Road trip 2023

Eber123 · Jul 10, 2023

Hello,

For a while (3x years actually) we wanted to visit Scandinavia, even up to the North Kapp. In 2023 finally we managed to go ahead with it.

We left home on the 15/05/2023 and arrived back on the 28/06/2023. Here is an overview of the journey:

In 45x days we visited 13x different countries and drove a distance of 10.722 km.

Overall I can say the GC 600 did well. We had no problems at all. Driving was a joy and the camping part never caused any problems. For us the beds are very comfortable (ok I added a mattress topper). The wet room is small, but still big enough to use.

For us it was an overland trip, meaning constantly on the move visiting several countries. Very quickly we found our "rhythm". We got up early, had breakfast and left at around 9 am. Traveling about 250 km to 350 km. At around 3 pm we looked for a site to stay overnight (which could be "wild", aire or campsite). The rest of the afternoon we explored the surroundings, had dinner and went to bed rather early.

It worked out well, because I thought it is good for the dog to have a routine, even though the places she was changed every day.

Beside Germany traffic was quite and weather (except Norway and North Finland) was actually ok. The North Kapp was very cold and stormy. We stayed there for 36 hours but left at 4 am because the storm was too bad. Also the storm brought in the snow which didn't help with the road conditions:

For a kilometre or so I couldn't distinguish what was road, ditch or gras. It took us 15 minutes to get through that. Other cars with summer tyres couldn't leave at this point. Here is a picture of our side window, just before we left:

It was a wonderful experience which my wife and I loved. On the way from Rosslare home we spoke about it and we both agreed that we could have been away for another 2x weeks at least.

Traveling Grand California
Eberhard

wildslammer22 · Jul 10, 2023

Eber123 said:
Hello,

For a while (3x years actually) we wanted to visit Scandinavia, even up to the North Kapp. In 2023 finally we managed to go ahead with it.

We left home on the 15/05/2023 and arrived back on the 28/06/2023. Here is an overview of the journey:

View attachment 110937

In 45x days we visited 13x different countries and drove a distance of 10.722 km.

Overall I can say the GC 600 did well. We had no problems at all. Driving was a joy and the camping part never caused any problems. For us the beds are very comfortable (ok I added a mattress topper). The wet room is small, but still big enough to use.

For us it was an overland trip, meaning constantly on the move visiting several countries. Very quickly we found our "rhythm". We got up early, had breakfast and left at around 9 am. Traveling about 250 km to 350 km. At around 3 pm we looked for a site to stay overnight (which could be "wild", aire or campsite). The rest of the afternoon we explored the surroundings, had dinner and went to bed rather early.

It worked out well, because I thought it is good for the dog to have a routine, even though the places she was changed every day.

Beside Germany traffic was quite and weather (except Norway and North Finland) was actually ok. The North Kapp was very cold and stormy. We stayed there for 36 hours but left at 4 am because the storm was too bad. Also the storm brought in the snow which didn't help with the road conditions:

View attachment 110938

For a kilometre or so I couldn't distinguish what was road, ditch or gras. It took us 15 minutes to get through that. Other cars with summer tyres couldn't leave at this point. Here is a picture of our side window, just before we left:

View attachment 110939

It was a wonderful experience which my wife and I loved. On the way from Rosslare home we spoke about it and we both agreed that we could have been away for another 2x weeks at least.

Traveling Grand California
Eberhard

Looks and sounds like a wonderful experience. It’s on my bucket list. Did you luck out with the Northern Lights?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

66tim99 · Jul 10, 2023

Eber123 said:
Hello,

For a while (3x years actually) we wanted to visit Scandinavia, even up to the North Kapp. In 2023 finally we managed to go ahead with it.

We left home on the 15/05/2023 and arrived back on the 28/06/2023. Here is an overview of the journey:

View attachment 110937

In 45x days we visited 13x different countries and drove a distance of 10.722 km.

Overall I can say the GC 600 did well. We had no problems at all. Driving was a joy and the camping part never caused any problems. For us the beds are very comfortable (ok I added a mattress topper). The wet room is small, but still big enough to use.

For us it was an overland trip, meaning constantly on the move visiting several countries. Very quickly we found our "rhythm". We got up early, had breakfast and left at around 9 am. Traveling about 250 km to 350 km. At around 3 pm we looked for a site to stay overnight (which could be "wild", aire or campsite). The rest of the afternoon we explored the surroundings, had dinner and went to bed rather early.

It worked out well, because I thought it is good for the dog to have a routine, even though the places she was changed every day.

Beside Germany traffic was quite and weather (except Norway and North Finland) was actually ok. The North Kapp was very cold and stormy. We stayed there for 36 hours but left at 4 am because the storm was too bad. Also the storm brought in the snow which didn't help with the road conditions:

View attachment 110938

For a kilometre or so I couldn't distinguish what was road, ditch or gras. It took us 15 minutes to get through that. Other cars with summer tyres couldn't leave at this point. Here is a picture of our side window, just before we left:

View attachment 110939

It was a wonderful experience which my wife and I loved. On the way from Rosslare home we spoke about it and we both agreed that we could have been away for another 2x weeks at least.

Traveling Grand California
Eberhard

Fantastic! Would love to have 45 days for this. I’d like to go up the Norwegian coast perhaps though.
What do the A - G circles mean?
And the white circles?
Any ‘must-sees’ or other tips gratefully received

Camperfamily · Jul 10, 2023

Amazing effort, @Eber123. That’s an inspirational road trip!

Eber123 · Jul 11, 2023

Hello @wildslammer22,

Unfortunately it was to late for the Northern Lights, more Midnight sun.

For the future we try to see if we can arrange a trip to Norway, but than closer to the autumn. We would love to see it.

But I want to avoid to go too late so there is snow on the roads. For just one trip I don't want to buy a set of decent winter tyres. My Michelin Agilis CrossClimate should be enough.

Regards,
Eberhard

Eber123 · Jul 11, 2023

Hello @66tim99,

To have some idea where we want to go I used for planning Googles "MyMaps".

Each layer of Googles MyMaps can "hold" 9x stops. If you plan more than 9x stops you have to create a new layer. Each stop will get a letter. Here is a screenshot of a layer:

The white circles around the letters of the map is when I put the cursor over the layer.

In general I like Google MyMaps, but I have not found an easy way to load those stops into Google Maps of the phone. So after I created the tour I created a list for each layer in Google Maps and saved the stops in the list. This is time consuming and I am sure there is a better way - bu I haven't found it yet.

The only "must-see" item that we had on the list was - the North Cape. Beside this we just enjoyed the areas where we parked the camper overnight.

Regards,
Eberhard

Loz2286 · Jul 11, 2023

Great trip. Would love to see more pictures.

Eber123 · Jul 11, 2023

I will post some pictures of the tour. Maybe best I add pictures of each country in their own post.

Let's start with Sweden:

Regards,
Eberhard

Eber123 · Jul 11, 2023

And here are some pictures of the North Cape.

Regards,
Eberhard

Eber123 · Jul 11, 2023

From the North Cape we went to Finland. Unfortunately the weather wasn't great and I was a wee bit afraid that we were running out of gas for the heating. Up there there is only one LPG filling station in Norway, in the North of Finland none.

Regards,
Eberhard

Eber123 · Jul 11, 2023

We took the ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn. The ferry trip was only 2 hours or so and no additional vaccines or so needed for the dog. Hurray! I was amazed how busy the ferry was. They loaded so many trucks into the ferry that I thought there is no room for us, but it was.

I believe that (most) of the border crossings from Finland to Russia are closed. We drove to Narva and there the crossing was open. It was not super busy, but busy enough.

Regards,
Eberhard

Eber123 · Jul 11, 2023

Next country was Latvia. The landscape is wonderful, as are the little villages. Here it started where we saw storks (I hope that is the right word). I can't remember when I saw so many of them.

A nightmare were the small country roads. Google maps brought us to those roads and so we drove about 75 km on Latvian small country roads.

Oh my God are they bad. I consider them worse than off-road. We drove some dirt roads in Finland, but in comparison those roads in Finland were motorways.

66tim99 · Jul 11, 2023

Eber123 said:
Next country was Latvia. The landscape is wonderful, as are the little villages. Here it started where we saw storks (I hope that is the right word). I can't remember when I saw so many of them.

A nightmare were the small country roads. Google maps brought us to those roads and so we drove about 75 km on Latvian small country roads.

Oh my God are they bad. I consider them worse than off-road. We drove some dirt roads in Finland, but in comparison those roads in Finland were motorways.

View attachment 111012

Now that small Latvian country road doesn’t look all that bad, but I know you didn’t get the GC over that bridge

Eber123 · Jul 11, 2023

Next was Lithuania. Again the landscape was beautiful, villages as if the time stood still.

The small country roads were a wee bit better, but not that much. If you are in this area - be aware.

Eber123 · Jul 11, 2023

Then we arrived in Poland on a Friday. We chose a campsite not so far away from Gdansk, because we wanted to visit it. What we haven't thought off, that on that Friday there was a bank holiday in Poland. Oh, it was busy. We were very grateful that there was space for us on the campsite.

Saturday we went to Gdansk. The old part of the city is wonderful and far bigger than I expected. They did a wonderful work here. Well worth a visit.

Eber123 · Jul 11, 2023

From Gdansk we decided to visit my brother, which lives not far away north of Frankfurt. It took us 2x days to get there. The first night we spend in a German "aire", beside a little harbour. It was brilliant, very nice place. The second night in a campsite that was just ok.

In Germany we preferred aires or campsites because "wild camping" is not allowed and in some areas not tolerated. To avoid problems we decided not to push our luck.

Traffic on the German motorway was terrible. Rows of rows of rows of trucks. Normally there where 30 or 40 trucks in a row. To overtake them was difficult. I didn't enjoy that part of driving.

Eber123 · Jul 11, 2023

From Frankfurt we drove through Luxembourg and Belgium. Why I have no pictures from here I don't know. We went to a campsite in Luxembourg which was brilliant. Belgium of course we had to have chips, which were very tasty.

My wife always liked France and I begin to understand way. We stayed a few days in France before we went home on the ferry from Cherbourg.

We got a card from "Camping-Car Park". Which I think is brilliant. I wish that we would have this in Ireland. You get your card, you setup your account, put a few Euros on it and install the app on your phone.

What is "Camping-Car Park"? The way I understood it is a company that has several hundred aires mainly in France but also in Benelux and Germany.

With the app you can check where the next Camping-Car Park aire is, if there is still space and if you can wish (but you don't have to) you can book your site. When you arrive at the aire of your choice you just drive to the barrier and swipe in. At that point the money is deducted from your account.
It worked very well for us and we will certainly use it again when we are in France again.

Of course we had to visit "Mont Saint-Michel". We stayed 2x nights in an aire (of course Camping-Car Park") 5 km away. There was a canal, away from the road so we thought we could walk. Well, at the end we walked 11 km in rather warm weather (which was a bit too much for our poor little dog). "Mont Saint-Michel" is awesome, but everything that is awesome is heavily visited. So we stayed there only an hour.

Looking back we were (and are) very grateful that we 1.) were able to make this trip, 2.) that we had no bad experience with people (break ins etc.), 3.) that we had no car accident, 4) there was no problem with the Grand California and 5.) that we had no "mega stop and go traffic". All went well.
We saw a lot and our daily routine turned out that it suited us well.

Cost wise it was ok. Ferry crossings are expensive, living in Ireland we can't avoid it. The next highest cost was for diesel. We filled up the camper every 2nd day. Only once (in Finland) we payed over EUR 120.00, the rest of the time we stayed normally under EUR 100.00. We didn't go out for dinner only twice, and shopping was not that expensive. In Scandinavia we had a mix of wild camping and campsites. On the continent we mostly used aires and campsites. Aires in France were not expensive, in average EUR 15.00 incl. electricity (can't complain about that). The most expensive campsite was in Germany the night before we arrived in Frankfurt, which was EUR 38.00.

Eber123 · Jul 11, 2023

What is next?

My wife and I decided that we will visit the "Caravan Salon Dusseldorf 2023" at the end of August. We will have 3x full days on the fair. Can't wait for it. I already started to make a list of what to see and with whom to speak.

For next year we want to go to Romania and Turkey. I will start planning for this in September.

As I said above, we are grateful that we can do this. That we are still healthy enough, that we can afford it and that we live in part of Europe that gives us the freedom and right to travel in peace.

Regards,
Eberhard

Regards,
Eberhard

TreborGC2020€ · Aug 30, 2023

Eber123 said:
From Frankfurt we drove through Luxembourg and Belgium. Why I have no pictures from here I don't know. We went to a campsite in Luxembourg which was brilliant. Belgium of course we had to have chips, which were very tasty.

My wife always liked France and I begin to understand way. We stayed a few days in France before we went home on the ferry from Cherbourg.

We got a card from "Camping-Car Park". Which I think is brilliant. I wish that we would have this in Ireland. You get your card, you setup your account, put a few Euros on it and install the app on your phone.

What is "Camping-Car Park"? The way I understood it is a company that has several hundred aires mainly in France but also in Benelux and Germany.

With the app you can check where the next Camping-Car Park aire is, if there is still space and if you can wish (but you don't have to) you can book your site. When you arrive at the aire of your choice you just drive to the barrier and swipe in. At that point the money is deducted from your account.
It worked very well for us and we will certainly use it again when we are in France again.

Of course we had to visit "Mont Saint-Michel". We stayed 2x nights in an aire (of course Camping-Car Park") 5 km away. There was a canal, away from the road so we thought we could walk. Well, at the end we walked 11 km in rather warm weather (which was a bit too much for our poor little dog). "Mont Saint-Michel" is awesome, but everything that is awesome is heavily visited. So we stayed there only an hour.

Looking back we were (and are) very grateful that we 1.) were able to make this trip, 2.) that we had no bad experience with people (break ins etc.), 3.) that we had no car accident, 4) there was no problem with the Grand California and 5.) that we had no "mega stop and go traffic". All went well.
We saw a lot and our daily routine turned out that it suited us well.

Cost wise it was ok. Ferry crossings are expensive, living in Ireland we can't avoid it. The next highest cost was for diesel. We filled up the camper every 2nd day. Only once (in Finland) we payed over EUR 120.00, the rest of the time we stayed normally under EUR 100.00. We didn't go out for dinner only twice, and shopping was not that expensive. In Scandinavia we had a mix of wild camping and campsites. On the continent we mostly used aires and campsites. Aires in France were not expensive, in average EUR 15.00 incl. electricity (can't complain about that). The most expensive campsite was in Germany the night before we arrived in Frankfurt, which was EUR 38.00.

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