spiral

Hi plr
THe M5 and M6 are motorways and have a speed limit of 70mph - and Google suggests about 3 1/2 hours for the journey. BUT this involves passing Birmingham and using the Spaghetti junction interchange which can be horrendous at times. When do you intend to be travelling and about what time of day would you look to be around B'ham?
Also if you want to visit Goodrich then you want to take the A40 past Monmouth. You could then either take the M50 to get onto the M5 and keep to that route or you could take the back route A49 A5 past Ludlow and Chester. Much slower (Google says just over 4 hours but I'd think longer) but lots more to see.

plr

Spiral, Thank you so much for your forewarning. I will want to avoid a "spaghetti junction" in Birmingham at all cost! Funny that my map makes it look like it just sails straight through the city. Would it make sense, or make it more complicated to get off M5 at Bronsgrove and take whatever road that is up through Kidderminster to Wolverhampton and then take Rt.2 to catch M6 below Stafford?

irishface

I hesitate to sound as if I am hijacking this thread, but what is a spaghetti junction? Is it slang or technical term?
In my mind it sounds complicated.

plr

Exacly as it sounds, irishface. An overwhelmingly confusing morasse of roads squiggling under & over each other with multiple entrances & exits, all in one place. Shudder~~

spiral

Sorry plr I have misled you as you would not be using Spaghetti itself(M6 junction 6). The M5 North feeds into the M6 without any complications at Junction 8 but the interchange is on a main route out of B'ham and is close to Sphagetti and the very busy junction 7 and it does become very congested. It can be bad between 7 and 9 am and 4 and 6 pm but especially avoid it on Fridays between 4 and 7pm!
One of the reasons the junction gets so bad is that the route runs through the very busy West Midland towns where there are no real alternative roads. (They built the M6 toll road to help reduce congestion but it is too much out of your way)
Also do not come off the M5 at Bromsgrove and take the road to Kiddiminster as this is very slow (and boring). If you are planning to travel through this area at a busy time then the A49 might well be better.

Mucky

To my mind, crossing over to the M6/M5 route is a bit out of your way. Either take the A470 south ( scenic but slow)or if you can easily get to the A5 from where you are I would probably be inclined do that.
Anyway have a look on this site, you can put it into perspective quite easily I think.

http://www.rac.co.uk/route-planner/

plr

Such helpful information, Spiral!--Thanks much.
Mucky, I don't have a map in front of me here at work, so I am confused by your last post. There were several parts to my last questions of 2/13/11. I'm still seeking a "quick route from the northwest going south to Cardiff. And then I was asking about driving north from the Cardiff area (or possibly Chepstow)to Manchester where my flight will leave the next day.

PalenQ

Beaumarais Castle, just outside the little burg on Beaumarais and on the sea is a ruined castle of your dreams - ruined but its walls are mainly intact, creating an awesome seaside site.
("Bew-maras" it seemed the Welsh say

plr

Yes, thanks, PalenQ--That castle was among the first five on my list. Can't wait to see these places! I try not to look extensively at online photos of any of them so I can be surprised by what I find. OK, yeah, I'm silly!

Mucky

sorry plr, I was referring to the journey from NW Wales to Cardiff.

R

plr

Mucky, Thanks. There are times when it doesn't take much to confuse me, I'm afraid. And I meant to thank you also for the link to the route planner. I'm going to mess with it tonight.