Slovinia or Bust

[hot66]

Seems it’s road trip season what with Jonnys wild Atlantic way thread as well …. But thought I better start posting about our recent trip before I start forgetting bits

We all enjoy road trip threads, so it’s that time of the year again for one of mine . We’ve done Spain the past couple of trips so the plan was to he’d back to the area we’ve also loved driving in which is Austria and into the Dolomites . This time though the ultimate destination was Slovenia .

Due to commitments from a few of our group, this years trip was having to be compressed into 7 days, which makes life difficult when you have to spend 2 days getting down and again 2 days getting back.

Sunday

So departure day and a well trodden route for us all , the Hull Rotterdam overnight ferry.



For some , getting to hull on the Sunday afternoon had been a commitment .. one had just landed back in the uk from Greece at 2am and another had just landed from a 14 hr flight from china ! . Additionally Sladey car was still in bits the day before .

Mix of cars for these trip is getting more eclectic and some bigger guns being brought. This year only 2 older cars, Sladey hot rod, my 964, a 964 RS, 993 c2, 996c2, 996 gt3 , 997c2, 997 gt3cs , 986 boxster … and then a Ferrari BB and an aerial nomad2 .




Now , the weather leading up to this trip had been awful ( a mate had been in the alps on his aprillia the previous week and had woken up to coverings of snow on his bike and wet roads every day , but luck was on our side and the weather was hot … actually too hot and pretty uncomfortable in reality.

So onto the ferry, with the mild entertainment of watching the customs staff try and search the nomad

[hot66]

Monday

Early start on the boat and surprisingly no one had any signs of hangovers…. Might also have something to do with the fact we all knew we were facing an 8 hour motorway drive to our first nights hotel. Hard work at the best of times, but with the new biometrics on entry into Europe we were faced with long queues to get off the boat and through customs .



End result, 2 of our cars got off straight away ( VIP ) , a bunch of us got through after about 1.5 hours and 3 cars didn’t get through for a further hour… as it was already really hot it was decided our group would split and head off to Germany and meet at our first sat nav plot. As it turned out, by the time I left the ferry as part of the 2nd group, the first cars were already 100 miles down the road !

So not much to discuss about the next 8 hours on the road apart from it became a race across Germany on the autobahns and the temps were hot !





These cars just swallow these roads ( and drink fuel ) at high speed . I also had a good curry wurst at a service station .



We also realised our daily fuel stops were not going to be cheap ! Look at the price ! I know we complain about the price here, but Europe is another level .




Eventually we arrived at our first hotel, one we have stayed in many times before, to find the lads from the first 2 cars had had plenty of time to enjoy some beers Finally everyone arrived and we all settled in for a night of beer and food .






Had to have a Schnitzel to almost complete the German food triangle

[hot66]

Tues

We woke up to an even hotter day, which wasn’t good as already 3 of the cars had started to throw up some issues due to the heat.
Some adjustments were made .




As a rule, so I dont keep getting asked the same question every day , breakfast at 8am and we leave at 9:30am. Today was part transit , part into the hills, so straight to another petrol station and then onto the autobahn again for blast south to Austria.

Started with the final of the 3 German food groups












Autobahn was as usual , but once in Austria and onto 2 way roads and we hit quite a bit of traffic and traffic light controlled road works .



By the time we had found a nice little cafe for lunch the roads were starting to get interesting, the traffic had thinned but one of the cars was giving concern.



The Boxster was pissing coolant from the waterpump and even after some messing with it , the leak got worse. Unfortunately this would be the last we would see of the boxster as it was not roadside repairable and it was left to be repatriated .



For the weeks running up to this trip, I’d been watching the weather and keeping a close eye on some of the big passes to see if they would be open. Luckily for us everything opened a few days before we left the UK, so with todays route swapped to the ‘passes clear’ one and motorways turned off on waze, we headed off up to the first pass Hahntennjoch via Pfafflar.






This is a stunning and quick road that heads across to Imst. From here we headed up the tedious valley road to Soelden, grabbed more fuel !


and onto one of the highest passes of the trip, the toll road to timmelsjoch. We have done this pass before but from the other direction, and its is always impressive from the top .







This was the biggest suprise … on a ‘Brompton’ !!








A very quick run down into Italy and onto our hotel in the valley .








Superb hotel with great food although everyone was feeling fairly beat up from the heat, car problems and tiring driving. Was some
Interesting metal in the garage though

[PDE]

Photos from Tuesday.

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[Gary71]

Another awesome road trip

As James has mentioned the first part is a slog through customs and then tucked in tight on the ferry


Lots and lots of this…


A fair portion of this:


And of course my little breakdown
Car was already running badly off the boat and by the time we got to Ulm the throttle response was negligible and the idle speed had dropped to the point it stalled as I dipped the clutch and coasted into the hotel car park!

First suspect is always the last thing you ‘fixed’ so as expected the points gap had closed up. On a boiling engine and in the absence of dwell meters or anything clever I set them roughly back to the right gap and it ran again! This won’t be the last time we see this topic…

[Gary71]

The next day we were off to the mountains My happy place.
For a while at least

More fuel? What a surprise…



Alpine roads chasing a flat 12 Ferrari.
OK I’ll take that as a trip highlight:)


Lowlight was losing Jason and the Boxster after our lunch stop, the trail it left as it drove off was the beginning of the end.

[Gary71]

Then onto the mountains proper up Timmelsjoch




And down again, still chasing that Ferrari which didn’t work out well…

[Gary71]

Now a bit of brake fade is par for the course on high alpine roads, there’s a reason we use them for brake development…

However ‘a bit soft’ to ‘pedal hits the floor’ in two presses coming down Timmelsjoch hairpins was not on my bingo card…

So after pulling the car to a halt on gears and handbrake (and a change of trousers) I waited with Michael for about 30mins until a hint of pedal returned and limped it to the hotel just using engine braking. Which doesn’t really work down the 5 remaining hairpins drops…


Having managed to boil the fluid it needed more than rest to get it back.
So the nice underground car park was useful for the 6am brake bleeding session. Thanks to Paul for fluid, reservoir top up and arm waving services to keep the lights on. And to John M with his over developed right arm on pedal duties.

After an hour or so we had a pedal!
Couldn’t have done it without you chaps.
So grateful

[911hillclimber]

Two ace Road Trip reports, great for us here mowing our lawns...

We have done that first bit in an ace FIAT Panda about a decade ago, surprised I could remember that lot so far back.
Spanners crossed for all the surviving cars.

[sladey]

It was an excellent trip. Some pics from me. As mentioned by James I’d been hard at work installing my tractiv suspension ready for the trip (I’ll share more on that later), but the morning of the day we were leaving this was one of my door handles - the fixing stuff had to be JBwelded back in



Phil’s mode of transport was extreme to say the least


He even let me have a test drive. - this warning is on the dashboard

It’s a pretty amazing thing

As others said, that first long drive down was a bit tedious - discovered I have a a wheel wobble at 100 mph. I;ve never been a fan of high speeds in the early car but after a while you get used to it. Had my noise cancelling headphones on all the way and the Classic Retrofit Aircon did fine service.

That second night we knew we were in Austria by the excellent selection of lederhosen available




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[Sam]

Gwan the 512!

What a thing.

[70sThrowback]

Great road trip, I always look forward to these. Would it be ok to share the hotel names? One thing I've picked up already, I am off to the Alps in a few weeks and I did wonder about customs at Rotterdam. I'm going to see if I can pay for priority boarding though I suspect its too late now.

Keep it coming..........

[hot66]

with regards to hotels I find the best I can for our situation, but they might not be the best option for couples , smaller groups etc .... I'm often very limited in what's available in May when trying to find some where which has firstly enough rooms ( this year 13 rooms ) , next secure parking , then is generally 8 + review on booking.com and finally that is open as in May early June a lot of hotels are still closed as its their post ski season break . I usually have to do a search over a 40 mile radius of approx where we want to be and sometimes even then I cant find any where suitable . For example, I cant imagine any of us are going to recommend the Slovenia hotel(s) for quality, but location was spot on .

But if want to know :

1. Hotel-Gasthof Adler, Ulm
2. Hotel Saltauserhof, Passeirerstraße 6, 39010 Saltusio
3. Hotel COSMEA Dolomites, Via Setil, 1, 39046 Ortisei BZ, Italy
4. Hotel Kompas, Borovška cesta 100, 4280 Kranjska Gora, Slovenia
5. Wohlfühlhotel Schiestl, Hochfügener Str. 107, 6264 Fügenberg, Austria
6 ..... will talk about this one later

[sladey]

James did a brilliant job on the trip organisation

If you are thinking of booking them then
Here’s an honest (and personal) review of those hotels


1. Hotel-Gasthof Adler, Ulm

Underground parking. Believe family run. Spread over multiple buildings and floors. Rooms fairly basic and dated but clean. Food was nice and service was good



2. Hotel Saltauserhof, Passeirerstraße 6, 39010 Saltusio

Underground parking. Steep entry to it and couldn’t fit all of us in. Again seems family run. Nice looking pool. Nice gym. Restaurants seemed nice and food was really good. Rooms were large but dated - probably done up 10-15 years ago. But clean and fine. This is the town to buy your lederhosen.



3. Hotel COSMEA Dolomites, Via Setil, 1, 39046 Ortisei BZ, Italy

Underground parking. Either modern hotel or recently done up. Done to a nice standard - modern and luxurious. Rooms were lovely. Couldn’t make the Aircon work though. We didn’t eat there but breakfast was nice
( edit by hot66 : hotel has been in the family since 1957. Recent renovation as looks like prepping for the next generation in the family )


4. Hotel Kompas, Borovška cesta 100, 4280 Kranjska Gora, Slovenia

Large car park not underground. Hotel large but dated. Bathroom and room very dated. Clean though. Again we didn’t eat there but went out for a meatfest



5. Wohlfühlhotel Schiestl, Hochfügener Str. 107, 6264 Fügenberg, Austria

Outside parking but felt secure - not visible from the road. Again family run and friendly. Reception designed by Liberace. Clumsy checking in routine even though we’d already booked through booking.com. Food was ok. Room was very dated and unable to have a proper shower because bracket was at chest height.



Hope that helps

[Bootsy]

unable to have a proper shower because bracket was at chest height.

You never sit down / squat in the shower?