Our Travels and Blog beginnings.

Sunday 30th July. 282miles.....454km. Krusa is not the cheapest of campsites but the facilities are good and it has a good park that the boys love. Logan has stated that it is his favourite campsite as both times he has been there he has made friends, that is just Logan down to a tee. He is a people person, always wants to be outside and even more so if there is someone to play with. Callum has also definitely enjoyed other kids company too, they can both make friends wherever they go.  So, we were not away early this morning, as soon as breakfast was finished they were out in the park playing on the zip slides and climbing frame and waiting on the big inflatables to be blown up for some bouncing action. They had also befriended a boy from the Czech Republic called Oliver, he had a really fast remote controlled car and the boys had some fun playing with that also until a pin or clip coming adrift put end to play with the car. His dad did not have the spare part with him to fix it. ...

Saturday 29th July. 220 miles.....351km  Our parking spot near Tversted had been good and is noted for future trips, it was busy with vans but perfectly quiet and clean. It's Saturday and was probably busy as kts the weekend and people are here for the lovely walks and cycles that can be done. We had used it as a stop off as we wanted to revisit the North Sea Oceanarium at Hirtshals, the boys had really enjoyed this 4 years ago, Callum remembered some bits, not so Logan. We were on the road just after 9 30am and at the aquarium before 10am....yet again, not exactly a racing start which always has a knock on effect later in the day...never mind. We all agreed that this is a better aquarium than Copenhagen  (though it was good also) and we were here for quite a while, we ended up having lunch here too as we had not much food in the van for sandwiches etc. I like this place as it pretty much exclusively about what lives or has lived in the local area, there are no south American ...

My nephew Sam left Scotland just under 1 year ago to start a new job and life in Norway. Thats the reward for sticking in at school and university. He's just in his early 20's and has doors open to him that were never an option for me. That is not a complaint at all, I am more than happy with my life and career, it has been good to me and I can only thank my parents for the path they guided me on. Sam was the first Easson family member to attend university and passed his degree with flying colours and now he is reaping the reward for his hard work....well done nephew!! So, on this trip I had a hope to visit certain people and the last person on that list....purely from a geographical point of view was Sam. My trip down a "more" interesting road yesterday probably cost us an hour of time as we were further away from Oslo than I had hoped but we were up early and soon had breakfast and on the road to Oslo. The roads were totally dead, with almost zero cars on them all t...

Back in 2019 Callum and I had climbed the Skogshorn a 1728m high peak in the area. It was a good achievement for him at the time as he was only 4. Logan did not climb the Skogshorn as be was too young....he might well (and probably would) have managed it but he didn't attempt it back then. So, I had designs on getting us all up another of Hemsedals Topp 20.  Its a bit of a tourism marketing ploy but I think it's a good one, it gets visitors exploring different areas in the valley and gives a good reason (not that you really need one...its stunning) to return to the area. Just as in ski run gradings they have given each hill a colour grading, green, blue, red and black....easy to hard. 20 hills in the area have been listed and when you climb one of the hills you can for a small fee at the tourist office buy a little pin badge. I have for the last 4 years been looking at Callums lonely Skogshorn badge hanging on the curtain in Bessie and always wanted to go back and add to it.  ...

Wednesday 26th July. 76 miles. The Jutenheim had been wet when we arrived, it rained through the night, and the forecast wasn't great but when we woke in the morning it was really looking quite promising. I had woke and got up earlier today after an earlier night to try and get things going at a better hour.  The plan was to get down to Hemsedal so the boys could do the aerial assault course which is good fun. But with the weather looking nice it seemed crazy to just shoot through this stunning area so after a quick map purchase I had a little hill in my sights....I got the usual faces at this suggestion but it would only take a couple of hours tonget up and down it and it would give us a better view of our surroundings as its quite isolated but also central. So by 10am we were yp the road a little bit and the boots were on and we were off towards a little hill called Gjendehøe. The road runs at 1000m above sea level here and the summit at 1257m was an easy wee peak for us. We were...

Tuesday 25th July. 191 miles. Frosta to Jutenheim. It was a lovely morning at Frosta and we weren't in any rush to leave. It is Callums birthday today so he had a few cards and presents to open when he got up and we enjoyed that special time. Unfortunately for him it wasnt going to be the most fun birthday as we had to head south today, he would get his fun soon enough. The boys had a fair old play on the swings with their new friend Lucas but eventually it was time to say goodbye, which as it is for me is difficult for them, they just make a new pall and then we take them away, but they understand its part of being on the road.  We headed back onto the E6 at Asen and then after an expensive shopping splurge at Malvik....my fault to be honest...loads of big packs of cured meats...beers...and a bottle of whisky at the vinmonopoly saw us fully stocked again for the next while. Back on the road we headed past Trondheim and south via Oppdal where again I had to stop for a snooze...it a...

The Frosta peninsula and the campsite at Asholmen was a really beautiful place. Tomorrows forecast is bad so we decided to stay put here for another day. We can do our driving when the weather is bad. So, after breakfast and a little look at the campsites local walks board I had a plan. I checked out the start of a walk and all seemed fine...I knew the way. So after explaining and selling it to the boys and Joyce we headed along the shore and found the start of the red markers up through steep hillside. We had chatted to a local lady at tbe end of the road who said all would be good. I had already done the first section up and back down and it was straightforward. The route was really nice, the path was small and not always easy to follow but between the path and the red spots we made upward progress for quite a while. I had no map (which I hate) but have an App on my phone which shows our location and that coupled with the markers made me happy. But this route just kept on going. Ther...

We woke at our wee parking spot at Nevernes and soon got breakfast out the way. And got Bessie ready for some miles south. The sat nav said 512km to Trondheim which is around 312 miles...that's a long way and we wanted to be in that area tonight. So we were on the road not long after 9am.  Sunday was a good day to travel, there were hardly any big trucks in the road, nearly no cars also. Most of the vehicles we saw were fellow motorhomers heading north or south. The E6 is a good road, mostly nice and wide. There are a few sections which are currently being improved but we met no roadworks that caused us any delay at all. It is also very scenic. We crossed tbe E12 road at Mo I Rana which a few days previously we had used to travel from Tarnaby in Sweden to Svartisen in Norway.  One of the bigger towns we passed through were Mosjoen and not long after here we stopped in a rest area and had lunch. I ate too much and this was a mistake for me, and soon after had to stop for a slee...

It was 10am by the time I surfaced. Joyce, Callum and Logan had been up for a couple of hours but knew I needed sleep. I actually didn't feel too bad and was soon up and on the go...the Kubb game was soon back in full swing. Logan again was on the Norwegian team.  Eirin soon made up a fine breakfast for us all and after a few coffees, some tasty eggs and bacon and various local cheeses we were all feeling better...well, those of us who had overindulged last night felt better. Unfortunately today we had to leave Inndyr again. We have pushed it a bit to make it this far north in rather a short period of time and we are well aware that we still have a lot of miles to do to get home. I really hate only being able to stay here for such a short period of time but staying another night would put too much pressure on us to get back south and into Denmark and we don't want that pressure. So it was with a really heavy heart that we had to say our goodbyes. I am terrible at this an d feel...

After using the lay-by that we were (maybe) not supposed to be in, and catching a big fish I was in good spirits today. We had chatted and had already decided that if the weather was good we would take the boat over the fjord and walk up to the glacier as we had done in 2019. Its a fine walk and the boys would remember more of it if we took them again. Also, I love a boat trip and a trip to see a glacier brings back memories of my alpine climbing days....which...are hopefully not over. Were ready to go at 9:30 and the boat was just leaving with the first group of passengers, it was not long before it returned and ferried us over the Holandsfjord to Engen where we hopped off and started our walk up to the glacier. The weather was good, and although the boats were quite busy once everyone was off and dispersed it never felt busy. The walk went much faster than in 2019 which was just aswell, as with all glaciers around the world the walk to reach this one is now much longer. Its receded n...

It was another nice morning when we woke up at Reipa, and as soon as breakfast was finished Callum and Logan headed along the little play area whilst Joyce and myself sorted out Bessie. We were ready to leave the campsite at about 11am, there was no rush this morning. Today we were going to meet up with Dag and Eiren at their hytte in Inndyr. However both Dag and Eirin were working as it is Friday and Dag had had a very busy week at work and would not finish until about 3pm, then they would get organised and be at the hytte by 5pm. So we had time to go and do something for a few hours and we decided to head up to the Salstrumen and see if the boys could catch some fish. We passed by Indyr, and after a few tunnels we crossed a big bridge which had some people fishing under it, we carried on a bit further and came to a fuel station, that was something we needed so I pulled in and filled up the tank. This place also sold the Norwegian style hotdogs and the smell got the better of us and w...

Part 1...Tarnaby It was yet another gorgeous morning when we got up and we decided to do a small hill walk from the campsite, just to try and get a bit height to get a better look at the lakes and mountains. There was a 800m plus hill within easy walking g distance and that would be fine for the morning. After breakfast we got on our boots, packed a couple of small rucksacks and got on our way, up a road initially and then a bit if path to tbe summit. The bottom half was in the trees a d the top section clear of trees but covered in scrub and juniper bushes, really nice and green looking and very different to our generally treeless and heather clad hillsides back home.  Soon we were on the top and the views were really nice out over the lakes and also some much higher and glacier clad peaks to the northwest which would be on the border with Norway. We headed back down the same way. There were other ways down but today we needed an easy descent. There were loads of flowers and bushe...

The beavy rain that had battered down all night was stopped by the time we had got up and it was a fine morning. I got myself a bit annoyed at us not having a plan, but after a wee debate we weighed up the pro's and cons of heading further north. The main pro is without a doubt meeting our friends from Bodo, Eirin and Dag who are keen to see us again also. It almost seems rude to have got this far up without making the final push to Bodo to give them a visit. The cons are, it's still a long way north of where we are, 2 big days if you want to do it quickly. And of course 2 big days up means 2 big days down. The other con is that we will not see as much of the central areas of Norway that we would like to visit. My thinking at the moment is that we will need 2 days to get back down from Bodo to Trondheim, and another 2 days to get down from Trondheim to Oslo or Larvik. And for those 4 days of driving we will actually have 7 days to do it in, so we can afford the time and we will...

 It was a fine morning and although Oje was a nice wee place it was time to move on north. We got the van all tidied up and went across the road to the other campsite to empty loo as there was no chemical waste at the site we were at. Not a problem. So we soon got on the E45 north again, heading for erm...somewhere.... We haven't been very good this trip at hatching a definite plan...even just for a day and I still had a hankering to try and get up to Bodo to see Dag and Eirin....but it's still a long way to go, but the E45 is a very good road. What I hadn't realised is that it is actually the same road we had been on in Germany and in Denmark. The Europaveg 45 runs all the way from Gela in Sicily to Alta in Norway a distance of 3225miles...it is the longest north to south road in Europe. Some east to west roads are longer (wiki). The best thing about it in Sweden at least is that it's almost deserted, or at least has been on our route north. Yes, it gets a bit busier a...

 The forecast wasn't good for Oje, and infact isn't good for the next few days, but we woke to a reasonable morning. We got up and had breakfast, and tidied the van which was a bit of a mess after last night's fishing. I have been looking at the map constantly wondering how far up is sensible to go. We have friends in Bodo who we would love to visit...but it a loooong way north. We can make it there but I think it means the second half of the holiday would be purely driving....and we are not here for a driving holiday, we want to stop and explore places. Also, a driving holiday is not fair on the boys, they are young and want to be out and about...well...actually we want them to be out and about.  So, myself and Joyce had a chat about what to do and came to the conclusion that Bodo is simply too far north for this trip. We decided the sensible thing to do was to head north west over into Norway about the level of Trondheim, that would allow us plenty time to meander south s...

 It was a wee bit drizzly in Ragnerud campsite when we woke up, not bad but enough to not enthuse us to get out and do another walk in this lovely area. So, it was a leisurely morning getting the van ready. The boys had another play in the park and we left at about 11am with the aim of getting back onto the E45 Europaveg road. I had set Malung as a rough target for the day...a long day of driving but this is a good road and the scenery is now pretty good. It's a bit of a balancing act.....how far can we head north that will still allow us an enjoyable journey back south which had to be done, and will be done through Norway rather than Sweden. There's no issue at the moment as we still have plenty time but each day further north is at least the same back south......anyway.... The smaller 172 road and then 164 over to Amal were really nice....it felt like moose🫎 country but no moose's were spotted. The E45 from Amal to Saffle have a green line in our atlas meaning "scen...

 We woke to a gorgeous morning, we have not been super early getting up but this far north it is light pretty late at night so there's no rush to go to bed and no rush to get up in the morning and getting the boys out their sleeping bags after staying up til 11pm takes a bit of time, lol. We polished off the last of our Danish strawberry's for breakfast today and they were delicious.....probably the only strawberries to taste as good as Scottish ones....well actually not true...Ina had strawberries also that were just as good. We made up some sandwiches, packed a couple of light rucksacks and dug our boots out the locker....Joyce was questioning why it needed to be boots and not just trail shoes...well...I didn't know what was required and suggested boots would be the safest option, so boots it was. We only have a rough map, but also an App the Bjorn had put me onto so we had enough to go on...and also the coloured tape around trees and paint splodges on rocks made navigati...

 It was really tempting to stay put I'm Copenhagen, we had friends who were visiting there also on their own separate holiday but their agenda and ours didn't allow for a meeting sadly. We prefer to be out in the countryside rather than in a big city and Copenhagen can wait for us. So, we got the van all sorted, had showered in the excellent marina facilities and paid a visit to the supermarket to stock up on beers and a few other bits before crossing to Sweden where things are more expensive.  After this we were back on the motorway and heading over the spectacular (and expensive) Oresund Bridge....it is 16km long. Heading from west to east it starts off as a tunnel....pops out onto a man made island and then rises onto a huge bridge. Its an impressive feat of engineering but one that looks far more spectacular in aerial photographs than it does whilst actually crossing it. We now curled around Malmo and headed north towards Gothenburg not exactly knowing when or where we wou...

Wednesday 12th Billund to Karstrup 165 miles. The weather through the night had been a mix of perfectly quiet to torrential thundery rain battering off the van, but when we woke in the morning it was dry and reasonably bright. The host of the campsite/bnb knocked on our door at 8am as she had said she would and we were presented with 12 lovely warm, straight out the oven rolls in a nice little basket. That was breakfast sorted.....there is nothing like the smell and taste of freshly baked rolls or bread.  We had decided the night before that we were going to head east past Odense towards Malmo passing Copenhagen on route. We are not really city people and although Copenhagen has lots to offer tourists I would prefer to be in the country surrounded by nature.  It was just around lunchtime when we reached the Store Belt Crossing, am impressive bridge linking the islsnd of Fyn with the island of Haslev with their respective cities of Odense and Copenhagen. I took a wrong turn jus...

Tuesday 11th July. 75 miles plus 5 miles to camping just north. Four years ago on our big trip we had visited Legoland and ever since then both boys had said they wanted to go back, so we were within striking distance and decided to give them a bit of what they wanted. We were not super early up and on the go and the forecast wasn't perfect but we got our tickets booked on line which is cheaper than at the gate and got ready to go. We ate a whole tub of yogurt between us rather than let it waste in our less than cold fridge, sorted the van and headed to rema2000 for ice which we duly packed into the bottom tray in the fridge...then crossed our fingers and toes and hoped it would help matters. It had been on gas all night but there's so much in it that we wondered if we were just overworking it, time would tell. We headed up to Billund and got parked, the carparks were most definitely busier than 4 years ago... but that had been in May before the school holidays. We headed in an...

 Monday 10th July 291 miles Monday was a much cooler morning when we woke up. We sorted out all the van as we wanted to try and get up north beyond Hamburg and possibly as far as Flensburg a distance of around 300 miles. Ina, Bjorn, Monika and the 3 dogs were all up and about and we had to say our goodbyes and thankyou's. I hate doing this, especially after such a great time. But all good things have to come to an end and we know (God willing) that it will not be another 4 years before we meet again....either here in Germany or over in Scotland. Hopefully Ina and Bjorn can visit Scotland over the next couple of years and maybe love it as much as they do Norway 🇳🇴. So...at about 9:15 Bjorn headed off to work and we maneuvered Bessie out of the drive that been home for the last 3 nights.  Soon we were on the A1 heading north round Munster, Bremen and on to the A7 at Hamburg. 4 years ago we had missed the A7 turn off and ended up going the long way round Hamburg, today we got i...

 Sunday was always going to be a struggle....a 4:30am finish the night before and loads of alcohol is not good for me. Joyce and the boys were up quite quite sharp but it was pretty much lunchtime before I was able to roll out of bed. Hangovers are never good for me these days. After a coffee and a bit of a clear up in the garden a delicious breakfast made me feel better, but again the temperature was high, 36'c showing on the vans thermometer. So again it was a day of recovering and chilling out...we seem to be getting quite good at chilling out, lol. We stripped down the gazebo, tidied all the tables, cleaned the spit roast and generally all mucked in with what needed doing, many hands make light work and also it took my mind off my fragile state a little. We all had a bit of pool time but again it was too hot to take a wander down the woods. The thunder clouds were today gathering and for an hour or so some hefty claps of thunder and bit if a downpour finally cooled us all down ...

 It was a slow start for me this morning as I was a wee bit jaded after sitting up with Bjorn the night before, and by the time I got up he and his friend from across the road Andre were quite well advanced with preparing porky the pig for the nights hog roast, but the job wasn't complete and an extra pair of hands came in useful for getting the beast correctly mounted on its roasting spit....its an interesting experience preparing a pig as the first thing you do in the morning,  but I don't mind getting my hands dirty...so to speak, not that the pig was dirty at all but just a large lump of raw animal. After a bit of persuasion with a 3lb hammer and some spanners all the bits of metalwork were properly inserted and clamping the beast on position. Us Scot's are not used to seeing an animal prepared like this and in fact rarely see a complete animal of any kind before it's butchered and into nice little packages, so this was interesting for the boys too...they need to kn...

Friday 7th July. 162 miles The alarms had been set for 6:30am and it was just aswell we did, there was no announcement over the ships tannoy to wake us up which is unusual. We would not have slept in anyway as Joyce didn't sleep too well for some reason. Anyway, we got up and went to the dining hall for buffet breakfast and had our fill. The ferry docked in Rotterdam on a gorgeous morning and we were in Bessie and ready to disembark just after 8:30.  My sat nav was set to take us to the theme park called Efteling. It is supposed to be Hollands premier theme park and it would not disappoint. It was recommended by the couple we had chatted to the previous evening. It was a gorgeous day and we navigated the busy roads around Rotterdam with no problems. We arrived and quickly made some sandwiches for the day...these are not cheap places to visit so taking some of our own food saves a bit cash.  We had a few messages to and from Ina and Bjorn and it was agreed that we would aim to ...