The chaos that is the Monsters of Rock festival at Donnington Park is next week (Thursday- Sunday) with the gate’s opening at 9am on Wednesday. Which means that the M1 and surrounding roads Near East Midlands Airport are going to be blocked. So plan your route carefully.
Just my luck as I’m heading down to Plymouth from near the Stockyard to catch the ferry to Spain on Wednesday morning. So any information on road works/delays south of Birmingham would be appreciated. By next Friday afternoon I should be in Lisbon Portugal
That journey to Spain on the ferry is very enjoyable, the problem is you get so relaxed it’s hard to get off the ship and do some work, enjoy the sun and cafe con leche’s, and don’t pay the Baghouse using the bosses DKV card purportedly getting the invoice disguised as tyre repairs!
An alternative which adds about 15-20 minutes is Nip back up the M18 to J2 and take the A1. You can then nip across from Newark on the A46 onto the M1 at Leicester then M69, A46, M40 to the M42. If you’re not in a rush stay on the A46 until the M5 at J9, that won’t add as much as you think due to the 50MPH roadworks from M42 to Worcester you’ll avoid.
Im planning to be out of the country for at least 5+ weeks. While you lot are rushing home next Friday afternoon I will be pulling up at the Ibis Parque Do Nacions in Lisbon between the Oriente Station and the river, ready for the open air rock music festival in the nearby Parque de Nations on Saturday.
Conor, Another option is the A38 M1/J28 all the way down to Bassetts pole, and rejoin the M42 at Coleshill. But that throws me back into the roadworks around Brum. The temptation is to leave Tuesday night and stop by the Toby carvery at Exeter for breakfast
Have you been down the A38 in the last year? It’s absolutely shafted from not far past the A50 all the way down to Litchfield with the HS2 roadworks.
Leaving Tuesday night is probably the better option. Just check for road closures. Currently they’re closing the M5 from J14 just after Michaelwood services to J15 southbound sending everything down the single carriageway with multiple traffic lights A38 so you need to be sure that you’re at J14 before 9pm when they close it.
I think Connor’s suggestion of using the A46 to M5 J9 is the best option, albeit I’m not sure about the night closures on the A46 around the A606 Melton Mowbray junction
Hull to Rotterdam, Antwerp, Rheims, Orleans Bordeaux, Burgos etc job done That’s how much I detest driving in UK v Continent.
Sardinia or Croatia for me in a couple of weeks haven’t decided yet.
I’ve often been to Sardinia by car.Unlike Italy many of its superb beaches and coast are open not fenced off for private premises and hotel only access and use.I also like stopping on route in Switzerland for touring and hiking in The Valais that never gets old for me.Also the boat trip from Genoa is great.Out on deck during a warm Mediterranean dawn approaching past Corsica also never gets old for me.
As for Croatia the drive along the Dalmatian coast to/from Dubrovnik is also one of the best in Europe.
I’ve not been back there since before the breakup of Yugo and like Sardinia and Swiss it provides some great time in Austria and usually I go over theTimmelsjoch pass then Villach and Klagenfurt and down to Ljubljana and Rijeka.