Travel from London to Hamburg

I was reading in TIFF about the travel problems many of our London Fulham faithful are having to get to Hamburg for Thursday's big match.

One of the options listed was: "By road but it is a 600-mile drive from London to Hamburg via Eurotunnel. That could take at least 12 hours from London."

I think in the US, a 12-hour drive I think is considered by many to be a long trip but not that big of a deal. I know many people who go to Florida from DC who drive it rather than fly, and certainly on holidays, the roads are full of people driving long distances to Grandma's house. I'm guessing that given a similar situation with flights canceled, the first thought of many of us in the States would be to load up the car and take off.

I'm not criticizing our European brethren, but I'm just trying to understand--driving it seems like a relatively simple solution, so why does it seem to be a big deal? Is it s cultural thing, or something to do with the roads, or something else?

 

Its all relative, even here in the USA. A drive that a person living in the northeastern US considers "long" might be no big deal for a person living out west.

In the mid 1980s, I moved to Calgary, Alberta (Western Canada). At the time, there was a big World Exposition being held in Vancouver. I commented to my co-workers that I was thinking about flying to Vancouver for a weekend to check out the "Expo." Their reaction was "why would you fly to Vancouver...its only a 14-hour drive." For folks in Western Canada, a 14-hour drive was no big deal.

 

Well, I would think it's only the length of the journey.. assuming they're talking about time on a Coach.

I recall the ride from London to York City in '80. Told it was going to take a little over three hours, I wasnt looking forward to that at all... but thinking in terms of driving from almost one end of the country to almost the other end, put it in a whole different aspect. Trip went quickly.

 

I might be wrong but I don't think you can just show up and drive through the chunnel like a normal road, its strictly a rail link. You can take your car with you, but you have to book ahead and they shuttle you and your car across like a car ferry concept. They're probably all booked up for quite some time now.

 

Spencer you are right. It is basically an underground ferry. Given the travel chaos going on over here, may be very unlikely/impossible to get a spot thru the chunnel. I ve only taken my car over to Europe via the over water route. Again, most of those are jammed up now and that way can add a couple of hours to the trip. Air traffic is supposed to open up in the northern uk tomorrow but it obviously will take a few days to work thru the back log. There are plenty of people at my work that are still stuck here since last week trying to get back to the states. Going to have a brew with one of them tonight to watch to footy.


Not quite as easy as say in houston getting on I 10 and cruising 750 miles to El Paso.

On the plus side, enjoying my barbeque without the ubiquitous flights roaring over head that normally pass over leaving heathrow.

 

Easy! I made that drive and it was anything BUT 'Easy'.

Oh... wait.. 4 kids under 12, wife still flustered from driving them Ohio to Houston and arriving in rush hour, and locking keys in trunk on the way.
:shock:

Never mind. Whole differnt thang!

 

I say both cultural and how the roads are designed -- just look at the differences in this nation.

Americans love their cars and driving and highways and blah blah blah we all know about that side.

But while growing up in Massachusetts, driving an hour in any direction was just awful because you would have to get on 3 different highways that go in different directions just to go east to Boston. That's because roads are just paved over cattle paths, and one highway has to go through 50 towns and each town had their own say about where it went and such.

Here in Maryland, as you may be aware, it's not as bad as roads were designed to be that: roads. But there are still certain elements of dread and length depending on where I am going.

The further out west you go, the more linear the roads and towns are. Sure, there is still plenty of sprawl but going from point A to point B is doing just that -- not having to get on point A.1 then A.5 then B.2 , etc etc. But as a result driving 500 miles or 12 hours or whatever is not as excruciating as it is on the East Coast or Europe.

Oh, and tolls suck too.