Jaunts to boil Micky’s piss...
“How do I get there, mate? I want D roads, no motorways. Leaving tomorrow morning. Can’t wait....”
Easy, you ask ViaMichelin for, let’s say, Calais to Clervaux to Adenau, excluding motorways and toll roads...
Then you ask Kurviger the same question, which will give you a different variation, just like asking bods here...
Then you ask Google maps....
Which will give you you another tweak on the same theme.
You then look at all three (and preferably at a paper map) and then you ask your six mates what they think, observing that there are just about only so many limited number of ways to go 300 odd miles from Calais, to Clervaux, to Adenau, unless that is you have been told that you really shouldn’t miss the ‘Must do’ viaduct at Millau. 300 miles, avoiding motorways, that is what you would have asked some fellow on UKGSer for, to create YOUR holiday. For that fellow to do it even vaguely properly (and probably satisfy the things to do, places to stay (biker friendly) things to see and cafes for brew demand) would take them some time. That assumes there is even time to gawp at things along the way, if they are to go 300 miles down D roads in a day, starting at half eleven and finishing around three thirty.
Then you might look at the routes that the three pieces of software spat out, seeing that the first stretch from Calais to roughly Mons / Charleroi is pretty congested and full of motorways. You can see the A25 / A23 motorway, running near enough parallel to the magenta suggested line of the Michelin route. You’d maybe ditch your self-inflicted ‘No motorways, they’re feckin’ dull’ persona and do the sensible thing to jump on them. Why? The locals spent billions of pounds building them for a reason. Without them it’s maybe a grind. Use them or maybe grind; it’s your choice. If it’s two hours quicker, you’ll be into the Ardennes and Eifel two hours earlier, not forgetting you have 300 miles to do, in a day.
.....and BINGO! you have created your own holiday, doing exactly what you want to do. All this without moving from your chair. You’ll not be doing much for the next couple of months or so, so why not give it a go? The internet, UKGSer and software really has made it that easy; there is nowhere you can’t go, using the same simple methods. Remember that when you ask for 900 miles, avoiding motorways, from Calais to the Mediterranean.
PS The really lazy or unimaginative could maybe just take the Google map route and (with a bit of some software or other) get it into MyRoute and straight into their GPS device. They could do the same from Kurviger. Android users could just fire up Kurviger and use their phone, ‘cos Garmin is shite and a feckin’ rip-off.