|
It always feels more exciting at night too :^D
|
Is it that your wife doesn't like flying? or is frightened of flying?
If the latter....well my missus used to have to dose up on Temazepam(?) to get her to fly, then she stopped altogether. However, after a BA fear of flying course there is no stopping her.....New York, Paris, Tuscany.....my wallet!
|
|
As a matter of sheer curiosity, where are your UK and Austrian homes and do you have a set route?
|
Slight thread creep! Do any of you remember the BR poster who was going to run a courier service from the UK Midlands to Brindisi, in a van, 2 round trips a week. I was at a loose end and offered to help with the driving but I think either the idea died a death or he did on his 2nd trip! That would have been very serious/stupid hours of driving!
|
Yes AS, I remember the guy. Sounded very young. Perhaps a troll sort of thing?
Sounded a bit much even to me week after week. Might have been possible for a while though. There would have been a fair amount of time slippage too.
|
Hi Lud - glad someone else remembered! Just a not very well thought thru sort of thing, I think! For the van he was thinking of I don't think he would have made much money - wasn't there something about shipping antiques ie hi valu stuff? Anyway, long gone!
|
|
I wonder how taxi_man is getting on ferrying that equipment the length of the country these days?
|
miss1tb beat me to it!!
The other thing I always wonder, is the dual drivers of coaches. They cant have a proper rest, while on the move, while co-driver has his stint at the wheel.
Although I quite fancy that job - somedays!!
VB
|
|
|
mss1tw - that's right, Milton Keynes to Glasgow 3 times a week with some special medical equipment that had to be bolted into a special frame in the car. He was going for a Skoda diesel as I recall. Shame we don't get some feedback on these oddball queries!
|
> Milton Keynes to Glasgow 3 times a week with some special medical equipment
Dave Taxi Driver. He opted for a Passat estate in the end.
The other guy was going to shuttle art works to and from Italy, alone, in a Citroen Berlingo (or similar) on a non-stop driving schedule that would make Superman cry. As I recall, he didn't take kindly to the BR's suggestions that he rethink his plan for his own good and the safety of anyone he'd share the roads of Europe with...
|
|
|
|
Personally, i think you should press on for as long as you sensibly see fit. I don't see the merits of set time changes in drivers. Depending on a number of variable criteria you might well be able to go further (or not go further) than you'd imagine.
e.g. how relaxed you are, when did you last have a good kip, how used to long journeys you are, last time you had alcohol, is your body used to shift work (or similar), which one of the two of you is the naturally better driver (if any), etc,etc
I regularly drive form London to the Scottish Highlands in one go (some 520 miles).....SWMBO prefers very much not to do any driving, although she's more than capable. Depending on the traffic and my very heavy right foot, it will take between 8.5 hours and 12 hours, with a very brief food/fuel stop.
Last time, we did an overnighter and i parked behind a petrol station for 40 winks after Glasgow, because i was worried i was getting too tired..... mainly because the journey was severely delayed because of thick fog.
Knowing your limits and reacting to it is the key.
As an aside, i find that the slower i drive, the more boring it becomes, the more tedious it is and the more my mind wanders. If i keep my speed up, i'm more interested, more alert and more awake. There's no doubt a trade off...but i think the latter is more safe.
|
>As an aside i find that the slower i drive the more boring it becomes the more tedious it is and the more my mind wanders. If i keep my speed up i'm more interested more alert and more awake.
Quite so Wp, but there can come a time on a nice sweeping empty road at 4 am when the whole thing can get a bit hypnotic. Driving keeps you awake for quite a long time though.
Cold air and eating a hot green chili have both been recommended to me as wakeups.
Of course WW2 pilots and post-war long-distance racers used to use amphetamine. It works, but is bad for you, and the danger is that after a really long time you may start to fall asleep anyway, hallucinating as you do so. Time to stop then all right.
|
Agreed that if awake then 3 hours plus is possible depending on road conditions, but in Oz on wide open roads with a bend every 100km and 300km between small towns then it was very easy to let things drift a little, we found it much easier to take a break before there was a problem.
Most road deaths in country Australia are due to falling asleep at the wheel
Another factor is sun and glare...I find my eyes getting much less tired if wearing sunglasses on a long daytime drive.
StarGazer
|
I drove 503 miles in one the other day coming home from the West Coast of Scotland.
I felt like doing more afterwards because i was still alert.
--
Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
|
|
|
|
|
Espada, we have bought a flat in Bad Ischl, in the Salzkammergut near Salzburg. Our UK home is near Petersfield in Hampshire (between Guidlford and Portsmouth, just off the A3). We are only just completing the purchase, so this will be a new regular run - previously we've headed for the Tyrol or Vorarlberg.
Our route these days is generally via Dover (due to ferry pricing, makes me angry every time I think about it!). The last couple of times we've gone through Belgium and Luxembourg, then of course Germany - we used to go across France via Rheims, Metz, Strasbourg. Our regular overnight stop is either a little village between Pirmasens & Landau, or in Alsace between Strasbourg & Colmar. Thence down to Bodensee/Lake Constance and through the Arlberg & Inn valley - if we are heading for Tyrol or Vorarlberg. If travelling to Salburg, we'd go across to Karlsruhe from our overnight stop, thence Stuttgart/Ulm/Munich/Salzburg.
Interestingly, the satnav in our new car brought us home through Belgium by taking us round Brussels and up to Bruges, then along the coast to Calais as being the quickest route. We used to take a left at Namur then via Mons/Tournai/Lille. And when I plotted a route out from home as an experiment, the satnav wanted us to go even higher through Belgium, via Liege, Aachen/Cologne/Frankfurt/Wurzburg/Nurnberg/Munich IIRC. Difficult to say which is shortest in terms of time - looking at the actual paper map they are all much of a muchness. We've yet to try the latter option.
|
Mike,
How long does it take you from the ferry to get to Bodensee? I need to go to Friedrichshafen a few times a year, and I've always flown, and never considered driving.
Cheers,
Number_Cruncher
|
|
|
|
The A9 is being seriously dug up between Stuttgart and Munich which many contraflow sections - you can be lucky and have no problem getting through but there are days when it jams solid (particularly aroung public holidays). The Frankfurt Wurzburg/Nürnberg/Munich route is mostly three lane Autobahn and consequently less stressful.
|
I drove this section of the A9 the other week and it's a complete nightmare- extremely narrow lanes meaning that overtaking slow moving lorries through the speed restrictions is heart in the mouth stuff. Avoid like the plague.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Is it that your wife doesn't like flying? or is frightened of flying? If the latter....well my missus used to have to dose up on Temazepam(?) to get her to fly then she stopped altogether.
My brothers wife used to be terrified of flying, they did a couple of inter-railing holidays as any prospect of air travel would ruin the holiday for her. Now she gets a prescription of Valium and has a good drink and shes fine! They now always go by air..
|
|
|
|
|
