Europe Road Trip Mega Post
Discussion
Last month, me and my other half went on a month long road trip road around europe, something we've been planning for a few years now- our aim, to drive on some of the best roads in europe, and to see places we've always wanted to see.
Luckily for me, my other half is also a bit of a car nut- so nurburgring, mountain passes, gallaria ferrari, porche museum, and so on, was right up her street!
The photos are a bit of a mixed bag- from the dramatic, to the down right silly. Anyway, enough wibbling from me, on with the photographs!
First stop on the trip, Bruges, for some waffles and lots of quoting the 'in bruges' film:
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4.
we camped most of the time to save our euros.
Next stop - Nurburgring! We arrived just in time to get some laps in- we were lucky, and the track was pretty quiet, and all other drivers were very curteous, especially since we must have been the slowest on the ring that evening!
5.
The next day we found some good locations to view from- feel free to guess the corners....
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Could post ring pictures all day, but theyd get a little boring
We also had a little trip up to the castle
12.
really like this next one- shows how the weather there can change in seconds. It really can be sunny one side of the ring, and a storm at the other end
13.
This old beast was at our hotel (as well as a lovely GT3, and a white S2000 owned by a really lovely couple who we chatted to over breakfast)
14.
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Apparently this car gets regular outing on the ring every year! And it still looked in great condition. I do like it when people enjoy their cars, rather than just polish them on sunday.
After visiting our friends in Frankfurt, we nipped down to the Porsche museum in Stuttgart. Loads of photos from here, but they all look like any old pictures of Porsches you can find on the net, so here are two that I liked:
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After stuttgart we headed down to Zurich for a few days rest, before tackling some mountain passes!
18.
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20.
Then, it was a mammoth drive through the heart of Switzerland, taking in Grimsel Pass, Furka Pass. A stop over, then San Bernandino Pass and SLugen pass through to Italy
21.
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The above is Grimsel Hospiz, now being converted into a hotel! - must be the creepyest hotel in exsitance. completely on edge of a cliff, miles from anywhere. Red rum...... Red rum.....
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The zig zags.. yes, those are the roads! Words can't describe how fun and involving those mountain passes. They go on, and on and on. You dont really go fast- but its so involving, with breaktaking views every second. The car worked hard. At the top, under the bonnet you could just smell that the little engine had been working hard. Maybe its because the car is quite light, but it still felt quite peppy, even at high altitude. So strange going from 30 degrees C in the morning, to almost 5 at the top of the mountains.
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We stopped at some place I cant remember, had an early morning swim, then back upto the mountains for some more passes! (queue gratuitous 'girlfriend in the lak' shot. im sure she wont mind)
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no better way to spend the afternoon, chasing a Lotus, leap frogging lorrys, up a mountain pass, where youve got a picnic planned to eat while you enjoy the view.
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Anyone know the above bunch? They tore past us on the way up, the Elise was sounding great
40.
Your truely and my other half
41.
An Evo joined us while we had lunch. On the way down, i could see him in the mirror, we has the Batman Begins soundtrack on loud, and the weather was closing in- every turn amd twist of the road revealed a stunning view, almost in time with the music- felt just like we were in some seriously dramatic movie! Right road, right music, and even though we were in a Rover, i'd go as far as saying right car too. Ive got fed up of driving in recent years, thanks to Londons congestion. This moment, really brought back why I enjoy driving so much
42.
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The above is looking straight down at the hairpins! This section just had hairpin after hairpin- it was madness
Love Switzerland- the scale of the landscape is just on a whole other level.
After swizerland we went to Lake Garda for a few days chill out.
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Annoyingly some strange man joined gabs at the end of the pier and wouldnt go away! Still, got the shot i was after, more or less.
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I dont like this one above, but people keep telling me they like it!
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We had an amazing thunderstorm one night, and luckily we'd opted for a little chalet, inside of camping there.
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After lake Garda we drove to modena to drool at some ferraris
54.
55.
56.
57.
58.
Pisa - Bit of a tourist trap, but we wanted to see the tower:
59.
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Cote de Azur - this was the view from our campsite. Showers and facilities were rubbish, but the view at this campsite forgave all. Each pitch was cut into the side of the cliff, so every tent got this view.
61.
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Monaco:
63.
64.
65.
66.
67.
the Route Napolean:
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Avignon- we arrived here and walked straight into a street festival- amazing sights, performers everywhere
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My poor attempt at astrophotography:
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Barcelona:
71.
72.
73.
74.
La Rochelle
75.
Mont St. Michal
76.
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peek-a-boo
78.
Hope thats not too many photos- tryed to pick ones that showed the journey, and the experiences we had.
Equipment used -
A lowly Nikon D40 (id thought about upgrading, but didnt want to take a new expensive toy on a long road trip), with the standard kit lens, a 55-200mm (i think) VR lens, and an old hoya polarizer that occasionally made an appearance
Also used- a small old bullet proof samsung p&s, and my other halfs fuji P&S.
Most of the photos were tweaked a little in Aperture, some in photoshop cs4. Panoramas- a lot of these i took with the camera in portrait orientation, to try and make the most of its small megapixel count. I used cs4 for some panoramas, and calico for the ones photoshop didnt like.
Luckily for me, my other half is also a bit of a car nut- so nurburgring, mountain passes, gallaria ferrari, porche museum, and so on, was right up her street!
The photos are a bit of a mixed bag- from the dramatic, to the down right silly. Anyway, enough wibbling from me, on with the photographs!
First stop on the trip, Bruges, for some waffles and lots of quoting the 'in bruges' film:
1.
2.
3.
4.
we camped most of the time to save our euros.
Next stop - Nurburgring! We arrived just in time to get some laps in- we were lucky, and the track was pretty quiet, and all other drivers were very curteous, especially since we must have been the slowest on the ring that evening!
5.
The next day we found some good locations to view from- feel free to guess the corners....
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
Could post ring pictures all day, but theyd get a little boring
We also had a little trip up to the castle
12.
really like this next one- shows how the weather there can change in seconds. It really can be sunny one side of the ring, and a storm at the other end
13.
This old beast was at our hotel (as well as a lovely GT3, and a white S2000 owned by a really lovely couple who we chatted to over breakfast)
14.
15.
Apparently this car gets regular outing on the ring every year! And it still looked in great condition. I do like it when people enjoy their cars, rather than just polish them on sunday.
After visiting our friends in Frankfurt, we nipped down to the Porsche museum in Stuttgart. Loads of photos from here, but they all look like any old pictures of Porsches you can find on the net, so here are two that I liked:
16.
17.
After stuttgart we headed down to Zurich for a few days rest, before tackling some mountain passes!
18.
19.
20.
Then, it was a mammoth drive through the heart of Switzerland, taking in Grimsel Pass, Furka Pass. A stop over, then San Bernandino Pass and SLugen pass through to Italy
21.
22.
23.
The above is Grimsel Hospiz, now being converted into a hotel! - must be the creepyest hotel in exsitance. completely on edge of a cliff, miles from anywhere. Red rum...... Red rum.....
24.
25.
26.
The zig zags.. yes, those are the roads! Words can't describe how fun and involving those mountain passes. They go on, and on and on. You dont really go fast- but its so involving, with breaktaking views every second. The car worked hard. At the top, under the bonnet you could just smell that the little engine had been working hard. Maybe its because the car is quite light, but it still felt quite peppy, even at high altitude. So strange going from 30 degrees C in the morning, to almost 5 at the top of the mountains.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
We stopped at some place I cant remember, had an early morning swim, then back upto the mountains for some more passes! (queue gratuitous 'girlfriend in the lak' shot. im sure she wont mind)
34.
35.
36.
no better way to spend the afternoon, chasing a Lotus, leap frogging lorrys, up a mountain pass, where youve got a picnic planned to eat while you enjoy the view.
37.
38.
39.
Anyone know the above bunch? They tore past us on the way up, the Elise was sounding great
40.
Your truely and my other half
41.
An Evo joined us while we had lunch. On the way down, i could see him in the mirror, we has the Batman Begins soundtrack on loud, and the weather was closing in- every turn amd twist of the road revealed a stunning view, almost in time with the music- felt just like we were in some seriously dramatic movie! Right road, right music, and even though we were in a Rover, i'd go as far as saying right car too. Ive got fed up of driving in recent years, thanks to Londons congestion. This moment, really brought back why I enjoy driving so much
42.
43.
The above is looking straight down at the hairpins! This section just had hairpin after hairpin- it was madness
Love Switzerland- the scale of the landscape is just on a whole other level.
After swizerland we went to Lake Garda for a few days chill out.
44.
Annoyingly some strange man joined gabs at the end of the pier and wouldnt go away! Still, got the shot i was after, more or less.
45.
I dont like this one above, but people keep telling me they like it!
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
We had an amazing thunderstorm one night, and luckily we'd opted for a little chalet, inside of camping there.
52.
53.
After lake Garda we drove to modena to drool at some ferraris
54.
55.
56.
57.
58.
Pisa - Bit of a tourist trap, but we wanted to see the tower:
59.
60.
Cote de Azur - this was the view from our campsite. Showers and facilities were rubbish, but the view at this campsite forgave all. Each pitch was cut into the side of the cliff, so every tent got this view.
61.
62.
Monaco:
63.
64.
65.
66.
67.
the Route Napolean:
68.
Avignon- we arrived here and walked straight into a street festival- amazing sights, performers everywhere
68.
69.
70.
My poor attempt at astrophotography:
71.
Barcelona:
71.
72.
73.
74.
La Rochelle
75.
Mont St. Michal
76.
77.
peek-a-boo
78.
Hope thats not too many photos- tryed to pick ones that showed the journey, and the experiences we had.
Equipment used -
A lowly Nikon D40 (id thought about upgrading, but didnt want to take a new expensive toy on a long road trip), with the standard kit lens, a 55-200mm (i think) VR lens, and an old hoya polarizer that occasionally made an appearance
Also used- a small old bullet proof samsung p&s, and my other halfs fuji P&S.
Most of the photos were tweaked a little in Aperture, some in photoshop cs4. Panoramas- a lot of these i took with the camera in portrait orientation, to try and make the most of its small megapixel count. I used cs4 for some panoramas, and calico for the ones photoshop didnt like.
Edited by Fordo on Friday 21st August 20:33
) Nurburgsingh said:
Fordo said:
I like this one...
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What settings did you use for thsi one... I was trying to get a similar effect at a theme park the other day and it just wouldnt work..
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What settings did you use for thsi one... I was trying to get a similar effect at a theme park the other day and it just wouldnt work..
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69 - long shutter speed. Exif data: Aperture: f 25, shutter speed: 1 sec, ISO 200
To get the image exposed correctly in the daylight, with a longish (1 sec exposure), I had to close the iris right up, and I also put on a polarizer- not for its polarization effect, but just because it cuts out a few stops of light, so it helped to get the exposure right. This is an occasion when a couple of ND filters would have been useful
Annoyingly i'd left the tripod in the car, so i braced the camera on a small wall - you can see a little shake because the light trails arent quite smooth.
hope that helps
rhubarb said:
Some great shots there, is number 60 a panaroamic stitch too, or just really wide angle? Looks like a great road trip too
thanks. number 60 = busted. it was indeed a panoramic stitch - 2 landscape shots, taken one above the other. The cheats way of having an ultrawide lens!Gassing Station | Photography & Video | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff