Author: Keith

Day two – Folkestone to Reims

Distance today – 305 km	Journey time – 3h 20m
Total trip distance – 776 km	Total journey time – 9h 00m

We woke in the Relish a bit tired as the bed wasn’t quite as good as it first seemed. Never mind, time for a shower. Or time to get water-boarded by leaking shower head. On the way down to breakfast we took a walk by the sea, a bit windy and dull. Then back for breakfast at exactly the prescribed time, 08:15. There were a few juices, pieces of fruit and bread for toasting available so we grabbed a few items before our ordered hot breakfast arrived – a very basic omelette and avocado on toast. So unexciting we didn’t take pictures.

We repacked the car (this is going to be a daily occurrence) and headed off to the Channel Tunnel, just 15 minutes away. My first time, Jo’s second, we waited a bit for boarding before driving towards the train in what seemed a bizarre and unnecessary sequence of roads, punctuated by waiting in line with at passport control (twice) or for other unknown reasons. Once at the train we boarded the “Large” vehicles carriage – a good job as it felt pretty narrow and I didn’t fancy having scraped alloys.

It was, however, a brilliant engineering solution for loading and unloading, so the maze of roads did seem to result in getting on and off pretty fast.

The journey through the tunnel was short (25 minutes) and generally uneventful. The only issue was the movement of the car in the train, and the movement of other cars when viewed from your car. Everything was bobbing around, making it quite a sea-sick rich environment. We just looked down at phones or other entertainment and avoided watching the sick-inducing movements.

Once off the train we quickly found the autoroute which took us to Reims, which was something like 2.5 hours on a double laned road at 130km/h with little traffic. It might have cost us around £20 in tolls but it was worth it for the ease of the journey.

Before finding the hotel we had a stop to make – our first motoring-themed location. Reims-Geaux is the site of an old racing circuit, with the grandstands and pit stops either side of what is now a regular road. The site went out of business in 1972 when it ran out of money, but the buildings are beautifully and eerily still there, and free to explore. They’re in remarkably good, if not faded, shape. Fascinating place, and a bit of a mecca for motorsport fans. Even Jo enjoyed the surprise stop (honestly!)

Then onto the hotel in the centre of Reims, where we dropped the bags at the hotel and then parked the car in its own snug bed for the night, in a private space nearby. Hotel rooms was nice, even if the tap wasn’t attached to the sink. I particularly liked the magazine rack next to the toilet, even if the magazine in it didn’t feel like the right kind.

We walked into Reims to find lunch, but found cakes, then wandered to the cathedral of Notre Dame. Pretty big place, with stained glass of various ages as some was lost during WW2 bombing.

Since it was Sunday, very little was open, so we decided to head back to the hotel for a rest before returning into the centre for dinner. We found a French restaurant which served only duck dishes, which we really liked despite it feeling quite modern and not as traditional as most French establishments (which were mostly closed!) We shared foie gras, then I had a minced duck burger and Jo had half a duck breast (which we decided was actually what we’d call a duck breast, but because it has two the French call it a half). With that, back to the hotel and bed.

Day one – London to Folkestone

Distance today – 78 miles	Journey time – 1h 45m
Total trip distance – 294 miles	Total journey time – 5h 50m

The plan for today was to visit the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025 exhibition at the Natural History Museum. We’ve not been to the museum for many years, but it’s always enjoyable – with the bonus of the wildlife photography this visit. We headed off to the tube, alighting at South Kensington.

We arrived at the museum just before opening which meant the first 2 minutes inside were quiet. That didn’t last long.

First stop was the photography exhibition – around 100 pictures were on show, across various categories. Needless to say many were extremely good. Our favourites were “Alpine Dawn” and “Out of the Darkness” (Keith), and “Fractal Forest” and “Caught in the Headlights” (Jo).

We then had a look at the dinosaurs, before visiting the Darwin building where 25km of shelves contained jars containing specimens taken from around the world; some we found dated back to the 18th Century.

Lunch. Italian. Lasagne and chicken salad…with chips.

After lunch we left London behind and headed across the QE2 bridge across the Thames estuary before heading down to Folkestone where we were staying for the night. We were offered “welcome cake” on arrival, so took a slice up to the room. Having had a big lunch we opted for a light tea – M&S sushi, salad, fruit and yoghurt.

Day zero – Home to London

Distance today – 216 miles	Journey time – 3h 55m
Total trip distance – 216 miles	Total journey time – 3h 55m

The day finally arrived. The best thing about packing the car was that I got to do it myself, and had most of the day to do it. So everything was packed correctly and efficiently, I could take my time to tesselate bags to maximise use of space, and I wasn’t trying to do it with 3 minutes to spare before I had to leave. Excellent.

I picked up Jo from school and we set off to our first stop, staying overnight with friends who live near to London in Woodford Green. That meant travelling along the M62 and then the M1, before a short drive through a very dark Epping Forest.

The M62 was fine at around 4pm, and surprisingly the M1 wasn’t too bad either despite hitting Sheffield around 5pm and Luton around 6pm. The M25 was typically unpleasant, with lots of stop-start traffic, idiots driving way to close to each other, the odd car weaving in and out of lanes at double the speed of everyone else, and cars pulling in front of trucks causing them to emergency brake.

We arrived at just after 7pm, somewhat miraculous timing given we were travelling on a Friday night. I’ll take that. Thai takeaway and staying up until midnight talking, and we were ready for bed.

Why day zero? Because the original plan saw us drive straight from home to Dover until we were invited to stay and visit something special on the Saturday morning…..

The starting point for this trip was the basic premise that we wanted to drive to the mountain passes in and around the Swiss Alps. Seemed like a simple goal.

A bit of research later and the route began to take shape – channel tunnel, across France by the quickest route, top of the Black Forest, down to the Swiss border near Basel, a big car museum in France, Lake Lucerne, then two days and 600km to traverse 9 mountain passes in Switzerland, Austria and Italy, a glacier, another mountain pass, before a quick stop in Lichenstein, a stop at Lake Constance, then onto Stuggart to the Porsche factory for a tour, then further into Germany before heading back to the tunnel via Belgium.

The route was then broken up into sensible chunks, a couple of rest days added, and accommodation booked. Then detailed routes were planned. Big spreadsheet time.

Routes were planned with Google Maps using route waypoints first, then using the Michelin Via planner which helps with cost of tolls and fuel to get an idea of what we’d expect to pay and where.

Then onto what we’d need to take. With 7 countries, each with different requirements in terms of equipment, and the time of year we realised winter tyres were needed – when there’s snow on the ground or it’s less than 7 degrees Celsius you have no real choice.

Finally emissions stickers and motorway vignettes. I could find no single source of information covering all countries, so had to do a lot of research to check I had ordered what I needed. In total, I needed 7 different physical stickers and electronic permits. They ranged from country-wide to city-specific. Crazy. Though I’m still not sure I have them all!