The Brexit Grand Tour in an Ariel Nomad

[threadlock]

Thanks for the story and media. Enjoying it. The latest episode has some very attractive ...err... scenery in it.

[spikeyhead]

Hitch said:

spikeyhead said:

This looks like a great trip, enhanced by seeing a picture of my Atom in the opening post.

Small world. That's a great pic!

Are these things as small as they look? I'm 6'2 and a PBD so I think I'd look like this chap once in it:

I know of a few people your size that have no issues.

[Vocht]

Love the artificial grass for your mats. Brilliant idea!

Great thread and great videos! Bookmarked and subscribed, looking forward to your next instalment!

[rottie102]

Vocht said:

Love the artificial grass for your mats. Brilliant idea!

Thank you! Both Ruta and I love it! It makes driving/travelling in sandals so much more pleasant, which makes heat (and socks ) management much easier!

Trip update - We are on a ferry to Finland at the moment, Ruta is napping to get some energy before video editing so I have access to the laptop - still can't force myself to/enjoy typing long posts on a touchscreen. I'm a keyboard kind of guy No photos this time because internet is very very slow.

Yesterday morning we had to leave Ikea town for Stockholm, I booked a ferry to Aland Islands for 5.30pm. Since I would like to share with you all of the trip, not just the fun parts - I felt like s**t. Couldn't keep my eyes open, no appetite, zero energy. As much as I love the Nomad, it's literally one of the worst travel modes when you don't feel well. I didn't want to lose the booking so had to push through it, I think just under 300miles of motorway hell. But we made it just before the boarding cut off and it was all good.
Nothing interesting happened during that leg, apart from driving a bit with an almost identical Corvette to my one but the owner didn't seem too friendly.

Doesn't it disappoint you when being a petrolhead, you feel excited about seeing an interesting car and you want to smile/give thumbs up etc to the owner and they just couldn't care less? For me it's always an "Oh......" moment.

If you're ever in need of crossing the Baltic sea, I would definitely recommend doing it the way we did it. Stockholm to Mariehamn and then Marienhamn to Turku. We travelled overnight 5.30pm to 7am, for £99 we got a nice cabin with shower and bathroom. Food on board was delicious. Really good experience. Apart from us missing the wake up call, running to find out the the ferry is soon departing back with all the passengers already on board But hey, we're always ALMOST late for every flight/ferry.
I've never heard of Aland Islands before - they are very very pretty. The whole journey is, since you are passing hundreds of tiny Swedish islands. Alands are quiet, with very little tourists but if you enjoy peace and quiet for few days - worth visiting.

Exciting update - We've found comfortable ear defenders! I knew Peltor will work but couldn't find them anywhere before, they had them in Class Ohlson in Marienhamn. I'm really looking forward to silence. Also useful on a ferry with many kids!

We're driving to Helsinki tonight and tomorrow we're starting Eastern European leg of our journey!

Video from Sweden should be ready shortly.

[TR4man]

Do you mind me asking what nationality you are? It never occurred to me until I watched your videos that you weren't British - you type English better than many British people do!

[Troubleatmill]

I can't help think Batman just rucked up, and while he is battling the Joker.... a gang of friendly travelling folk have helped themselves to the Batcar's armoured bodywork.

[MajorMantra]

Great thread, just posting so I don't lose track of it.

[krisdelta]

Fabulous thread, I've just spent 20 minutes living vicariously through your exploits. The car is awesome! Thank you for sharing

[S100HP]

threadlock said:

Thanks for the story and media. Enjoying it. The latest episode has some very attractive ...err... scenery in it.

Have a look at the latest facebook post

[Little Bob]

What a fantastic trip - love the videos, more please!

[foxsasha]

I've seen people's own vids removed on PH before, no links to your own YT so here you are, just in case.

1) London - Belgium - Germany - Luxembourg
2) Nurburgring
3) Holland and Denmark

[foxsasha]

I've a loud car (lack of sound deadening rather than exhaust) and use Bose Quiet Comfort 20 noise cancelling in ear headphones. They work perfectly well in a roofless noisy car at 100+.

[rottie102]

Little Bob said:

What a fantastic trip - love the videos, more please!

The Sweden one is ready and live on YT

After a night in Finland we've reached Estonia yesterday. We didn't spend much time in Finland since we've travelled all through it in January and are a bit pushed for time over next 8 days.
We had a nice walkaround in Tallin's Old Town, it's very pretty. Full of tourists but still authentic enough to be enjoyable. Poor Estonians though, they really must not like the conversion to Euro and tourist prices in the town centre. It's like London in many places.
Ruta found an amazing vegan place, she's vegetarian most of the time but I enjoy my meats too much to be converted. It's actually interesting that it was no. 2 restaurant in town according to Trip Advisor - quite an achievement for a restaurant with such a limited appeal!

I absolutely love how people connect to us on social media! We get messages from different countries, people recommending places to visit, inviting for photoshoots etc. We have been recommended a rallycross track in Estonia, I called them up but unfortunately they were preparing for an event and we couldn't drive on it

It's so bloody cold!!! We've only reached the hotel at 10.30pm last night and last hour was really not pleasant in the Nomad. About 12c! In July! It's better during the day but still much colder than we anticipated. I bought gloves yesterday We pretty much wear EVERYTHING in the evenings when driving. Helps with packing

Once again, thank you for your feedback.

Ilusat päeva! (That's Have a nice day in Estonian apparently )

[seiben]

I love Tallinn!

Head over the railway tracks (past the station) to Telliskivi - it's very trendy in an ex-Soviet sort of way. The F-Hoone restaurant is worth a look as well - decent food and very reasonably priced.

http://www.fhoone.ee/en/

[SteellFJ]

What a journey, something I would love to do but as has been said already, kids are in the way, cant wait for them to finish school....

The youngest starts School this year

[Mr-B]

Great trip!

Here's some more Estonian that might help you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4R0oXjIzOx4

[adamInca]

Loving the videos, keep them coming!

[rottie102]

DELETED: Comment made by a member who's account has been deleted.

Thank you!

It's a Lenovo Yoga Tab 3 Pro. I love everything about it and take it everywhere. The stand, the projector, the battery life. Just make sure you buy one with 4gb of RAM, not 2. Two is not enough and I sold my previous one.

It's just the two of us doing all the filming. I'm a professional photographer so had all the technical knowledge and the gear, Ruta has the vision what she wants the videos to look like. She had to learn a lot over last two-three months to put it into reality.
The way we see it, we don't want them to be "car videos". We want them to be "road trip videos". The Nomad is like a team member. A mate we have fun with. But there are other aspects to traveling and roadtrips and we would like them to also be shown. Especially the food. That's one of the biggest advantages of traveling for us - new culinary experiences. We love it all, street simple and fine dining.

[foxsasha]

rottie102 said:

Thank you!

It's a Lenovo Yoga Tab 3 Pro. I love everything about it and take it everywhere. The stand, the projector, the battery life. Just make sure you buy one with 4gb of RAM, not 2. Two is not enough and I sold my previous one.

It's just the two of us doing all the filming. I'm a professional photographer so had all the technical knowledge and the gear, Ruta has the vision what she wants the videos to look like. She had to learn a lot over last two-three months to put it into reality.
The way we see it, we don't want them to be "car videos". We want them to be "road trip videos". The Nomad is like a team member. A mate we have fun with. But there are other aspects to traveling and roadtrips and we would like them to also be shown. Especially the food. That's one of the biggest advantages of traveling for us - new culinary experiences. We love it all, street simple and fine dining.

I was hoping for more car related content as Ive a Nomad on order. Wanted as much insight into traveling with one as possible, Ive vague plans about driving down from Yorkshire to Portsmouth, Bilbao/Santander, down through Spain the twisty way, over to Moroccoa and onto the Sahara. The details about heat problems, weight distribution, weather protection etc is hugely useful.

Personally Im not interested in watching another generic traveling/holiday blog.

[S100HP]

foxsasha said:

I was hoping for more car related content as Ive a Nomad on order. Wanted as much insight into traveling with one as possible, Ive vague plans about driving down from Yorkshire to Portsmouth, Bilbao/Santander, down through Spain the twisty way, over to Moroccoa and onto the Sahara. The details about heat problems, weight distribution, weather protection etc is hugely useful.

Personally Im not interested in watching another generic traveling/holiday blog.

Ah well, the unsubscribe button is over there >>>>

I'm finding it most enjoyable, as I'm sure many others are.