Archived:Istanbul

Phil version

1. London to Frankfurt (5 hours on continent + 2 in UK, so quite a long first day)
2. Frankfurt to Graz (6:16) - again, quite long
3. Graz to Zagreb (2:00), could even be via Ljubljana for an extra 1:30 or so - nice to have short drive after two days of long ones
4. Zagreb to Sarajevo (4:38)
5. Sarajevo to Cacak (3:40)
6. Cacak to Sofia (4:30)
7. Sofia to Istanbul (6:17) - quite long
8. ---
9. Istanbul to Salonica (6:33) - another quite long journey, but I think with much of it along the coast of the Marmara/Aegean, it could be awesome
10. Salonica to Pristina (3:37) - I think there may be an issue here, with the whole Kosovo/Serbia thing - perhaps subst. this for Nis or similar. In fact, could subst. for Skopje, and have a long drive to Belgrade. I recall that stretch to be rather scenic from what could be seen out of a very hot train. Could be quite a nice bit to do as a long section.
11. Pristina to Belgrade (3:43)
12. Belgrade to Budapest (3:50)
13. Budapest to Prague (4:58)
14. Prague to Frankfurt (4:31) (when I say Frankfurt, I mean somewhere in that area - plenty of German cities around there)
15. Frankfurt to London (5 hours on continent + 2 in UK, so quite long)

There are several bits that could be cut down if we are running late, especially in the latter half, where we might well be.

Notably this is 15 days, so there is still some slippage time

Could remove some of the Germanicness with either flights to Zagreb (or similar), or perhaps Eurostar+IC(E) to Munich or similar (a ~12 hour train journey, but on awesome trains, so probably tolerable).

Lmm version, 4-hour-a-day style

• Saturday: drive to munich - first day long drive
• Sunday: munich -> graz
• Monday: graz -> slavonski brod
• Tuesday: brod -> Cacak
• Wednesday: Cacak -> Prishtine
• Thursday: Prishtine -> Thessaloniki
• Friday: Thessaloniki -> Kesan
• Saturday: Kesan -> Istanbul
• Sunday: Istanbul -> Edirne
• Monday: Edirne -> Sofia
• Tuesday: Sofia -> Kraljevo
• Wednesday: Kraljevo -> Sarajevo
• Thursday: Sarajevo -> Zagreb
• Friday: Zagreb -> Salzburg
• Saturday: Salzburg -> Karlsruhe
• Sunday: back - last day long drive

Lmm version, 8-hour alternating style

• Saturday: drive early (6am) to eurostar, drive to munich, arriving ~8pm
• Sunday: Spent in Munich
• Monday: drive to Belgrade
• Tuesday: spent in Belgrade
• Wednesday: drive to Thessaloniki
• Thursday: spent in Thessaloniki
• Friday: drive to Istanbul
• Saturday: spent in Istanbul
• Sunday: drive to Sofia
• Monday: Spent in Sofia
• Tuesday: drive to Sarajevo
• Wednesday: Spent in Sarajevo
• Thursday: drive to Vienna
• Friday: spent in Vienna
• Saturday: drive to Strasbourg
• Sunday: last stretch back to london

Smith version (drive to Istanbul and fly back (all day numbers are +1))

1. Assemble in London
2. Drive from London to Strasburg (c. 8.5h)
3. Spend day in Strasburg
4. Drive from Strasburg to Ljubljana (c. 8.5h)
5. Spend day in Ljubljana
6. Drive from Ljubljana to Zagreb (c. 2h), spend rest of day in Zagreb
7. Drive from Zagreb to Sarajevo (c. 5h), possibly with detour to Banja Luka
8. Spend day in Sarajevo
9. Drive from Sarajevo to Podgorica via Mostar (c. 2h to Mostar, c. 5h to Podgorica, plus seeing-Mostar time)
10. Spend day in Podgorica
11. Drive from Podgorica to Tirane (c. 2.5h), spend rest of day in Tirane
12. Drive from Tirane to Skopje (c. 4.5h)
13. Spend day in Skopje
14. Drive from Skopje to Pristina (c. 1.5h), see a bit of Pristina, drive to Sofia (c. 4h)
15. Spend day in Sofia (game)
16. Drive from Sofia to Istanbul (c. 6.5h)
17. Spend day in Istanbul, fly home in the evening