Drive to Athens
 

Any one driven from the UK to Athens, i intend to end up in Crete but any advise for the first leg would be great.

I've done it in a truck a long time ago, the Ancona-Patras ferry used to be the way to go although overland is possibly easier now more of the transit countries are in the eu.

I have been contemplating a drive to Corfu in the 75 as I fancy a warm holiday with the dog without subjecting her to flights.

It would be interesting to know the furthest-flung place any forumite has ever driven to in their Rover 75/ MG ZT. I've done some pretty epic road trips in an articulated lorry but 175 miles is the furthest I've ever done in the Rover.

Maxi_Crawf did a fairly epic European trip in his 190 a few years ago.

I did a European tour with my two lads in the 190 in 2018,
Harwich to the Hook of Holland then Holland, Belgium, France (overnight in Lyon) then down to Cannes (stayed overnight) then Monte Carlo, took the coast road through France and Italy we drove through Genoa 2 weeks after the bridge collapsed there, down to Pisa (stayed overnight) then north to Milan (overnight stop) then Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany (stayed overnight in Munich) then Dusseldorf (stayed overnight) then back to the Hook of Holland to Harwich.

2,848 miles in a week, used no water or oil but about £70 a day in petrol, so we got as far south as Pisa and east as Munich.

I have a three year rolling plan,

Year 1, Norway north of the arctic circle.
2, Iceland via the faroe islands.
3, The edge of the Sahara desert through Morocco.

I say do it.

Like Most things its in the preparation (the 6 p's) everything can be researched/checked online, I had all our overnight stops booked on line, you don't even need to speak the lingo but a bit helps, virtually everyone speaks a smattering of English, you can check on the RAC and AA website for everything you need in each individual country, the rules of the road vary in every country, most of them use the Euro.

Anything specific I can help with let me know.

Long trip
 

A chap did London to split in Croatia in 2019, in a Rover 75 club he bought for £500. After he got it back he offered it for sale on forum. Subsequently scrapped it. Some may remember was at the July 19 clandon park show.

I paid £500 for my 190, still have it and have no intention of selling it :)

I looked into doing a trip to Iceland a few years ago. A return ferry trip from Denmark with a car and two passengers was over £1,000 (and another £200 for a cabin) though so it didn't go any further than the research stage.

I took a 3500S to Italy via Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland and San Marino in the late 60's and would love to do that trip again but very much doubt that I could!!! The "three passes" round robin whilst in Switzerland was the highlight.

The longest road journey I ever did was in 1997 when I worked on a roadshow for Xerox. This was just after the first digital photocopier ("The Document Centre") was launched and at this stage there were only three of them in the world, one being in Europe.

Xerox needed to train their engineers how to work on them and their sales staff how to sell them (they had several advantages over analogue photocopiers) and it was decided that the best way was to take the photocopier around Europe on a tour rather than bringing all the staff to the photocopier.

So I drove a Volvo F12 with a 45' exhibition trailer which gullwinged out on both sides, the interior was a mock-up of an office, and once inside you would never guess you were in a lorry trailer.

The itinerary was Geneva, Zurich, Vienna, Budapest, Prague, Warsaw, Moscow, St Petersburg, Moscow (again), Kiev, Bucharest, Istanbul and Belgrade, spending a week in each. Once everything was set up, I was only required on site for half an hour at the beginning and end of the day for start-up and shutdown, the rest of the time I just went sightseeing.

From beginning to end, the whole tour took 107 days, or three-and-a-half months.

Meneac to Venice
 

Four years ago we went from Meneac(France) to Venice (Italy) Via the St Gothard pass in Switzerland,then Milan and Verona total of 2,470 miles.75 CDT with 180,000 miles on the clock

Prior to that way back in the day We went from Birmingham to Pisa in a MK One Sprite with a small camping trailer. Whilst there we went to Monaco and drove thru the Grand Prix circuit Tunnel there and back we did a total of 2500 Miles.

If you are going to do it, DO IT Dont think about it.;)

here you go!
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Becc...1!2d39.6249838

I'm too old to be a co-driver! (Wish that I wasn't!):duh:

Highlights include the San Gotthard pass, Lac Lucerne, Altdorf (home of William Tell), Andermatt, Italian Lakes at Lugano and Como, Milan (try it at rush hour!), Parma (ham for the dog), San Marino (just over from Rimini on the coast), followed by hundreds of miles of the Italian East coast road before the ferry at Bari to Corfu. If you need more of the coast road, you can continue to Brindisi for a shorter ferry ride.

Thats the route I was looking at, thankfully I have driven Milan at rush hour (And Rome) A few times, and once I put my 'Italian driving head' on, all was fine, no indicators, just horn and right foot planted.

Morning Andy ……It’s certainly worth doing and if you can, share the drive with a mate even if it’s for their company. Yes, take the dog, that’s all part of the fun and do it before you get too old.

In 1999, I met up with a mate in Huston, at the time he was down on his luck, but that’s another story. We crossed the border at El Paso and I spent a month driving through and exploring Mexico finishing up in Mexico City. We had many adventures along the way and none of them were bad. The trip saved my mate.

Sounds like a proper adventure Phil, I shall do it when funds allow, and I get a Rover prepared enough to tackle 3000+ miles.

Ferry on fire !
 

Sad news this morning:-
https://enimerosi.com/details.php?id=66083
Many being taken into Corfu for treatment and temporary shelter.

Probably doesn't count, but I once did London to Athens overland in the 1970s Magic Bus era.
Next cheapest thing to hitching it, I think the ticket was less than £30.

That was an experience, it even had more passengers on board than it had seats. :duh:

If a totally clapped out coach can make it, it must be a doddle in any of our cars. ;)

Oh no!! Thoughts are with the passengers and crew :cry:

UK to Greece on Youtube
 

UK to Greece :-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mJTPPX7fV4
Enjoy on this winter's evening!;)

Switzerland looks very nice :bowdown:

Road trip
 

it is, I hope you do the trip, at least if you break down you ok.

One of my favourite places in the world but VERY expensive. As some very famous person once said "To have lived and not seen the Jungfrau is to have never lived". I agree. Take the train up to the top (through the mountain) and just gaze.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpZDyoZUrAs
:bowdown:

Can i just say th train goes threw Th north face to th restaurant. Jungfrau is quite a view (see first pic). Th pug 1.3 td made it back in a day, around 833 miles. Wifey drove as id driven down.

https://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/for...006e642671.jpg

This is going up th North Face to th restaraunt, that stops on its way to it at Kleine Scheidegg. Jungfrau is in th back ground.

https://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/for...006e689dad.jpg

Yes.
 

I've driven over a lot of Europe, when you cross into Hungary there's a little place called Pec you should aim for, in Pec there's a ferry that takes cars across the Danube and it saves a lot of time and fuel and keeps a more or less straight line into Serbia and down into Macedonia and then Greece.