Les
New member
Just got back from my 2,222 mile drive to Monaco for the GP (early 50th Birthday present).
We started out with a long drive, going from Brighton to Annecy via the train and £100 of toll roads, staying there for a couple of days.
After Annecy we drove down the best road I have even been on, Route Napoleon to Cannes.
The road is left, right, left right all the way up a 4,000 mountain with medium, sharp and hairpin turns, massive drops and stunning views.
It was so twisty we had to stop at the top as my wife felt like she was going to be sick.
We then spent a couple of nights in Cannes (to see the celebs at the Film Festival and pop to Monaco – as I had a pit lane pass.
Spent the weekend in Nice and took the train to Monaco for the race as everyone told us that the car parks would be full. As it turned out, at 8am there was still 2,500 spaces in the main one - Dohhh!
I must admit my wife did buy us brilliant seats (should be for what they cost) and personally I found the 911 Cup race to be better - it was certainly louder.
On the way back to the train station we stopped at a square for a bottle of water and found the F1 drivers doing interviews. I got my McLaren top signed by Jenson Button, Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo & Stoffel Vandoorne.
After the race weekend, we packed up and drove to Milan getting ready for the big driving day in the mountains.
Stelvio:
The next day was spent around the Alps, up and down the Stelvio Pass and on to Zurich. The famous (east) side of the Stelvio is not all it's hyped up to be (unless you like going slow round hairpins due to blind oncoming traffic) and I thought the West side was better (see below), but still not as good as Route Napoleon.
https://youtu.be/VQjB_brA_qQ
From there we travelled north on the Autobahns to Stuttgart for the Museum with an overnight in a lovely countryside mansion. The tour guide didn't like it when I corrected her twice - don't think she has seen many Porsche nerds like me before.
After that we went on to Bruges for a waffle and rest, ready for the drive back for Beaulieu.
All in all, we did 2,222 miles with a high speed of (strangely) 222kph due to traffic, in my 997.2 with 100K on the clock. The car was perfect.
We started out with a long drive, going from Brighton to Annecy via the train and £100 of toll roads, staying there for a couple of days.
After Annecy we drove down the best road I have even been on, Route Napoleon to Cannes.
The road is left, right, left right all the way up a 4,000 mountain with medium, sharp and hairpin turns, massive drops and stunning views.
It was so twisty we had to stop at the top as my wife felt like she was going to be sick.
We then spent a couple of nights in Cannes (to see the celebs at the Film Festival and pop to Monaco – as I had a pit lane pass.
Spent the weekend in Nice and took the train to Monaco for the race as everyone told us that the car parks would be full. As it turned out, at 8am there was still 2,500 spaces in the main one - Dohhh!
I must admit my wife did buy us brilliant seats (should be for what they cost) and personally I found the 911 Cup race to be better - it was certainly louder.
On the way back to the train station we stopped at a square for a bottle of water and found the F1 drivers doing interviews. I got my McLaren top signed by Jenson Button, Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo & Stoffel Vandoorne.
After the race weekend, we packed up and drove to Milan getting ready for the big driving day in the mountains.
Stelvio:
The next day was spent around the Alps, up and down the Stelvio Pass and on to Zurich. The famous (east) side of the Stelvio is not all it's hyped up to be (unless you like going slow round hairpins due to blind oncoming traffic) and I thought the West side was better (see below), but still not as good as Route Napoleon.
https://youtu.be/VQjB_brA_qQ
From there we travelled north on the Autobahns to Stuttgart for the Museum with an overnight in a lovely countryside mansion. The tour guide didn't like it when I corrected her twice - don't think she has seen many Porsche nerds like me before.
After that we went on to Bruges for a waffle and rest, ready for the drive back for Beaulieu.
All in all, we did 2,222 miles with a high speed of (strangely) 222kph due to traffic, in my 997.2 with 100K on the clock. The car was perfect.
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