OP
OP
It has just occured to me that I never gave an udate on The Grand Tour !!
The trip changed from the original idea of a touring holiday for the two of us to something a little more random, chaotic, flexible - however you would wish to describe it.
The other half decided that charging up and down passes, or max speed runs on autobahns was not really for her so opted to fly out from the UK and meet me at a pre determined spot
This also led to a decision that 'wouldn't it be fun to have some of the girlfriends there as well' - so in the end we opted to rent a four bedroom villa in the olive groves near Arezzo, south of Florence in Tuscany.
Decision on the use of car now became much easier - I opted to take the newly purchased SLK55 and have some fun
The route was a fairly sedate (lots of cameras) cruise through France down to Basel with an overnight stop there, enjoying some good company and conversation at a small wine bar next to the river in the town centre. An early start the following day led through the tunnel and down into Italy with the intention of reaching the villa by mid afternoon - in time to pick up some wine and provisions at the local market.
The villa (as with many in the area) turned out to be down a narrow track, but surprisingly the SLK dealt with it all without problem apart from a heavy coating of fine dust after each journey.
Two weeks of touring round local towns and cities - Florence, Siena, Lucca, Assisi, Cortona,Perugia etc, coupled with lots of eating and drinking in the evenings around either BBQs or any of the countless local restraunts. A day out by myself to fulfill a long held idea to visit the home town of Valentino Rossi and see the associated mania and then bye bye to the girls and off to Venice for two days to capture the local sights.
The trip back from Venice had two objectives - firstly Stelvio, and then on to Fussen to capture the two great castles - Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. So from Venice back up through Verona, Vicenza and Brescia and then up into the alps and Stelvio.
I arrived at the bottom of the pass at about mid day on the Sunday to be faced with about 100 plus bikes and the local bus. Fortunately the first batch of bikes left before the bus and I was immediately behind it, ewhich meant he led the way through the single carriageway tunnels at the bottom and I didn't have give way to anyone. Once out of the last tunnel he pulled over, waved me on and we were off !! The whole journey was a riot - the bikes were desperate to get by me but braking and traction into and out of corners on the part of the SLK meant they never got into their stride sufficiently to be able to pass. It was only when I pulled over at the top did they go by - to much waving and horn blowing - just a great trip
After a steady run down the other side (to catch a glimpse of the scenery) it was then on to Fussen and the castles. Arrived 10 minutes before the last bus up to the viewing areas and got the shots I needed. Only one problem, the castle was shrouded in scaffolding at one end but still worth the trip
Then for a 709 mile day time blast up through Germany, Belgium and France and back to Surrey. The journey began in heavy rain but by 10:00 had cleared and I was then on the fast autobahns of southern Germany. As always on those roads, maximum speed is determined by the volume of traffic and the awaeness of the other drivers. The best I achieved was an indicated 152 but in reality 140mph was the maximum for most of that part of the journey. Still, good to strethc the legs of the SLK and to see how quick the pick up was from the standard 80mph to those speeds.
I adopted a regime of having a ten minute stop every hour - just to stretch legs, get a drink, toilet etc - and to keep fresh. Then a one hour stop at 1:00 for a bite to eat.
Surprisingly, and despite the high speed runs, the pottering around city streets, the mad run up the Stelvio etc., the SLK averaged 30.4mpg over the whole trip !! Not bad for 5.5 litres and a full boot
For those who are interested there is a gallery of some of the sights I shot whilst touring around and also a Flickr gallery of some quick shots at Valentino Rossi's place - the whole town is about him - every tree has his colours draped around it - every wall has his flag - oh and the ice cream van is parked outside his front gate ;-)
Rossi's Place - a set on Flickr
White Box Photography | Italy2012
The trip changed from the original idea of a touring holiday for the two of us to something a little more random, chaotic, flexible - however you would wish to describe it.
The other half decided that charging up and down passes, or max speed runs on autobahns was not really for her so opted to fly out from the UK and meet me at a pre determined spot
This also led to a decision that 'wouldn't it be fun to have some of the girlfriends there as well' - so in the end we opted to rent a four bedroom villa in the olive groves near Arezzo, south of Florence in Tuscany.
Decision on the use of car now became much easier - I opted to take the newly purchased SLK55 and have some fun
The route was a fairly sedate (lots of cameras) cruise through France down to Basel with an overnight stop there, enjoying some good company and conversation at a small wine bar next to the river in the town centre. An early start the following day led through the tunnel and down into Italy with the intention of reaching the villa by mid afternoon - in time to pick up some wine and provisions at the local market.
The villa (as with many in the area) turned out to be down a narrow track, but surprisingly the SLK dealt with it all without problem apart from a heavy coating of fine dust after each journey.
Two weeks of touring round local towns and cities - Florence, Siena, Lucca, Assisi, Cortona,Perugia etc, coupled with lots of eating and drinking in the evenings around either BBQs or any of the countless local restraunts. A day out by myself to fulfill a long held idea to visit the home town of Valentino Rossi and see the associated mania and then bye bye to the girls and off to Venice for two days to capture the local sights.
The trip back from Venice had two objectives - firstly Stelvio, and then on to Fussen to capture the two great castles - Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. So from Venice back up through Verona, Vicenza and Brescia and then up into the alps and Stelvio.
I arrived at the bottom of the pass at about mid day on the Sunday to be faced with about 100 plus bikes and the local bus. Fortunately the first batch of bikes left before the bus and I was immediately behind it, ewhich meant he led the way through the single carriageway tunnels at the bottom and I didn't have give way to anyone. Once out of the last tunnel he pulled over, waved me on and we were off !! The whole journey was a riot - the bikes were desperate to get by me but braking and traction into and out of corners on the part of the SLK meant they never got into their stride sufficiently to be able to pass. It was only when I pulled over at the top did they go by - to much waving and horn blowing - just a great trip
After a steady run down the other side (to catch a glimpse of the scenery) it was then on to Fussen and the castles. Arrived 10 minutes before the last bus up to the viewing areas and got the shots I needed. Only one problem, the castle was shrouded in scaffolding at one end but still worth the trip
Then for a 709 mile day time blast up through Germany, Belgium and France and back to Surrey. The journey began in heavy rain but by 10:00 had cleared and I was then on the fast autobahns of southern Germany. As always on those roads, maximum speed is determined by the volume of traffic and the awaeness of the other drivers. The best I achieved was an indicated 152 but in reality 140mph was the maximum for most of that part of the journey. Still, good to strethc the legs of the SLK and to see how quick the pick up was from the standard 80mph to those speeds.
I adopted a regime of having a ten minute stop every hour - just to stretch legs, get a drink, toilet etc - and to keep fresh. Then a one hour stop at 1:00 for a bite to eat.
Surprisingly, and despite the high speed runs, the pottering around city streets, the mad run up the Stelvio etc., the SLK averaged 30.4mpg over the whole trip !! Not bad for 5.5 litres and a full boot
For those who are interested there is a gallery of some of the sights I shot whilst touring around and also a Flickr gallery of some quick shots at Valentino Rossi's place - the whole town is about him - every tree has his colours draped around it - every wall has his flag - oh and the ice cream van is parked outside his front gate ;-)
Rossi's Place - a set on Flickr
White Box Photography | Italy2012
