Author Archives: driveeuropenews

German vignette likely – Unfortunate U turn

Last updated 10:30 BST.

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Channel delays: no delays reported currently. Note: bad weather is forecast Saturday-Sunday. Condor Ferries has brought some sailings forward and cancelled others.

Weather alerts: Amber alert north west Spain coast.

Weather: Cold, cloudy and wet. Unsettled Italy, fine Scandinavia. High 27, Nicosia.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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German vignette likely

Vignettenverkauf - Vignettes for sale

Vignettenverkauf – Vignettes for sale

A vignette allowing foreign registered cars to drive in Germany looks ever more likely.

The European Commission has now said such a system would not be discriminatory according to a report in newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung (and, in English, Deutsche Welle) thus removing one of the policies’ final stumbling blocks.

DriveEurope has contacted the Commission for comment but is yet to hear back.

The brainchild of Angela Merkel’s sister party in Bavaria – the CSU – the foreigner vignette was said to be a deal breaker in coalition negotiations following the recent general election. In its report on the on-going talks on 21 October, Der Spiegel said the vignette stood a ‘good chance’ of being approved.

An amount of €100 each year has been mentioned, payable by all drivers. German drivers would be compensated by lower vehicle taxes, similar to the upcoming daily charge being levied on hauliers in the UK, rebated to British companies via lower Vehicle Excise Duty.

Unexplained as yet is the effect the German vignette will have on the European Commission’s stated desire for a pan-European, pay-as-you-go road toll system. An announcement on the next steps had been expected in June, then postponed to September-October. We’re still waiting to hear.

update: despite several attempts to contact the Commission we never heard back. However, on 7 November Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas did send an interesting tweet: ‘User charging is the future for infrastructure funding. I welcome the public debate in DE [Germany] on usefulness of #PkwMaut.’ (PkwMaut is a toll for light vehicles). Alongside was a link to an article in Die Welt – in German – which seems to suggest the EU’s approval is not yet cut and dried. Mr Kallas is to meet with Bavaria’s CSU.

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Traffic on Jubilee Way, the flyover down to the roundabout outside Dover Docks was blocked for several hours ast night

The major A2 Jubilee Way flyover down to the roundabout at Dover Eastern Docks was blocked for hours last night. Eyewitness @Bradlorry tells us the driver tried to U-turn and ended up in the runaway truck pit. Bless him, that might have been his first five minutes on English soil. Bet he won’t do that again. Photo via @TruckblogUK/Kent_999s

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UKRAINE/RUSSIA. A queue of up to 100 trucks has built up at the Uspenka and Novoazovsk checkpoints in the Donetsk region since 28 October following new rules introduced by the Russian Federal Customs Service. Spookily similar situation with Lithuanian trucks earlier this month.

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The road to Dracula’s Castle

Terrifying in every way: Poenari Fortress and Transfagarasan, Romania.

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First sight, Transfagarasan

First sight, Transfagarasan

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They really did have some awful ways of doing away with each other in the Middle Ages.

Legendary even in his own life time for his brutality was Vlad Tepes, aka Vlad The Impaler, aka Count Dracula.

Impaling – basically shoving a stake up someone’s bum until it comes out of their mouth, leaving them hanging there, sometimes for days, until they died – seems almost benign compared to what happened to the bodies afterwards.

Thousands of stakes, bodies still attached, were arranged at strategic locations. At least one Ottoman army turned on its heels and fled after confronting a ‘forest of corpses’.

Really, Bram Stoker put a glossy spin on half of what really went on.

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Poenari Fortress.

The ruins of Poenari Fortress.

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Central Romania is littered with spooky castles all making a claim on the Dracula legacy. He moved around so much they might all be true but one place where Vlad definitely lived is the Poenari Fortress near Arefu.

It’s just off the DN7C Transfagarasan that runs north south between Sibiu and Pitesti, the dictator Ceausescu’s show road built in the 1970s and star of a famous Top Gear programme.

Actually it’s not in Transylvania but Wallachia, the mainly flat region of southern Romania that includes the foothills of the Fagaras Mountains, part of the Southern Carpathians.

Poenari lies in ruins now, not because of a battle but because a huge landslide in 1888 that swept half of the castle over the cliff and down into the Arges River 1,000 feet below.

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The 1,480 steps.

Some of the 1,480 steps.

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There’s a well signposted car park for the Fortress, just west of Transfagarasan on the southern approach though you have to climb 1,480 steps to get to the ruins themselves.

We didn’t stop because we wouldn’t have been able to start off again. We were scared out of our wits. Not because we were completely on our own, or because of the dense, dense forest that made the place deathly quiet even over the straining of the engine as we climbed higher and higher.

Not because of the sudden, fresh piles of rocks lying in the road, or the hundreds of rotting logs floating in Lake Vidraru nearby. Or the long cold dark tunnels with water dripping down from the rough hewn ceilings.

The thing we really couldn’t bear was that round every corner all we could see was the concrete road, cracked and flaking, forty years old, attached side-on to the mountainside, barely supported, and so narrow we knew we couldn’t turn around.

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A technical marvel in its day.

Transfagarasan: a technical marvel in its day.

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For more on our adventures in Romania click here.

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Romania fuel tax for new roads – more peeps for Thessaloniki – new Porsche

Last updated 21:45 BST.

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Channel delays: More adverse weather in the Channel. P&O Dover-Calais delayed by up to 60mins. DFDS Dover-Calais delayed by 45mins.

Note: more bad weather is forecast from Saturday afternoon until Sunday early hours. Condor Ferries has already brought some sailings forward and cancelled others.

Weather alerts: Yellow for high winds, fog and low temperatures Germany.

Weather: Settled and dry, mainly, but chilly. Fine across the south. Top temp 27, Nicosia.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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Romania: new fuel tax to pay for new roads.

Good news for West European hauliers.

Romania May 2013.

Giurgui, southern Romania May 2013. According to www.xe.com, 5.55RON for unleaded is €1.254 (£1.072). 5.63RON for diesel is €1.272 (£1.088). Pic via @DriveEurope.

With some of the lowest fuel prices in Europe, there is perhaps some leeway for the govt to raise fuel duty to pay for badly needed new roads.

According to www.fuel-prices-Europe.info, a litre of unleaded 95 in Romania currently costs €1.240. A litre of diesel is €1.298.

In a TV interview on Tuesday, prime minister Victor Ponta said, ‘This is an old idea, to introduce a tax on fuel that will only feed the funds we need for road building. It will not come into the state budget.’

With EU roads funds limited to €2.5bn for the period 2014-20, and even a core network of fast roads still to be built, new funds are desperately needed. An extra excise duty of 10c per litre was floated previously.

At the same time, there are plans to raise the price of the road vignette, possibly by 66%. It currently costs €3 per week.

Increasing transport costs in Romania will be seen as good news by Western European hauliers who have long complained about cheap fuel helping to undercut their business.

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First look Macan.

First undisguised pictures of the imminent Porsche Macan midi SUV published in Germany today.

First undisguised pictures of the imminent Porsche Macan midi SUV, published in Germany today. One surprising feature: it hasn’t got a panoramic sunroof. Photo via @ClubMulholland.

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roundup: SCOTLAND. The first serious call we’ve seen for road tolls north of the border – from think tank Reform Scotland – comes at the same time as another reminder that if the Scots do vote for independence and have to rejoin the EU on the same terms as every other country – i.e. including the borderless Schengen Zone – then there’ll be a physical border to cross. RUSSIA. Moscow traffic has been cut by 25% since the introduction of parking charges four months ago says the deputy mayor, admitting though there’s a long way to go before the city’s chronic congestion problem is solved. They need another half a million cars off the roads. It costs 50 RUB (£1) per hour to park within the central Boulevard Ring. FINLAND. Neither Heiki Kovalainen nor Valtteri Bottas look entirely comfortable in this strange video inviting Usain Bolt to take driving lessons in Finland this winter. Bolt told a Finnish TV interviewer after the World Championships in Moscow earlier this year he would appreciate some more lessons..

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Creeping pedestrianisation. Northern Greek city Thessaloniki unveiled plans today to ban cars from the promenade, Nikis Avenue.

Creeping pedestrianisation. Northern Greek city Thessaloniki unveiled plans today to ban cars from the promenade, Nikis Avenue, the first Sunday of every month. It’s a pilot scheme during the sales season with the possibility of being extended in the future. With a population density higher than Tokyo however, surely the last thing this rocking city needs is more people.

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Caught out by reg rules – Porsche Twofer – Black Sea gets closer – Bus in Bursa

Last updated 22:30 BST.

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Channel delays: none reported currently.

Weather alerts: Amber alert for fog Montenegro, Yellow for high winds Germany and storms Italy.

Weather: Settled, dry for most. Chilly. Fine across Balkans.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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Falling foul of car registration rules.

Natural habitat. Luxembourg registered cars: hard to miss. Pic via @DriveEurope.

Natural habitat. Luxembourg registered cars: hard to miss. Pic via @DriveEurope.

A driver has landed a large fine after falling foul of vehicle registration rules.

With most countries having at best obscure laws on the subject it’s easy to get caught out.

The man in question borrowed his girlfriend’s Luxembourg-registered car to pick up their child from nursery in Belgium. He was spotted by police and fined €850, on the spot.

The law requires that Belgian residents – of whatever nationality – cannot drive even an inch in Belgium in a foreign registered vehicle, with very few exceptions. Even company cars belonging to cross border workers are severely restricted.

All these rules are obviously designed to prevent fraud, whereby residents avoid registration fees and taxes – and licence fees, traffic fines and insurance checks – by using a vehicle from a different country.

The penalty in Belgium might be draconian – fail to pay in a month and the car is auctioned off – but spare a thought for even honest citizens going to live and work in Denmark. Within two weeks the car must be re-registered which incurs a whopping charge of 62% of its value (methodically assessed by the state, including all options).

If the car has done more than 6,000km and is over six months old however then the 25% VAT is not applicable.

The lesson is, check the rules, preferably before you decide to move. Keen as they are to collect this extra revenue, the details are normally available in English from the country’s main website. See Denmark’s rules here, and Belgium’s here.

Thanks to www.wort.lu/en for bringing this to our attention, the one, the only source of English language news in Luxembourg.

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Black Sea gets closer.

Serbia: The E80 Dimitrovgrad Bypass under construction near the Bulgarian border.

Serbia: The E80 Dimitrovgrad Bypass under construction near the Bulgarian border. Pic via www.koridor10.rs

SERBIA/BULGARIA. Traffic will be halted for two, two hour stretches today for blasting work on E80 Corridor 10 Project East between southern Serb city Nis and the Bulgarian border. From 9-11am and 2-4pm all traffic will be held at Ciflik near Pirot. Outside these times it’s one-way only. It’s good to hear work is ongoing: this mountainous section was hit particularly hard recently by the bankruptcy of Austrian constructor Alpine. Ultimately this 160km road will run between Belgrade and Sofia, the final link between western Europe and the Black Sea. The Serb section is due to open in 2015. Works are yet to be announced on the Bulgarian part, the so-called ‘Boulevard Bulgaria’ running through the north west of the country, Europe’s poorest region. Hopes are high it will be announced in an imminent ‘North West Plan’.

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TURKEY: after Hungary and Austria, the GREAT Britain Tour - which has bagged a claimed £600m in business so far - now takes to Turkey. Today's stop is Bursa, around 100km as the crow flies due south from Istanbul across the Sea of Marmara. Bursa is the fourth biggest city, pop. 1.7m, and an important industrial centre, especially cars production - Fiat, Renault and Bosch have factories here. On the north west slope of the 8,500ft Mount Uludag, next to a fertile plain, it's also a popular tourist destination, for skiing and hot springs.

TURKEY: after Hungary and Austria, the GREAT Britain Tour – which has bagged a claimed £600m in business so far – now takes to Turkey. Today’s stop is Bursa, around 100km as the crow flies due south of Istanbul across the Sea of Marmara. Bursa is the fourth biggest city, pop. 1.7m, and an important industrial centre, especially car production – Fiat, Renault and Bosch have factories here. On the north west slope of the 8,500ft Mount Uludag, next to a fertile plain, it’s also a popular tourist destination, for skiing and thermal springs. Next stop Izmir.

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Roundup: FRANCE. Law makers are considering making front windows that let less than 65% of light through illegal. Currently the rules are vague. UK regs say 75% light must pass through the windscreen and 70% through the front side windows. BULGARIA/ROMANIA. Concerns that three month’s moderate usage has exposed fundamental structural flaws in the New Europe Bridge at Calafat-Vidin are unfounded according to a report (see DriveEurope passim). The twenty defects found last month are now under repair. GIBRALTAR. Asked in parliament what action he had taken over threats to impose border crossing fees, Europe minister David Lidington said the UK govt will respond to actions not rhetoric according to GBC News. Also, car queues have peaked at around 60mins so far this week, half of last week’s delays. However, long pedestrian queues have now started to appear.

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So you've been to the Porsche Museum.

The 50 Years of the 911 exhibition at the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart has been extended until 9 November by popular demand. It therefore overlaps with 60 Years of Super Sportscars which starts this week. Highlights, above – never seen in public before – include the first privately bought 550 Spyder (by racing driver Kurt Ahrens in 1955 BTW), the legendary all rounder, 300 race winning 904 Carrera GTS, Herbert von Karajan’s unique lightweight bodied 911 Turbo RS – the one from his Famous Overtures album cover – a 959 S, yes S, 911 GT1 road car and the still startlingly modern, and ever more desirable, Carrera GT. Interestingly, the exhibition makes a particular feature of the 550’s flat four cylinder ‘Fuhrmann engine’ describing it as ‘one of the most successful Porsche engines of all time’. It’s a timely reminder, as four cylinder engines are about to reappear in the modern Porsche lineup in the shape of the imminent Macan medium SUV. The museum is open Tuesday-Sunday, admission €8/4, in Zuffenhausen, north west Stuttgart. Parking is underneath.

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Calm restored all round – Ecotax – Charging across borders

Last updated 19:30 BST.

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Channel delays: P&O Calais-Dover 23:35 delayed by 45mins.

Weather alerts: Amber alert for heavy rain west Austria and fog Montenegro.

Weather: Chilly, some sun. Dry Eastern Europe. Fine and dry in the south west.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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Brittany: Violent demonstrations on Saturday have seen truck toll system Ecotax 'suspended indefinitely'.

Brittany: Violent demonstrations on Saturday have seen truck toll system Ecotax ‘suspended indefinitely’. Photo via Twitter/@heoltom

Despite the charges being half as much as in the rest of the country, protestors in Brittany have managed to call a halt to the upcoming Ecotax electronic truck toll system.

Following violent clashes on Saturday, prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault announced this morning that the system had been ‘suspended indefinitely’.

Due to start in January, Ecotax filled in the gaps tolled network, applying to 15,000km of previously free motorways and main roads.

Brittany doesn’t have many railways hence the protestors argued that goods had no choice but to travel by road. The region’s agriculture industry has been hard hit in recent months with thousands of redundancies with many more jobs at risk with the higher transport costs.

The decision is a humiliating climb down for the government. Ecotax is the second new tax to be withdrawn this week and leaves a reported €800m gap in the country’s perilous finances.

For more see Ecotax, AFP, France24, thelocal.fr.

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Charging across borders.

Mutti fakes interest in the 'interchange everywhere' system at an earlier event in Berlin.

Mutti fakes interest in the ‘interchange everywhere’ system at an earlier event in Berlin.

Much has been made of the 360 degree web-based lifestyle package that comes with BMW’s new i3 electric car. Today in Copenhagen the company demonstrated the new eRoaming system. Users can pay for electricity charging points anywhere on the Continent from a single account – via the accompanying app – as long as the station is connected to the Hubject ‘interchange everywhere’ network. Just scan the QR code, plug in and that’s it. The app directs drivers to the nearest available charge point, and reserves it too. Hubject is a joint venture between BMW, Bosch, Daimler, Siemens and others. To coincide with the launch of the i3, by the end of this year the system will cover 50% of charge points in Germany with deals due in Belgium and Austria, on top of the already up and running Scandinavia. For more see www.intercharge.eu

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Calm restored. The storm has passed and schedules are almost back on track. Spare a thought though for those stuck at sea yesterday when Dover closed and its was unsafe to dock at Ijmuiden... The big mystery is Stena Line: it managed two crossings between Harwich and Hook of Holland with no delays at all.

Calm restored. The storm has passed and schedules are almost back on track, but spare a thought for those stuck at sea yesterday when its was unsafe to dock at Ijmuiden in the Netherlands and Dover Port closed. Despite 70mph winds, Dover was only closed for 2.5hrs. The Eastern Dock area escaped relatively unscathed save for the sacrificial pads on the quayside though cars parked at the cruise terminal in the Western Docks suffered some damage as huge waves breached the breakwater. The really big mystery is Stena Line: it managed two crossings between Harwich and Hook of Holland with no delays at all.

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roundup: NETHERLANDS. A 90 year old man survived four days stuck in a ditch near Hulst, Zeeland, in his disabled vehicle. RUSSIA. The former Zil factory on a bend of the Moscow River southeast of the city will be redeveloped as a residential area including the 1936 Zil Cultural Centre, the largest and last Constructivist Workers’ Club. Car making will continue on the site, albeit much reduced, likely to build Putin’s upcoming new limo. See this photo feature about the car plant – I.Likachev – as it is now. FRANCE/GREECE. Money is so tight the Police Nationale is worried about paying the rent and maintaining, fuelling and replacing its fleet of vehicles. Each unmarked radar car costs €70,000 apparently. But they have still managed to donate 10 cars to Greek colleagues. Despite being secondhand the cars are reportedly in ‘excellent condition’. Mmmn.

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France’s sexiest politician – Cabbage Patch Cops

Last updated 20:45 BST.

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Monday 28 October 2013.

DOVER PORT IS OPEN, see @Port_of_Dover, or the website.

The wind is currently down to Force 5 in the Channel. Situation steadily resolving.

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Channel delays: Eurotunnel Freight UK: 30mins delay due to high volume. P&O Dover-Calais on time apart 80min delay Spirit of Britain. MyFerryLink next departure 22:00 from Dover. DFDS Dover-Calais/Dunkirk delayed 60mins each.

DFDS Newcastle-Amsterdam knock on delays tomorrow. Passengers to check in at normal time.

DFDS/LDLines Dieppe<>Newhaven + St Nazaire-Gijon cancelled. Le Havre-Portsmouth delayed til 19:00.

A technical problem on Pont Aven and bad weather affects many Brittany Ferries‘ services though order is now being restored. Bad weather is disrupting Condor Ferries services though some alternatives are in place.

Stena Harwich-Hook not reporting any delays.

Weather alerts: Red alert for high winds east Germany, west Sweden, Poland, Estonia and Latvia. Amber alerts high winds south England, north Spain and Denmark.

Weather: Heavy storms northern Europe and south west else sunny and dry across the south.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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Speeding to the Elysee Palace.

Manuel Valls (r), sexiest politician alive? Next to Francois Hollande, maybe.

Manuel Valls (r), sexiest politician alive? Next to Francois Hollande, maybe.

A senior commander in the Paris traffic police has threatened to withhold Christmas and New Year holidays from officers not catching at least three motorists per day.

The government denies there are official quotas but there’s no doubt: the police are under pressure.

Road deaths have been cut by 12.8% overall this year, significantly below the average annual reduction of 15% they need to meet the official pledge of ‘under 2,000 deaths each year by 2020’.

At stake is not just a government promise but the reputation of the man in charge of its delivery, Interior Minister Manuel Valls.

In sharp contrast to President Francois Hollande’s record low approval rating of 23%, the intensely ambitious, Barcelona-born Valls is the only member of the government enjoying any kind of popularity.

Part of the ‘efficient left’, Valls is becoming known as a hard man. His recent tough stance on immigration – deporting a Roma girl during a school trip – has played well with the general public. He was also voted the ‘sexiest politician alive’ by Elle magazine readers last month. He stood against Hollande in the last presidential primary but lost out badly after proposing to remove the word Socialist from the party’s name.

Right or wrong, the French are in no doubt that speeding is the biggest cause of fatal road accidents. Since the first radar trap was unveiled – coincidentally, ten years ago yesterday, by another action man Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy – road deaths have been cut from nearly 8,000 each year to under four thousand.

The point is, anybody thinking that the current crackdown on speeding is a flash in the pan is clearly deluding themselves. Those enjoying the feeling of pedal on metal should give France a wide berth for the foreseeable future. Why not head south via Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany instead?

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Cabbage Patch Cops.

Police in Bucharest confiscated cabbage from an illegal seller yesterday and had no choice but to transport the contraband themselves.

Police in Bucharest confiscated cabbage from an illegal seller yesterday and had no choice but to transport the contraband themselves. Pic via @BucharestLife and @Sandman_ro

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FRANCE. Up to 1,000 farmers, hauliers and local businessmen protesting against the upcoming electronic truck toll ECOTAX lit bales and piles of tyres in west Brittany on Saturday. Police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. It follows a quieter ‘symbolic’ action on Wednesday when the toll gantries were covered over. More demonstrations are planned next Saturday. LUXEMBOURG. Police plan a month of random tyre and light inspections in November. Last year winter tyres became mandatory in snow and/or ice from 1 October onwards though All-Weather tyres marked M+S (mud and snow) on the sidewall are also acceptable (the majority of UK tyres are summer specification).

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Where there’s trucks there’s food (and wifi)

Last updated 22:15 BST.

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The wind is currently Force 9 in the Channel, expected to be particularly strong between 03:00-12:00 tomorrow, according to MyFerryLink, and improving Monday afternoon.

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Channel delays: P&O Dover-Calais 60min delay. MyFerryLink Dover-Calais, next departure 22:45 from Dover. DFDS Dover-Calais and Dover-Dunkirk 60min delays.

DFDS/LDLines Newhaven-Dieppe-Newhaven tonight and tomorrow cancelled as is the afternoon/evening Le Havre-Portsmouth-Le Havre. P&O Hull-Rotterdam ‘possibility of a delay’.

A technical problem on Pont Aven and bad weather affects most Brittany Ferries‘ services until Monday. Bad weather disrupts Condor Ferries services on Sunday and Monday.

Weather alerts: Red alert for high winds along entire Dutch coast. Amber alerts high winds west/north France, north west Spain, north Germany, Denmark and south Sweden. Storms Austria.

Weather: Very windy and storms Northern Europe, fine across Balkans, dry in Adriatic.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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kdghsdkghkg

#YoGypsy: Having driven across Turkey – via Ankara, Cappadocia, a little town called Zara and mountain city Erzurum – @Yomadic, @TheBlondeGypsy and @PhillJane – in the €350 Renault Clio ‘Nancy’ – are poised to enter Armenia. Here at a truck stop ‘in the middle of nowhere. Where’s there’s trucks, there’s food [and wifi].’ Photo: @Yomadic.

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Cycling in the Netherlands

Last updated 18:00 BST.

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Storms forecast for Sunday and Monday are likely to disrupt if not cancel Western Channel and Dover Strait ferry services. North Sea services look to be unaffected so far.

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Channel delays: A technical problem on Pont Aven and bad weather affects most Brittany Ferries‘ services until Monday. Bad weather disrupts Condor Ferries services on Sunday and Monday.

Weather alerts: No Red or Amber alerts. Yellow alert for high winds Germany.

Weather: Wind and rain in northern Europe, fine throughout the Mediterranean.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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Having cycled in the Netherlands we know the dedicated infrastructure over there isn't always quite as wonderful as some in the UK like to believe. However, this floating cycle roundabout, the Hovenring at Eindhoven, certainly qualifies. Photo via @jpaudouy. Did you know, by the way, that cyclists in the Netherlands can be fined €50 for riding without lights, and another €35 for not having proper reflectors? The authorities kicked off a new awareness campaign this week.

Having cycled in the Netherlands we know the dedicated infrastructure over there isn’t always quite as wonderful as some in the UK like to believe. This floating cycle roundabout however – the Hovenring at Veldhoven, just west of Eindhoven – certainly is. Photo via @jpaudouy. Did you know, by the way, that cyclists in the Netherlands can be fined €50 for riding without lights, and another €35 for not having proper reflectors? The authorities kicked off a new awareness campaign this week.

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Light, camera, action. Top prize for ferry photograph.

An extraordinary picture of a ferry leaving Newhaven harbour won a top prize in this year’s Landscape Photographer of the Year awards.

Photograph reproduced by kind permission.

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Ferry leaving Newhaven harbour in storm, East Sussex, England by David Lyon.

Ferry leaving Newhaven harbour in storm, East Sussex, England by David Lyon.

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This dramatic picture was selected from thousands of entries to win a top prize in this year’s UK’s Landscape Photographer of the Year Awards 2013 announced earlier this week.

Dave Lyon’s ‘Ferry leaving Newhaven harbour in a storm’ won first prize in the ’Your view’ category.

Mr Lyon, from Sussex, explains how the image came about: ‘After shooting waves crashing over Newhaven lighthouse for about an hour during a summer storm, I decided to change position and try to get some shots covering the seaward side of the harbour wall from the shingle beach. As I approached the beach, I saw the funnel of the ferry over the sea wall, so I sprinted down the shingle with camera still attached to the tripod and managed to get a few frames before it disappeared.’

Erroneous press reports said the photo had actually been taken from another ship so it’s a relief to hear it was actually taken from dry land, with crashing waves and spray making the scene look even more dramatic than it really was. Rest assured: a ferry wouldn’t set sail in the conditions as they appear here.

Nevertheless it’s a fantastic photo. For a closer look see the official Landscape Photographer of the Year website – www.take-a-view.co.uk/ – or, go to the free exhibition at the National Theatre in London. All the winning and commended entries from this year’s competition will be on display from 7th December 2013 until 8th February 2014.

The Awards, held in association with Network Rail, are also accompanied by a full colour book – Landscape Photographer of the Year; Collection 7, available from 31st October from AA Publishing.

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Major upgrade Brussels ring road – New bridge, Norway – Rolls-Royce on the Bosphorus

Last updated 19:30 BST.

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Channel delays: 20-30min delays DFDS Dover-Calais/Dunkirk for ‘operational reasons’. A technical problem on Pont Aven and bad weather affects some Brittany Ferries‘ services from tomorrow until Monday. Bad weather disrupts Condor Ferries services on Sunday and Monday.

Weather alerts: Amber alert heavy rain Spain, fog Poland.

Weather: Becoming more settled. Rain Iberia. Fine and dry east Med/Adriatic/Balkans.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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Major upgrade for the Brussels Ring Road.

A typical scene on Brussels' R0 Ring Road.

A typical scene on Brussels’ R0 Ring Road (see the opposite carriageway).

One of Europe’s major traffic hotspots is to be given a major overhaul according to plans unveiled today.

Long the bane of drivers heading to and from the Channel Ports and Belgium, Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg, the Brussels R0 Ring Road will be expanded to five lanes in each direction from west to north.

This takes in the A10/E40 from Calais/Dunkirk/Ostend/Bruges/Gent and the A12 and A1 to Antwerp.

The Flanders Government in the north of the country has finally taken the lead after years of discussion. Even advocates admit that the current works, hard shoulder running during rush hour and changes to major junctions, will have a minor impact on the notorious traffic levels.

While the upgrade to R0 won’t solve congestions problems entirely, especially in Brussels itself, the world’s busiest city, it will relieve the most crowded stretch.

The bad news: work won’t start until 2016 at the earliest.

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Spectacular new bridge, Norway.

Hardanger Bridge, south west Norway.

Hardanger Bridge, south west Norway. Photo via www.vegvesen.no

It’s been open to traffic since 27 August but, as of this weekend, the Hardanger Bridge is completely finished. The exterior and underside have now been fully painted and the crane on one of the towers has been dismantled and taken away.

At 1,380m the central span is longer than The Golden Gate Bridge and is the eighth longest in the world. The deck is 55m high meaning large cruise ships can no longer pass underneath. Us drivers will have the place to ourselves.

The bridge crosses Hardanger Fjord in south west Norway, joining roads 7 and 13 between Vallavik and Bu. It cuts the journey time from Oslo to second city Bergen and also joins up the north-south inner trunk road.

The toll for cars is NOK 150 (£15.75) or four times that for vehicles over 3.5t, in place of the ferry fare.

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Rolls-Royce is to open its first dealership in Turkey. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Istanbul will open on the Bosphorus early next year but first there's a special event at the British Embassy next month to introduce the Wraith, 'the definitive Grand Tourer for connoisseurs.'

Rolls-Royce is to open its first ever dealership in Turkey. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Istanbul will open on the Bosphorus early next year, but first there’s a special event at the British Embassy next month to introduce the Wraith, ‘the definitive Grand Tourer for connoisseurs.’ Meanwhile, the company is celebrating 100 years since first handing over a car – a Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, chassis number 2411 – to a customer in Poland by signing off architectural plans for a new showroom in Warsaw. Due to open next year.

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roundup: TESLA. A full network of high speed, free ‘Superchargers’ will be installed by the end of 2014, the first RHD Model S will be delivered in March and prices start at £55,000 said Elon Musk at last night’s store opening in Westfield Shopping Centre, London. UK drivers will also be entitled to a free ‘Autobahn upgrade’. PORT OF DOVER reports a healthy set of results for the third quarter: cars were up by 9%, coaches by 13% and trucks by 17% compared to Q3 2012. It now holds market share of 55.5%, 65% and 63% respectively. GREECE. Incoming road traffic from abroad rose by 25.4%, or 300,000 people, in the first half of 2013 says official stats, totalling 1.55m, mainly thanks to visitors from Turkey. TAJIKISTAN. Police are finally enforcing rules, dating from 2009, which say students are banned from having cars or mobile phones. Both are a distraction from academic work says President Rahmon. ROMANIA. A traffic warden on a busy intersection in Braila in eastern Romania was brutally charged by a bull on Wednesday. The horrific scene was caught on film. ITALY. As per the Pope’s example, bishops are dumping flashy cars in favour of more modest motors. It’s also exactly what the head of the Russian Orthodox Church said earlier in the year after several high profile road rage incidents and crashes involving priests in expensive cars. Also, a 61 year old fake priest has been arrested at the French border with 6kg of cocaine in a car driven by his 25 year old Ukrainian dancer girlfriend.

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