Holiday Report

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DITTRICH

MB Enthusiast
Joined
Apr 16, 2004
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1,935
Location
London
Car
S205 C200SE & W202 C230K
Dear All,
As some of you are interested in my little trips to the continent, I thought I'd report on progress so far...

Arrangements were very rushed, due me being out of the country on business for the last month. Nonetheless I managed to arrange everything including the visa within 24 hours. That's green card, IDP, breakdown, visa, eurotunnel and the first night's hotel in Berlin. In fact everything except version 9 of City Navigator NT for my Kenwood Garmin KNA-G520 7" indash satnav system. After being mucked about by one company who managed to screw up almost everything I got a next day delivery from an outfit in Devon.
This brings us to the end of Wednesday.

Thursday, I visit the garage to get the maps installed. I need the garage because they alone know where they hid the unit in my car. It's an SD card but it won't update the onboard maps but it will work if I leave it in the SD slot. Yeah!! I need it because v9 includes baltic states and Poland. I turn up at eurotunnel and for a change get bumped forward by 1 hour rather than being delayed. However, only on the continent troubles begin. There has been an accident on the E313 and the Antwerpen R1 ring is jammed solid - for 3 hours. There are also autobahn roadworks and I arrive at the Berlin Hilton at 2am! 15 hours.

Friday, there is no room at the Scandic Hotel in Vilnius so I book the Warsaw Hilton (Simonsmerc-thanks) Its finally open in March and very nice it is too. Rooms cheap but services expensive. I get 20th Floor Room with view of most of the City. However getting there is a nightmare. Polish roads are worse than russian roads and although the new motorway (very good) knocks hours off the journey at a cost of 33PLZ (GBP6) the rest is a big big struggle. All polish road engineers should be shot. The trucks have flattened the road into grooves in some place 4-5 inches high. Driving along a single carriage road in and out of these ruts at 100kph is like a skating rink especially with the 17" AMG 225 / 245 wheels. The Poles are total nutcases on the road - dangerous - the russian are agressive but fast and relatively safe - the Poles are in a league of their own. The speed limit signs and the centre road markings are universally ignored. I was glad I got to drive alot in Italy as I think it speeded up my reactions and roadcaraft no end. It took me 9 hours to get to Warsaw including an extra 2 due a truck smash near the german border which closed the autobahn. A whole car carrier full of marmelised cars - don't worry not mercs - carnage. Oh and I might have got done by a polish fixed speed camera - but I don't know what speed I should have been doing and it didn't flash. And I should mention a special word for the Polish border passport control. Very rude and a huge queue to get through. The bloke claimed he told me to stop and I didn't. But he didn't speak english and I didn't speak Polish. He shouted - I smiled and handed over my passport - what a complete asshole. Part of the EU? My @rse.

Saturday, I leave Warsaw and head out to Vilnius. A short trip and I arrive by 7am. Strangely, the roads here are much better and the ruts much less deep as I choose a more cross country route off the beaten track. The speed limits in Litnuania are very very slow and there are loads of Police on the roads with radar guns. My technique was to hitch a lift behind other cars and lo and behold the car in front got done and I sailed through no problems. Seriously though the Lithuanians are disciplined on the road and you'd be wise to adhere to the limits there.

Sunday.
A fruitless day searching for somewhere to buy russian 3rd party cover for the car. Yes its Sunday! Believe me if I could have arrived on another day!
Basically its another 300km to the russian border and supposedly there are banks and petrol stations which can sell you insurance - but its sunday and I do not want to drive there to find out its monday morning - believe me! I also moved hotels to the congress hotel because I got bumped from scandic by a higher priority customer - c'est la vie.

Tomorrow
Well hopefully insurance! or something. I'm not going straight to Moscow but to some tourist resort at a lake "seleger" so the distance is less - Friends, wife and kid will be there already today. Only 700km tomorrow (2,300 already done). Car is still in one piece (I did "touch" a rabbit's foot the other day - it was on the road still attached to the rabbit - well my tyre touched it so that counts doesn't it? NB the rabbit was already dead.)

Hopefully my room will be ready in a few minutes and I can bog off and do some sightseeing. Still life ain't so bad and hopfully the financial markets won't have completed self imploded by the time I get back.

Best Regards

Les
 
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However, only on the continent troubles begin. There has been an accident on the E313 and the Antwerpen R1 ring is jammed solid - for 3 hours.

Being a Belgian, I am of the opinion that it is always best to avoid both the rings around Antwerp and the one around Brussels if possible. For going to Germany I would prefer the route E25/E42/E40 via Wallonia (Tournai-Mons-Charleroi-Namur-Seraing-Verviers-Aachen). A lot less traffic than on more northerly routes via Brussels or Antwerp and you'll avoid both rings.

Anyway, enjoy the trip and keep safe :).
 
via Wallonia (Tournai-Mons-Charleroi-Namur-Seraing-Verviers-Aachen). A lot less traffic than on more northerly routes via Brussels or Antwerp and you'll avoid both rings.

Anyway, enjoy the trip and keep safe :).
That route brings back fond memories. I lived in Mons for 4 years and travelled to Germany on a regular basis.
 
Back in the UK now after a nice time abroad.
The journey back was much easier this time.
Latvia and Lithuania definitely have speed limits set too low for normal european driving. Also of interest was the 40km line of trucks waiting to enter russia from Latvia (russian customs!)
Vilnius is a nice place to visit with most of the old town within walking distance. People who like Amber jewellery will find an abundant low priced selection. The 'scandic' neringa hotel and the 'congress' hotel weren't bad but the food at the 'scandic' was of variable quality. The 'congress' was reasonably priced and had better secure parking behind gates.
Poland - again car crashes (other people's) delayed us by 3 hours. The Poles really are a law unto themselves on the roads - all road markings and signs being universally regarded as being purely advisory. Again I let them all overtake only to see quite a few stopped by the roadside coppers as I sailed by. The Hilton in Warsaw is worth staying at. Very good scambled eggs at breakfast. A very nice amber jewellery shop in the lobby too. Stay on the upper floors and get a fab view of warsaw at night. The Hilton in Berlin was quite good too and we managed to get up to the top of the TV tower the next day before moving on. The W202 behaved itself on the roads in spite of the lowered suspension. I also gained some experience of driving in the outer lane on the autobahn at around 180-200kph.
My overall verdict is that Poland needs another 5 years of road improvements to become a viable touring destination. The crap roads are really bad but the motorway is very good - no cops too. However the constant road accidents and delays resulting from them on single carriageway roads mean that intercity travel is difficult.
Lithuania/Vilnius is nice for a weekend in summer.

I got stopped by the Russian cops 4 times!
Once for overtaking a lada doing 20kph while we were going through roadworks. It wa the overtaking bit that did it apparently.
Once for going the wrong way round a roundabout (the junction looked like a crossroads and I turned left. However the "left" and "straight ahead" options were part of a roundabout - just a very very large one of which one part was a 90degree bend/junction - again no road markings and the roundabout sign was hidden by tree branches and leaves. I was let off with a warning on each occasion which was good because they confiscate your license rather than fine you. After I learned this I used to show the international IDP only and retain my UK and Russian licenses out of the way.
Twice for going into a pedestrian zone (there were no roadsigns to tell me this!) I was not stopped anywhere else.
So that's the end of my journeys for another year.
Back to the grindstone!
Rgds
Les
 
Being a Belgian, I am of the opinion that it is always best to avoid both the rings around Antwerp and the one around Brussels if possible. For going to Germany I would prefer the route E25/E42/E40 via Wallonia (Tournai-Mons-Charleroi-Namur-Seraing-Verviers-Aachen). A lot less traffic than on more northerly routes via Brussels or Antwerp and you'll avoid both rings.

Interesting, thanks. I think that's the way we went out (had to go via Luxembourg to get cigarettes for my mother in law!). We came back round the rings (simply following the Tom Tom), but as it was around 2AM on a Sunday the traffic wasn't too bad!
 

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