Latest update 18:00 UK time.
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in brief:
Ferries: no delays reported.
Weather: Very warm to hot. Showers France.
Traffic: see @DriveEurope.
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News: no Italy traffic warning – Average fuel prices – Bozcaada ferry – Ikarus road trip – Navalny carted off – Ukraine PPP + roundup.
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Not a tunnel. Actually a motorway, the otherwise rather nice A4 – wide, smooth, flat, crisp white lines – between Amsterdam and Hook of Holland ferry port. It’s okay – if the worst happens you can make a run for it – but there are whole towns in the Netherlands below sea level. A receptionist at a hotel in Lelystad once said proudly that we were 15m (50 feet) under. We happily paid extra for a room on the top floor but even that would have been submerged.
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TRAVEL/WEATHER:
Meteoalarm weather risk alerts – Amber alerts for forest fire Latvia, Estonia and south Norway and for storms north west Italy and central Austria.
Weather in brief – ‘Very warm to hot summer’s day. Showers and scattered thunder across France. Heavy rain Finland/Baltic states/north Russia.’
Crossing the Channel: No operators currently reporting any delays.
Latest from @Port_of_Dover: ‘Here in Dover sea conditions in the Channel are slight with an East Nor Easterly breeze, force 5-6, and the visibility is good.’
Latest from Condor Ferries’ forecast: ‘The current forecast indicates slight sea conditions for the week ahead.’
See our Traffic/Travel/Weather page for the latest.
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NEWSLOG:
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Italy – authorities have not issued their traditional traffic warnings for the first weekend in August this year (from Saturday 4 August). We reported recently that traffic fell sharply in 2012 compared to 2011, the biggest drop in a succession since the start of the recession. Meanwhile, fuel is currently some of the most expensive in Europe.
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Fuel – a round up of average fuel prices around Europe yesterday from @ANWBeuropa, the twitter traffic service from the Dutch ANWB motoring association (Dutch only). All prices are per litre: “The diesel prices differ a little less in Europe than the prices for euro95. Outliers are Luxembourg, €1.20, and Italy €1.63. For euro95 on the motorway, in Belgium you pay €1.63, in Italy €1.74 and in the Netherlands, €1.79. The cheapest is in Luxembourg, €1.34, in Austria €1.40, Switzerland €1.46, France €1.54 and Germany €1.55.”
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‘Turkey is full of short hop ferry crossings – this from the mainland to the island of Bozcaada,’ tweets @LeighTurnerFCO this afternoon.
Turkey – Bozcaada is just a few miles off the west coast, close to the entrance to the Dardanelles Strait, at the top of the Aegean. Boats leave 7-8 times a day in the summer, taking about 30 minutes. The local economy is based on fishing, wine and, of course, tourism. Some official buildings are the only buildings in the world to be powered by hydrogen fuel cells. The hope is that soon Bozcaada will be open to ferries from the Greek islands or even the mainland. Mr Turner has been visiting the war memorials around Gallipoli, on the other side of the Dardanelles, ahead of the WW1 centenary later this year.
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Is it a plane? No, it’s a microlight.
Support vehicle – DriveEurope does not normally have anything to do with aeroplanes (boring, scary) but we’re prepared to make an exception for the ‘Flight of Ikarus’ attempt at the world microlight altitude record, because: in order to get all their stuff to Crete they need a car. Driving the car will be the grousy @DalaiPalmer, aka Don Palmer, ace ice and racing driving instructor. The route is quite interesting. Because microlights aren’t allowed to fly over Switzerland, after crossing France they’ll detour through southern Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece. Of course they need to raise money, but they are currently lacking just £150 out of the final £2,000 they need. All donations come with a ‘perk’, from a name check (£5) to free dinner at Centrepoint (£450). The £1,000 perk – a go with Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson in a flight simulator – is already taken. To see the pre-flight movie, or for more information, see here.
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Kirov, Russia. Anti-corruption blogger Aleksei Navalny has been convicted of – guess what – corruption. Navalny was sentenced to five years prison and taken into custody straight from court (above) this morning. The verdict comes a day after he was formally accepted as candidate in the upcoming elections for Moscow Mayor. If his appeal is denied he will be barred from political office for life (subsequently he has withdrawn and asked his supporters to boycott the vote). We reported last week how a petition started by Navalny to prevent officials owning cars worth more than $45,500 gained widespread support. According to a survey today a narrow majority of Muscovites believe the charges against Navalny to be trumped up. The city is bracing itself for large scale protests tonight. Red Square was closed this afternoon for ’emergency road works’. Picture via @YuliaSkyNews.
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Ukraine – the govt has selected the PPP (Private-Public-Partnership) model to finance a new leg of the Kiev ring road says an official announcement. It will be the first PPP in Ukraine and a pilot for future road projects, established under ‘best European practices’. The new link will be a continuation of the western semi-ring road (itself to undergo some re-surfacing) between the P-01 Stolychne Highway in the south, across the Dniper River to the M-03 Kyiv-Kharkiv-Dovzhansky road in the south east of Kiev at Boryspil.
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roundup:
Spain is finalising a proposal to double drink driving fines to €1,000 for anybody caught between 0.5-0.6g/l. Above that level is a criminal offence, liable for disqualification and/or a prison term… drivers in Latvia are being warned to watch out for agricultural vehicles on the roads – day and night – for the next six weeks of harvest… the final two road blocks erected by ethnic-Serbs in north Kosovo could soon by removed says PM Thaci, the last step towards full freedom of movement in the emerging former-Yugoslav country. Serbia and Kosovo are in the process of ‘normalising’ relations, a deal brokered by the otherwise much maligned Baroness Ashton, the EU High Rep for Foreign Affairs… police Sofia will be on duty at the major roads in and out of capital Sofia until the end of August carrying out spot checks for DUIs, insurance, licences and – most relevant – motorway vignettes. The Bulgarian BAC limit is 0.5mg/l, compared to the UK’s 0.8g/l… Vladimir Putin’s plan to use a portion of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund to pay for several large infrastructure projects, including a new Moscow ring road, has run into opposition from the country’s Finance Ministry who want to use the money for pension reform. Brave.
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NOTES:
Turkey – after some time without protests the situation is unpredictable again. See latest FCO travel advice.
Bulgaria – anti-govt demonstrations becoming a permanent feature. The British Embassy says, ‘There is a small risk of violence. Avoid large gatherings in public spaces and follow local media and the advice of the local authorities.’ For the latest FCO travel advice click here. For Bulgarian news in English see www.Novinite.com or @novinite_com on Twitter.
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