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As mad threads go, this is up there. But I'll bite anyway: I like the M4/M32 junction, because it means I'm nearly at my friends' place in Bristol and I have escaped from London. And if you time your exit right, you can scoot around the outside of the traffic queue, hit the roundabout doing 50, nail it all the way to the Bath turn-off and then boom, five minutes later and you're there.
BTW, has there ever been a thread about favourite (or most hated) motorway service stations?
Favourite Motorway Junction? on 09:04 - Sep 8 by hubble
As mad threads go, this is up there. But I'll bite anyway: I like the M4/M32 junction, because it means I'm nearly at my friends' place in Bristol and I have escaped from London. And if you time your exit right, you can scoot around the outside of the traffic queue, hit the roundabout doing 50, nail it all the way to the Bath turn-off and then boom, five minutes later and you're there.
BTW, has there ever been a thread about favourite (or most hated) motorway service stations?
Tebay is the holy grail of service stations.
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Favourite Motorway Junction? on 09:52 - Sep 8 with 1104 views
Favourite Motorway Junction? on 20:51 - Sep 7 by CateLeBonR
The A303 near Stone Henge. They slow you down on purpose, one lane only, to show you how beautiful humanity can be.
Driving down the A303 London to Cornwall on summer’s day in the mid 90s Stonehenge on the right but the field on the left had a gert big crop circle (remember them?). The farmer was charging a couple of quid to have a look around. I couldn’t resist and nor could many other people. “You must be making a packet?” I said to him. He was a good natured fellow and told me he was losing money on the field (can’t remember what it was supposed to yield) and was charging money in order to claw back some of his losses. Playing devil’s advocate I asked how long it took him to knock up - he laughed and said he had no idea how it happened it just appeared one morning. It was an amazing thing, not a single circle but an elaborate array of fractal Mandelbrot shapes of different sizes radiating from a centre. I had a good look around keeping an open mind. If it was a hoax it must have been very painstaking. Thinking back it must have been a cornfield. The stalks were flattened but not broken. One thing I noticed was that each of the many circles or swirls seemed to have a small plate-sized impression in the soil in the centre similar to a compass needle point makes when you draw a circle. It’s funny how crop circles (like trip-hop) were such a big thing back then but doesn’t seem around anymore.
1
Favourite Motorway Junction? on 09:56 - Sep 8 with 1095 views
Favourite Motorway Junction? on 09:31 - Sep 8 by CateLeBonR
Tebay is the holy grail of service stations.
Would you care to say why? Several of my friends have gone on about Gloucester Services Farmshop ( https://gloucesterservices.com), which I have to admit sounds very different from the usual dire experience.
I think the best motorway services I've ever been to was whilst travelling down through Italy on the way to Rome. We stopped off for a break and watched while the woman behind the counter made us ciabatta sandwiches with basil, Serrano ham and freshly sliced tomatoes. This was accompanied by a really good espresso. It was delicious!
Favourite Motorway Junction? on 09:56 - Sep 8 by hubble
Would you care to say why? Several of my friends have gone on about Gloucester Services Farmshop ( https://gloucesterservices.com), which I have to admit sounds very different from the usual dire experience.
I think the best motorway services I've ever been to was whilst travelling down through Italy on the way to Rome. We stopped off for a break and watched while the woman behind the counter made us ciabatta sandwiches with basil, Serrano ham and freshly sliced tomatoes. This was accompanied by a really good espresso. It was delicious!
Tis very good but not a patch on the ones in Switzerland, they’re very upmarket!
Favourite Motorway Junction? on 09:56 - Sep 8 by hubble
Would you care to say why? Several of my friends have gone on about Gloucester Services Farmshop ( https://gloucesterservices.com), which I have to admit sounds very different from the usual dire experience.
I think the best motorway services I've ever been to was whilst travelling down through Italy on the way to Rome. We stopped off for a break and watched while the woman behind the counter made us ciabatta sandwiches with basil, Serrano ham and freshly sliced tomatoes. This was accompanied by a really good espresso. It was delicious!
Mrs MinT being a fine Scottish lass, we have stopped at Tebay many a time.
The farm shop is lwonderful, with its own specialised butchers... the food is from their farm... and the outside looks over the Northern end of the lakes.. and views are stunning... in fact weddings have taken place there
But Mrs MinT likes going up the A1 so we come across at Penrith and miss Tebay
But then we discovered Cairn Lodge.. the same people own it Not as picturesque as Tebay... but the Scottish butchers do Larne sausage, white pudding and Scottish pies... makes up for the views
1
Favourite Motorway Junction? on 10:46 - Sep 8 with 1008 views
Favourite Motorway Junction? on 09:52 - Sep 8 by DannyPaddox
Driving down the A303 London to Cornwall on summer’s day in the mid 90s Stonehenge on the right but the field on the left had a gert big crop circle (remember them?). The farmer was charging a couple of quid to have a look around. I couldn’t resist and nor could many other people. “You must be making a packet?” I said to him. He was a good natured fellow and told me he was losing money on the field (can’t remember what it was supposed to yield) and was charging money in order to claw back some of his losses. Playing devil’s advocate I asked how long it took him to knock up - he laughed and said he had no idea how it happened it just appeared one morning. It was an amazing thing, not a single circle but an elaborate array of fractal Mandelbrot shapes of different sizes radiating from a centre. I had a good look around keeping an open mind. If it was a hoax it must have been very painstaking. Thinking back it must have been a cornfield. The stalks were flattened but not broken. One thing I noticed was that each of the many circles or swirls seemed to have a small plate-sized impression in the soil in the centre similar to a compass needle point makes when you draw a circle. It’s funny how crop circles (like trip-hop) were such a big thing back then but doesn’t seem around anymore.
They're still a thing, Danny, but don't seem to get so much publicity these days. You might like this vid:
Favourite Motorway Junction? on 14:59 - Sep 7 by PeterHucker
Not sure I have a favourite but I have a couple of least favourites....
The junction where the M25 meets the M3, it always stinks of sewage round there. In fact the whole section of the M25 going anti-clockwise from there to the A3 junction is rubbish. The road surface is really bumpy and there seems to be a higher proportion of bad drivers around there.
I also don't like the roundabout at junction 6 of the M62, it's really confusing.
Poo Corner Used to commute from Sunbury to Woking every day and it just became automatic to put the cars aircon onto recirculate as I approached the junction.
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Favourite Motorway Junction? on 11:54 - Sep 8 with 837 views
Favourite Motorway Junction? on 09:56 - Sep 8 by hubble
Would you care to say why? Several of my friends have gone on about Gloucester Services Farmshop ( https://gloucesterservices.com), which I have to admit sounds very different from the usual dire experience.
I think the best motorway services I've ever been to was whilst travelling down through Italy on the way to Rome. We stopped off for a break and watched while the woman behind the counter made us ciabatta sandwiches with basil, Serrano ham and freshly sliced tomatoes. This was accompanied by a really good espresso. It was delicious!
There’s quite an entertaining YouTuber called Wandering Turnip who makes videos about all sorts of things including service stations. He describes it much better than I ever could.
I stopped there on the way home from the Lake District earlier in the year and was impressed. Another good one on the M6 was Stafford services.
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Favourite Motorway Junction? on 12:43 - Sep 8 with 759 views
Favourite Motorway Junction? on 13:59 - Sep 7 by Mick_S
Beaconsfield is quite nice. My mate paid £4.00 for a lucozade. Bloody rip-off Britain if you ask me.
In the absence of a gun to the head or an urgent medical need, then Michael, your friend 'chose' to pay £4.
They could have chosen not to and they could have chosen to go elsewhere. If people give in and pay, then they'll keep charging extortionate prices for products that cost pence to make.
I suggest we organise a protest group 'Price Action' let's see the buggers try and arrest us for that!!!
'Always In Motion' by John Honney available on amazon.co.uk
Favourite Motorway Junction? on 12:44 - Sep 8 by PlanetHonneywood
In the absence of a gun to the head or an urgent medical need, then Michael, your friend 'chose' to pay £4.
They could have chosen not to and they could have chosen to go elsewhere. If people give in and pay, then they'll keep charging extortionate prices for products that cost pence to make.
I suggest we organise a protest group 'Price Action' let's see the buggers try and arrest us for that!!!
“Price action” indeed. I’m all for it. I used to work on a golf course in nutty Northolt. The club house had a frozen drink icy syrup monstrosity that cost £0.50 pence to juice up and send the local 6 year olds do-lally. They made a bloody fortune.
When do we start?
Did I ever mention that I was in Minder?
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Favourite Motorway Junction? on 09:19 - Sep 9 with 341 views
Favourite Motorway Junction? on 11:54 - Sep 8 by Esox_Lucius
On match days, M40 J11. It means I'm nearly home.
Before they built it you could take a pleasant walk from the estate towards the reservoir and catch pike & perch on one side of the rattlely bridge, eels on the other side, walk down past the reservoir and fish for the massive pike. Then go up the fields this time of year foraging for mushrooms.
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Favourite Motorway Junction? on 10:04 - Sep 9 with 314 views
Favourite Motorway Junction? on 14:59 - Sep 7 by PeterHucker
Not sure I have a favourite but I have a couple of least favourites....
The junction where the M25 meets the M3, it always stinks of sewage round there. In fact the whole section of the M25 going anti-clockwise from there to the A3 junction is rubbish. The road surface is really bumpy and there seems to be a higher proportion of bad drivers around there.
I also don't like the roundabout at junction 6 of the M62, it's really confusing.
I'll top that with Junctions 4 and 5 of the M42, with the motorway closed. Had to negotiate my way through Birmingham to rejoin the M42 at J6.
At 12:30 in the morning.
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the Earth all one's lifetime." (Mark Twain)
Find me on twitter @derbyhoop and now on Bluesky
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