As requested - a quick writeup on the road trip I have just returned from - 3000 miles in 10 days…
Day 1
Home to Riems - Reims to Metz
Motorway run via Eurotunnel to Riems - Lots of Le Mans traffic - AMG GT’s, Porsche’s everywhere and a few Ferraris - 2 yellow Lotus’ got as many looks a far more exotic machinery
Of course had to stop at the Reims circuit
Reims to Metz via country roads - some great open sweepers with no traffic on the route we had… arrived in Metz after a long day…
Day 2
Metz to Au
From France, through Germany and just into Austria
Early start as this was a big miles day - first part of the journey went well, but when we got towards Stuttgart, there were quite a few road closures that TomTom was too stupid to route around… lots of swearing and googling later we ended up on a restricted Autobahn stretch, too busy to VMax, but my car will cruise at 125 with no effort…
Finally made it to Au - what a stunning place
More to come over the next days…
Was this not a fraction loud? I also noted my mpg went through the floor at 130km/h on french autoroutes.
Love the pics!
it was a little loud yes… but weirdly stable… I find over 4K rpm cruising… the mpg drops for sure 
- At 125mph I am sure I could see the fuel gauge dropping 
Great pics/trip. I’m heading to Alps tomorrow evening. For interest I heard stopping at Reims wasn’t allowed now and being enforced by police. I want to stop there. Any hassle?
There are no stopping signs - and actually there were folks there taking pictures of us… but no police presence - we were there for less than 2 mins, so I hope I don’t get a letter !!
One thing to be aware of is the speed cameras in Italy, they are everywhere, actually spoils it a bit, not that I want to speed, as we always go slowly through the villages, but they just make the locals brake suddenly and it does get irritating.
Great report and pics. That’s what we like… hope there’s more to come
Thank you. We’ll be like you, a quick stop and on route again but really want to stop by. I actually emailed the mayors office to ask permission but got no reply. So will just stop. I hope you’re enjoying it I quite literally can’t wait to get going and do a proper euro trip again 
defo more to come later on… and have a great time gonein60seconds
Wow, brilliant.
Did you get any vids driving through the stunning roads?
I did and will try to upload some over the next couple of days
So Day 3 - Au to Helingenblut…
The day started going over the Timmelsjoch pass (known to some as the Rombo) - fantastic road with Gallery tunnels and some decent flowing bits. Over the Gaia pass as well which is a bit ‘hairpinny’ and can get frustrating, especially when you are stuck behind a Suzuki SX4 !
At the end of the day, we arrived at the Grossglockner high alpine road - it was mostly empty and dry, so we had a epic drive across and down into Heilingenblut
Day 4 - Heilingenblut to Val Gardena
Shorter day, but with some great roads through the Dolomites into northern Italy. In the first pic, we are queued at a border crossing that is only open 15 mins of each hour - so time for a quick break and lots of questions from the bikers surrounding us. Talking of bikes - they really don’t get Lotus’. Quite often we are quicker than them on the more twisty sections of the passes, but they can’t bring themselves to let you past as ‘its a motorbike - it must be quicker’. You can sometimes see the surprised look when they accelerate out of a hairpin, only to see a small plastic yellow car still filling their mirrors.
The Dolomites really are stunning as you can see from the other photos
Super, thanks for posting, brightening up an otherwise dull morning
Day 5 - Val Gardena to Garda
Down towards the lakes moving from Dolomites into Italian Alps - some nice roads heading south out of Val Gardena although we did get slightly rained on, but in the morning some of the scenery was breathtaking - again, I will try to find some video. First pic was actually a ‘wee stop’ :lolno:
Down towards the bottom of Lake Garda and it all started to become a bit ‘warm’ as Europe was entering a heatwave (more to come on that). 32 degrees in traffic was not comfortable tbh, and actually, Garda I would say is the most touristy of the lakes and in places a bit meh. We got to the hotel to find a few interlopers including this
But actually these two got almost as much attention as the Ferraris in the car park (they were there for the Mille Miglia Ferrari celebration
Quick Montage for ‘day 5’
https://youtu.be/1t17VGaQ2QE
Added a short video to my Day 5 post…
Lovely, brings back many memories. Wish I was over there now instead of gazing at the rain in my garden