 Poster: A snowHead
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Hello,
Has anyone done the drive from Dunkirk to Oberstdorf (or close) and could give me a realistic travel time please? Two small kids so we will need to stop a couple of times for the sake of sanity. We should leave Dunkirk at 0500 this Sat (the joy of half term skiing awaits!) Taking the Belgium/Lux route. I have never had much luck with estimates from route planners.
Many thanks, and it seems that the snow dances may just have worked!
Mac
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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skimac, I drive regularly from Dunkirk to near Rosenheim in Bavaria if that helps? A wee bit further east than your goal but mostly the same route.
I use the southern Belgium route avoiding Brussels and the city of Luxembourg, although I use the motorways through Luxembourg and pick up as much cheap fuel as possible on the way through. This means using the toll-free section of the A25 in France as far as Lille and then crossing into Belgium. There are quite extensive long term roadworks around Brussels and NE side of Luxembourg city currently and I lost 2 hours in traffic there on my last trip home (thought I would test the route for a change and it was the middle of the day not rush hour!).
I then hit Germany near a town called Merzig in Saarland and use the A8 - then A6 to Mannheim. I let my sat-nav guide me with regard to traffic reports. As I am fluent in German and French, I can also pick up information from the local radios, but your sat-nav will produce the same reports.
From Mannheim I would tend to use the A6 to just past Heilbronn where I take the A81 to Stuttgart where I pick up the A8 again. However as you are going down to Oberstdorf, it would not matter if you stayed on the A6 until its junction with the A7. It would however add a fair few miles. This is the autobahn that takes you down to Kempton.
There may be quite a lot of traffic on the German roads this weekend as it seems that many countries are starting their half term holidays, however there are no German States starting their holidays, just some going home!
As for travel time - there are so many variables to take into account, but 10 to 12 hours with breaks is not unreasonable as the route is motorway all the way until just past Kempton. The last section could be slow depending on the volume of traffic and weather as it is mostly one lane in each direction, so about the standard of a British A-class road.
Does that help at all? There are plenty of service areas and general rest areas along the German autobahns. I make my first stop in Luxembourg where I fill up my car with as much of the cheap fuel I can squeeze in. Fuel prices in Germany are currently around 1.37 to 1.40 a litre for diesel, and anything upward of 1.45 for petrol (sorry i have a diesel and do not look at petrol prices as they look too scary to me!).
Sue 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Hello Sue,
Many thanks for this, looking at the tom tom it wants to take me close to Brussels so I appreciate the tip for Lille.
Skimac 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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€1.49/litre for 95 octane at some German autohof en route to Austria the other day. Add 5¢ for 98 and another 5¢ for posh 102 octane.
Think Harrison the Rabbit went sort of the same way that Samerberg Sue described. Must have been about 12 hours all in to Innsbruck?
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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skimac, I would strongly advise steering clear of the Dunkirk - Ostend- Brussels route because of all the roadworks and chaos around Brussels. The route down to Lille is easy and then Tom-Tom may still try and push you via Brussels. I use the route from Lille to Tournai, then on past mons and Charleroi and turn south towards Luxembourg near Namur.
I've done it so often now my sat-nav has given up trying to push me through Brussels. I have a Garmin Streetpilot C550.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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I'm off to mayrhofen tomorrow night using the same route as Sue describes. Hoping to beat as much traffic as possible by travelling through the night. We also done the same route last year to Soll, leaving Dunkirk at about 3 am and arrived into Soll at about 4 pm. We stopped for two hours kip at Luxembourg.
Sue, would it be best to reach mayrhofen via the worgl motororway or go via fussen and then over to rejoin the motorway west of Innsbruck?
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No roadworks as Brussels at Christmas. Wouldn't call it chaos, but if it's a busy time, the entire E40 from Gent-Brussels can be 80-90kph, and the only jam I've had was at Wetteren (excluding the one where the police coned off half the E40-Brussels ring to rescue an upside down car from between the barriers and a bridge).
daveqpr, if at night, I go via Kufstein. Never seen a jam at 10:30pm along that bit. In Daylight - I've never been along there without a jam (ditto for Sunday evening return).
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daveqpr, you are better off just heading down the A8 past Kufstein and on to Zillertal/Mayrhofen. Going via Füssen would mean going down the A7 to the Austrian border where the motorway stops! Getting from there to the Inntal-motorway west of Innsbruck is probably quite a treck ( I havn't done it yet though so not sure ). Getting past Insbruck can also be painful, depending on state of roadworks and time of day.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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daveqpr, play it by ear - if the A8 and the A93 (Rosenheim-Kufstein) is chocker, then go via Füssen. Otherwise use the A8 as it is a better road to be honest. The A93 was really bad last Saturday most of the day from about 10.00am onwards in the southbound direction.
If you drop over the Füssen route you may be stuck with the Tirol'S IG-L speed limit of 100km/h all the way to the Zillertal turn off.
andy, Andy I got caught up the last weekend of November and it was really bad coming up from Luxembourg and then around the NE. I let my sat-nav guide me and it did not pick up any of the jams. I was there mid-morning. you tend to drive later on I believe.
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Samerberg Sue, usually mid-afternoon for me at Brussels, and almost always 10pm-midnight between Munich & Austrian border.
On the way back, just take it as it comes, use the traffic thingy on the satnav, and the "U" diversion signs (aka usually taking the back road from Rosenheim to Munich Ring).
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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