As some on here know, we've just returned from our six-week, nearly 5,500 mile trip to Norway. As I do not have any sea legs, we decided to drive across Northern Europe to get to Norway rather than use ferries. So, our route was down to Ashford for our first night before catching the Channel Tunnel the next morning. Then through France to Belgium for our second night. Day three was through the Netherlands to our next stop in Germany. Day four saw us staying in Denmark and five in Sweden, then finally arriving in Norway on day six. A lot of motorway driving but apart from huge traffic problems round Bremen and Hamburg it went ok. Had a bit of fun on the unrestricted parts of the Autobahn but sat for most of the time with cruise control engaged.
Once into Norway we followed a roughly circular route which was North up the East side of Norway across to Trondheim then South on the West side taking in the Atlantic Road and lots of Fjords. The scenery was a little disappointing to start with but once we got up a bit further North it improved a lot, then once over to the West and we were amongst the fjords it was stunning. You can’t travel down the West coast of Norway without using the ferries to get across the fjords. So, although I was concerned about my lack of sea legs, I need not have worried. All of the crossings were all as smooth as silk, no problem at all. Very smooth drive on drive off operations apart from one ferry where I had to reverse on.
We had 23 stays and mainly used hotels but also used a couple of conference centres, a Pilgrim Hotel, a guesthouse, a lodge on a camp site, an apartment and a couple of stays in schools that were used as hotels in the summer when the students were on their summer break. A problem we did find was that although we’d booked hotels with a restaurant quite a few times they were closed so we ended up going out to a local restaurant anyway. We did this as we didn’t fancy being in the car all day then having to go out to find somewhere to eat. We stayed overnight for the trip to and from Norway then had a mixture of two and three night stays travelling round Norway.
I gave the Zed a full service before leaving and she had some new rear boots too. Checked the spare and took a bag and some straps, just in case. She performed perfectly for the nearly 5,500 miles of the trip, she purred along with not one problem, I didn’t even open the bonnet. It just shows not all M54s drink oil
. I just filled her up with petrol, lots of times, in the more remote parts she had to drink E10 but she had E5 most of the time. She had three jet washes to keep her looking her best. She averaged 37.7 MPG over the whole trip which was helped by lots of motorway miles on cruise and the speed limit in Norway of 50 MPH and us watching the scenery.
She was fully packed with our clothes for our six weeks away, there wasn’t a spare place we didn’t use. We even had bags of clothes behind the seats.
We can confirm that Scandinavia is quite expensive compared to the UK. As an example, for my birthday meal, two glasses of wine were £32. Even shopping in the supermarkets was more expensive than UK. Anything with sugar or alcohol is heavily taxed so you pay handsomely for treats.
Some stats from our trip:
Total 5,412 miles
Roof Down 5,162 miles
Roof Up 250 miles
Roof Up for 4.62% courtesy of Paulines very detailed note taking.
Fuel:
# of Fill Ups 21
# of Litres 651.48
# of Gallons 143.33
Most expensive £1.94 /litre
Cheapest £1.24 /litre
Average MPG 37.76 MPG
Best MPG 39.93 MPG
Least MPG 29.62 MPG
Most Expensive:
Beer £17.24 for two 0.4 litres
Meal £78 for two reindeer steaks and £32 for two glasses of wine.
Overall, a brilliant road trip, would we do it again? In a heartbeat, yes, but not driving all the way again, like any holiday you learn such a lot the first time. I’d have to take a ferry or two as the motorways getting to Norway were pretty boring. So, it would be a bit different but certainly the Fjords and the Atlantic Road would stand another visit.
Some photos of our trip…
Once into Norway we followed a roughly circular route which was North up the East side of Norway across to Trondheim then South on the West side taking in the Atlantic Road and lots of Fjords. The scenery was a little disappointing to start with but once we got up a bit further North it improved a lot, then once over to the West and we were amongst the fjords it was stunning. You can’t travel down the West coast of Norway without using the ferries to get across the fjords. So, although I was concerned about my lack of sea legs, I need not have worried. All of the crossings were all as smooth as silk, no problem at all. Very smooth drive on drive off operations apart from one ferry where I had to reverse on.
We had 23 stays and mainly used hotels but also used a couple of conference centres, a Pilgrim Hotel, a guesthouse, a lodge on a camp site, an apartment and a couple of stays in schools that were used as hotels in the summer when the students were on their summer break. A problem we did find was that although we’d booked hotels with a restaurant quite a few times they were closed so we ended up going out to a local restaurant anyway. We did this as we didn’t fancy being in the car all day then having to go out to find somewhere to eat. We stayed overnight for the trip to and from Norway then had a mixture of two and three night stays travelling round Norway.
I gave the Zed a full service before leaving and she had some new rear boots too. Checked the spare and took a bag and some straps, just in case. She performed perfectly for the nearly 5,500 miles of the trip, she purred along with not one problem, I didn’t even open the bonnet. It just shows not all M54s drink oil
. I just filled her up with petrol, lots of times, in the more remote parts she had to drink E10 but she had E5 most of the time. She had three jet washes to keep her looking her best. She averaged 37.7 MPG over the whole trip which was helped by lots of motorway miles on cruise and the speed limit in Norway of 50 MPH and us watching the scenery.She was fully packed with our clothes for our six weeks away, there wasn’t a spare place we didn’t use. We even had bags of clothes behind the seats.
We can confirm that Scandinavia is quite expensive compared to the UK. As an example, for my birthday meal, two glasses of wine were £32. Even shopping in the supermarkets was more expensive than UK. Anything with sugar or alcohol is heavily taxed so you pay handsomely for treats.
Some stats from our trip:
Total 5,412 miles
Roof Down 5,162 miles
Roof Up 250 miles
Roof Up for 4.62% courtesy of Paulines very detailed note taking.
Fuel:
# of Fill Ups 21
# of Litres 651.48
# of Gallons 143.33
Most expensive £1.94 /litre
Cheapest £1.24 /litre
Average MPG 37.76 MPG
Best MPG 39.93 MPG
Least MPG 29.62 MPG
Most Expensive:
Beer £17.24 for two 0.4 litres
Meal £78 for two reindeer steaks and £32 for two glasses of wine.
Overall, a brilliant road trip, would we do it again? In a heartbeat, yes, but not driving all the way again, like any holiday you learn such a lot the first time. I’d have to take a ferry or two as the motorways getting to Norway were pretty boring. So, it would be a bit different but certainly the Fjords and the Atlantic Road would stand another visit.
Some photos of our trip…
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Must say that I never found motorway miles with the top down very comfortable in the Z3, but travelling a long way with the top up allowed me to have two big holdalls on the shelf behind the seats. I too didn't find that my 2.2i sport used a lot of oil. For example, I drove down to my house in the Valencia region, drove around the area for a month and back and never needed to top up.
