Nordic travel plans August / September 2017

[Debs]

David & Liz are getting married at a restored water pumping station.....Very industrial & to be honest you have to fit the wedding around the building

Oh....That's a collage done in Google pics, I've not loaded one to here before.

That's really kind if you if you do make the NMA. Dogs are allowed too but not in all areas.

 

[Figaro]

Don't get too carried away with the idea of good weather for the weekend.
Tipping it down now in Derbyshire and good weather may be bit err, patchy.

 

[DavidG58]

This is us nearly at Calais stopped for coffee and pain au raisin hope we bring the sun with us

 

[Riverbankannie]

Looks like you've got the selfie thingy worked out, nice photo.

 

[daveandsan]

Are you safely home yet? @DavidG58

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[DavidG58]

Thanks Dave

we ended up with a massive delay at the chunnel (3 hours, massive to us just sat in in the loading queue) so opted to drive home overnight, road closures (as mentioned by Paul @Badknee on the morning thread) what a joke, that and the impossibility of finding even a parking place at motorway services, eventually stopped at J15a M1 had McDonalds at 02:00 , power nap then set off to deal with the closed M1 actually better than we expected, but not home till 05:00

woken at 08:30 by our builders with a stone cutting saw who hadn't spotted that we were home so early night coming up for us

will add up some of the costs and review the trip over the next few days

good to be home though, if we ever do such a long trip again (miles) it will be for even longer (days) and the trip will include the return journey not make it just a drive home

 

[Badknee]

Thanks Dave

we ended up with a massive delay at the chunnel (3 hours, massive to us just sat in in the loading queue) so opted to drive home overnight, road closures (as mentioned by Paul @Badknee on the morning thread) what a joke, that and the impossibility of finding even a parking place at motorway services, eventually stopped at J15a M1 had McDonalds at 02:00 , power nap then set off to deal with the closed M1 actually better than we expected, but not home till 05:00

woken at 08:30 by our builders with a stone cutting saw who hadn't spotted that we were home so early night coming up for us

will add up some of the costs and review the trip over the next few days

good to be home though, if we ever do such a long trip again (miles) it will be for even longer (days) and the trip will include the return journey not make it just a drive home

It was bad last night, I've never seen anything like it. Starting from @eddievanbitz @21.30, fuelled up in Taunton then hit the M5. Almost immediately it told us the M4, M1, M42 was closed and it went on and on. M6, M54, M56, M62. If I was still driving I would have the RAC app on my phone or sat nag as their pretty good at reporting hold ups and closures

 

[DavidG58]

A little update, I have been nagging Bev for details on the tolls which had been set up by her and mistakenly charged to her own account

I had done some research and with some guidance had got the Orendsun crossing at the best possible rate by buying a frequent travel pass, that should have been €100 each way for that bridge / tunnel crossing alone, with the pass which cost €40, we then only paid €44 each way, however we also had to use the Storebaelt crossing, a near identical bridge / tunnel combination an although the pass also worked to cross it gave no discount

Then once we got to Norway after a couple of small tolls in Sweden, it seemed like every few hours we passed a few more tolls all picked up by the tag device and none of them huge

but in total including the bridges (€288) we paid a total of £380 in tolls a lot more than I had predicted / expected

on top of that we had to use several ferries for which we paid cash each time a total of 9 crossings with each one being between €30 - €70, I would guess another £350 or so, the ferries actually were all very good at not charging as much as they could have, our actual length is 8.2m, the first one asked if we were 6.5m I said nothing and Bev just paid on the others we simply said 8m, that being the upper limit of the band 7-8m, the costs went up by around 50% from each band, I think under 5m was the same as a car, we never got 5-6m rates once got 6-7m, the rest were 7-8m but typical ferries were €50, which would have been €35 if 6-7m and €20 if 5-6m and €15 for a car, in all cases you also pay for passengers

It always tickles / slightly annoys me that the fare doesn't include 1 driver, how else can it get on?? but I guess it allows discounts for crinklies, apparently a common trick in Norway is to send your wife to the loo as you board and only pay for one driver, we didn't stoop to that and never really worked how much we could have saved by doing it

Fuel we did almost exactly 6000 miles at as near as always 20mpg based on dash readout, seems about right in real life for miles between fills, typical price of fuel in Sweden and Norway was €1,3 / litre, so pretty much the same as here £1.20 / litre, making fuel cost £1600

we were away for 35 nights and stopped on a combination of sites / aires and 'wild'

aires were either free or around €10, with 3 free, 12 x €10

campsites all pretty much the same €20 / night x 6

17 free nights

when we set off I had a figure of £5K in my mind for everything spent, including the chunnel I think we had a total spend of just over £3000, a massive saving was made by not eating out once or buying a single drink, we did shop which was nowhere near as expensive as we thought and a lot of the shopping cost was picked up by A + R in return for free accommodation, we spent around £500 between all of us while in Norway for the period we were together plus about a week just for us 2, but food would have been bought at home anyway, we took a freezer full of mince and chicken breasts which made all bar 5 of the main meals we ate

we had an amazing trip, time was partly against us having to get back for Mum but just about the only thing I would do differently would be to add a few more days for the return journey, it is virtually half the total driven around 2500 miles from Lofoten back to Derbyshire which we did in 9 days and we were knackered when we got home we took 18 days to get up there, 7 to get to the Norwegian coast, 11 from there up to Lofoten and diversions to coast, 8 driving on and around the Lofoten then 9 home

but we ticked three big boxes off my hope to do list

a long held wish to drive over the arctic circle (from home not just fly and hire a car)

see close up eagles

see northern lights, the biggest of the wishes and the greatest pleasure to achieve, partly as the locals kept telling us we were far too early, I think they could be even better with snow on the ground, but getting there by MH just about impossible

very happy to pass on knowledge when we meet any potential travellers, we were assisted by a few funsters who have done similar and we thank @PJGWiltshire @Jenben @jumartoo and @jumar for input, ideas, maps and general encouragement

Next big trip will be south for Bev to get heat / sun although we were extremely lucky on this trip, I wore shorts and t shirt on all but 1 1/2 days when it rained too hard, the rest was virtually all sunshine and some quite warm early 20's C, but next time the nature reserves of north east Spain a la @Robert Clark are calling as is Totana, we will catch you up somewhere J + M

 

[jumartoo]

We daren't add up our bill for our time in Norway but we've spent about £1,500 on fuel for the five months trip and clocked up over 15,000 km. We're thinking of going back to southern Norway next year. That will be cheaper as no ferries once we're there.

I'll be looking at your future travel plans and will get the bunting out if you make it to Totana!

 

[Flatlander]

A little tip for those planning to travel to Scandinavia. In the post made by DavidG58, the Frequent Traveller pass is mentioned. Presumably what is meant is what is known as "BroPass" or "Brobizz" over there. The post also mentions that no discount is given when using the "Stora Belt" bridge. All of which is correct. However...

A better, smarter thing to do is obtain what is known as "AutoBizz." This not only gives the same discount for Öresund Bridge, but also the Stora Belt one. As a bonus, discount is also given on various Scandline ferries. Rödby/Puttgarden (between Germany and Denmark), Helsingör/Helsingborg (between Denmark and Sweden), as well as some others between Sweden and Germany.

The Helsingör/Helsingborg discount can be particularly useful in poor weather, as the Öresund Bridge can be dangerous or closed.

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[Jenben]

@DavidG58

Quick bit of advice of when you cancel your Bropass contract and return your OresundBizz pass. Don't do it until you've had it at least 6 months as they will impose a special cancellation charge (equal to 6 months ) on top of a prorata charge for the months you've used. This means you won't get as much back as you might expect. Ask me how I know:-(

@Flatlander. Interesting info thanks BTW The solution @DavidG58 mentions for the Oresund bridge is the frequent traveller programme "Bropass". This gives discounts of 50%ish - so even taking into account the joining fee of 40euros it effectively saves 20 euros on the normal price on your first crossing + 60 euros on each subsequent one. As a byproduct it also gives you a free toll tag for your convenience.

 

[Flatlander]

Interesting info thanks BTW The solution @DavidG58 mentions for the Oresund bridge is the frequent traveller programme "Bropass". This gives discounts of 50%ish - so even taking into account the joining fee of 40euros it effectively saves 20 euros on the normal price on your first crossing + 60 euros on each subsequent one. As a byproduct it also gives you a free toll tag for your convenience.

@Jenben quite correct, the Bropass solution mentioned does give that kind of discount. However, the Autobizz that I mentioned gives not only exactly the same discount over the bridge, but also on various ferries. Something Bropass doesnt.

One other point about entering (southern) Sweden. Formal proof of identification is now required for all, even Swedish citizens. In the case of most, this will be a passport, even if they do accept a Swedish driving licence for Swedish citizens. Since new rules were introduced a couple of weeks ago, all are checked. The customs also spot check more vehicles as well.