Going to Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy

[novass]

I posted a topic about this quite a while ago, but the trip is coming soon so I wanted to revisit it to see if anyone has any advice, comments or would like to possibly meet up for a beer or something :D.

Here is my trip so far:

JULY 1st - Arrive in Madrid.

JULY 1st to 5th - Stay in Madrid, then leave for Malaga on the morning of the 5th.

JULY 5th to JULY 12th - Madrid to Malaga. We already have a house reserved in Malaga so we are obligated to stay there. We will probably take a day to go to Morocco while we are staying in Malaga and also maybe visit neighboring cities in Spain during our stay. We will leave for Paris on the 12th.

JULY 13th - Arrive in Paris.

JULY 13th to 15th - We will take a car from Paris and visit Normandy, Mont St. Michelle and the Loire Valley. After that short car trip, we will head back to Paris.

JULY 16th to JULY 19th - Stay in Paris then leave for Brussels.

JULY 19th - Spend the day in Brussels and than leave for Koln to stay the night.

JULY 20th - Leave Koln and head to Nurenberg!

JULY 20th to JULY 22nd - Formula One race bitches!

Here is where I need some help

JULY 22nd to JULY 23rd - After the race we will leave for Stuttgart. Is there anything worth seeing in Stuttgart? I know the MB Museum is there, but can I visit the Porsche Factory or anything else as well? If not, we may just pass through Stuttgart and head off to Switzerland. Also, which part of Switzerland should we go too? I think we have a choice between Zurich and Lugano. Where is Singen? If we stay the night in Stuttgart, then we will only have a day in Switzerland as we pass through to Italy, but if we don't stay in Stuttgart, then we will stay the night somewhere in Switzerland.

The Italy portion isn't totally figured out yet. We may switch Florence and Venice.

JULY 23rd - Head to Florence.

JULY 23rd to JULY 30th - Stay in Florence. My mom has been there about 6 times before so she will be our tour guide. I think we will take some time there to go to Cinque Terre and some other nearby places. Anyone know if the Ferrari factory is worth visiting or is it closed to the public? From there we will head off to Rome.

JULY 31st to AUGUST 2nd - Stay in Rome and then leave for Pompeii.

AUGUST 2nd to AUGUST 3rd - Pompeii and Naples then head to Venice (I know that seems ass backwards, going from one end of the country to the other and back, so we may change the order).

AUGUST 4th to AUGUST 6th - Stay in Venice.

AUGUST 6th - Come home and deal with all the backed up bills and traffic on the 405 :cry:


Thats the trip so far. Let me know if you have suggestions, comments or want to meet up :D

[novass]

^ LOL I have also heard from others about the driving there and also the taxis. My ex-Boss used to say, "every taxi driver thinks he is Tazio Nuvolari over there!" LOL

Thanks for the advice though, I have never been in a Fiat Punto :D

[novass]

^ LOL I have also heard from others about the driving there and also the taxis. My ex-Boss used to say, "every taxi driver thinks he is Tazio Nuvolari over there!" LOL

Thanks for the advice though, I have never been in a Fiat Punto :D

In you dreams it's a Punto, for sure it will be Uno :lol: :wink:
The Punto itself is actually quite good car, but those taxis there are so worn out, that they're pretty much crap. Ofcourse they still have 4 wheels and engine, when compared to rickshaws :lol:

Shit! I don't know why I even said Punto :oops: :lol: I think I quoted you then did something else for a couple of minutes and responded only remembering Fiat and making the rest up.
<---- Dumbass!
I haven't been in a Fiat Uno either though LOL

[davide]

wow sound like an awesome trip, real EU-trip.

be sure to visit venice before it sinks into the ocean :)

[stmoritzer]

Cool trip,
did you know that July14th is the national holiday in France (like 4th of July for the US) :wink: , so you can expect some celebrations/fireworks in France :D

Singen is close to the Swiss border, basically you'll pass Singen comming from Stuttgart. There are some cool cardealers there, worth a quick stop, located right next to the highway (pics will follow after the JW-Europe meeting mid of May).

Going south thru Switzerland, you can pass Zürich, which is quite cool, but IMO I would stop in Luzern, which is more intresting to vistit.
http://www.luzern.org/en/welcome.cfm?

Luzern is on the way to Italy, just before the Gotthard-Pass which is the way to pass the Alps :wink:

there is also Pagani and Lamborghini to visit in the Florence area :wink:

[stmoritzer]

btw, Dani just came back from similar trip

and he visited Luzern, Pilatus ( famous mountain with amazing view over the area, alps,...)
http://www.motorworld.net/forum/showthread.php?t=47946&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=20

[stmoritzer]

^agree, Gotthard pass is a must, nice road (new and old pass road on the south side, but take the new one, some impressive turn built on to the mountain)

the stinky, warm, dark, boring long tunnel should be avoided :wink:

[novass]

Thanks for the tips guys! Im checking to see if any of your ideas are feasible. I forgot to mention that we will be taking the train for the majority of the trip and only renting cars occasionally.

@ stmoritzer - Ya, I have been to France before during Bastille Day so I am looking forward to it again :D I think we have to pass through Zurich anyway coming from Stuttgart and going into Italy, so I will see what other options we have. I saw Dani's thread and it made me really want to go to Pilatus, so I am seeing if that is a possibility.

@ Dani - I wish I could go visit Barcelona but like I said, the place in Malaga is already set up (and I don't have to pay anything which is nice LOL ) Are there any other day trips worth doing from Malaga? Shame about the Ferrari factory. I pretty much assumed that but was hoping for a different answer LOL Looks like I have to buy a Ferrari before the trip :wink:

@ Thamar - I will definitely check out Ghent. The festival sounds like fun. :D Do you know what the main train station in Ghent is called? is it Ghent St. Pieters or Ghent Dampoort?

Thanks again for all the info! :D :D

[TopGearNL]

Sound like a trip to die for! Not literally!

Anyway sounds like a great trip, be sure to take lots of pics!

Hope the Grand-Prix will be awesome! :D

[dutchmasterflex]

Can I come? :mrgreen:

[cooperluke]

^ LOL I have also heard from others about the driving there and also the taxis. My ex-Boss used to say, "every taxi driver thinks he is Tazio Nuvolari over there!" LOL

Thanks for the advice though, I have never been in a Fiat Punto :D

In you dreams it's a Punto, for sure it will be Uno :lol: :wink:
The Punto itself is actually quite good car, but those taxis there are so worn out, that they're pretty much crap. Ofcourse they still have 4 wheels and engine, when compared to rickshaws :lol:

Well, that makes me glad about being Portuguese!!

Here, most taxis are Mercedes!! :D

[novass]

Novass, the main station is Gent St Pieters. From there take tram 1 and you are directly in the old city center.

Festival is big fun, when the calender is online I'll let you know.
But the best things are "Pole Pole" and "10 days off"

Thanks Thamar, I didn't see this when I logged on earlier :oops: I think we just got a room reserved in Gent :D

Is "Pole Pole" the event where people fight on stilts?

[novass]

^ Ah, ok LOL I saw something about a festival in Belgium where people battle on stilts...at least thats what I remember LOL

[TopGearNL]

No ;)
Dance festival, http://www.polepole.be they also have an english site.
And http://www.10daysoff.be/ (this one is a blast, mostly the dj's that play in "de vooruit" very nice location :)


Some of the bigger names for this year
AGORIA [FR, LIVE]
BOOKA SHADE [DE, LIVE]
LAURENT GARNIER [FR, LIVE]
MARTIN SOLVEIG [FR]
MONIKA KRUSE [DE]
RICHIE HAWTIN [CA]
TIEFSCHWARZ [DE]

etc etc etc

Interesting! :D

[Wutputt]

What a great trip you're planning to do!!

As Thamar already pointed out, there isn't that much to see in Brussels, unless you really really want to see Manneken Pis, the Atomium or the Royal palace, there isn't really anything interesting to see you can't see in other cities.

I would say go the Brugge or Gent. And if you want to see a medieval city which still has the same size as it had in the Middle Ages (i.e. really small), visit Leuven (accidentally also where I live :lol:).

July 19th I will probably be in Francorchamps, so not sure if we can meet up, but maybe we can work something out. The 21st I could be at the Nürburgring, but at the Nordschleife, not the F1 track.

btw the Nürburgring is located at Nürburg, not Nurnberg or Nürenberg. If you would navigate on those you would arrive on the other side of Germany :mrgreen:

[novass]

What a great trip you're planning to do!!

As Thamar already pointed out, there isn't that much to see in Brussels, unless you really really want to see Manneken Pis, the Atomium or the Royal palace, there isn't really anything interesting to see you can't see in other cities.

I would say go the Brugge or Gent. And if you want to see a medieval city which still has the same size as it had in the Middle Ages (i.e. really small), visit Leuven (accidentally also where I live :lol:).

July 19th I will probably be in Francorchamps, so not sure if we can meet up, but maybe we can work something out. The 21st I could be at the Nürburgring, but at the Nordschleife, not the F1 track.

btw the Nürburgring is located at Nürburg, not Nurnberg or Nürenberg. If you would navigate on those you would arrive on the other side of Germany :mrgreen:

Thanks for the info! We decided to go Gent after hearing what others thought. We will only be there for about a day or a day and a half tough.

What will you be doing at the Nordschleife? We have to rent a car for that part of our trip so maybe we could still meet up for a drink or some food, etc. Ya I realized that the 'Ring is in Nurburg after searching Nurenberg LOL

[Wutputt]

I will be at a track day that is held during the F1 weekend.

Are you going to drive from Gent to Nürburg or are you going to rent a car in Köln? If you do the first one, you can make a small detour and pay a quick visit at Spa-Francorchamps. Not only is it worth the visit itself, the roads are more fun and the autobahns you will be driving on have less traffic.

[novass]

I will be at a track day that is held during the F1 weekend.

Are you going to drive from Gent to Nürburg or are you going to rent a car in Köln? If you do the first one, you can make a small detour and pay a quick visit at Spa-Francorchamps. Not only is it worth the visit itself, the roads are more fun and the autobahns you will be driving on have less traffic.

We are planning to rent the car in Koln. So will the rest of the track will be open during the F1 race? Is it an open thing or what? I would at least want to have a ride in the Ring Taxi.

[Wutputt]

We are planning to rent the car in Koln. So will the rest of the track will be open during the F1 race? Is it an open thing or what? I would at least want to have a ride in the Ring Taxi.

Some days it's open for the public (if you pay a couple of euros;)) But during the F1 weekend it will be closed.

[novass]

We are planning to rent the car in Koln. So will the rest of the track will be open during the F1 race? Is it an open thing or what? I would at least want to have a ride in the Ring Taxi.

Some days it's open for the public (if you pay a couple of euros;)) But during the F1 weekend it will be closed.

Damn! I think we are only going to be there Fri, Sat and Sun during the race weekend.