XC60 in Norwegian Fjords - Pics & Storyline...

[RoyMacDonald]

Originally Posted by Arianne

Click



I saw the Beano in the Lighthouse Cafe as we passed through to check out the Poland - Portugal score on tv. Spoke to a really lovely Polish guy on the car deck this morning while waiting to disembark - what a lovely nice guy, with his little boy. They both spoke great Engish, live in Aberdeen. I mean, how can people be so rude about fellow citizens from Planet Earth?

• Spotted a Volvo V60 with a D6 engine. Do we have these in the UK? What power output is the D6? Could have asked the lad to take a picture but when I looked at him he had fallen asleep and he would have thought I was a true nerd if I had woken him up just for that!
  

Best wishes folks.

Arianne

PPS. C'on Wales. Watching it on Danish TV. Wow!

The Poles were among our best, most heroic pilots in WWII as well, taught us how to really mess up an enemy aircraft. They flew in to within a few meters before they fired and literally cut the enemy planes to bits. They have my respect.

Yes, we share the forum with the V60 D6. It's the diesel hybrid.

Volvo V60 D6 Plug-in hybridPrice: £47,000 (£42,000 with grant); 0-62mph: 6.2 seconds; Top speed: 145mph (approx); Economy: 149mpg (unofficial); CO2: 49g/km (unofficial); Kerb weight: 1975kg (approx); Engine: 5 cyls, 2400cc, turbodiesel with electric motor; Power: 212bhp at 4000rpm plus 69bhp electric motor; Torque: 324lb ft at 1500-3250rpm plus 147lb ft electric motor; Gearbox: six-speed automatic

Roy

[Arianne]

respect! Both of them.

[Arianne]

Not a high point people

Expensive but nice cabin. But turfed out three hours before arrival in Bergen because they have a quick turnaround and need to clean it. Same for everyone else so finding a perch to settle upon with the family is a challenge.

On balance, this isn't value for money. I would recommend exploring either the bridge to Sweden coupled with an overnight hotel stop and long, but scenic drive or maybe the DFDS Immingham - Gothenberg frieght overnight ferry (which I have only just found on Google).

Images will follow but delay is due to me using the iPad but photos need to be copied across to my laptop.

There is a better way to do this part of the journey. Thought I should mentioned this. Folk often only post good news but wanted to give others a heads-up on this one.

Drive to Urke ahead, should pick up!

Arianne

[tem]

Originally Posted by Arianne

Not a high point people

On balance, this isn't value for money. I would recommend exploring either the bridge to Sweden coupled with an overnight hotel stop and long, but scenic drive or maybe the DFDS Immingham - Gothenberg frieght overnight ferry (which I have only just found on Google).

Arianne

I have looked at this crossing before and one had to go via Gent in both directions. (Volvo use this service for car transport)
This is a new service and with all freight ships, passengers are limited.
Certainly worth considering.

http://www.dfds.com/freight-shipping...burg-immingham

tem.

[NigelDay]

Or this.
http://www.directferries.co.uk/hirts...sand_ferry.htm
Further to drive but only a short daytime crossing.

[tem]

Originally Posted by NigelDay

Or this.
http://www.directferries.co.uk/hirts...sand_ferry.htm
Further to drive but only a short daytime crossing.

Too far from the North of Scotland.
I used to visit Umea (Sweden) on a regular basis, but since the crossing from Newcastle to Sweden stopped, I have not been back.
By air, is not an option, as I do not like flying and to go back by car would take 6 days, each way.
Will look further into the DFDS Freight crossing.

tem.

[Arianne]

Made it

Here are some images in chronological order. First up, just to reassure anyone out there from the Volvo Community that might want to reserve our XC60 for themselves in January/February 2017, we continue to pamper the girl even before we set off for this epic journey - here she is on our drive, fully loaded:




Next up, spotted these Referendum Special Edition Norwegian biscuits in the little store of our hamlet this morning and couldn't resist them! The store closed in 1990 but because the 80 residents would be forced to catch a ferry across the fjord to their nearest shop and fuel station, they opened it as a community enterprise. They take turns running it! Anyway, here are the biscuits:




Aarhus Art Gallery exterior:




Cabin on Fjordline overnight ferry from Hirtshals (Denmark) to Bergen:




Small ferry crossing fjord on E39 heading north from Bergen to Romsdal:




Awoke this morning to:




Took a trip down to the jetty to check out the boat that comes with the cottage and parked alongside the little Kaihus Café on the shore:




Popped along and spotted the boat, moored exactly where the cottage owners had promised and fully prepared for us:




But thought we better pop into the Kaihus Café for a coffee & waffles first. Spoke to the owners and took a peek at their visitors' book:




And finally, you guys warned us that Norway is expensive but nothing could have prepared me for just how expensive. 200g packet of crisps, over £2.50 and this medium sized tub of margarine comes in at £2.70. I'll post an international money transfer bank account for donations so we can eat and find our way home - even a small donation is appreciated!




Back to the Brexit theme. I posted last year that I recall how varied Europe was as a small child taking holidays with my parents in Germany. It all felt very different as you passed through each country. The last 40yrs have seen what I would describe as homogenisation across everything from the Marathon chocolate bar to Vauxhall's car range with Opel. There's a lot of advantages to this but it does dilute the experience of a holiday in Europe when much appears similar.

Not so with Norway who are not part of the EU, just paying friends. It feels very different, the products are very different and all that EU labelling isn't there. Crisps are full fat, probably will lead to an early death but taste fab! Denmark is the half-way house with its own currency, old-fashioned border checks on the motorway upon entry and different road signs.

Will post some more images as they come through. I have never driven through so many tunnels of such length as in Norway. The road infrastructure is quite stunning, beating the Swiss in some respects. They've certainly put some of their Sovereign Wealth Fund to good use from their oil revenue.

Have a nice week folks...

Arianne

[rkennedy]

Originally Posted by Arianne

Made it


And finally, you guys warned us that Norway is expensive but nothing could have prepared me for just how expensive.

Arianne

Just wait till you get to Copenhagen!

[Arianne]

The debate about AWD is a long and bitter thread. I had AWD on my last XC90 but chose to opt for the VEA D4 FWD on this XC60. My thinking was that FWD + winter tyres = bliss in snow & great fuel economy, low VED and new Volvo engine.

For the most part that has been true. But, just occasionally, I miss the AWD system and here in Norway is one of those occasions. Our cottage (they call them hytte here, no idea how you pronounce it) sits high above the fjord and is accessed via a single track road. The tarmac surface peters out about half way up and then it's crushed stone the rest of the way. It's steep for the final bit up to the cottage.

Maddi, the local farmer's wife, welcomed us on arrival and stood aside as I tried to make a 180deg hairpin and get up the last bit (all our junk in the boot needed to be humped up so I wanted to get as close as I could). All the weight was on the rear wheels and my Pirelli Scorpion summer tyres couldn't get any traction. I applied the electronic brake (thank goodness that holds properly) and tried again but she just got bogged down. I surrendered and Maddi suggested that, next time, I might want to try reversing up as the weight would be on the front wheels (apart from the fact that I haven't seen anything other than AWD XC60s out here and she probably didn't think much of an SUV on 20" Ixions in Passion Red struggling to get up the slope!).

So I tried the reversing strategy but the slope is too steep and the gear ratio isn't short enough in reverse. I slipped the clutch (it's a manual box) but she still stalled and I don't want to damage the clutch so we abandoned that attempt.

This place is fabulous but I do feel like our XC60 is a bit out of place. I have discovered that, from Bergen to Urke, Norwegians don't seem that bothered about their cars, unlike us Brits. And the same was true of Denmark where the cars are generally older and there are fewer premium brands.

Anyway, Norway is great but I have just decided to give up even trying to think about the costs of a holiday here. It is eye watering, much more expensive than Switzerland last year.

0.3l bottle of Sprite - £4 sir! Three non alcoholic soft drinks, two waffles and a cake - £26, enjoy! Popped through yesterday to a (slightly) bigger grocery store about 30mins drive in a village called Hellesylt. We were hoping for cheaper groceries but this never materialised.

Tomorrow looks like the big trip to Geiranger UNESCO place. We'll pop the car on the Hellesylt - Geiranger car ferry for just over an hour, soak up the fjord views, take a trip oop top of the Eagle Road for the views, then the Dalsnibba toll road for a high level view down across the fjord before returning via a place called Stryn. Weather is crucial as it's pointless if there's too much low cloud. So, through the wonders of the internet, we have found a site that tells us all of this information so we can make the call at the last moment.

And finally, can someone back in Blighty make sure that there's still an economy to come back to in a few weeks. From here, the BBC is painting a grim picture of sterling taking a pounding, BoE saying risks are crystallising and investment firms suspending withdrawals from their big property funds. Honestly, you go away for a few weeks and the country goes to the dogs. A few years back we returned to the UK and found riots had broken out everywhere!

Best wishes & happy days.

Here are some images, sort of car & Volvo related...


First up, spotted this Subaru in Hellesylt wearing an STi badge. Neither me nor the lad have seen this before - a Forester wearing an STi cloak? Is that real, I thought only Impreza's got the STi treatment?



To fellow Forum member 'uniqueue' thank you for the link to the cruise liner timetable as we only had a single ship in at Hellesylt when we popped across. folk from the boat bolted for the little bridge that straddles the waterfalls and then wandered aimlessly until the ship blew its horn and they all trotted back, leaving us to enjoy the whole village almost to ourselves. Found a great 'boutique' coffee house (see TripAdvisor) - is everything 'boutique' these days (hotels, coffee shops and, of course, little clothes shops)? Boutique car anyone? Next VW Beetle, me thinks, with the little flower holder in the dashboard?





Norwegian food prices - someone has a sense of humour about it...





FWD, Pirelli Scorpion Summer Tyres, Crushed Rock Track & steep does not equal traction...

[RoyMacDonald]

Great photos Arianne. They probably can't afford new cars Norway with the price of food like it is.

The shops here are not putting their prices up this week but might be by the time you get back. The riots haven't started yet. Had some big demonstrations but that's all so far.

Don't read the thread in the lounge and introductions Brexit- real pluses and minuses that already happened. Might put you off your holiday. Chilcott should blank out Brexit news for a while hopefully. Parliament finds it easier to be able to blame and point fingers about something that happened 13 years ago rather than deal with a current constitutional crisis of their own making.

Might be an idea to start that diet you were thinking about.

Roy