Arctic Circle road trip - a blog
Discussion
Day 6 – Thursday 13th Feb 2020
Sundsvall (Sweden) – Skillingaryd (Sweden)
470 miles / 6 hours 50 mins
Average 69mph / 27.5mpg
Diesel 85.28 litres / SEK1349.98 / £108.24
Diesel 84.42 litres / SEK1361.69 / £109.18
As expected, not much to report today. Woke up, had a nice breakfast in the nice Hotel I’d booked for last night, took a pic of the ski-lifts visible from my bedroom window, and hit the road.
The sun was in my eyes ALL day.
470 slightly tedious but easy, and often very fast motorway miles later, I arrived at tonight’s Hotel far earlier than expected. In fact, I wish I’d booked tonight’s Hotel 2,3 or 4 hours further-on, and then the last one in Germany further on too. It would have made Saturday’s drive more manageable. As it stands, I’ll probably stop for a sleep as soon as I get off the Eurotunnel on Saturday evening.
Anyway, As I’ve nothing of note to talk about today, how about we go over some of the random thoughts I’ve collected these past few days? In no particular order:
Cruise control. I’ve noticed a thread on Pistonheads asking whether it’s a deal breaker or not when buying a car. For me, yes it would be. Even in the UK I use cruise, but over in Europe, I’d say it is essential. In fear of the exorbitant fines for speeding in parts of Europe, I use cruise when I’m in one of the slower regions – you know, the 50s, 60s, and 70s.
But owing to the relatively small populations in parts of Europe, the motorways between concentrations of people are long and often empty. Setting cruise for a nice big number and just steering the boat is a relatively painless way of covering miles. 90% of today’s miles were spent with cruise activated.
Here’s a question… what is the highest speed you’ve set the cruise to?.. and then left it at that speed for some time?
I’ll answer if you do.
Pop culture. In relation to the Atlantic Ocean road, if I said “Slartibartfast”, do you know this?
And secondly, in relation to the completely remote regions I’ve driven through (often for hours and hours at a time), would you know “Out where the buses don’t run?”
These are the sort of idle thoughts I have when I’m lost in my own head.
Two satnavs. This is a great idea that I’ve arrived at accidentally. I “discovered” Google maps for directions and satnav a while back but because my car came with the COMAND system, I hadn’t used it much until maybe a year ago? For this trip, I bought a phone holder that is suspended from the air vents, and used Google maps both to plan the trip and execute it. BUT, I also used the COMAND, both as a second confirmation (when one was wrong, it was always COMAND), and because I cold have COMAND zoomed right out, to give me some perspective on where I was. Google maps is clearly zoomed right it, and is oriented in your direction of travel. I have COMAND always oriented north/up, and it helps me to know where home is.
Also, COMAND gives me an arrival time that’s easy to read, whereas Google reserves the larger text for other stuff. It’s just nice to have them both.
4G. Is brilliant everywhere, even on an open decked ferry in the middle of Slartibartfast’s finest.
Windscreen air vents. One morning, I forgot I’d turned off the windscreen vent, and the wipers struggled to clear the almost-freezing water until I realised my mistake. The reason I’d turned that vent off the previous day was because the heat was baking the grime onto the windscreen, making the wipers’ job harder.
It seems there ought to be a way to provide a little heat to the wipers, and more into the cabin. Merc, please take note..!!
Halfords -20 degree screen wash was challenged. Even though the static temperature only dropped to -13.5 degrees yesterday, my efforts at clearing the rear screen left a wodge of frozen screen wash all over the rear wiper and tailgate. I guess the chill factor was significant up in those mountains.
Ferry crossing departure timings. Was I just lucky? I arrived at both ferry crossings and waited no longer than 10 mins before boarding. I know they don’t have to go far but I’m not normally lucky like that.
Both ferries saved me considerable time. I’ve got the option of one tomorrow… or another derestricted motorway. Options options.
The Merc heater. Did you know, when you turn off a Merc engine, you can press the aircon button which will activate the cabin blower, and warm the cabin for as long as there’s warm coolant in the heater matrix. I’m not sure if it also pumps coolant around the engine but it lasts for up to 40 mins which is the perfect thing for short open-air ferry crossings.
Teslas. Everywhere from Oslo up, in Norway. Everywhere. My 15yo son loves them, so I was about to send him an excited message when three passed me (three separate, all different models – not part of a “team”) but almost as soon as I’d constructed the sentence in my head, SIX went past the other way.
In one of the remotest regions yet, I passed through a small village – maybe 15 houses – and I counted four Teslas on charge on their drives.
There are a lot of other electric cars too but Teslas seem to be carry the majority.
Mercedes GLKs. Also, everywhere. They weren’t sold in the UK, and are the precursor to the GLC (which my wife has) but I quite like the GLK and wonder why they didn’t bring it to the UK. Looks like a smaller GL.
Music. I drive with none. Not at home though – well it depends. If I’m with my wife, I don’t usually put any music on. She doesn’t like my taste and although I have loaded the MicroSD with some of her “likes”, she has a modern music taste and moves onto new things more quickly than I can keep up.
Here, I drive with none because… I don’t know. I guess I like to make sure I’m aware when Mrs Google has something to say… or I’m using this time to think about -stuff… or, I dunno really.
Sightseeing. I have done none, apart to marvel at the items I’ve already documented. I thought I might stop at Stockholm today but when it came to it, I realised I wouldn’t know where to go, and I haven’t enough time to wander around to find somewhere. So I pressed on to my overnight Hotel, got here too early, but I’ve worked out that I’ll be going to bed very early, waking very early, and doing the same tomorrow so that Saturday’s stupidly long drive can begin earlier and may leave me enough time to sleep in the car somewhere.
Jealous friends. In a nice way, some of my FB friends have commented on being jealous of my time this week but I genuinely don’t think any of them would have enjoyed this trip. Certainly, they would love some of the places I’ve been, but the hours and hours in the car between those places aren’t for many people. I think to consider a trip like this, you would have to be a committed car AND travel enthusiast.
I doubt I’d be interested in this sort of thing if I wasn’t driving.
Being beeped. Several times I have heard someone beeping, and I’ve not been sure it was aimed at me but it has happened numerous times… until I realised it was the noise of my tyres passing over the white lines. Idiot..!!
Tomorrow I'll be passing over the Oresund bridge again, and maybe a ferry crossing, so it should be more interesting.
Not sure whether to take the car to work on Monday wearing it's new clothes... probably not, or it'll be another week before it's washed.
And the stats...
Sundsvall (Sweden) – Skillingaryd (Sweden)
470 miles / 6 hours 50 mins
Average 69mph / 27.5mpg
Diesel 85.28 litres / SEK1349.98 / £108.24
Diesel 84.42 litres / SEK1361.69 / £109.18
As expected, not much to report today. Woke up, had a nice breakfast in the nice Hotel I’d booked for last night, took a pic of the ski-lifts visible from my bedroom window, and hit the road.
The sun was in my eyes ALL day.
470 slightly tedious but easy, and often very fast motorway miles later, I arrived at tonight’s Hotel far earlier than expected. In fact, I wish I’d booked tonight’s Hotel 2,3 or 4 hours further-on, and then the last one in Germany further on too. It would have made Saturday’s drive more manageable. As it stands, I’ll probably stop for a sleep as soon as I get off the Eurotunnel on Saturday evening.
Anyway, As I’ve nothing of note to talk about today, how about we go over some of the random thoughts I’ve collected these past few days? In no particular order:
Cruise control. I’ve noticed a thread on Pistonheads asking whether it’s a deal breaker or not when buying a car. For me, yes it would be. Even in the UK I use cruise, but over in Europe, I’d say it is essential. In fear of the exorbitant fines for speeding in parts of Europe, I use cruise when I’m in one of the slower regions – you know, the 50s, 60s, and 70s.
But owing to the relatively small populations in parts of Europe, the motorways between concentrations of people are long and often empty. Setting cruise for a nice big number and just steering the boat is a relatively painless way of covering miles. 90% of today’s miles were spent with cruise activated.
Here’s a question… what is the highest speed you’ve set the cruise to?.. and then left it at that speed for some time?
I’ll answer if you do.
Pop culture. In relation to the Atlantic Ocean road, if I said “Slartibartfast”, do you know this?
And secondly, in relation to the completely remote regions I’ve driven through (often for hours and hours at a time), would you know “Out where the buses don’t run?”
These are the sort of idle thoughts I have when I’m lost in my own head.
Two satnavs. This is a great idea that I’ve arrived at accidentally. I “discovered” Google maps for directions and satnav a while back but because my car came with the COMAND system, I hadn’t used it much until maybe a year ago? For this trip, I bought a phone holder that is suspended from the air vents, and used Google maps both to plan the trip and execute it. BUT, I also used the COMAND, both as a second confirmation (when one was wrong, it was always COMAND), and because I cold have COMAND zoomed right out, to give me some perspective on where I was. Google maps is clearly zoomed right it, and is oriented in your direction of travel. I have COMAND always oriented north/up, and it helps me to know where home is.
Also, COMAND gives me an arrival time that’s easy to read, whereas Google reserves the larger text for other stuff. It’s just nice to have them both.
4G. Is brilliant everywhere, even on an open decked ferry in the middle of Slartibartfast’s finest.
Windscreen air vents. One morning, I forgot I’d turned off the windscreen vent, and the wipers struggled to clear the almost-freezing water until I realised my mistake. The reason I’d turned that vent off the previous day was because the heat was baking the grime onto the windscreen, making the wipers’ job harder.
It seems there ought to be a way to provide a little heat to the wipers, and more into the cabin. Merc, please take note..!!
Halfords -20 degree screen wash was challenged. Even though the static temperature only dropped to -13.5 degrees yesterday, my efforts at clearing the rear screen left a wodge of frozen screen wash all over the rear wiper and tailgate. I guess the chill factor was significant up in those mountains.
Ferry crossing departure timings. Was I just lucky? I arrived at both ferry crossings and waited no longer than 10 mins before boarding. I know they don’t have to go far but I’m not normally lucky like that.
Both ferries saved me considerable time. I’ve got the option of one tomorrow… or another derestricted motorway. Options options.
The Merc heater. Did you know, when you turn off a Merc engine, you can press the aircon button which will activate the cabin blower, and warm the cabin for as long as there’s warm coolant in the heater matrix. I’m not sure if it also pumps coolant around the engine but it lasts for up to 40 mins which is the perfect thing for short open-air ferry crossings.
Teslas. Everywhere from Oslo up, in Norway. Everywhere. My 15yo son loves them, so I was about to send him an excited message when three passed me (three separate, all different models – not part of a “team”) but almost as soon as I’d constructed the sentence in my head, SIX went past the other way.
In one of the remotest regions yet, I passed through a small village – maybe 15 houses – and I counted four Teslas on charge on their drives.
There are a lot of other electric cars too but Teslas seem to be carry the majority.
Mercedes GLKs. Also, everywhere. They weren’t sold in the UK, and are the precursor to the GLC (which my wife has) but I quite like the GLK and wonder why they didn’t bring it to the UK. Looks like a smaller GL.
Music. I drive with none. Not at home though – well it depends. If I’m with my wife, I don’t usually put any music on. She doesn’t like my taste and although I have loaded the MicroSD with some of her “likes”, she has a modern music taste and moves onto new things more quickly than I can keep up.
Here, I drive with none because… I don’t know. I guess I like to make sure I’m aware when Mrs Google has something to say… or I’m using this time to think about -stuff… or, I dunno really.
Sightseeing. I have done none, apart to marvel at the items I’ve already documented. I thought I might stop at Stockholm today but when it came to it, I realised I wouldn’t know where to go, and I haven’t enough time to wander around to find somewhere. So I pressed on to my overnight Hotel, got here too early, but I’ve worked out that I’ll be going to bed very early, waking very early, and doing the same tomorrow so that Saturday’s stupidly long drive can begin earlier and may leave me enough time to sleep in the car somewhere.
Jealous friends. In a nice way, some of my FB friends have commented on being jealous of my time this week but I genuinely don’t think any of them would have enjoyed this trip. Certainly, they would love some of the places I’ve been, but the hours and hours in the car between those places aren’t for many people. I think to consider a trip like this, you would have to be a committed car AND travel enthusiast.
I doubt I’d be interested in this sort of thing if I wasn’t driving.
Being beeped. Several times I have heard someone beeping, and I’ve not been sure it was aimed at me but it has happened numerous times… until I realised it was the noise of my tyres passing over the white lines. Idiot..!!
Tomorrow I'll be passing over the Oresund bridge again, and maybe a ferry crossing, so it should be more interesting.
Not sure whether to take the car to work on Monday wearing it's new clothes... probably not, or it'll be another week before it's washed.
And the stats...
Edited by Watchman on Wednesday 19th February 20:12
Sorry to be the damp squib again ,but the Sweden toll road tax applies to the Bridge over the water at Sundvall too.
It wasn't finished when I passed through in 2014 but was fully open 12 months later.
https://visitsweden.com/information-swedish-transp...
It wasn't finished when I passed through in 2014 but was fully open 12 months later.
https://visitsweden.com/information-swedish-transp...
Great trip , don't want to sound like I'm teaching my grandmother to suck eggs but , following your comments regarding the amount of grip ice gives then another comment about cruise control , never mix either because you'll end up off the road faster than it's taken you to read this .
Been bugging me all afternoon , now it's off my chest . Safe drive home on the pedal fella
Been bugging me all afternoon , now it's off my chest . Safe drive home on the pedal fella
fttm said:
Great trip , don't want to sound like I'm teaching my grandmother to suck eggs but , following your comments regarding the amount of grip ice gives then another comment about cruise control , never mix either because you'll end up off the road faster than it's taken you to read this .
Been bugging me all afternoon , now it's off my chest . Safe drive home on the pedal fella
Quite. Cruise definitely wasn't used on the ice. Been bugging me all afternoon , now it's off my chest . Safe drive home on the pedal fella
Pericoloso said:
Sorry to be the damp squib again ,but the Sweden toll road tax applies to the Bridge over the water at Sundvall too.
It wasn't finished when I passed through in 2014 but was fully open 12 months later.
https://visitsweden.com/information-swedish-transp...
I should expect a number of toll invoices to come then. I have passed under many cameras of this type in Norway.It wasn't finished when I passed through in 2014 but was fully open 12 months later.
https://visitsweden.com/information-swedish-transp...
Can understand the comment about that a pre-booked stop at Skillingaryd was a few hours too early. Setting out from just south of Sundsvall and north of Hudiksvall my regular stop in winter was the Scandic hotel near the E4 in Helsingborg. Summer time sometimes pushed onto one from the same chain in Denmark, near Kolding. Suitable either for a short hop to Esbjerg and an early boat, or a blast down through Germany and Netherlands to Rotterdam / Hoek of Holland.
Concur about inadvisability of cc and ice/snow combination. It's a tricky change, having experienced the feeling of security on good winter tyres on really cold surfaces to then encounter UK not that cold ice with that thin layer of water in top.
Concur about inadvisability of cc and ice/snow combination. It's a tricky change, having experienced the feeling of security on good winter tyres on really cold surfaces to then encounter UK not that cold ice with that thin layer of water in top.
Watchman said:
It's permanent. And there's more to it than that.
It has:
Locking diffs Centre and rear, activated from a dashboard switch. Obviously I don't use them often so I "test" them every couple of months, and immediately before I left home last week.
It might also have a front LSD. A couple of people in the US forums swear they do. No-one else can confirm either way, including my local Merc garage. Not all LSDs behave in the same manner, so even me testing it isn't easy. Oh, and I've no way of jacking both front wheels off the ground either.
Low range Not really that helpful in snow. It'd lose traction before I ran out of enough torque to haul it up anything steep. Regardless I tested this too before I came away.
Height adjustable suspension Now this could be useful if you found yourself in a deep drift. The GL already has good ground clearance but if you click the buttons up the three stages allowable, it goes up another 10 inches. Also tested before I came away.
That's pretty good right there! Nice to see it's more than a status machine or Soft-Roader. Couldn't have picked a much better car for the trip then?It has:
Locking diffs Centre and rear, activated from a dashboard switch. Obviously I don't use them often so I "test" them every couple of months, and immediately before I left home last week.
It might also have a front LSD. A couple of people in the US forums swear they do. No-one else can confirm either way, including my local Merc garage. Not all LSDs behave in the same manner, so even me testing it isn't easy. Oh, and I've no way of jacking both front wheels off the ground either.
Low range Not really that helpful in snow. It'd lose traction before I ran out of enough torque to haul it up anything steep. Regardless I tested this too before I came away.
Height adjustable suspension Now this could be useful if you found yourself in a deep drift. The GL already has good ground clearance but if you click the buttons up the three stages allowable, it goes up another 10 inches. Also tested before I came away.
Some great updates here.
- I too use both COMAND and Waze. I'll sometimes stream waze through my audio in order to be alerted to police, but follow COMAND in areas over distance which shouldn't be susceptible to much traffic.
- The rest function is awesome on Mercs
- Solo drives and music - how often can one sit and rest, with something to focus on that is relaxing but persistent, for hours on end, by oneself?
- Early bookings - I just booking.com in the morning, or the night before, when I have a better idea of where I'll be.
- I too use both COMAND and Waze. I'll sometimes stream waze through my audio in order to be alerted to police, but follow COMAND in areas over distance which shouldn't be susceptible to much traffic.
- The rest function is awesome on Mercs
- Solo drives and music - how often can one sit and rest, with something to focus on that is relaxing but persistent, for hours on end, by oneself?
- Early bookings - I just booking.com in the morning, or the night before, when I have a better idea of where I'll be.
bolidemichael said:
- Early bookings - I just booking.com in the morning, or the night before, when I have a better idea of where I'll be.
I will tweak my road book plan for someone to use in future but booking on the day isn't a bad idea if you are organised well.I didn't want to leave anything to chance so booked in advance but now that I know how long it takes to get from A to B to C etc, I would definitely prioritise differently.
I will throw up the final two days over the weekend. Not much to read really other than the stats. A other of my failings on this trip was not to have anything else to look forward to once I'd got to the top. I'm just returning home now. I think, if others had come with me, I'd have stopped in Stockholm and Copenhagen for additional fun. Didn't fancy it on my own.
RazerSauber said:
That's pretty good right there! Nice to see it's more than a status machine or Soft-Roader. Couldn't have picked a much better car for the trip then?
It was because I'd picked this car that led me to want to use it properly for a change.I've scanned the Bentley Bentayga thread in London earlier. There are some strong opinions around regarding what other people drive and they're not shy about telling me what they think about SUVs when i meet with them.
Personally, I'm a huge fan and can't see me without one until they're priced out of my reach during the electric switchover. But I might be too infirm to drive by then anyway.
bolidemichael said:
Could you outline the reasons why you're an advocate on an SUV, particularly such a large vehicle as the GL?
Because it's a big, powerful, 4WD, continent crosser, but it's not as big as a bus or lorry, therefore it'll fit down every lane in the world, and I can park it at the supermarket without any fuss. Day 7 – Friday 14th Feb 2020
Skillingaryd (Sweden) – Hamburg (Germany)
462 miles / 7 hours 6 mins
Average 65mph / 30.9mpg
Diesel 76.56 litres / €98.69 / £82.34
Last night’s Hotel was nothing more than a stopover type. That said, it was warm, clean and there were good breakfast options. AND they were proud to announce breakfast was available from 6am. Great! I was happy about that because I could get a head start on the day.
Unfortunately, as per yesterday, I should have booked the next Hotel even further on. In fact, I have come to realise that my whole agenda was not optimal. You see, at one point, I had expected to be travelling in convoy with others, and not only had I envisaged travelling far more slowly than I’m accustomed to driving when I’m on my own, but I thought we might want to stop-off at various points for lunch and whatever.
On my own, I just didn’t have the interest to visit Stockholm (yesterday) or Copenhagen (today), so I kept going, and at a fair lick.
However all was not lost. I did get to see those magnificent bridges again, this time in lovely weather. The first one is the Oresund, which is both a bridge, a man-made island, and a tunnel.
Then there's the bridge over the Great Belt. Man, those piers are high... they really make your head spin.
But despite the bridges, it was with some irritation that I arrived at tonight’s Hotel a little after 2pm. I now realise if I were to build an agenda for a similar road trip in the future, that I would try to arrange to be staying overnight in a Hotel near to the next day’s objective. For example, I stayed almost on top of the Eurotunnel in Folkestone, a mere 40-mins away from the Atlantic Ocean road, and only an hour from the Arctic circle visitor centre. These were well-placed in regard to my getting to that day's objective. In fact, the only one that really mattered, because there was a specific crossing time I had to meet, was the Eurotunnel. It’s so much easier to be 6 mins away from the queue and not have to consider being late thanks to the M25, M26 or M20.
Anyway, tonight’s Hotel was the one I’d stayed in last Saturday night. It’s one of the nice ones, so being there too early wasn’t a massive inconvenience.
Skillingaryd (Sweden) – Hamburg (Germany)
462 miles / 7 hours 6 mins
Average 65mph / 30.9mpg
Diesel 76.56 litres / €98.69 / £82.34
Last night’s Hotel was nothing more than a stopover type. That said, it was warm, clean and there were good breakfast options. AND they were proud to announce breakfast was available from 6am. Great! I was happy about that because I could get a head start on the day.
Unfortunately, as per yesterday, I should have booked the next Hotel even further on. In fact, I have come to realise that my whole agenda was not optimal. You see, at one point, I had expected to be travelling in convoy with others, and not only had I envisaged travelling far more slowly than I’m accustomed to driving when I’m on my own, but I thought we might want to stop-off at various points for lunch and whatever.
On my own, I just didn’t have the interest to visit Stockholm (yesterday) or Copenhagen (today), so I kept going, and at a fair lick.
However all was not lost. I did get to see those magnificent bridges again, this time in lovely weather. The first one is the Oresund, which is both a bridge, a man-made island, and a tunnel.
Then there's the bridge over the Great Belt. Man, those piers are high... they really make your head spin.
But despite the bridges, it was with some irritation that I arrived at tonight’s Hotel a little after 2pm. I now realise if I were to build an agenda for a similar road trip in the future, that I would try to arrange to be staying overnight in a Hotel near to the next day’s objective. For example, I stayed almost on top of the Eurotunnel in Folkestone, a mere 40-mins away from the Atlantic Ocean road, and only an hour from the Arctic circle visitor centre. These were well-placed in regard to my getting to that day's objective. In fact, the only one that really mattered, because there was a specific crossing time I had to meet, was the Eurotunnel. It’s so much easier to be 6 mins away from the queue and not have to consider being late thanks to the M25, M26 or M20.
Anyway, tonight’s Hotel was the one I’d stayed in last Saturday night. It’s one of the nice ones, so being there too early wasn’t a massive inconvenience.
Edited by Watchman on Wednesday 19th February 19:25
Day 8 – Saturday 15th Feb 2020
Hamburg (Germany) – Home (Worcestershire, England)
690 miles / 10 hours 24 mins
Average 66mph / 26.5mpg
Diesel 81.74 litres / €134.79 / £112.46
I woke up just after 3am because a woman was whistling a tune, and clearly staggering through the corridor outside my door. I’m not sure if she was with a man or met him in the bedroom next to mine but they proceeded to drop stuff on the floor repeatedly, and then get very noisily jiggy for about half an hour before falling silent again. Despite this, I managed to go back to sleep again, awaking “properly” at 6am, excited to be going home.
Although I had met all of my objectives for the road trip by Wednesday (I’ll try to explain those later), I was still enjoying being alone in the car. Driving feels a very natural state of being for me, and long long hours in the car are only ever troublesome if I’m stuck behind someone at a speed slower than I’d prefer, and since overtaking that truck (to follow the Skoda), earlier in the week, I’d not really had to contend with being bored in the car again.
Today, on my way back home, I would be driving to the Calais Eurotunnel from just North of Hamburg. With so much potential for being late for my crossing (because of my less than perfect agenda), I had purposely given myself a spare couple of hours by booking a relatively late crossing
As it turned out, I was three hours too early for the crossing, and with the only options to spend an additional £80 to cross earlier, I elected to wait it out in the Eurot-unnel car park which could have been a bit soul destroying had it not for the fact I had a fully charged laptop and a load of movies on a USB stick that I’d not watched.
It might be of note that I left Germany in bright sunshine and blue skies, only to drive into cloud in the Netherlands, rain in Belgium, and an outright storm in France. Sitting in the Eurotunnel car park, I was occasionally distracted by the massive screens showing departure times as then wobbled in the wind. Even the car itself (now renamed as “Panzer” for obvious reasons) would shake when a gust hit it.
Eventually I was called to queue, then we boarded and as (nearly) always, the Eurotunnel service was like clockwork. I disembarked into darkness, and the worsening storm.
The drive home may have actually been the hardest part of the entire week. Panzer would be hit regularly by sideways gusts, making driving at anything over 70mph quite tricky. Actually, anything over 70mph might have been daft anyway because of the amount of water on the road.
It didn’t really improve at all, and I arrived home at 8:30pm, quite relieved to have stopped driving. I had intended to stop and eat en route but in the end I elected to press on and eat at home.
So there it is. A road trip to the Arctic. I have other ideas about a schedule if wants to have a go, and I regret the passing of the North sea ferry service because that would make a tour of this nature slightly different and possibly more ambitious (I’d go further North, and circle around into Northern Finland before returning through Sweden).
What I hope this has achieved is to advertise the possibility of such a road trip so that others might join me in future. I have an idea about maybe driving to the Tatra mountains in Poland, again in winter, spending a couple of days there enjoying the restaurants and whatever is there (others might want to go skiing), then circling back through an indirect route back to home.
Lemme know if you fancy it.
Hamburg (Germany) – Home (Worcestershire, England)
690 miles / 10 hours 24 mins
Average 66mph / 26.5mpg
Diesel 81.74 litres / €134.79 / £112.46
I woke up just after 3am because a woman was whistling a tune, and clearly staggering through the corridor outside my door. I’m not sure if she was with a man or met him in the bedroom next to mine but they proceeded to drop stuff on the floor repeatedly, and then get very noisily jiggy for about half an hour before falling silent again. Despite this, I managed to go back to sleep again, awaking “properly” at 6am, excited to be going home.
Although I had met all of my objectives for the road trip by Wednesday (I’ll try to explain those later), I was still enjoying being alone in the car. Driving feels a very natural state of being for me, and long long hours in the car are only ever troublesome if I’m stuck behind someone at a speed slower than I’d prefer, and since overtaking that truck (to follow the Skoda), earlier in the week, I’d not really had to contend with being bored in the car again.
Today, on my way back home, I would be driving to the Calais Eurotunnel from just North of Hamburg. With so much potential for being late for my crossing (because of my less than perfect agenda), I had purposely given myself a spare couple of hours by booking a relatively late crossing
As it turned out, I was three hours too early for the crossing, and with the only options to spend an additional £80 to cross earlier, I elected to wait it out in the Eurot-unnel car park which could have been a bit soul destroying had it not for the fact I had a fully charged laptop and a load of movies on a USB stick that I’d not watched.
It might be of note that I left Germany in bright sunshine and blue skies, only to drive into cloud in the Netherlands, rain in Belgium, and an outright storm in France. Sitting in the Eurotunnel car park, I was occasionally distracted by the massive screens showing departure times as then wobbled in the wind. Even the car itself (now renamed as “Panzer” for obvious reasons) would shake when a gust hit it.
Eventually I was called to queue, then we boarded and as (nearly) always, the Eurotunnel service was like clockwork. I disembarked into darkness, and the worsening storm.
The drive home may have actually been the hardest part of the entire week. Panzer would be hit regularly by sideways gusts, making driving at anything over 70mph quite tricky. Actually, anything over 70mph might have been daft anyway because of the amount of water on the road.
It didn’t really improve at all, and I arrived home at 8:30pm, quite relieved to have stopped driving. I had intended to stop and eat en route but in the end I elected to press on and eat at home.
So there it is. A road trip to the Arctic. I have other ideas about a schedule if wants to have a go, and I regret the passing of the North sea ferry service because that would make a tour of this nature slightly different and possibly more ambitious (I’d go further North, and circle around into Northern Finland before returning through Sweden).
What I hope this has achieved is to advertise the possibility of such a road trip so that others might join me in future. I have an idea about maybe driving to the Tatra mountains in Poland, again in winter, spending a couple of days there enjoying the restaurants and whatever is there (others might want to go skiing), then circling back through an indirect route back to home.
Lemme know if you fancy it.
Edited by Watchman on Wednesday 19th February 19:29
Final trip stats
4,284 miles / 74 hours 6 mins (driving time)
Diesel 718.69 litres / £908.97
Hotels (inc breakfast) £578.03
Other food and drinks (includes a "wine run" on the way to Eurotunnel on the final Saturday) £158.18
Transport and tolls (Eurotunnel, ferries, tolls - does not include any road charges) £365.21
4,284 miles / 74 hours 6 mins (driving time)
Diesel 718.69 litres / £908.97
Hotels (inc breakfast) £578.03
Other food and drinks (includes a "wine run" on the way to Eurotunnel on the final Saturday) £158.18
Transport and tolls (Eurotunnel, ferries, tolls - does not include any road charges) £365.21
Edited by Watchman on Monday 17th February 21:11
A very well written account of a great trip; thanks.
For years it's been my ambition to do a similar journey though as a precursor to a longer drive, from Nordkapp to Sagres, around 3,500 miles, just the two of us, all via B-roads in our '63 Riley and navigating using tulip diagrams just as we did LeJoG last year.
Here's the approximate route which, at around 200 miles a day, ought to take us two weeks - of course driving to the start and home again will add a day or two to that and a mile or two to the distance
:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/Nordkapp,+Norway...
For years it's been my ambition to do a similar journey though as a precursor to a longer drive, from Nordkapp to Sagres, around 3,500 miles, just the two of us, all via B-roads in our '63 Riley and navigating using tulip diagrams just as we did LeJoG last year.
Here's the approximate route which, at around 200 miles a day, ought to take us two weeks - of course driving to the start and home again will add a day or two to that and a mile or two to the distance
:https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/Nordkapp,+Norway...
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