We left home on Thursday, 6th September and returned after twelve nights, Tuesday 18th September.
Of the thirteen days we were away we drove on nine days covering a total of 1,677 miles.
Petrol: we used a smidge over 528 litres equivalent to 116 gallons, mostly regular unleaded, which came to the princely sum of £772 and works out at 14.46 miles per gallon. We spent £84 on tolls.
Roads & Driving
France has that great list of requirements we have to take with us on French roads but in all our time there we only saw one police car. Undoubtedly the best driving roads were in France, both in terms of weight of traffic and the quality of driving – no more mad French driving, all calm and mostly within the 130kmh speed limit.
Belgium stood out as slightly crazy drivers and road manners. It is very odd how one moves from one country to
another, obviously these days with no border, and the driving changes dramatically. And then we get into the Netherlands and sweetness and calm is restored again.
Italy was busy but I generally thought their roads were nice and smooth and the traffic volume was really pretty good (apart from Genoa, middle of the day, Saturday).
I really believe German motorway driving is outrageous. As far as I was aware I was driving on roads with a 130kmh speed limit (about 80mph) and I was regularly being passed at speeds which must have been close to 120mph. The fact that the roads are only two lanes makes them much more dangerous and I do believe a lot of the road-works I saw were to add another lane. The mind boggles at the speeds they will be driving with three
lanes!
The End
I do believe this will be my last major tour in the Daytona. As brilliant as the car is and as much as I love driving it I must admit that there is always a tiny nagging part of my brain wondering if something is going to break, if it is not going to start, if someone is going to drive into us whilst we are stationary (as someone very nearly did at a service station, they must have ended up half-an-inch from me). And after a while, day over day, this little nag gets a bit tiresome.
I have now completed 20,000 miles in the Daytona, next year I will do concours again, I always enjoy that, and then I might think about a bit of a cosmetic tart up. Then again, I said pretty much exactly the same thing after the last tour three years ago. So watch this space!
Of the thirteen days we were away we drove on nine days covering a total of 1,677 miles.
Petrol: we used a smidge over 528 litres equivalent to 116 gallons, mostly regular unleaded, which came to the princely sum of £772 and works out at 14.46 miles per gallon. We spent £84 on tolls.
Roads & Driving
France has that great list of requirements we have to take with us on French roads but in all our time there we only saw one police car. Undoubtedly the best driving roads were in France, both in terms of weight of traffic and the quality of driving – no more mad French driving, all calm and mostly within the 130kmh speed limit.
Belgium stood out as slightly crazy drivers and road manners. It is very odd how one moves from one country to
another, obviously these days with no border, and the driving changes dramatically. And then we get into the Netherlands and sweetness and calm is restored again.
Italy was busy but I generally thought their roads were nice and smooth and the traffic volume was really pretty good (apart from Genoa, middle of the day, Saturday).
I really believe German motorway driving is outrageous. As far as I was aware I was driving on roads with a 130kmh speed limit (about 80mph) and I was regularly being passed at speeds which must have been close to 120mph. The fact that the roads are only two lanes makes them much more dangerous and I do believe a lot of the road-works I saw were to add another lane. The mind boggles at the speeds they will be driving with three
lanes!
The End
I do believe this will be my last major tour in the Daytona. As brilliant as the car is and as much as I love driving it I must admit that there is always a tiny nagging part of my brain wondering if something is going to break, if it is not going to start, if someone is going to drive into us whilst we are stationary (as someone very nearly did at a service station, they must have ended up half-an-inch from me). And after a while, day over day, this little nag gets a bit tiresome.
I have now completed 20,000 miles in the Daytona, next year I will do concours again, I always enjoy that, and then I might think about a bit of a cosmetic tart up. Then again, I said pretty much exactly the same thing after the last tour three years ago. So watch this space!
