Author Archives: driveeuropenews

Art: Aston + Mobster – Italy fuel tax

Last updated 18:00 GMT.

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Channel delays: Due to poor weather, today’s Brittany Ferries’ 17:30 arrival in Santander from Portsmouth  is now expected at around 19:30 Spanish time.

Weather alerts: Amber alerts high winds north east Spain, heavy rain Austria/Hungary/Slovenia and storms Italy and Sardinia.

Weather: Stormy Mediterranean, unsettled, cold across Europe. Improving across Spain.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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Sir Stirling and Lady Moss in the DBR1, Nurburgring. Artist James Hart Dyke spent a year with Aston Martin, at the factory, Le Mans, the Nurburgring 24 Hours and other Centenary events. The results are on display at the company’s Park Lane showroom until 29 November (apart from tomorrow). The originals are available to buy, at prices ranging from £1-10,000, though there are also some limited edition prints for sale. See www.JamesHartDyke.com for more.

Sir Stirling and Lady Moss in the DBR1, Nurburgring. Artist James Hart Dyke spent a year with Aston Martin, at the factory, Le Mans, the Nurburgring 24 Hours and other Centenary events. The results are on display at the company’s Park Lane showroom until 29 November (apart from tomorrow). The originals are available to buy, at prices ranging from £1-10,000, though there are also some limited edition prints for sale. See www.JamesHartDyke.com for more.

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ITALY. Ahead of a Cabinet debate on new taxes, a senior politician has reassured reporters that increased fuel duty is not on the agenda. AGI quotes Cabinet Under Secretary Giovanni Legnini saying, ‘that would be the last thing Italy needed.’ Fuel in Italy has crept to historic highs in recent years and is among the most expensive in Europe. The average price of a litre of unleaded 95 is currently €1.758 and diesel €1.679 according to FPE. RUSSIA. Armed fake traffic cops stole a reported $2m from a BMW they hijacked in Moscow late Thursday night. The driver initially only complained about the car’s theft. Over 100,000 vehicles are stolen in the city each year says RIA Novosti.

update Italy: AGI says a rise in fuel excise duty is planned for 2017-18.

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Photographs of elaborate gravestones, with engravings of entire generations of apparently mobster families and their possessions – particularly cars – are on display at the Saatchi Gallery in London until 16 March 2014. All taken at cemeteries in Yekaterinberg (Russia) and Dnepropetrovsk (Ukraine) by Russian artist Denis Tarasov, part of the Body Language exhibition. Certainly striking as so many of them are young. You can only imagine how they met their ends. They might be kitsch to western eyes but there’s nothing sentimental or tragic about these memorials. What is Tarasov saying about these clearly closely related societies, particularly as Ukraine at least looks to Europe? Certainly got us thinking. For more see www.saatchigallery.com

Photographs of elaborate gravestones, with engravings of entire generations of apparently mobster families and their possessions – particularly cars – are on display at the Saatchi Gallery in London until 16 March 2014. All taken at cemeteries in Yekaterinberg (Russia) and Dnepropetrovsk (Ukraine) by Russian artist Denis Tarasov, part of the Body Language exhibition. Certainly striking as so many of them are young. You can only imagine how they met their ends. They might be kitsch to western eyes but there’s nothing sentimental or tragic about these memorials. What is Tarasov saying about these clearly closely related societies, particularly as Ukraine at least looks to Europe? Certainly got us thinking. For more see www.saatchigallery.com

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Vignette vote too close to call

The long running controversy over a proposed 150% rise in the cost of Switzerland’s motorway vignette comes to a head in a referendum this Sunday. 

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Switzerland: the A2 southbound at Lake Lucerne. A great view, but is it worth 100CHF?

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This Sunday (24 November) citizens vote on the government’s proposal to raise the price of the motorway vignette from 40CHF to 100CHF (£27-£68) from 2016.

Under Switzerland’s system of Direct Democracy, up to four times a year initiatives can be put to a popular vote if the opposition collects 50,000 signatures within 100 days.

The campaign against the vignette price rise – and plan for a two month tourist vignette costing 40CHF – collected well over 100,000 signatures.

The latest opinion polls have the two sides fairly evenly matched though momentum is with those against.

GFS Research in Bern says 50% are for the rise – down three percentage points on the previous poll – while 46% of voters are against, up five percentage points. Four percent are undecided, down two percentage points.

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Campaigners against have been vocal in their opposition.

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Switzerland’s vignette – a sticker attached to the inside of the windscreen allowing drivers to use the motorways – was introduced in 1985. The price was increased to 40CHF in 1995 and has remained at this level ever since.

Government says it needs to raise money to pay for improvements to the network, especially as responsibility for an extra 383km of roads is due to pass from the regional to the national network.

Opposition call the 100CHF vignette a ‘rip-off’ and say small businesses with vehicle fleets will be hit disproportionately hard. They also object to tourists paying a reduced fee even though, pro rata, foreign drivers will pay more.

If the law fails to pass there have been dark rumours that fuel will increase by up to 9c per litre.

The first results should start to come in on Sunday lunchtime (update: see what happened here).

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Chicken Kiev

Last updated 20:00 GMT.

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Channel delays: Brittany Ferries Portsmouth-Santander delayed by bad weather, check-in from 19:00. Bilbao-Portsmouth delayed until 17:30.

Weather alerts: Amber alerts heavy snow south east France and west Switzerland, high winds north east Spain, heavy rain Austria, high winds and heavy rain Croatia and storms southern Italy and Sardinia.

Weather: Heavy snow Alps and high ground France. Heavy rain, strong winds Mediterranean.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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Chicken Kiev: nine years to the day since the start of the Orange Revolution, protestors were again out in the streets of the Ukraine capital last night though in the hundreds rather than the thousands. The government announced yesterday it will not sign the Association Agreement with the EU at next week’s Vilnius Summit. Precisely why it ducked out at the last minute is unclear, one commentator said the Russian stick was bigger than the EU carrot. The dream of driving in Ukraine, with fully comprehensive European insurance, recedes but don’t give up yet: a week is a long time in geopolitics. Pic via @UKroblogger.

Chicken Kiev: nine years to the day since the start of the Orange Revolution, protestors were again out in the streets of the Ukraine capital last night though in the hundreds rather than the thousands. The government announced yesterday it will not sign the Association Agreement with the EU at next week’s Vilnius Summit. Precisely why it ducked out at the last minute is unclear, one commentator said the Russian stick was bigger than the EU carrot. The dream of driving in Ukraine, with fully comprehensive European insurance, recedes but don’t give up yet: a week is a long time in geopolitics. Pic via @UKroblogger.

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roundup: ITALY. A lawyer caught running a red light in Turin has reported the local mayor for ‘usury’, unethically adding interest, after the unpaid fine nearly doubled to €323. We can see this one going all the way. BELARUS. A new website shows real time weather conditions via webcam on the major road network. Also, €1m of EU funds has helped pay for next gen. radiation detectors at border crossing points with Poland and Lithuania. Around 10m vehicles cross the border each year. So far this year four vehicles were denied entry due to ‘unacceptably high’ levels of radiation with another 150 subject to detail checks. ROMANIA. Perhaps surprisingly, the first European country to implement eCall is Romania. The system automatically alerts emergency services in the event of an accident, including location and technical details of the vehicles involved. Local operator Special Telecommunications Service (STS) has been demonstrating the system to 18 other EU countries at a conference in Bucharest this week. eCall transponders are likely to be mandatory in all cars sold in the EU plus Norway and Switzerland by 2015.

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GT3 Baku

Last updated 18:15 GMT.

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Channel delays: Brittany Ferries Santander-Portsmouth delayed 3h00 by bad weather. ETA 20:15. Departure Portsmouth-St Malo also delayed, latest check-in 22:00.

Weather alerts: Amber alerts heavy snow south east France and north Spain. Storms Greece, heavy rain Montenegro.

Weather: Heavy snow. Cold across Europe. Showery, windy in the Mediterranean.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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FRANCE. A fireman on his way to work was killed this morning after a collision with a truck taking part in today’s Blockade of Paris. Six others were injured in a separate accident involving a protestor’s vehicle. The demonstration, affecting major routes particularly to the west of the city, was over rising taxes, including the truck toll Ecotax. Traffic was not seriously disrupted apart from some localised queues. Government ministers called for the Blockade to be lifted after the incidents. Vehicles dispersed late morning.

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GT3 Baku:

GT3 Baku: the FIA GT Series season finale races around the streets of Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, this weekend. The title is still up for grabs but, either way, will be won by an Audi R8 LMS Ultra driver: Frank Stippler and Stephane Ortelli are separated by just six points. The boomerang shaped course along the coast is described as fast and technical (‘very, very fast’ said a tweet from the organisers as they arrived last night) with some kinks but few chicanes. Sebastian Loeb will race a McLaren MP4 GT3, as will rising star, F1-bound, Stoffel Van Doorne. The action is live on Youtube, see www.FiaGTseries.com for more.

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ITALY. Keep motorway toll receipts for ten years says @newsfromitaly after a reader was fined for a violation in 2010 and didn’t have the receipt to show it had been paid. Similarly, keep your Hungarian vignette for two years. IRELAND. Rural 80kmh speed limit signs will be taken down and replaced with a black circle and diagonal line. The speed limit has not been lowered but authorities say the new sign indicates to motorists to use their own judgement. ROMANIA. Clearing roads of snow cost €1,500 per kilometre last winter according to official figures out today. Is that a lot? BRUSSELS RING ROAD. The EU, via its TEN-T transport agency, will pay €1m for new studies to improve traffic flow and safety on one of Europe’s blackest traffic hotspots, the R0 Brussels Ring Road. The idea is to separate local and transit traffic but without building new road space. We reported last month new plans to overhaul R0 (including actually adding an extra lane..).

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Introducing F-TYPE coupe + Macan

Last updated 19:30 GMT.

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Channel delays: P&O Calais-Dover 19h55 departing 20h20.

Weather alerts: Amber alert snow southern Belgium and eastern France. Storms Sardinia, south Italy, Montenegro and Serbia.

Weather: Colder across Europe, rain and snow. Unsettled and windy in the Mediterranean.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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Jaguar F-TYPE: launched overnight in Los Angeles, the new coupe addresses at least two of the criticisms of its convertible stablemate: price and boot space. The starting price is in fact £51,235 (not €67,000 as we reported last night). The boot is 407 litres, accessed by a liftback tailgate and 'easily accommodating two sets of golf clubs'. There's no word yet on how much it weighs.

Jaguar F-TYPE: launched overnight in Los Angeles, the new coupe addresses at least two of the criticisms of its convertible stablemate: price and boot space. The starting price is in fact £51,235 (not €67,000 as we reported last night). The boot is 407 litres, accessed by a liftback tailgate and ‘easily accommodating two sets of golf clubs’. There’s no word yet on how much it weighs.

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Porsche Macan: the new midsize SUV is priced to overlap with the upper reaches of the Range Rover Evoque range.

Porsche Macan: the new midsize SUV is priced to overlap with the upper reaches of the Range Rover Evoque range. Starting at £43,300 for both the 335bhp, twin-turbo 3.0 litre V6 Macan S and 254bhp, 3.0 litre V6 turbodiesel Macan Diesel S. The range topper so far is the 394bhp, 3.6 litre V6 Macan Turbo. It costs £59,300. All have double clutch PDK transmission as standard. The first UK cars are due in April.

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Transfagarasan almost in reach – Mini v 911

Last updated 20:00 GMT.

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Channel delays: 35mins delay 19h55 P&O Calais-Dover, departs 20:30. LD Lines Portsmouth-Le Havre arrives 06:30 tomorrow.

Weather alerts: Red alert for high winds Serbia. Amber alerts for heavy rain/storms across south from north Spain, north and south Italy/Sardinia, Croatia and Montenegro.

Weather: Rain in the south, unsettled through the Mediterranean. Alpine snow.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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Romania Roads Restart: Transfagarasan almost in reach.

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There’s an encouraging resurgence in Romania’s road building programme.

Construction starts again this week on a bridge over the Dambovita River in east Bucharest. Meanwhile, the redeveloped Uranus Boulevard through the city centre is on course to open before Christmas.

Both will help ease the capital’s chronic traffic problems but it’s out in the sticks where the really important work is being done.

New contractors have finally been appointed to finish the A1 between the Hungarian border at Nadlac and Arad. The section Arad-Pecica is already 85% complete. Pecica-Nadlac is just 20% finished but the ground work is done and the terrain is easy.

This section of the A1 is only 25 miles long but when it’s finished Romanian cities will be linked to the European motorway network for the first time (well, as soon as the Hungarians have filled in the last 16 mile gap in the M43 between Szeged and the Romanian border, currently under construction).

There will still be some gaps to Transfagarasan. The black sections on the map above currently have no building. The blue section between Lugoj and Deva has sections opening seemingly at random. When we drove this road earlier this year there was a man at the side of the road directing traffic onto a stretch opened that day, seemingly to the surprise of everybody.

What it does mean is that of the 1,300 miles between Calais and Jeremy Clarkson’s ‘World’s Best Road’, only 100 miles will not be on motorway. Believe us, that will make all the difference.

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Random:

Interbrand love-in: Mini congratulates 911 on its fiftieth anniversary, dug up from the BMW picture archive. Have never, ever heard of one brand sincerely congratulating another on its enduring success. Note the original Mini was exactly the same height as the first 911. Amid controversy over the enlarged proportions of the third generation modern Mini launched yesterday – and similar growth in the 911 over the years – would be interesting to compare the two today.

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Ion Tiriac’s classic car collection – Drive-by Santa

Last updated 21:00 GMT.

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Channel delays: none reported currently.

Weather alerts: Amber alert heavy rain/flooding south central France/north east Spain + storms south Italy.

Weather: Settled mostly. Gales, heavy rain Mediterranean.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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Former tennis player Ion Tiriac, now owner of the biggest chain of car dealerships in Romania, and one of the country’s richest men, puts part of his 250 strong classic car collection on show in Bucharest from 29 November. Probably the most valuable is this 1952 Rolls-Royce Phantom IV, built originally for the Aga Khan on the understanding it wouldn’t ever be sold (just 18 Phantom IVs were built, all for heads of state or royalty). Eventually however it ended up ferry hotel guests to and from the airport in Missouri, USA. Its later years have been much happier. Tiriac bought the car at a Pebble Beach auction in 2011 after which it went on display at the BMW Museum in Munich to mark ten years of Rolls-Royce under BMW ownership (above). Sixty five of Tiriac’s cars will be on show at any one time, rotated every three months, at a showroom in Otopeni, just north of Bucharest. Other famous marques include Bentley, Mercedes, Morgan and Ferrari. The oldest dates from 1899. More details to follow.

Former tennis player Ion Tiriac, now owner of the biggest chain of car dealerships in Romania, and one of the country’s richest men, puts part of his 250 strong classic car collection on show in Bucharest from 29 November. Probably the most valuable is this 1952 Rolls-Royce Phantom IV, built originally for the Aga Khan on the understanding it wouldn’t ever be sold (just 18 Phantom IVs were built, all for heads of state or royalty). Eventually however it ended up ferry hotel guests to and from the airport in Missouri, USA. Its later years have been much happier. Tiriac bought the car at a Pebble Beach auction in 2011 after which it went on display at the BMW Museum in Munich to mark ten years of Rolls-Royce under BMW ownership (above). Sixty five of Tiriac’s cars will be on show at any one time, rotated every three months, at a showroom in Otopeni, just north of Bucharest. Other famous marques include Bentley, Mercedes, Morgan and Ferrari. The oldest dates from 1899. More details to follow.

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FERRIES. Thanet Council is struggling even to engage consultants to help find a new operator to replace Ramsgate-Ostend Transeuropa Ferries. It received three expressions of interest in its ‘no win-no fee’ deal but no firm offers says to a report. The terms will have to be improved says a councillor. TURKEY. Sky high fuel prices – €1.752/l for unleaded 95 today, €1.621 for diesel according to FPE – have seen LPG use double in the past five years. Over 4m of the 9m cars on the roads are now LPG powered. Even so, it’s expensive by European standards at €0.909/l compared to the UK’s €0842. BOSNIA. A new 72km tolled highway running east-west between Banja Luka and Doboj will be funded by a €160m loan from the European Investment Bank. The new road links to the upcoming Budapest-Adriatic Corridor 5c at Doboj, and with the existing E661 between Banja Luka and the Gradiska international border crossing with Croatia.

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Rather than wait for the postman – or, indeed, Santa – Selfridges customers can now pick up their online purchases themselves. The world’s first ‘Fashion and Retail Drive Through’ has just opened, at the back of the Oxford Street store. You don’t even need to get out of the car.

Gimme that stat. Rather than wait for the postman – or, indeed, Santa – Selfridges customers can now pick up their online purchases themselves. It’s the world’s first ‘Fashion and Retail Drive Through’, at the back of the Oxford Street store. You don’t even need to get out of the car. See www.selfridges.com for more.

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Why Bruges is Best this Christmas

Take advantage of ultra-cheap cross Channel day returns for an extra special Christmassy day out in Belgium’s most beautiful city.

Bruges is an easy daytrip, the parking is cheap and convenient, and you don’t need winter tyres.

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Christmas in Bruges.

The city centre Christmas ice rink, Bruges.

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This was no time for lactose intolerance. The mug of hot chocolate, served in a disposable toby jug, first sipped then glugged, was made entirely out of cream.

Okay it cost €3.50 but worked as both lunch and desert combined so wasn’t actually bad value.

Kids slithered and shouted their way around the ice rink in the centre of Markt – right in the centre of town – while their parents stood around in clumps blowing steam clouds and chatting. The smell of roasting nuts wafted over the crowd while the band played umpah versions of the Christmas classics.

UNESCO World Heritage Site Bruges – known as Belgium’s most beautiful city – lives up to that, even under cold grey skies. Markt is lined with immaculately preserved historic buildings in the ‘Dutch style’. Bruges – or Brugge – is in Flanders, the Dutch speaking part of northern Belgium. The whole city centre in fact – laid out around a network of canals – is in tip top condition.

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Markt

Bruges from the Belfry: historic, well preserved and flat.

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Probably on a sugar rush we dived into the stalls and emerged a while later with a set of sparkly reindeer with glitterball eyes to hang off the tree, bushels of neon tinsel and some outrageously rude wrapping paper.

Away from the main square, the cobbled side streets are full of quirky little shops – antiques, art galleries, woollens, crystal – for presents that will last out the season.

Amazingly we’d arrived in Bruges exactly one hour after leaving the boat at Dunkirk. It’s only 48 miles away (72 miles from Calais) every inch on motorway or dual carriageway. The city centre – Centrum – and parking is signed directly off the ring road. It couldn’t be easier.

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Cannals

Bruges: built on a network of canals.

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Almost best of all, we paid €1.20 to park for two hours. The maximum rate is €8.70 for 24 hours. All-day next to the central station is €3.50. The Park & ‘Ride’ sites are free. All are within walking distance of the city centre.

Bruges is a lovely place to stroll around, not least because it’s flat. ‘Winter Walk’ guided tours are available until 30 December to take in all the major sights costing €9 for adults, free for under 12s.

P&O Dover-Calais is currently advertising day trips for £25 (plus six free bottles of wine). Eurotunnel’s midweek half price special offer comes in at £23 until 12 December. MyFerryLink Dover-Calais day returns start at £29. DFDS Dover – Calais or Dunkirk is £29 until 13 December.

The Dunkirk boat is best for Bruges. It takes 30mins longer than Dover-Calais, costs the same, but drops you 25 miles further up the road. Like Calais, Dunkirk has plenty of hypermarkets where you can bulk up on Christmas basics.

Rest assured, while snow and ice mean you must have winter tyres to visits the – equally great – Christmas markets in Luxembourg and Germany, no such rules apply in Belgium.

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For more information, see the official Bruges website or @Visit_Bruges.

All special offers were correct at the time of publication.

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Rolls-Royce Alpine Rally wins top prize

Last updated 17:40 GMT.

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Channel delays: 30mins delay Eurotunnel passenger France, earlier disruption.

Weather alerts: Amber alert heavy rain/flooding south central France, now heavy rain north east Spain.

Weather: Windy wet Mediterranean. Cold but mainly dry otherwise.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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Rolls-Royce Alpine Rally wins top prize.

The Loibl Pass, Slovenia, one of many spectacular roads tackled on the 20 Ghost . Picture courtesy of Roll-sRoyce Motor Cars limited.

The Loibl Pass, Slovenia, one of many spectacular roads tackled on the 20 Ghost Club Centenary Alpine Trial this summer. Picture courtesy of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Limited.

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Not surprisingly, the Rolls-Royce 20 Ghost Club Centenary Alpine Trial won Best Rally of the Year at the International Historic Motoring Awards this week.

A recreation of the 1913 Alpinefahrt, 47 vintage Rolls-Royce Silver Ghosts left Vienna on 14 June for two weeks and 1,800 miles driving through the Alps, including some roads – like the 28.5% Loibl Pass in Slovenia, above – not normally open to the public.

The Rally’s return to Vienna on 29 June marked 100 years exactly since James Radley’s victory in the 1913 race, after which Rolls-Royce gained the reputation for building ‘the Best Car in the World’.

Having driven some of these roads ourselves, we cobbled together a feature on the information available beforehand, The Rolls-Royce Route through the Alps. It turned out to be inaccurate in some respects, especially in the latter stages, but basically describes the enormous loop the cars drove south west of Vienna via Innsbruck, the Dolomites in northern Italy, Slovenia and Croatia.

Or, read the official tour diary. The photographs are amazing.

Other European nominees in the Rally Awards included the Peking-Paris Rally, London to Lisbon, the Ypres-Cortina Pirelli Classic Marathon and the Lamborghini 50 Year Anniversary Tour.

Radley’s 1913 winning car and its modern day Ghost counterpart will star in a special ‘Night of the White Gloves’ event at the BMW Museum in Munich on Friday 22 November 2013. Visitors will be given a pair of gloves and invited to explore the cars close up. Both cars will be on display until the New Year.

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BMW i3 hits the road – Lysevegen Road – Naughty Jeremy

Last updated 19:10 BST.

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Channel delays: none reported currently.

Weather alerts: Red alert high winds north and central Norway and amber for most of the rest of the country, and Sweden and Finland. Amber alert high winds and heavy rain southern Italy and Montenegro.

Weather: Dry central Europe but windy in the north and rain across the south.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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First BMW i3s hit the road.

Early adopters. The first BMW i3 electric cars hit the road today. The company held a special event at its Munich headquarters last night (above) where six customers got their keys a day ahead of everybody else. BMW is bullishly confident the i3 will turn out to be a huge success. Executives were considering increasing the first year’s production run of 8,000 cars because demand has been so strong. Auto Express reported yesterday that 200 i3s are so far heading for the UK, half of them the range extender version with a small petrol engine to supplement the electric motor. Pic via @Sycamore_BMWi Peterborough.

Early adopters. The first BMW i3 electric cars hit the road today. The company held a special event at its Munich headquarters last night (above) where six customers got their keys a day ahead of everybody else. BMW is bullishly confident the i3 will turn out to be a huge success. Executives were considering increasing the first year’s production run of 8,000 cars because demand has been so strong. Of those, 200 are coming to the UK reported Auto Express yesterday, half of them the range extender version with a small petrol engine to supplement the electric motor. Pic via @Sycamore_BMWi Peterborough. Update: AutoNewsEurope reports on 18 November that BMW has received 100,000 requests for i3 test drives.

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Late news: Naughty Jeremy.

Jeremy Clarkson's column, The Sun, 19 October 2013. Driving licences are returned via the British Embassy in Paris and the DVLA. Tip via WhiteVanWoman at www.FinalGear.com

Jeremy Clarkson’s column, The Sun, 19 October 2013. FYI: Driving licences are returned via the British Embassy in Paris and the DVLA. Tip via WhiteVanWoman at www.FinalGear.com.

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Random road: Lysevegen, Norway.

The Lysevegen Road: rising 640m in twenty seven hairpin bends, and a 1,500m tunnel,

NORWAY: rising 640m in twenty seven hairpin bends, and a 1,100m tunnel, the Fv500 Lysevegen Road was opened in 1984 as works access during the building of the Tjodan hydroelectric dam. Before that, residents of Lysebotn village at the bottom could only reach the outside world via boat. Even then the road is only open from May-October/November depending on snow. We’ve just ‘driven’ Lysevegen on Google maps; happy to say, despite what it looks like from here, that there are barriers. It doesn’t look too bad, with a maximum gradient of ‘only’ 10%. Lysevegen is in the south west of Norway, near Stavanger, at the eastern end of Lysefjord, a 26 mile long fjord with vertical drops in parts of 3,000ft. At the opposite end is Priekestolen, Pulpit Rock, a popular vantage point atop a 600m sheer cliff. Pic via @PlanetEpics.

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