I've just returned from a 1,000 mile trip across four countries. Long post with lots of pictures!


Part 1: Preparation

I'm writing this from an American perspective, so any Europeans who already know how to drive in Europe may wish to scroll down to Part 2.

I've taken many long roadtrips in the past, but never outside my native USA. Now that I'm living in the UK, I decided to check a few things off my bucket list and explore the continent.

Driving a British car in mainland Europe requires a few things.

While the UK does not require an emergency kit, most European countries variously require a reflective triangle, reflective vest, and perhaps a first aid kit to be carried in the car. Until recently, France even required you to carry a breathalyser. Auto parts stores in the UK sell kits especially for this.

A British car must legally display "UK" when driving in Europe, either on the license plate or elsewhere. It used to be, British license plates had the EU crest and "GB" on them. Since Brexit, those are no longer valid. My plates were blank, so I got stickers to put on.

Lastly, the Jaguar XK, depending on year, may require the headlights to be switched over depending on which side of the road you are driving.

When living in the USA, I had owned a R32 Skyline, so I had driven a right-handed car on the right side of the road before, but I was still slightly nervous that I would forget when entering mainland Europe.


Part 2: Trip East / Autobahn

I left in the early morning of Saturday 27 May. After filling the tank at my local station in Cambridgeshire for £1.49/liter ($6.97/gallon), I got on my way. There was a little bit of fog on the way, but I'd checked the forecast and knew the weather would be sunny on the continent.


My dashcam didn't get adjusted for Daylight Savings Time, so it's an hour behind here, and two hours behind on the continent.

From my house, it was 2.5 hours south to Dover and the ferry terminal. My tickets were for the 10:00 departure, but were required to check in an hour early. Traffic was really backed up, probably for the holiday weekend. I got in line at about 7:30, and barely squeaked through at 8:59!

Dover is apparently the busiest ferry terminal in Europe. I believe it. I mentioned the required UK stickers: based on several cars not using them that I saw at the port, apparently they apparently aren't very required.




Leaving behind the White Cliffs of Dover

When the ship left, it was two hours across the English Channel to Dunkirk, France. The ship had a first class lounge, a trucker lounge, a cafeteria, a café, a casino, and an arcade.

Arriving at Dunkirk, I drove off, consciously reminding myself to drive on the right. The Belgium border was just fifteen miles away.

I decided to mostly go through Belgium rather than France, because France requires special emissions stickers on cars. They're required in order to determine how much a car puts out, in order to keep city air clean. I probably wasn't going to drive through the center of a city, but decided not to bother.

France's max speed limits are 130kmh (81mph) and Belgium's are 120kmh (75mph). This was already faster than the UK, where the max speed is 70mph (113kmh).

There was some construction causing delays in Belgium. I stopped for gas east of Brussels. I made a mental math error and only asked for fifty Euros' worth when prepaying. At €2.00/liter ($8.15/gallon), this wasn't enough to fill the tank, so I couldn't accurately calculate my fuel economy. The car said it was getting 26.2 mpg. Being a British car, I think this is imperial mpg, though, so it has five quarts to the gallon. That converts to 21 US mpg. (or 11.76 Liters/100 km) Not too bad for being stuck in traffic for a total of nearly two hours.

My other problem at the gas station was neglecting to take out Euro cash before leaving home. I didn't have any money to pay for the toilets, putting me in a little bit of a squeeze, so to speak. Yeah, welcome to Europe where the toilets aren't even free for customers.

I passed by Spa-Francorchamps racetrack. In eastern Belgium, the highways turned extremely rough and noisy under the tires, to the point that I considered slowing down below the speed limit. The road was otherwise a nice wide six-lane highway, but with bafflingly bad pavement. I was happy to turn south for Luxembourg.

One of the problems with driving in Europe is speed limit signage. A white sign with a black slash means different things depending on which country you're in and which type of road you're on. On the Autobahn, it means no limit. In the UK, it means 70mph on divided highways, but 60mph on two-lanes. I saw the sign in Belgium, on a two-lane, and guessed it meant 100kmh. I later learned that I guessed wrong, it only means 90kmh, and I passed a speed camera while wrong. We'll see what happens.

The final few miles in Belgium and on across the border were on a curvy two-lane through a lush green countryside. A great treat after hours of highways.


Luxembourg

If you ever happen to find yourself on Luxembourg highways E421 or N10, I recommend them. Lots of motorcycles and convertibles were out, so clearly the area has its fans. However, if you're going, don't be like me and make sure beforehand that Luxembourg isn't the one place in Europe where your cell phone doesn't work.

Across the border in Germany, road B410 was another good one, taking me through a handful of small towns that looked like they could have come from a postcard. A few of them had ceremonial Maypoles on display. Of course, all these roads eventually led me to Autobahn 60.

I'd picked out the route ahead of time, including a section with a four-mile straightaway. I took a moment to calm myself and prepare for what lay ahead, turning up my cooled seats to the maximum before taking the slip road. I was about to drive faster than I ever had before.

I felt out the Autobahn for a few miles, keeping up with the traffic flowing at around 100mph. When I reached the straightaway I'd designated, I went for it. And the final score is...



161mph (259kmh), as verified by my dashcam GPS. Watching the video, the car was pulling so hard that it took only ten seconds to go from 130 to 160, but it stopped itself right there.

I'd heard that XKRs are limited to 155mph. Apparently I got a little extra. The speedometer was reading just about 170.

I cooled down from the speed run and pulled into Bitburg. After filling the tank for €1.92/liter ($7.18/gallon), I checked into my Airbnb and went to dinner.

A restaurant called Sylvie's American Pizza caught my eye. The menu was decidedly not like any American pizza I had seen. The Brooklyn pizza has Hollendaise sauce. There is a tuna pizza and a creme fraiche pizza. The Honolulu pizza has mango curry sauce which actually sounds better than pinapple on pizza. I went with just a simple pepperoni, and it was pretty good. The sauce had a certain spiciness to it that I wouldn't have expected from a European pizza.

And since I was in Bitburg, I had to have a Bitburger beer, too.

410 miles logged, and all in all, a pretty good day.


Part 3: Nürburgring

Setting out on Sunday morning, I had to clean a smashed bug off a forward parking sensor to silence a false reading. Lots of bugs smashed at 160mph! With time to kill, as the 'Ring only opens in the afternoon, I searched up a few local landmarks.

The countryside was just as beautiful as the day before.


German farm road

On the curvy roads, I came across one corner that I swear was straight out of the North Country track in Need For Speed II, which is weird that I remember it so vividly considering I haven't played the game in probably twenty years.

My first stop was Burg Seinsfeld, a castle dating from as early as 1325, but heavily rebuilt in later centuries. It was down a single-track road in the middle of nowhere. It seems that it's privately owned and not available for tours.


Burg Seinsfeld - "What's the deal with these German castles?"

After that, I found myself in the city of Daun, where there's a volcano museum. Apparently despite the greenery, this part of Germany was formed by volcanos. The museum is €3. Daun itself is scenic and touristy. I got ice cream at a shop next to the museum.

When I arrived in Nürburg, the track hadn't opened yet. I drove around a little. Seemingly half the restaurants on or near the track are Italian, for some reason.

I found myself at the top of the hill at Nürburg Castle. It was a lot bigger, older, and more impressive than the other one.


Nürburg Castle

As the track opened, everywhere I heard engines starting and cars began to pull out. I followed a few of them back down the hill and joined a long line for the track.

Nürburgring has a Grand Prix track, as well as the 13-mile Nordschleife. You can drive your car on both. They sell tickets, but the easiest way is to make an account on their website and have them send you a keycard to spend the Euros you load onto it. You can just badge through the gate.


Nürburgring card

Laps on the Nordschleife cost €30-35. Given the price, I only paid for one lap.

If driving on the Autobahn made me feel like a hero, then the Nürburgring sent me back to driver's ed. It was a good thing I had a dashcam to watch my lap later, because I spent most of it driving with the mirror so as to not get run over. Worse, after the lap, I embarrassingly got in the lane to go again instead of the exit and had to reverse against traffic. A guy in an AMG with Swiss plates helped direct me back through the traffic cones.

There are a lot of photographers at the 'Ring. I used https://www.racetracker.de to find their shots, though I had to sift through more than fifty thousand taken that day. Out of that number, I had maybe a dozen of me, but I only bought a few because they charge €10-15 each to download. The photographers then do some post-processing and send you the photo in the next day or two.


Lots of bugs left over from the Autobahn

After my run, I relaxed with a visit to the Ring Werk museum. For €11.50, plus €7 for a sticker, I thought it was a good value. Lots of cool stuff inside.



In fact, there is a lot to do at the 'Ring that doesn't involve driving the track at all. The holiday weekend brought out a huge amount of traffic, and nearly all of them were interesting. BMWs and Porches by the dozen, but also just about anything else you could imagine. Maybe the most unexpected thing I saw was an '80s Caprice. As for Jags, I only saw an E-type (British Racing Green, of course!) and two F-types. Disappointingly, I didn't see any other XKs, though combing through the thousands of photos of the track later revealed a few.

Leaving that afternoon, I took a different route back to Bitburg and spent nearly 50km on the Autobahn, averaging almost 120mph on the way. Leaving the Autobahn for the twisty two-lanes, a guy in a British Racing Green Triumph TR6 fell in with me, and even followed me into the driveway of the Airbnb to say hello.

There wasn't much open on Sunday evening holiday weekend, and so I ate dinner from a convenience store. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Germans are big on sausages for junk food. Probably healthier than candy. I was also a little surprised that they just put the **** mags out in the open, with not even a cover sheet. Maybe there's a joke about sausage there, too.

After the 'Ring and the Autobahn, the car's reported average fuel economy had dropped to 24.4. Gas well spent. I may have missed watching the Indy 500, Coke 600, and Monaco GP on TV that Sunday, but at least I made some lasting memories.


Part 4: Trip West

May 29 was Whit Monday, a religious holiday in Germany, Belgium, and France. It's also the Spring Bank Holiday in the UK. Given all of that, I was expecting traffic to be lighter than a normal Monday. It was, in the morning anyway. More on that later.

I took a more southern route on my way back, headed for Mons instead of Brussels. I tried to visit Fort de Barchon along the way. It was closed, and disappointingly I couldn't see anything from the parking lot. It was attacked and captured by Germany in both World Wars.

Before the French border, I got more two-Euro gas. This was my first time in Europe using pay-at-the-pump, though I had seen them elsewhere. Paying at the pump instead of going into the store is unheard of in the UK, but nearly ubiquitous in the US.

I had lunch in France at a France-Belgium burger chain called Quick. It was marginally better than McDonald's. For a twenty-Euro fast food meal, I sure hope it was.

My destination was Calais, to ride the train back to the UK through the Eurotunnel under the English Channel. In my observation, it seems like most Europeans get touchy when an American calls it the "Chunnel."

The train is a little more expensive than the ferry, but the check in process and the trip itself are both several times faster. I had made good time on the drive, and managed to get onto a train an hour earlier than my reservation. The automobile-carrying train cars are double-decker. You stay with your automobile during the ride.





Traffic back in the UK was heavy, despite the holiday. About fifteen minutes after disembarking the train at Folkestone, I was on the highway and slowed down for a construction zone but the guy behind me didn't and plowed in. I drove a thousand miles across Europe this weekend, but the accident happened when I was almost home!

I don't have a rear dashcam, but it caught the sound of the impact (not to mention the sounds of my frustration).

I'd post more details, but my insurance company is still working on it. The XKR came out the better of the two. With my own examination, I hope it's just the rear bumper cover and one parking sensor needing replacement. The opposing Ford Fiesta is going to need at least a front bumper, fender, hood, and headlight.

At least I got one last cherry on top to end on a high note. I was nearly home when I spotted a British Racing Green X100, and drove with him for a mile or two.

Whew. A good trip overall, and I hope this post-verging-on-blog was educational and entertaining. Thanks for reading.

 

Good post. Please do similar posts if you should do additional "treks".

 

Great post. Sorry to hear about the accident on the return. Hope you're luckier with the Belgian speed camera.

Graham

 

Many thanks for the post and indeed good luck with the repair for the unfortunate welcome home bumper bump.

question. While driving on the Autobahn for the first time a few weeks ago myself I noticed a whining (wind related) sound coming from what seems to be the screen wiper area with speeds above 120mph. Did you or anybody else witness this as well? I have a 2010 XK (no visual antennas)

 

No, I didn't hear any unusual sounds at high speed.

 

Great post. Felt like I was driving with you in the passenger seat. Good luck with the repair. Post a pic of the damage and keep us updated.