on hand and foot, free drinks and papers and no hoards of screaming school kids!!! It was then a slow drive back home.
All in all a great week, made some wonderful memories and drove some very nice roads, the Merc didn't miss a beat but was rather covered in dead flies across the front...
A few pics.... didn't take too many as I kept forgetting!!!! doh
A classic Venice shot
Venice Island from the helicopter
Lake Como
The top of the pass
The Skiing Lodge
Another beautiful lake in Switzerland
Sticker collection, Slovenia and Austrian carnet de passage bought locally on entering the country and the bottom one is the German emmision zone sticker which you can get before leaving the UK...
