Our 2024 Scandinavian Tour

This was an incredible journey through Europe with our two furry companions, Mabel and Bruno, has been nothing short of magical. Over the course of 31 days, we crossed 7 countries, drove 4,345 miles, and walked a whopping 486,589 steps (that’s 258 miles, or the equivalent of climbing 1,996 flights of stairs)! Along the way, we explored diverse landscapes, historic sites, and beautiful natural wonders, making memories that will last a lifetime.

From Dover to Calais: We kicked off our adventure with an easy crossing from Dover to Calais, followed by a relaxing afternoon on the dog-friendly beach at Leffrinckoucke where we spent our first night parked up right by the sea. The perfect start to our journey!

Belgium: The following morning we drove over to Belgium and to the woods at Kalmthoutse Heide where we enjoyed a scenic dog walk before heading to a local vet for the necessary worming treatment to enter Norway. From there, we hit the road, passing straight through Belgium and into the Netherlands, with plans to cross Germany and reach Denmark by nightfall. We were on the clock as we had a maximum of 120 hours to cross into Noway before the Dogs had to be wormed again!

Denmark: After a long drive we stayed at a lovely spot in the woods at Sorgbrück and the following morning we walked the dogs through a quiet forest before another drive up to Copenhagen over the great belt bridge, an incredible feat of engineering costing €2.8 billion! Although at £41 toll I’m sure they’ll get that back in no time. We decided to pay to overnight in a camper stop in Copenhagen harbour, so we could be close to the city for a nosey around before we before crossed into Sweden tomorrow.

No one told us it was going to be monsoon in Copenhagen. It absolutely bucked it down with thunder and lightning pretty much all day, so we got drenched going to see the mermaid (someone mentioned a naked chick on a rock so I was there in any weather!) then after almost swimming back to the van we dried off and left Copenhagen to the rain heading over the Øresund straight into Sweden, through the Drogden tunnel and then popped up onto the Øresundsbron bridge, a massive cable stay bridge with a combined length of over 8 miles that sets you down in Sweden. Another really impressive structure. Finally we drove up to the outskirts of Gothenburg where we parked up in the woods for the nigh! Tomorrow we'd finally get to Norway!

Sweden: After a peaceful night in the Swedish forests in Surte, we had a lovely walk through the woods past some beautiful lakes, but this was only around five mile long, before we decided to hit the road for our final stint up and into Norway, so we basically drove most of the rest of the day straight up the main E6 to get the rest of the way to the border finally crossing into Norway 1526 miles from home! We continued on until we found ourselves parked up by the sea at Sætre looking forward to the fjords, forests and mountains for the next few weeks!

Norway: After our night at the beach in Saetre, and a dent in the van from a drop down barrier I didn’t notice dropping down we drove to Sokna where we had an unusual walk following a path that wasn’t a path, more like a 7 mile scramble through beautiful pristine woodland, but we did see our first Norwegian deer, and a large skull lost in the forest. Then we drove over to in Fla for the night to stay on a not so glamorous shopping centre car park, but it did have services (and the most expensive asparagus known to man!) We had decided on a slow drive over to Aurlandsvangen, apparently Norways Grand Canyon!

After a night in the woods we had another fine walk in the forest near Nesbyen and our first Norwegian mountain, Klevarudnatten, at 808m only a baby one. The walk was great, through broken woodland and forest with more deer, lakes and views. After Klevarudnatten we went on to Vestland to find the Norway you see in picture books, passing a small herd of reindeer along the way. We parked up next to Lærdalsfjorden to stay the night under mighty granite precipices surrounding us!

The following morning after leaving Lærdalsfjorden we drove from sea level straight up the Bjørgavegen mountain pass to nearly 5000ft and across the mountain tops, stopping of at Flotane for a short walk around the lake and waterfall and a play in the snow before continuing on to our main walk of the day, a 1700ft straight climb to the summit of Prest which gave us a spectacular view of the world heritage Aurlandsfjorden landscape and the mountains beyond. The weather here changes in minutes, worse than the UK. We had weather go from sunshine to cloudy and overcast, we had showers and at one point sideways hail, all in the space of a few hours. We even met some newly weds going for a hike, literally in their suit and wedding dress! Finally we settled for the night parked back up in the mountains on a small carpark at 4300ft!

That evening as we watched the sunset we didn't realise it, bit it was the last that would see of the sun for a while! The following day mainly chucked it down, however we did manage go to Stegastein viewpoint to look at the cloudy view through more rain, then we drove over to Vøringsfossen, a massive waterfall that again was hiding behind the rain and mist. We decided to stay the night on Vøringsfossen car park in the hope the view cleared up a little, and it certainly did, wow what an impressive waterfall in the morning, 600ft high and funky footbridge that tests your nerve at the top!

From Vestland and the Vøringsfossen waterfall we went to Rogaland and a very steep walk up from the village of Odda up through the Folgefonna National Park and to the Folgefonna glacier. A 1500ft climb involving chains, ropes, steps, rope bridges over fast flowing glacial meltwater and a little bit of luck! The views were stunning even though it was raining, but the rain gave us our own rainbow near the top. Great views of the glacier and massive melt waterfall. Lots of other massive waterfalls on route the to Hjelmeland ferry where hopped over to Josenfjorden ready for a short trip to pulpit rock in the morning!

So we ventured out to Pulpit Rock, but made the mistake of leaving a little late as the morning weather was still not great. Consequently Everyman and his dog that could carry a pair of walking poles or who had just vacated Greggs (British pie shop) was on the path. Inittially quite a steep route climbing around 1500ft with some spectacular views at the end of the trail with 2000ft sheer granite cliffs down to Lysefjorden! This walk would have been a great day out without the crowds! From Pulpit Rock we drove over the mountain tops to get nearer to the Kjerag walk so as not to make the same mistake again and found an area adjacent to the road where we parked up for the night ready for an early start in the morning, first and night last night in the whole of Norway so far without 4G at 3200ft!

This morning were up at 6:00am to relocate the van a little closer to the start of the Kjerag walk and we set off at 7:00am to make sure we avoided the midday rush and making the most of the better weather. This walk turned out to be an absolutely stunning walk up to the summit of Kjerag the highest peak around Lysefjorden and then on to the famous Kjeragbolten for the photo opportunity I’ve wanted for for many a year and the main reason for the drive up to Norway form the UK. The boulder is wedged in between two cliffs at around 3280ft high and there is no illusion, it really is wedged in with that drop straight down to the Fjord below! Arriving at the boulder for around 9:00am was brilliant, there was no queue for a photo just a friendly group of fellow walkers happy to take each others pictures or help each other on and off the rock. After lingering on the top plateau, we eventually took a slow walk back down the steep inclines assisted by chains where we got back to the van. On the way down we passed hoards of clickety stick carriers on their journey to the end of a what would have quickly become massive queue forming for the same photo we took effortlessly a few hours before! This was a brilliant day, with quite a challenging walk due to the steepness in sections, however it is only around six miles walk there and back. That evening we returned to the van and stayed where we were for the night

The following day we decided to give our legs a rest from the Kjerag's 30,000 step walk with over 2500ft height gain, we had eventually covered around 15 miles! We decided that a short walk over the mountain top off the high mountain pass (3200ft) would do. A strange rocky landscape where people had piled stone towers literally everywhere, we only walked a couple of miles, and then continued driving away from the high mountains and back towards Oslo and Sweden beyond, hopefully before we need to fill up with diesel again!

Finally our trip into Norway came to an end with another lovely picturesque walk, our last walk was in the hills around Dalen on the way back to Sweden. That evening we drove back into Sweden to see if we could find some sun!

Finally a small not to mention was that we couldn't quite believe how expensive Norway was to shop and didn't know how every Norwegian didn't suffer from either scurvy or malnutrition due to the limited range of fresh fruit and veg available in any of the shops or supermarkets we went into. There was practically nothing fresh to choose from in any of the supermarkets? and to give you an idea on prices the following are just an example: £14.70 for a six pack of beer! £3.98 for a 1 1/2ltr bottle of Sprite; £4.05 bag banana flavoured sweets; £1:75 litre milk; £2.00 4 clementines and £4.00 small bag oven chips

Back in Sweden: We had stayed the night near Saffle next to lake Vanern, a huge fresh water lake not far from the Norwegian border. Here we had another great walk around the side of the main lake and a couple of smaller lakes and through forests. This landscape seemed best to describe Sweden to us, beautiful lakes and forests. For a change we took a little time to spot the smaller stuff for a change!

After Saffle we continued further around lake Vanern which is also the largest lake in the European Union at 2180 square miles, and parked up for the night in Vanersborg, a small town on the southern tip of the lake. We managed to get a premium spot in the harbour right by the water, we were lucky as these apparently fill up fast during the day. Free parking, free toilets and free fresh water, where in the UK would you get that? The following morning we woke up to the Swedish sunshine and an 8 mile walk in the nearby forest with nothing but silence all around, we only saw 2 other people all morning, more stunning woods and lake views.

After our walk through the woods we decided to explore the the town of Vanersborg, after all the harbour park up was only a around 300m from the edge of town. Vanersborg is a lovely town with plenty of shops and a large town square where people were playing boules. We stayed here a further night and repeated our walk through the woods again before driving heading further south a little and parked up at Tjolöholms Slott Castle for the night. Not really a castle more of a stately home, but the first house built of bricks we had seen in a while!

We started the day with a walk around Tjolöholms Slott castle grounds and headland, a nice circular route that takes you through the grounds, but also through woodland and along the coast before heading back into the grounds of the castle. After exploring Tjolöholms Slott castle we headed south and back over the Oresundsbron bridge and tunnel, and back for our second attempt to explore of Copenhagen, hopefully out of monsoon!

Denmark: Our second attempt to explore Copenhagen was much more successful with much better weather. We parked back up again in the harbour where we had parked on the way up, but this time didn't use the camper stop, we just stayed in one of the parking bays, but because of our previous visit we still had access to the toilets and water! Copenhagen City centre was only a short walk away and is a beautiful city, a little like Amsterdam we thought, we even had another visit to the little mermaid sculpture, this time in the dry!

We drove from Copenhagen to Muller Up Strand on the west coast of Zealand. There we had a day off in the sun and just walked along the beach, managed to get waist deep in the sea parked up by the beach for the night with a fine view of the Great Belt Bridge, with the combined suspension and box girder bridge had the second longest span in the world when built (now the 6th) at 1 mile long , but a total combined length of 11 miles long!

The following day we only moved 5 miles up the road to Reersø for a 6 mile walk around the headland and through the beautiful village full of thatched cottages, then we moved back to Muller Up Strand for a bit more dossing by the beach!

after our second night at Muller Up Strand we ventured back across the 11 miles of the Great Belt Bridge and officially back into mainland Europe! This took us to Jelling to discover a bit about our Viking ancestors (let’s face it, we all have a bit of Viking in our DNA!) The Jelling Stones are considered the birth certificate of all of Denmark. One raised by King Harold Bluetooth (yes that’s where your Bluetooth device gets its name!) as a monument to his father, Gorm, it proclaims Harold as conquerer of all of Denmark and Norway, the first time Denmark had ever been mentioned in history and states Denmark’s conversion to Christianity ending the pagan Viking era. Erected in 965 alongside another stone raised by Gorm in honour of his wife Thyra. The whole complex consists of a church, two large burial mounds, the blueprint of a large stone ship and new steel posts symbolically standing where the outer oak perimeter fence of Harold’s once stood. Not only is this place stepped in history, it is well presented, impeccably clean and free to see, they even light up the stones at night where they look even better! Glad we made the effort…..Skoll! Tracey also went window shopping for a bungalow before imagining herself as a shield maiden!

Just on the outskirts of Jelling we found and paid our respects to the seven crew that died when Lancaster bomber, Lancaster III JB725 crashed whilst being attacked by the German airforce. The site is marked by a memorial stone and the aircrew buried at the Fovrfelt cemetery in Esbjerg. Then we went over to Rømø island, a stunning little island that’s part of the Wadden Sea National Park. Miles of open sand you can drive and park on, unfortunately there were strong winds and drizzle, felt like you were being sand blasted so we retreated to the woods for a walk and discovered a few WW2 German bunkers. Finally we drove down into Germany to the small village of Neukirchen for what looked like it was going to be a stormy night!

Germany: We didn't do much the following day, we drove to Neukirchen and found a stopover where we had free parking, water and toilets.We were also treated to a bag of apples, a bag of pears and 2 boxes of plums, all free from the village trees! We also had a walk in the local woods.

Due to the weather (it’s rained most of the day) we drove Hohenlockstedt and finally managed to get a dryish walk through the forest. We ended up with a 5 mile walk through the woods finding more hidden German bunkers. Then a drive through Hamburg to Furstenau where we are parked by the castle (more like another posh big house) near a lovely small town and gardens, we were even surrounded by a moat where we stayed that night! Sadly by the evening black clouds and high winds appeared from nowhere and had us retreating into the van!

Our last day in Germany took us to Berg Bentheim to see its 11th century castle. It was only a quick stop as we were heading over to find somewhere to stay in Amsterdam, We ended up parking over the river from the city as we could park up for free and walk to the ferry which was also free to get into the city.

Netherlands: We had the usual wander around Amsterdam City centre. Its extrordinary architecture rising form the canals, cafes, bars and tat shops. We also had a wander through the red light district and all the Marijuana bars, but sadly on this visit to the city it just looked dirty, (parts have always looked a bit seedy). There was a build up of rubbish on the streets and the canals were full of floating trash and there seemed to be food waste just thrown to the floor. Im not convinced we will ever go again!

The following day was mainly spent driving past windmills to a beautiful beach that we had been to before. Strand Van Zoutelande beach on the Zeelandic islands in the Netherlands is a stunning place, it's just a bit short of free park up sites so to make life easier we decided to stay here for a few days and treated ourselves to a couple of nights on a camp site in Koudekerke about half a mile from the beach…how civilised! The following day even though we are on a camp site we still managed to walk 12 miles today, 7 miles up to the village of Zoutelande where there was a lovely market (reminded me of the once great Newcastle market) with hidden dragons teeth German anti tank defences hidden in the woods and the rest along the beach with the sunset. Lovely day finished off with a cheeky vodka outside the van!

Belgium: Sadly we finally left the Zeelandic islands and Holland behind and drove to Bruges, Belgium for the night (Our dogs were booked into the vets there for their wormers to return to the uk). Wow, what a beautiful city Bruges is, we managed to get a paid spot on a camper park up right in the middle of the city, Bruges mainly consists of stunning buildings pretty much everywhere and it had such a relaxed atmosphere. We had a great walk around the city centre and all the posh chocolate shops, I even climbed the 366 steps to the top of the belfry in the main square, and the view was worth it!

France: Our last couple of days consisted of firstly a drive back down to Leffrinckoucke where we stayed for the night again taking in another a long walk along the beach, this time past the wreck of the Claude London, a water tanker supplying the troops during WW2. Sunk by the Germans on May 29th 1940! Following Leffrinckoucke it was our last full day in the EU, we mainly spent it walking in Rue Des Forts park and wandering on the beach at Plage de Zuydcoote staying close to Calais for our ferry back to the UK in the morning…those Germans did love concrete!