I've got a travel question for you

"Bandit - destroyed his car" (notbandit)
02/22/2016 at 21:00 • Filed to: europe

I haven’t been around for a while. Whatever. Anyways, I’ve got a question. In the summer (may through mid July) I’m going to be spending a lot of time in Europe, mostly around Stuttgart. For six weeks I’ll be busy during the days and only free on the weekends to do stuff. Then for two weeks I’m allowing myself to go backpacking across the continent. What should I do for day trips and what should I do for my longer journey (starting July 2nd). Car stuff and non car stuff is okay.

DISCUSSION (19)

iSureWilll > Bandit - destroyed his car
02/22/2016 at 21:10

I’ve never been to Europe so I really have no input. Other than the Trans Am is badass. It pulls at my heart.

Noah - Now with more boost. > Bandit - destroyed his car
02/22/2016 at 21:23

The Mercedes Museum is in a Suburb of Stuttgart. It's incredible, you won't regret it!

Steve in Manhattan > Bandit - destroyed his car
02/22/2016 at 21:23

Can you tour the Porsche factory?

And Berlin, and the wall.

Bandit - destroyed his car > Noah - Now with more boost.
02/22/2016 at 21:26

Great suggestion!

f86sabre > Bandit - destroyed his car
02/22/2016 at 21:34

I think the Nurburgring Ring 24 is in May. That looks amazing. Le Mans in in June and is amazing.

Trier is a cool city. It was a former Roman regional capital.

Go camp in the Ardennes in Belgium. Visit Normandy. Ireland is great if you can make it over there. Don't spend too much time in Dublin though. Get out in the country. The French Rivera west of Monaco is great. Actaully we might hit Monaco for a day or two over GP weekend as I will be in Spain for a work conference.

SVTyler Is Too Lazy to Find His Log-In Password > Bandit - destroyed his car
02/22/2016 at 21:46

If you can find tickets, go to a music festival. While it’s a bit expensive (~200 for a weekend pass when I went to Hellfest in France which didn’t include food/drink/alcohol/merch) it’s totally worth it, the European festivals blow the American ones out of the water in terms of scale and quality and it’s easy to find one that features the music you like because there’s so many of them in the summer. Seriously dude, if you can go, go, it’s a one-in-a-lifetime experience.

scoob > Bandit - destroyed his car
02/22/2016 at 22:00

where u been

New account?

Bandit - destroyed his car > scoob
02/22/2016 at 22:09

Busy with life and yeah, got tired of the old one.

Bandit - destroyed his car > f86sabre
02/22/2016 at 22:10

I’m thinking about the Austrian GP in early July, the south of France is a good idea as well!

Blondude > Bandit - destroyed his car
02/22/2016 at 23:04

Got tired of the old one, or got locked out of the old one?

105 HP of fury > Noah - Now with more boost.
02/22/2016 at 23:18

Porsche museum is also accessible via the train in Stuttgart. Definitely recommend doing that one, I haven’t had a chance to go to the Mercedes museum yet (but have heard good things about it)!

Bandit - destroyed his car > Blondude
02/22/2016 at 23:36

Got tired of the old one.

BoulderZ > Bandit - destroyed his car
02/22/2016 at 23:43

Just my thoughts:

If you have a car, cruise the Romantischestrasse, seeing all the castles and old cities (Neuschwanstein in particular).

Day trip to Salzburg and/or Vienna for history, food, beer, and all the Mozart (and Beethoven) you can handle.

Munchen is a lot of fun; eat at the market/beer garden, check out the historic sites, watch the glockenspiel, and go to the Deutsches Museum (sort of a German Smithsonian). Don’t miss the separate Vehrkehrzentrum, which is the transportation only building for Deutsches Museum. See some of the earliest bicycles in existence, get an up close look at a Benz Patentmotorwagen, a stainless steel 911, a U Boat, tons of WWII aircraft and engines, and more.

Rothenburg is cool to see one of the few towns that still has its complete medieval walls.

Berlin is great; see the bits of wall left (and where it’s marked now), Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, etc. Take the train out to Potsdam and see the Palace Of Reason, where Bach took on Frederick’s challenge of what was supposed to be an impossible fugue. If running’s your thing, the palace gardens and grounds are awesome.

Nurnberg has some great history (WWII and earlier) and has nice places to stay right in the oldest part. One of the churches there usually has free organ concerts. Try to get to some sort of music thing in at least one big/old church/cathedral while you’re there, in any city.

Get a boat ride on the Rhine. Try the great wine, see Berg Rhinefels, Lorelei rocks.

Amsterdam’s not that far away. Take a canal tour, get out and see the windmills, see the Rijksmuseum, see the Van Gogh museum, indulge in any of the unique commerce (if that’s your thing).

In Northern Italy, Venice, the Dolomites, and the lakes (Como et al) are easy to get to via a day of a couple of trains. Switzerland is close by, too (Gimmelwald is a fun stay).

There’s great hiking everywhere, and amazing food, beer, and wine. The people are super nice, too.

France is close by, too, but I haven’t gotten there yet (I know, lame, we’re working on that...) so I don’t have any first hand recommendations there. It’d be silly to be that close and not at least take a high speed train to Paris for a day, if you can spare the time/money.

Find out the route for Le Tour this year, see if you can catch a stage, especially a finish.

Do find a guidebook and/or site that seems to have the right personality for you. There are a ton of good ones, from the many well known ones like Lonely Planet, Fodor’s, Rick Steves, and so on, to many smaller more niche ones. Google searches will give you a lot of options (“travel guide book for motorsports”, or food, or beer, or wine, or art...).

Most of all, have fun! See great things, make great memories. And post a crap ton of pictures and posts here. :)

Jewish Stig > Bandit - destroyed his car
02/23/2016 at 03:08

Nurburgring!

Its pricey, sure, but its experience of a lifetime to any gear head.

For any thing car related, Germany is your place.
I also like Amsterdam , for obvious reasons,
The Mediterranean is also very nice that time of year.

The Swedish Bandit > Bandit - destroyed his car
03/24/2016 at 08:36

Oi!, long time since we talked.

Anyways, thought I could add; Power big meet ( http://bigmeet.com/eng/ ) in Sweden is just around that time. Biggest american car show in the world and an amazing experience.

If you can make your way up to Linköping in Sweden by train, we could meet up there and then drive the rest of the way in one of my cars. Accommodation and all that could be taken care of by my as well if you want, so don’t worry about that.

Don’t feel forced or anything to do this, just thought it might be something different.

Bandit - destroyed his car > The Swedish Bandit
03/24/2016 at 12:02

That looks awesome! I’ll see what my plan will allow me to do.

The Swedish Bandit > Bandit - destroyed his car
03/24/2016 at 12:08

Yeah it would be something alright! But no rush on my part or anything so just inform me once you got things all planned out for the trip.

Bandit - destroyed his car > The Swedish Bandit
03/24/2016 at 12:19

Do you know what day(s) you would attend?

The Swedish Bandit > Bandit - destroyed his car
03/24/2016 at 12:22

Probably Friday to Saturday (8-9 July) or just Saturday depending on how things look.