Club 80-90 Forums

Part 1.

Tesco decided where we were going this year, as their club card tokens will buy Harwich to Hook of Holland ferry tickets. We decided that as we had never ventured further North than Amsterdam before we would go and have a look at Denmark, Sweden and Germany. A route was born.
Home to Harwich, ferry to Hook of Holland, drive to Copenhagen, across the bridge to Sweden, ferry from Trelleborg to Sassnitz across the Baltic, down to Berlin, and back to Hook of Holland. There would be three driving days to keep the holiday a holiday, but this meant driving nearly 500 miles a day for two days.
The holiday started in good weather with a lunch stop just off the A303 at Willoughby Hedge.



And on to the ferry for the over nighter. The weather deteriorated and the crossing was really rough. I did not get a great night sleep



Rotterdam was wet, and we stopped for a rather dismal breakfast in a car park on the outskirts of the town. We were heading 450 miles to Fynshav in Denmark to catch another ferry at 20.00hrs. At this point I was worried about the weather, and also the reliability of the Syncro. We got on the motorway soon though, and had 250 miles done by lunch time. The weather was getting better, but our progress was slowed by the confusing signs on the motorway relating to towing. Much of the German autobahn did not allow overtaking by trailers between 0800 and 2000hrs (or similar). This kept progress down to around 90kmh which is much slower than I would like to have driven at. The drive did take a couple of hours longer than I anticipated. The van ran really sweet though, but we were battling into a very strong and buffety headwind, so fuel consumption was way down at 22mpg (from a usual 25mpg) The German autobahn was not in particularly good nick, to my surprise, and several stops at rest areas were met with dirty poor quality facilities.
Denmark loomed after the German town of Flensburg and a beautiful drive out along Route 8 on perfect tarmac to the ferry town of Fynshav. Denmark immediately looked cleaner, neater and prettier than Germany, and there was a clear difference at the border which is unusual.




We arrived in Fynshav at 1815hrs, for the 2000hrs ferry and parked up near another Escorial green camper. Two coppers came and parked next to us, and soon got into conversation. They were very nice and the older one had been policing for 44 years. They were on the look out for illegal immigrants, but happily we did not see any.
The ferry arrived, and was nearly empty. Across the Little Belt we went, and it was very reminiscent of the Inner Hebrides, but without the mountains in the middle of the numerous islands. We arrived on the Danish Island of Fyn an hour later and used Tom Tom to locate a campsite 300m from the ferry. It was a beautiful evening and camp was set by 22.00hrs. Very tired.
Morning came and it was raining, very heavily. A quick tour of the campsite revealed an indoor pool, restaurant, and some excellent facilities including ovens in the cooking areas.



We were the only brits there and with the forecast looking bleak we checked into a camping hut on the site.




This turned out to be a blessing as the weather was stormy showers and sunshine. The camping hut had two beds in the eves, one looking out over the sea. The grass was so wet that 4 wheel drive was engaged for the one and only time on the trip.

The lawn mower man at the campsite had an escorial green Doka.

There were simply loads of T3 around, more than we saw in Germany!

We visited Odense and Svendborg, and had beautiful walks through the very well manicured countryside.

Odense.


A trip to Valdermars Slot showed a very affluent country. The supermarkets were very expensive, I would guess that shopping was a little over half again as expensive. Milk was twice the price.






We happened to pass a Syncro dealer who had a stacked forecourt, unfortunately the owner Eric Thing was not there, but his wife let us have a look around.
http://sydfynsautocamper.dk/





After 4 very relaxing days by the indoor pool we headed for Copenhagen, and travelled over the Storebaeltsbroen a very large bridge that connects the island of Fyn to the island of Sjaelland on which Copenhagen sits. Quite a dull drive, but very windy again.

We camped in Copenhagen at an old fort called Charlottelund. This was a great campsite with 16 Howitzer anti ship guns, and the showers etc situated in the old armoury deep within the fortress.

syncrosimon wrote:

Wow, what conversion do you have ? It looks massive inside!!

more pics chap!!
did your register your stinko at Exeter DVLA ? ive just done mine and got a plate not too far from yours......

we just did a month in baltics/scandinavia in a stinko. £40 for a 'bargain bucket' in KFC , oh the irony............

Post a route off Google maps ......

Here is the route.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl=en& ... 1ff5a6&z=6

Cant get the map on the post.

Part 2.

This is the excellent bridge from one island to the next. Cost 35 Euros to cross,


This was a real thrill to drive over, land only just being visible when you set off. This was one of the driving highlights of the holiday. Now the 2.1 DJ was humming along so strong that I had forgotten my reliability worries of the first long drive. We were still ploughing into very strong winds now coming from the South. Very little traffic on the 2 lane motorways.

This is the campsite, not cheap at around 40 yoyo's a night, and was full! Met a brit in a T4 from Cornwall. 2 brits out of 50 pitches!!





The campsite was just 6km up the coast from the Copenhagen harbour, so we made use of the bicycles and cycled into Copenhagen on three days. we did not use the Syncro once from this campsite.



The wonderful statue of (i forget ) Miss Sweden who made a bet with the devil that he would grant her any land she could plough in a night. She turned her 4 sons into oxen and ploughed all of Sweden. The devil was mightily narked, and tore a great lump of land from sweeden, and threw it into the sea. The bit he tore off left the great lake in the middle of Sweden, and the lump of land became the large island that Copenhagen now sits on. The two pieces are remarkably similar in shape.

Nyhaven


Cool dude.


Danish street furniture.








Copenhagen really caught our hearts, was a great city, just the right size with plenty to do. We have vowed to return at Christmas for the markets.

The Danes proved to be delightful host's and we were only ever met by kind and polite people who seemed to enjoy living in a very well regulated society.

Part 3. Sweeden

We just wanted to go to Sweden really to say that we had done it, and also to go to Ystad where TV cop Wallander works from. It also formed a bit of a short cut down to Berlin by getting a ferry from Trelleborg to Sassnitz in Germany. The weather was really blowy again when we left Copenhagen abd we set out for the big bridge to Malmo in Sweden.

75 Euros to cross this.


The weatehr was rough, so we headed for Trelleborg without the detour to Ystad. We found another campsite with camping huts (using Tom Tom poi) and as the ferry was at 0745hrs we booked one night.





This place was great, and cost about 60 quid for the night!!! It was an Ikea special.

In the afternoon we explored the local town of Trelleborg, which was very normal. The Sweedish supermarkets though were much better stocked than the frugal Danes, and I managed to get a few stickers for the back of the syncro.

We came across a new T5 4 motion Sweedish elecricity van, the modern replacement for syncroswedes soon to be sold T3.





There was time for a spot of kiting in the gale force winds on the desolate Baltic coast.


The ferry was a 4 hour crossing, and cost just over 100 euros

The Baltic was as rough as rats. On a near head on with a tanker you could see the waves crashing right over the bow of the ship.




This took us to Sassnitz, a strange communist looking place in Northern Germany, with a breakwater made out of huge cubes of concrete that looked like sugar cubes.

Part 4. Germany.

The wind was extraordinarily strong, and blowing straight from the South making for a blustery ride down through the beautiful countryside of Northern Germany. We spotted an orange Syncro camper, and numerous Westfalia's. Another great bridge was crossed, one that loomed out of no where and had really quite a gradient up and down.

We spotted a Dacia Sandero of Top Gear fame in front of us.



We decided to leave an immaculate brand new unrestricted Autobahn and head for the woods on our way down to Potsdam near Berlin. This took us through Neubrandenburg where we bumped into a fellow ferry passenger in a T3 towing a clapped out caravan, they looked like they were living in the set up.

We then hit what may be the best road I have ever driven, the E251 from Neubrandenburg to Oranienburg. This 80 mile stretch is the old main road to Berlin before the A20 was built, but now carries only tourist traffic. It wends and winds it's way through forest of all sorts, and meadows, and lakes, and villages, all of which are picture postcard perfect.





The flat four was purring along like a kitten, so strong, so quiet, just the perfect VW moment. She was now running better than she has ever done before, and still had not required any oil or water. I had not even opened the engine hatch to check, as she was just signing to me that all was well!!

we arrived in Potsdam and found (pre booked) a wonderful lakeside pitch set in amongst oak trees.




Me and Jack used the excellent communal facilities to cook up a hearty curry.




I only carry that big frying pan, and one saucepan in the Syncro as it does everything.

Lots of old T3's around in germany which clearly are not as loved as the ones over here.


the campsite had a free T5 shuttle bus to take you to the local tram station where we accessed the excellent trains into Berlin and Potsdam.


We preferred Potsdam to Berlin, very pretty place with palaces and gardens and lakes, and a great deal of re development money. I love Weiss Beer.



In Berlin we found a VW/Bugatti dealer, and they had a Veyron in stock.

Man that vehicle is the best, just a beautiful work of art typifying what makes VW special. The engineering on it was like you would find in a Rolls Royce jet engine, the very best.

The show room had a great interactive display downstairs better than the Science Museum, we satyed a couple of hours. The only VW that was not in the show room was the Fox, much to our disappointment.

This is a reduction gearbox that starts with a motor going at 200 rpm. the worm and gear reduction on 6 cogs means that the breeze block at the back turns once ever 2 trillion years!


They had 4 motion Caravelles and Californias there, they were both 60,000 Euros!!


Berlin was an impressive city.


The trip was educational so we visited the Holocaust memorial center, just near where Hitlers bunker was.


Jack did not go around the center which is under these concrete slabs, but we did and it was a very moving experience which from then on tainted out view of the Germans, and made us feel uncomfortable in the vast forests surrounding Berlin, knowing what had gone on there. it is not the same image I conjure up of King Henry the 8th prancing around chasing stags that you get from our big forests.

We spent two days at tropical islands. The Autobahn getting there was brand new the E55, and we cruised at around 90mph for 10 miles chasing a T4, it being a pathetic diesel could not keep up with the power of the flat 4 ( )

We stopped in some of those big forests for breakfast en route, but did not require 4x4.



There were people collecting mushrooms which grew in abundance and were selling them from their car's.

Tropical Islands is a waterpark built in a 1980's Zepplin hanger deep in the woods at an old airbase.





It was just amazing, had a real jungle in the middel and proper waterfalls, and the highest flume in Europe at over 90ft. Fantastic. we went twice and sacrificed an extra days traveling to get the extra day.

This meant that we left Berlin at 10.00hrs heading for the ferry at 21.30hrs with 768km in between. According to trusty Tom Tom we had a 5 hour lee way for the arrival time. no problem thought I!

This time the wind was a cross wind, but still heavy. This blew our home made tarp off, we stopped at a truck stop next to this beauty.



My boys took the mick out of my pathetic 8 inch trailer tyres when up against that bad boy.

Things on the motorway then took a turn for the worse, and we came up to a stationary line of traffic about 60km before Hannover. we sat for 90 mins and had hot dogs, and eventually exited the motorway to try to find a way around, well Tom Tom did, and directed us to the next junction. we found that the autobahn was still stationary there so carried on again using Tom Tom road block to Hannover, drove right passed the factory and got back on the Autobahn. We had lost 4 hours and our arrival time was now just an hour short of the ferry leaving time. I was towing a trailer, but had to press on, and sat at 120kmh for the next 4 hours through to Rotterdam. The Autobahn had been closed to allow resurfacing, which a lorry driver told me the German workers will not carry out at night. Argh.

The Dub was running strong and we were overtaking everything, we were able to keep the Tom Tom arrival time static by considerable use of the right foot.

i did encounter one curious problem. After 3 hours of foot to the floor (3/4 throttle) the engine started running rich on all throttle positions except flat out. the lambda gauge was reading 1.2! I did not have the time to stop to investigate and as oil pressure was sat at 3 bar at 120kmh and 90deg C I ignored it. After a stop for petrol she went abck to normal, I imagine it was an ECU fault caused by heat and vibration, and the switching off of power re-set the computer.

When we hit the Netherlands after around 350 miles there was an immediate change to the most immaculate motorway I have ever encountered.The E30 is about 1/2 a mile wide with enormous verges, and billiard smooth tarmac. The wind had dropped and the sun came out and we flew along in a waft of flat four heaven.
The boys were tired.

They were stars.
The E30 Utrecht


We got to the ferry at 2045hrs, and boarded straight away. What a day.


After a smooth crossing we were back in Harwich, a quick stop off at Redbourn to see my folks and we were heading for home.

3751km and we were home.

What a trip. The A303 was deserted, and I nailed it down not needing 3rd gear for any of the hills. The Syncro was driving beautifully and I fell in love all over again with this great machine. She went from full on the dip stick to half, no water and achieved 23.5 mpg. My dad has just done a T4 Syncro trip of Scotland and averaged 29.5. We would have saved £120 in fuel if we had the diesel, no thanks, the flat four is worth every penny.

The dub never missed a beat, I took spare wheel bearings, coil, other electrical bits, a strobe, camber gauge, and every spanner to do any job. I did not get one single tool out, nor was the engine hatch opened once. The trailer equally was perfect.

Next year we will probably take the ferry to Santander and do Portugal and Northern Spain, cant wait.

Simon.

Looks like you had a great trip.
Some fantastic pictures and a great write up.

Fantastic write up of what sounds like a fantastic trip

ELVIS wrote:more pics chap!!
did your register your stinko at Exeter DVLA ? ive just done mine and got a plate not too far from yours......

we just did a month in baltics/scandinavia in a stinko. £40 for a 'bargain bucket' in KFC , oh the irony............

Yes registered mine at Exeter. The DV bit is Exeter.

We saw Mars bars for sale at £1.70!!

Greetings from Montenegro!

Awesome trip, Simon. Can't wait to see the rest of the pics.

Makes me sad to sell my Syncro but that won't stop me travelling!

Catch you later...

Great pics Simon. I really like the one from inside the hanger of the water park.......very 2000AD

Great pics and story. I aspire to do journeys of that nature when my two are a bit older and out of their kiddie seats. Thanks for taking the time and effort to create this thread.

Nice report Simon; nothing better than a sweet running T3 on the open road. Looks like the roads are pretty neat and tidy compared to Corsica/Croatia.