GolfGTIforum.co.uk
Model specific boards => Golf mk6 => Topic started by: Rolfe on 16 March 2010, 19:42
-
I don't know why I'm asking this question, because I know what you guys will say, but you can say it anyway.
I have some tickets for the Bayreuth Festival in August. That's Bayreuth in Bavaria, not far from Nurnberg. The question is, how do I get there?
The normal sane way is to fly from Edinburgh to Stuttgart, and hire a car. It's a fairly quick trip, and I should get there by teatime. With a cruddy, left-hand-drive shopping-trolley-with-an-engine.
On the other hand, I could take the ferry from Rosyth to Zeebrugge, that's the CAR ferry, and set off down the autobahn. In the MkVI.
Disadvantages are....
- It's certainly no cheaper, could be more expensive.
- Cabin prices are ridiculous, so I'd be stuck with a "reclining seat" to sleep on. Before a 7-hour drive.
- The ferry doesn't dock till 2pm, which would mean getting to Bayreuth late evening - or else breaking the journey and eating up more of the holiday travelling.
- I'd have to consider breaking the journey on the way back, for fear of a bad delay causing me to miss the ferry.
On the other hand. MkVI, autobahn, mmmmmm....
I know the road reasonably well because I've driven it several times (took the Peugeot through the Chunnel when I lived in Sussex). I'd far rather have my own car than a hire car - I'm perfectly happy driving a right-hand-drive car on the continent.
Opinions? (I suppose this well get moved because it isn't an exclusively MkVI question, but like it says, "I live here".)
Rolfe.
-
For me it's a no brainer! take your own car and enjoy the continental roads, you'll so regret it if you go the plane route :grin:
Enjoy the festival.
Gizzy
-
For me it's a no brainer! take your own car and enjoy the continental roads, you'll so regret it if you go the plane route :grin:
Enjoy the festival.
Gizzy
No brainer from me aswell, enjoy the MK6 :smiley:
-
Does anyone have any exerience of that boat, by the way?
Rolfe.
-
I sailed from dover to zeebrugge about 20 years ago,can`t remember much about it apart from there being a ferrai f40 boarding the same ferry :tongue:
P.s i would fly
-
Rolfe
I'd take Prospero home for a visit.
Enjoy the continental roads if you do. :smiley:
-
I've worked a few times in Rosyth down by the ferry port, but have never investigated. (not as a hooker btw :laugh: )
How much is the ferry and how long does it take? I've always fancied a trip to the 'ring... and might well do it in the R at some point.
I'd also quite like to visit the VW factory... although I'm sure it would bore the missus to tears!
-
I've worked a few times in Rosyth down by the ferry port, but have never investigated. (not as a hooker btw :laugh: )
How much is the ferry and how long does it take? I've always fancied a trip to the 'ring... and might well do it in the R at some point.
I'd also quite like to visit the VW factory... although I'm sure it would bore the missus to tears!
The VW factory is more like a mini theme park than just a factory tour (the tour only lasts 30 minutes).
My missus and kids loved it, loads to do. One day wasn't enough to do all we wanted to.
We'll go back there in the Summer.
-
drive to dover it makes sense
-
The ferry takes 20 hours. You leave about tea-time and arrive early afternoon.
The price for a MkVI plus driver only in August is £408 return. That's with just a reclining chair for overnight accommodation. It seems as if the cabins are all 4-berth, and I see no way you can ask to arrange a shared cabin if you're travelling alone. Surprising really, because the North Sea ferries will arrange that if you want. Anyway, when I suggested an actual bed would be nice, the price soared well over £700.
Rolfe.
-
if you're talking about boats this should be in the mk3 section... if not then it should be in off-topic... no?
http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=147995.msg1353034#msg1353034 (http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=147995.msg1353034#msg1353034)
-
drive to dover it makes sense
Drive the length of the country, with idiot British drivers...
Or have a relaxing journey, wake up fresh and do the miles on the other side, with better driving standards, better roads and cheaper fuel.
Yeah, it makes sense all right!
Rosyth every time...
-
I don't know why I'm asking this question, because I know what you guys will say, but you can say it anyway.
I have some tickets for the Bayreuth Festival in August. That's Bayreuth in Bavaria, not far from Nurnberg. The question is, how do I get there?
The normal sane way is to fly from Edinburgh to Stuttgart, and hire a car. It's a fairly quick trip, and I should get there by teatime. With a cruddy, left-hand-drive shopping-trolley-with-an-engine.
On the other hand, I could take the ferry from Rosyth to Zeebrugge, that's the CAR ferry, and set off down the autobahn. In the MkVI.
Disadvantages are....
- It's certainly no cheaper, could be more expensive.
- Cabin prices are ridiculous, so I'd be stuck with a "reclining seat" to sleep on. Before a 7-hour drive.
- The ferry doesn't dock till 2pm, which would mean getting to Bayreuth late evening - or else breaking the journey and eating up more of the holiday travelling.
- I'd have to consider breaking the journey on the way back, for fear of a bad delay causing me to miss the ferry.
On the other hand. MkVI, autobahn, mmmmmm....
I know the road reasonably well because I've driven it several times (took the Peugeot through the Chunnel when I lived in Sussex). I'd far rather have my own car than a hire car - I'm perfectly happy driving a right-hand-drive car on the continent.
Opinions? (I suppose this well get moved because it isn't an exclusively MkVI question, but like it says, "I live here".)
Rolfe.
I have taken my car to Europe quite a few times , I love it. My first VW was a Polo E back in 1987. The Polo E back then had one of these stop start systems that cut out the engine when you went to neutral then started up again when put into gear. I see these systems are back in fashion. Anyway I did 3,000 miles in mainland Europe in 10 days. Loved it so much I did it a few times after that also.
Take your car and enjoy. It's so much easier to do it today with Tom Tom's. What a cool idea to go to a festival in Germany.
Go for it you wont be disappointed
-
drive to dover it makes sense
Drive the length of the country, with idiot British drivers...
Or have a relaxing journey, wake up fresh and do the miles on the other side, with better driving standards, better roads and cheaper fuel.
Yeah, it makes sense all right!
Rosyth every time...
cost of ferry from rosyth on the days i was looking was £500 return, and there's only two sailings a week so you have to pick your holidays round the ferry. dover return is about £50 depending on your times but you can go any day, any time. if you miss the ferry its not the end of the world, get the next one. wouldn't like to be in the situation if i missed the ferry from rosyth.
-
Good point, well made :smiley:
-
Autobarns go east to west
But belgium is sh!t so drive fast anyway!
-
cost of ferry from rosyth on the days i was looking was £500 return, and there's only two sailings a week so you have to pick your holidays round the ferry. dover return is about £50 depending on your times but you can go any day, any time. if you miss the ferry its not the end of the world, get the next one. wouldn't like to be in the situation if i missed the ferry from rosyth.
Reasonable point, but the price I have for a return car plus driver on the days I want is £408, which isn't quite so bad. And I can fit my trip round the ferries.
I live only 30 miles from Rosyth, so I don't think I'm in serious danger of missing the outward sailing. On the way back, I think I would break the journey, maybe at Remagen or Bad Honingen, to make sure I had plenty time to get to Zeebrugge.
Perhaps my main gripe is the reclining seat bit. I'd pay a bit extra for a berth, but not as much as they're wanting. I think they're forcing people to book a 4-person cabin even if they're alone. Seems silly.
Rolfe.
-
cost of ferry from rosyth on the days i was looking was £500 return, and there's only two sailings a week so you have to pick your holidays round the ferry.
Not the end of the world...
dover return is about £50 depending on your times but you can go any day, any time. if you miss the ferry its not the end of the world, get the next one. wouldn't like to be in the situation if i missed the ferry from rosyth.
Don't miss it then.
Problem solved.
It's still more relaxing going from Rosyth.
If I was having to drive the length of the country, I'd probably just use the Chunnel.
-
I've used the Chunnel on previous occasions when I lived in Sussex, and the Newhaven-Dieppe ferry. That's a Seacat, and it's a very quick crossing. Before they opened the tunnel I went Harwich to Hook of Holland a few times. All good, though obviously from Scotland the Chunnel would make sense because of the motorway network.
However, I've worn all the groove on the M6 I'm going to wear. It's the plane and a hire car, or the Rosyth ferry, for me.
Rolfe. Definitely leaning towards the ferry.
-
When travelling to eastern France from Dundee, we always take the PO Ferry form Hull to Zeebrugge. The times are more convenient, with departure approx 1900 and arrival at 0800 the next morning. No reclining seats on PO anymore, you must have a cabin. However, quite a large variety of cabins, with a basic 2 berth not overly costly (in the overall scheme of 'rip-off' ferry costs, that is!!). I would imagine you could get a crossing for near to the price of the Rosyth ferry. I have looked into using the Rosyth crossing previously, but have always found it to be very expensive when priced up. It takes approx 5 to 6 hours from Dundee down to Hull, that's going down the east side A1 and A19, to York and then across to Hull on the A1079, so would imagine it being similar for yourself.
Don't go the reclining seat option. Have used that on PO many moons ago and didn't really get any proper sleep prior to my 6 hour drive down through Belgium/Luxembourg/France. You feel grubby and knackered before you even start the drive! The ferries out of Hull are much larger than the Rosyth one and are well suited to a night crossing and a decent nights kip.
If you must go Rosyth, just pay the extra and get a cabin. You can't be short of a few bob if you drive a brand new GTI!! No offence intended!!
-
Yeah well. I'm mean. (On the other hand, maybe I'd better not mention what I paid for the Bayreuth Festival tickets....)
I've done the Hull/Rotterdam route and my main memory (apart from the reclining seats, which nobody slept in, we just got dibs on a bit of floor), is having to get up and organised and breakfasted and off that blasted boat by the crack of bloody dawn. I always thought Rosyth was a better bet, though it's certainly a longer sail than I had expected.
I've had it with driving through England. I'll do it to get to England, but that's it.
I'd spring for a cabin berth for me, but over £300 for a four-berth cabin for one person is just silly. I'm thinking lilo and sleeping bag and a bit of floor, actually.
Rolfe.
-
Hi Rolfe
You mention that you have tickets not a ticket does that mean you are not going alone? Could you not split the price of a cabin between you that would work out somewhat cheaper.
Whatever you decide have a great time.
Gizzy
-
I have tickets for more than one performance. It's an opera festival.
If I wasn't going alone, the ferry would make a lot more sense, but my mother says she's too old to make the trip (she's been several times before and loved it), and the friend I thought would come with me has decided she doesn't want to. That's why the dilemma really. If there were two travelling, sharing the costs and the driving, it would be a no-brainer.
I actually have two pairs of tickets, for each of two performances. There are seven different operas on offer. When I've been before, there was a healthy barter system in operation, where people with extra tickets could swap them over. So actually I have an excellent chance of doing a swap and getting to see four different performances, which is a great reason to travel alone!
Rolfe.
-
Yay me!
I decided to take the ferry, but I didn't book at once, because I needed to check I could get the extra 2 days holiday I needed to fit in with the sailing dates. Today I finally remembered to ask if that was OK, and was in fact given the whole week if I wanted it, making it a nice summer fortnight (though I'll still come home on the day originally planned).
Just about to go to bed, when I remembered the ferry booking and thought, well, I'd heard it tended to book up when the previous operator was runnning it, and although it's probably at the end of the school holidays you never know, so I'd better book. Went to the page which was still open in Firefox, and clicked on refresh.
£120.
How about that then?
I went right back to the beginning and went through the entire booking again, just to be sure, but it came up the same. £120.
OK, I could now have the bloody cabin as well for not much more than I'd originally bargained for the reclining seat berth, but it strikes me it might well be possible to pick up a cabin berth much cheaper on the boat. So I'll chance it.
My lucky day for sure. That's one helluva reduction. I can procrastinate at Olympic level, but that's the first time it saved me £288.
Rolfe.
And by the way, the booking choices for the cars state Golf GTi, whenever to 2008, and Golf GTI, 2009 on. So somebody else thinks the i used to be lower case.