Norway Fiat Meet 2015

I have been speaking to Pieter (Alesi) and also Bjørn from Norway about an event planned for July 2015.

Bjørn has told me that the Norwegian fiat register have put together an event in Ålesund and that people from across Europe are invited.

I don't have too many details just yet but this would be an epic road trip. Turin was, depending on your route and start point, somewhere in the region of 2000 miles round trip. Just getting to Ålesund would be in the region of 1500 miles, one way That said there seem to be many interesting route options and we would take advantage of some friends in Hanover and Hamburg to help break up our journey.

So, me and Mrs BB are making our plans to be there with the Coupé and we do know of at least one other UK based owner already looking to attend. Anyone else interested?

Googlemaps shows 1451 miles to get there for me and 27 hours on route. 2hrs 10 minutes flight non stop twice a week otherwise about 9 hours via Oslo.

I've always wanted to visit Norway, beautiful country but I'd have to fly as my back wouldn't be up to 2000+ miles driving

2150 kilometers which is 1336 miles Sounds great

We had to cover 1700 kilometers to get to Torino which is 1056 miles.
450 kilometers further does not scare me

I have to talk to my Coupes and see what they think about it If any of them volunteers and promises not to make any surprises for the next 5000 kilometers then I think we can go

5,840 klm round trip for me, Mmm Magoo scratches his chin!

Complete lack of tunnels to Scandinavia is a bit of a pain, guess we'll have to drive... Hmm, is Alesund far enough north to get a midnight sun?

I will be in Sweden next July, about 700 km from Ålesund. It would be rude not to pop over the border to Norway

I'm in Kristiansand, where the ferry from Denmark arrives.
"Welcome, good Sirs! My name is Thomas,I'll be your Trollstigen guide"

W....... O.........W

Here's some pics from my Norway vacation last summer

http://sfk.ibk.se/forum/showthread.php?15195-Roadtrip-Norge

(scroll down..!)



I think we'll finally be a few swedes attending a meet this time!

Some stunning photo's there Per!

yes really nice pictures indded.

It looks like Trollstigen pass will have to be part of my journey as will Sju Systre. It is going to be fun planning a route through Norway, it looks interesting to say the least

Per - Some really nice pictures there

Is there track time in the agenda?

Ooo I'd love some track time! There are a few norwegian racetracks I've never attended. With a decent amount of Coupe's it should be possible?

I've sought permission from the event organisers to place further details of the event on FCCUK. To avoid having event details half way through a thread I placed them at the top of a new thread.

As will be seen there is an option for the possibility of some track time for those who are interested.

I was in Kristiansand last week. Lovely place - expensive beer.

Expensive cars, too... A Golf GTi starts at £42 800 plus options

At least the girls are pretty

To my great surprise, it seems that you can get there without getting your feet wet: under the tunnel, turn left, turn left at Hamburg, hang a right for Copenhagen, cross the bridge to Malmo (watching for chopped-in-half bodies), then turn left up the coast. Stop at Gothenburg to see the Viking museum, and then into Norway and Ålesund.

A mere 1616 miles.

Of course, Anita wants to see some midnight sun, so that's another five hundred miles north...

If you do take that route consider registering for a bridge pass. Pre-booking would save having to deal with the toll booth (rfid tag) and saves a few bob over paying on the day too.

Thanks Bob. Nothing's finalised, of course!

Edited by barnacle (14/11/2014 06:26)
Edit Reason: I hadn't realised Norway is one of those uncivilised places that make you pay to use a road...

Just like some places in Italy!

Indeed. And we won't even mention France...

Norway do not have road tolls, but indeed congestion charges in the centre of Oslo. And speed cameras! However past any populated area they are scarce too.
Gothenburg, Sweden, though, has road tolls! As the only place in Sweden. I hate this city.

Doh - when I wrote 'Norway' in that edit I meant Denmark.

My Norwegian friend, a member of Norsk Fiat Register, tells me this event is scheduled for 16-19 July.

This annual event normally has a get together BYO BBQ on Friday evening with a drive and dinner on Saturday. However, the main event would be the journey to the west coast of Norge, especially in company.

I feel I have to pipe in here.

We have road tolls. It's apparently the only way we can afford to build new roads/bridges/tunnels. (Oh, the irony)
Some are cheap (£1-2), some are not so cheap (£15++).
They can also be found all over the country.

We also have speed cameras, both for spot checks, but also for checking the speeds over a given distance.

If you want a quick trip from the Oslo-area to the Ålesund-area, then going up along the swedish border and over the mountains is the best bet. This way may be a little bit boring though. (E6 and E136 routes)

If you want the scenic route, try the Haukelifjell or Hardangervidda to Haugesund/Bergen, and then go up along the coast to Ålesund. (E39 route)
This is a fair bit longer, the roads are most likely more crap, but the scenery is probably the best you can experience.

Well, before I start booking hotels (pretty route preferred!) I'll just point to the project thread, wherein it will be observed that the engine is now out of the coupe, sitting alongside a shopping list as long as my arm!

I stand corrected!

Indeed Neil,

I now have a six speed gearbox that needs fitting as well as a Cam belt that needs replacing and I suspect a manifold too.

Not too sure whether to get someone else to do it, or have a go myself. If only I had access to a two post ramp.

Oh I need to decide which Fiat. The Coupe, the 125 Special or the Argenta 120ie ..?

My word, life must be hard!

Gimmo's home -> Berlin -> Goteborg ( ) -> Alesund
2500 km.

Not bad.

Hoping to find a new job in Germany, UK or Sweden to have less km to drive

Hang on Gimmo, you're a couple of hundred km nearer than me!

Me and Lara are seriously considering to have holiday in North Europe.
I want to come at the meeting, she wants to visit St Petersburg.

This year we were in Paris (for her) than in Spa (for me)

Finger crossed that can repeat the Coupe'Trip next year!

I love to travel, but the distance is a lot for me

We must create a meeting near Munich, it is quite in the centre of Europe.
Or a the Nurburgring, and rent all the track for us

That is a good idea, Gimmo

Is there any member of the German FC Club present here?

2,500klm Gimmo! are you sure?

Alesund has a fantastic aquarium built into the costal land. Highly recommend it!

Trying to justify this...
Newcastle to Norway ferry..
Harwich to holland ferry...
Dover to France...no chance

Check yourself -> click

It seems to be very expensive, more than 600euros only for the travel, sob..

If it will not be Alesund, it will be Spa
Or stay some days in German all together, to visit Castles and go at Hockenheim

We will have to go and check out the Atlantic Ocean road

You are tempting me, Bob



Me and my wrapped scotty

On the other hand... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h25eeep5paE

But what the hell: Convoy!

No sacrifice, no glory.

All those years of protecting my car from salt.... ruined in an instant

Some interesting ideas on these sites;

Nordic national tourist routes

Tourist Routes

I have a better idea



Seriously, it could be an EPIC trip, with a Coop convoy of unbreakable coopers!
I need to make some calculus, to know how much does the trip cost.

I am tempted, given the incredible Turin trip - which must rank with the top couple of things I've ever done (yes dull life perhaps).

Have been to Norway fairly recently, and going again in May, so could be hard to justfiy....

Hmmmmmmmmmm. The roads do look stunning though.

I'm currently weighing up the pros and cons of either (a) channel tunnel and 300km extra driving or (b) Harwich-Rotterdam ferry, cabin on the way back (overnight).

Price is about the same on both, perhaps a bit cheaper on the ferry, and keeps the (limited) miles down on the coupe.

Looks to be about £180 return from Harwich to Hook of Holland.... but then it is another 22hour drive to Alesund......

Crikey !

Perhaps we could all charter a C130 and airlift our Coupe's over there ?

Sob.. lot of money...
I don't know if I can come to Norway from Italy.

When the deadline is?

Just requested a booking for four nights in Alesund - Thursday to Sunday night. No idea about the rest of the trip yet...

The good news is that I'll be booking the Coupé in for work listed above very soon. I've made progress on a few little jobs I wanted to do first so now I just have to find time.

The bad news is that we've also had to book a trip to the USA in June. Mrs BB wants to visit her mums sister who hasn't been too well recently. Because of the distance we've decided to stay for a few weeks, booked a car and plan to visit some sights - on a USA road trip.

This was totally unforseen and is having a bit of an impact upon our finances. Whilst we are still hoping to make Norway too there is a slight possibility that we may have to pull out

I do wish to stress it is only a slight possibility. We have made plans to visit several friends in Germany & Holland en-route to Norway and have also booked some elements of the trip.

Bob

Be a shame if you can't, Bob... at the moment it looks like it's just you and me from the UK!

At this moment in time I can't truely commit to this trip. As much as we want to visit Norway this will be a trip which will remain on our radar. Possibly in two months from now I should be able to say Ja or Nei to this adventure.

I think our compromises will have to be sacrificing the extra week we were going to spend in Norway and taking the less scenic route

We've already booked the four days in Alesund so I guess we will take the quicker route to get there. We do have a stop planned in Hamburg on the outbound and Hanover on the return but will probably need two further waypoints in Norway (Perhaps Lillehammer on the way up and Oslo on the way back?).

Neil,

I am aware of one other UK owner who was committed to attending the event but they have not posted on this thread thus far.

Unfortunately we won't attend to this meeting.
The reason for it being that I can't take off any leave during this period.
For those who will attend have a lovely time in this stunning surrounding.

Oh noes... looks like we're down to only a couple from FCCUK then.

Never mind Pieter, we'll send you some pictures!

Norsk Fiat Register summer meet in Ålesund 16th- 19th of July


Program:
Wednesday July 15th: Organizer available at Hotel Baronen from Wednesday afternoon.

Thursday July 16th: Organizer available at Hotel Baronen all day.
No official program, but people arriving early are encouraged to visit the city and surroundings on their own.

Friday July 17th: Organizer available at Hotel Baronen all day.
Attendants can try our RC cars!
No official program, but the Tall Ships Race has arrived and is worth checking out.
Attendants can meet at the hotel or at one of the nearby restaurants (Fellini pizza).
The hotel offers evening supper from 18-21 pm at 145 NOK pr person.

Saturday July 18th:
08.00–10.30am: Breakfast.
10.30am: All participants are welcomed in front of the hotel!
For those who want to travel to downtown Ålesund and view the ship parade Tall Ships Race we have arranged bus transport.
11.00am: The busses depart for downtown Ålesund. We recommend taking the 418 steps to Fjellstua where you will have a fantastic panoramic view of the city and the fjord (Bring your binocular).
Return to the hotel - 16.00pm.
Alternative option for those who want to take a drive:
11.30am: Depart with the cars to Langevåg – Devold factory, (approx. 17 km one way).
Here we can visit a large model railroad, shopping center and several cafe`s.
15.00pm: RC car contest for children of all ages.
18.00pm: Annual N.F.R. meeting held in the conference room at the hotel.
20.00pm: Celebration dinner at SIL-huset a short walk from the hotel (7 min).
Prize ceremony RC race.
After dinner we walk back to the hotel and continue socializing.
Sunday July 19th:
08.00–11.00am: Breakfast.
12.00am: For those who have time and opportunity we drive together to Godøy and Alnes Fyr. The distance is about 40 km.

Content according to the program as received on March 4th 2015 from Norsk Fiat Register (Bjørn).

Starting to get an itinerary together for the Norway trip.

My word it's complicated!

Saturday: Tunnel to Calais, drive to Hamburg (Germany).
Sunday: Drive to Aalborg (Denmark).
Monday: Ferry Hirtshals-Kristiansand and drive to Oslo (Norway).
Tuesday/Wednesday - Tourist in Oslo.
Thursday - Drive to Alesund.
Friday/Sat/Sun - Fiat meeting at Alesund.

After that it all gets a bit vague until we mysteriously arrive back in Kristiansand on the Friday.

Keep an eye on the tourist routes; Aalesund - Bergen(ish) - Kristiansand and you can't go much wrong. Stunning scenery, especially if the weather is nice.
In Røldal, I'd probably make a left onto the E134 - Valle-Evje-Kristiansand (in fact, I did... Bought my 20VT in Førde and drove it back to Kristiansand). Easier to pass all the camper vans as well.



Stavanger-Kristiansand has some resemblance of UK, twistier roads but also more lorries and traffic. And Suleskarvegen.

Anything I need to know about e.g. toll roads, fuel availability, etc? I note the speed limits are somewhat lower than UK limits and subject to on-the-spot fines.

Edit - those pics are of the sort of road I *like*. Similar to those on Skye...

• Good info on toll roads: http://www.autopass.no/en/visitors-payment - and be aware of the Hardanger bridge - 150 NOK / £12.5 to pass...

• Best times for buying petrol: sunday evenings, monday + thursday mornings.

• Sometimes stations can be far between. Keep above appx. half full to be safe.

• Not to hard to come by 98 octane if you need it, but not everyone offers it.

• Fines will cut heavily into the budget - doing 91 km/h in a 70 zone: £404

• What the speed cameras look like (all stationary):

Thanks - this looks like vital information for UK drivers: http://www.autopass.no/en/visitors-payment

I'll register my credit card, I think.

Just to add on the speed cameras, some of them check your average speed for a given distance.

The signs signalling for average speed measurements can be seen on the left of the main pic on this article.

Also, this one gives you a little information on the automatic speed controls along our roads.

To be honest, I've never been one for speeding - it's a matter of knowing what the limit actually *is*.

Can't remember the last time I was done for speeding - certainly before I got the coupe (though daughter got done in the coupe :D)

Either of you two gents joining the festivities?

I agree with you on the speeding. As a driver you're supposed to know what the speed limits are, and abide by them.
The challenge is to convert from mph to kph or the other way around.

I'm not going to Ålesund as I sold my Coupe many many moons ago.
However, if you decide to take the coastal route back down to Kristiansand and decide to stop in Haugesund (between Bergen and Stavanger), we could surely meet up.

Crikey, I don't go out of my way to speed, far from it but this trip is looking more like a challenge than a Holiday

I just completed a 64 hour week trying to earn money to pay for Hotels and food... at this rate I'll need to keep going to Christmas just to pay the speeding fines and tolls

Very inconvenient that they cancelled the ferry last year.

I think I'm about to cancel the hotel in Oslo; another one just made me an offer at half the price...

Kristian, what's to see in Haugesund? I think we'll be coming down the west coast back to Kristiansand - leaving Alesund on Monday and arriving Kristiansand midday Friday, but we have nothing planned between those two points as yet.

I may make a cheat sheet since my eyes are now so long sighted I can't focus on the tiny kph markings on the coupe speedo...

30kph = 20mph
40kph = 25mph
50kph = 30mph
70kph = 45mph
80kph = 50mph
100kph = 60mph
110kph = 70mph

To the nearest 10mph.

Do what I do Neil.

Set the satnav distance unit to kilometres and look at that display instead of the speedometer.

Still a bit small on the phone, Pete.

It's not been a problem in the past.

What's to see in Haugesund?

Well, we've got vikings. We have the largest sailing viking ship in the world stationed in our town. We also have an authentic viking village just outside the city center.

Also, we have small, quaint villages dating back to the big fisheries in the early 1800s.

I believe this page should cover most of the stuff to do and see around here.

We *like* Vikings - I want to see the Gokstad ship (Oslo?) on the way up. (Family legend says we arrived in Yorkshire in the 900s on a ship, bloody illegal immigrants.)

Some interesting things on that site... will consult with she who must be obeyed.

According to the guys that built "our" ship, the Gokstad ship is just a mishmash of old rotten planks that were assembled according to what the archeologists thought was correct.
"Our" ship on the other hand has been built according to old traditions and through trial and error on smaller vessels.

Last year were supposed to sail it to Liverpool, but the mast broke outside Shetland or thereabouts.

Let's hope she who must be obeyed likes what's going on around Haugesund.

Here's the tentative plan, assuming SWMBO can be pacified. Looks like Haugesund could be a good place to stop for a couple of days.

http://goo.gl/maps/q0pKS

A mere 3300 miles. Hmm... 5000 mile insurance. Might need some adjustment there...

I've devoted some time to putting the final piece in the Puzzle - The route into Norway.

I was thinking of driving from Friends in Northern Germany through Denmark & Sweden to Norway but I've had a change of heart. It is so far and on the hyper speed restricted roads I'm sure it would soon become a chore

I also looked at the toll costs to Oslo and they soon mount up, especially the two bridges in Denmark

This made me think of taking the ferry from Copenhagen to Oslo. This was about £650 return (with outside cabins upgrade). It saves over 700 miles return and 2 x Malmo bridge tolls.

I then noticed a ferry from Kiel to Oslo. It takes two hours longer but is £750 (Again upgraded cabins with breakfasts included). This saves over 1200 miles return and ALL the bridge tolls. This looked the most tempting until I saw northern Denmark to Bergen

We're going from Hirtshals to Kristiansand, about three hours and two hundred and fifty euros as I recall.

That's a good price but I've taken the plunge and booked a ferry with an overnight each way.

My route (Version 1)

I have taken the decision to shred the mileage tally.

My current route (After taking out the ferry journeys) is now just 2200 miles. Far fewer than the 3600 where I started and two nights now spent on a ferry rather than at some charming, but rather pricey, Norwegian Hotel.

Bob; I see you mentioned the ferry from Northern Denmark to Bergen. I don't know the cost of it, but I believe that the scenery while you drive from Bergen to Ålesund and the surrounding area can/will be nicer than the route from Oslo to Ålesund and back.
More fjords, more ferries, more quaint places.

For instance, I see Your route takes you from Oslo to Sogndal. That is 5 hours of potentially boring roads.
Bergen-Sogndal is a 4 hour drive along fjords, over steep mountains, taking in the lovely scenery that we have in the western part of our country.
Oslo-Sogndal is 5 hours "motorway" driving.

I totally agree that Bergen would have been a better route through Norway but I have to be mindful of how many miles I'm doing. We also want to re-visit Lillehammer and that means taking the less interesting route.

Our route takes in the Trollstigen and the Seven sisters though

We're doing a loop that includes Kristiansand-Norway, Norway-Alesund, Alesund-Haugesund, and then back to Kristiansand. But we have a week longer to play with than Bob has.

Which reminds me, I need to book some hotels in Haugesund!

Guys I have a
Norway lonely planet guide book if any of you want to borrow it. I am happy to post it on.

We should be fine Joe, thanks though:)

2432 miles or 3912 km for just 3 days? not for me this time

Okay, the credit card is whimpering slightly and we now have hotels for the entire trip...

We drive down the coast from Alesund to Haugesund in one long day, then have four nights in Haugesund before a short hop back to the ferry in Kristiansand on the Friday and an overnight in Aalborg; Saturday is another short run to just north of Hamburg and a final seven hours back to the channel tunnel on Sunday.

Woohoo. Just need one of these now:

That means you'll be in Haugesund on the evening of the 20th?
If so, you have an early start from Ålesund, and few stops along the way to enjoy the scenery.

If it's still possible, I would try to find a hotel along the road, either in Bergen or in Hardanger, depending on your route.
That way, you have the opportunity to take a look at the scenery, and also be somewhat relaxed when you arrive in Haugesund on the 21st.

That's the plan.

We ummed and ahhed about a stop on the way down, but we decided to make an early start on the Monday from Alesund rather than chopping the trip up into smaller pieces. The plan is to do some walking around Haugesund, per the tourist board!

The interesting thing looks like all the ferries and suchlike down the coast road...

Can you recommend a paper road map of Norway, and possibly a topographical map of the mountains near Haugesund? I'm spoilt in the UK with Ordnance Survey maps, and I don't like trusting my hiking to GPS.

This one http://www.amazon.com/Map-Norway-Central-English-Italian-Norwegian/dp/3707903176 and the accompanying southern half look reasonable for the roads; I've used that make in Europe before.

I can't see hiking maps, though, just lots of internet links.

I believe this map may help you for the hiking.

Let me check with my co-workers, just to be on the safe side.

Regarding paper road maps.. I guess your bet is as goood as mine. It's been years since I last had to rely on paper maps while driving in Norway.

I'm close to recommending you just follow the roadsigns from Ålesund to Bergen or Voss, and then follow the signs from there to Stavanger until you see the new signs pointing you to Haugesund.
However, I see the safety in having maps, so maybe the Norway, south-map would be wise.

Thanks for that.

Herself likes to sit in the copilot's seat with her finger tracking the 'you are here' function.

Okay, finally found the maps: a Marco Polo map covering the whole country and a Turkart Lysefjorden 1:50,000 for hiking.

The number of sites that provide a *list* of maps, instead of a grid overview, is quite impressive.

If you're looking to use Haugesund as a base for hiking, then Lysefjorden isn't the best area. Lysefjorden is more connected to Stavanger.

For Haugesund as a starting point, this map should be better.

Also, the local council apparently supplies free hiking maps for the surrounding hills around Haugesund.

If you like, I could pop in to get one and post it to you.

Lysefjorden covers Pulpit Rock, though

It would be very kind of you to post the local free map, though - will we be seeing you on the event to refund the postage? Or paypal? I'll PM my address.

It now seems clear that there are just two of us from the UK making the trip

So, who else is looking to turn up?

I orgininally intended to, but suddenly we've signed contracts and will be moving house the week before. Sad to miss it, Vestlandet is truly fantastic! I'm sure you'll have a splendid time

Ooh i did not see this until now
Im in Tønsberg Norway and sadly the car wont be finnished until late august "yrs seriously!! :P" ill still try to fly over, would be great to meet some of you guys! Would love to come to some european meets in the future!

Signed up for the pay as you go tolling.

We will be diverting across Trollstigen on the trip from Oslo to Alesund.

Link please... and I'll sort that out too, when we get home

http://www.autopass.no/en/visitors-payment

As an aside - a quickie for our Norse members: are credit/debit (visa) cards generally accepted for fuel and restaurant payment, and is tipping expected/required (and if so, at what level)?

We purchased a Travelex Cash Passport debit for our US trip. It has been working fine here and avoids the charges usually associated with using normal credit / debit cards abroad. You can top them up online and also transfer any balance to another currency. We'll be switching ours from Dollars to NOK on our return.

EDIT - No we won't because it doesn't work in NOK

Credit/debit cards are generally accepted for payment for fuel and restaurants. Expect to use chip+pin for each transaction.
Visa/Mastercard/Eurocard will normally be accepted. Amex/Diners Club etc. may be declined.

Tipping is always a minefield.
At restaurants/bars you may tip 5-10% if the food/service is very good. Otherwise, you may tip to the nearest 50 or 100 kroner.

E.g. bill comes in at 468,- NOK, then you can pay 500,-. Or if the bill comes in at 890,- NOK, then you may pay 950,- or 1000,-.

Thank you - that should cover it.

Lads, oddly enough I'm very likely to be in southern Norway at about the same time as you, in the Jensen though. Might be able to catch up as you're passing through?

Excellent timing!

Our schedule, if anyone wants to meet along the way:

11th July: Calais to Hamburg; overnight at Ibis Quickborn
12th July: Hamburg to Aalborg: overnight at First Hotel Aalborg
13th July: Aalborg to Oslo via ferry to Kristiansand; three nights at Anker Hotel Oslo
16th July: Oslo to Alesund via Trollstigen; maybe in convoy with some of the Norse guys. Hotel Baronen
20th July: Alesund to Haugesund; four nights at Hotel Neptun (Hi Kristian)
24th July: Haugesund to Aalborg via Kristiansand; overnight at First Hotel Aalborg
25th July: Aalborg to Hamburg; overnight at Ibis Quickborn
26th July: Hamburg to Calais

I am sure you mean JULY Mr B

07th July - Calais to Holland (Stop 1)
11th July - Holland to Germany (Stop 2)
14th July - Germany to Oslo
15th July - Olso to a stop (Nothing booked yet)
16th July - Arrive Alesund
20th July - leave Alesund (Two free days)
22nd July - Ferry from Oslo (Three free days)

So there is a possibility for us to meet up with you folks to take in the Trollstigen together?

Looks possible.

Message I had from Bjorn:

Hi.
We are some drivers we go together to Ålesund on To.16.07.15 at 10.00 o clock in the morning from the Colour Line harbor in Oslo.
Somebody come from Germany for drive with us ,so if you are intr,. you are welcome . We driving from Oslo,Lillehammer,Dombås , Åndalsnes and Ålesund.
Looking forward to see you in Norway.
Best regards
Bjørn Andreassen

P.s. I like your time machine!

Ha, looking at yours all saying JUNE clearly put me off

Oh and despite your edit it seems you too have a time machine

Hotel now booked in Lillehammer for the night of the 15th. Give me a bell if you do decide to convoy to Alesund via Lillehammer and I'll join you

Bob

Looks like Lillehammer is about two and a half hours into the trip, so we might expect the convoy to arrive around half twelve?

I'm a bit late with my planning, but I would also like to come.

The problem is I can only leave around noon the 15th and its about 1900 km (1180 miles).

What would be a good plan for driving and maybe meeting someone on thursday evening?

In Alesund we will have to go to the other hotel because yours is fully booked. Luckily there is just 5km between them.

Do we need to regester somewhere for the meeting? I could not find anything about it.

Best to drop an email to Bjorn: NFR Bjørn Andreassen <nfr@hotmail.no>

Both Bob and I expect to be at Alesund on Thursday night, I'm driving from Oslo and probably collecting Bob on the way.

Just printed out all the tickets, hotel bookings etc and stuck them together with the car documents... it's a folder half an inch thick!

Jensen plan on the back burner due to catastrophic engine mishap and not enough time for a rebuild. Doh!

Plan B is to take dad's alfa 156. Norway is now unlikely due to alcohol import restrictions (I'm bringing the booze for my wedding in Sweden on the 18th!) so might not be able to rendezvous after all. But I'll keep an eye on this thread and be in touch if it looks like our paths might cross somewhere in northern Germany or Denmark.

Plan B should be to take the Coupe surely?!

Bon Voyage to all heading North, very North.

Our schedule is unchanged from the most recent upthread. Shame about the engine mishap (unscheduled rapid disassembly?).

We are currently enjoying the delights of Holland. We leave for Hanover on Saturday for a few days there, then we take the ferry from Kiel to Oslo.

A spirited run on the unlimited autobahn has resulted in a missfire under load or on boost... whoops. Got a mate to order a set of plugs and coil pack and will visit him on Monday. I do hope that's all it is.

Hope you're right Bob. We're in Quickborn tonight, just north of Hamburg. Did 620 miles , so near as damnit 1000km today; since the engine rebuild we have done about 1200km... not that we're optimists or anything.

Averaged around 70mph, rarely exceeding 80mph even when allowed in consideration of the age of the car (175,000 miles) and the recent rebuild, and it looks like about 35mpg based on the first fill - 10.5 gallons for 378 miles.

Tomorrow, a short run of 430km to Aalborg.

p.s. Schadenfreud: going past a Lamborghini on the Autobahn... on a breakdown truck.

Yes I hope it's a simple fix too, if not we will take plan "B" and send the Coupé home

Worth a try

Let us know if you need picking up in Oslo! I think you have my number?

Fairly boring run up to Aalborg, during which an astonishingly large number of caravans were passed.

Something of a mooch around Aalborg, including the excellent Lyndholm Hoje, a Viking 'boat' burial site and associated museum:



(more pictures at http://s156.photobucket.com/user/nailed_...rt=2&page=1 )

Few checks today. Coolant system and oil system showing no signs of any head gasket or piston issues. Car runs fine off boost and off load so should make it the 100 miles to the service stop.

Good luck Bob & Trish.
Fingers crossed the service stop will bring relief.
Wishing you a fantastic time up north.

Sounds like it's ignition related then, Bob. Do you need us to meet you in Oslo and take you anywhere? We don't have space for four plus luggage but we can get you to a car hire place if necessary.

OK, we made it to our service stop with a car that runs fine off boost but misfires like mad on boost or under load!

We quickly discovered a cracked spark plug so replaced all 5. The test drive seemed to have cleared everything up. My friend then offered to skim my discs with his fancy machine after I said I was also suffering some heavy vibration braking from "Silly" speeds!

Trish and left him to it and went for a walk. We returned to take another test drive to check the brakes. They are now a bit noisy but brake much better, the only downside was that the misfire returned!

Clearly a coil pack is also breaking down, suspect is number 1, so we tried to track one down. After ages on the phone we managed to get a Fiat Dealer to order two, hopefully they'll be there tomorrow before we board the ferry!

Strangely after messing about with coil pack 1 (Twisting and pulling it) I re-fitted it and have just driven some 40+ miles with no problem whatsoever

Tonight, we're in Oslo.

An hour from Aalborg to Hirtshalls, an hour waiting to get on the ferry, three hours crossing at a fair old lick but with a lamentable lack of dolphins, whales, mermaids, or kraken - I shall be speaking to the tourist board about this - and another hour to get off the boat and through customs.

On first impressions, Norway is a country of extreme beauty punctuated by punctures through which the road bypasses the steep bits of mountains. On the other hand, it is not a country in which one might go somewhere quickly by road: in three hundred kilometers, which took over four hours, we encountered the following speed limits: 20kph, 30kph, 40kph, 50kph, 60kph, 70kph, 80kph, 90kph, 100kph, and 110kph... it's worse than an A-road through Oxfordshire.

St Olav's church was very impressive, but the weather made it not worth stopping for a picture.

Enjoy Norge, I certainly did; so much history and its rugged landscape.

One of my favourites in Oslo was the Fram Museum with the Kon Tiki across the road and a then short walk to the Longships that have been exhumed from burial mounds.

Our group drove from Oslo to Bergen and even managed to see Norge from "the inside". Certainly some long road tunnels.

Enjoy your trip north.

We're about to take a ferry to the Museum island; the Gokstad ship and Kon Tiki are definitely on the list.

This could be the wiring feeding to the coil pack Bob, I've had a few where the insulation has cracked suffering arcing to the alloy.

Cheers Joe, I'll check that out when I get a chance. Unfortunately the German Fiat dealer in Kiel didn't get a coil before we departed but I have now arranged to meet one in Norway thanks to Bjorn

The three national sports of Oslo seem to be Teslas, Museums, and Falling off Bicycles. I have never seen so many of each in the same place before.

The museums are however highly recommended; can't comment on the other two.

http://s156.photobucket.com/user/nailed_barnacle/library/Norway%20trip%202015/Oslo?sort=2&page=1

I have a contact at Teslas if you want to buy one or a test drive Neil!

Barnacle, glad you enjoyed the museums.
Your photos of the Stave Church brought back memories as did the ones of the Longships.

Loved the "Fram" (a Colin Archer designed boat whose brothers also settled in Queensland, near Rockhampton, where he spent a few years before he started designing in Norway.)

To also see the "Gjoa" (sorry my keyboard is missing "an O with a line through it"), another important vessel in Artic exploration was memorable also.

Sadly, not unless you also have a contact at Barclays who can move a decimal point a couple of places to the right...

Neil, I hope you have brought good clothes and shoes for hiking in the Mountains.
There's still snow in certain parts around our place, like in this article in the local newspaper.

Granted, this is a couple of hours inland, and also not in the most hiking-friendly area, but it gives a picture of how bad our summer has been so far

We're reasonably well equipped, but not to ice-axe/crampons level. We'll stay low if it's like that...

Here's the run from Oslo to Alesund, collecting Bob on the way and going over Trollstigen with him (the rest of the group wimped out)

http://s156.photobucket.com/user/nailed_...rt=2&page=1

Fantastic scenery

A trip to the Atlantic Highway with Bob'n'Trish and Ragnar'n'Margeritte... same address as above.

Many Fiats now at the hotel including 124, Topolino, Dino and many others. And coupes, of course.

Thank you for sharing those pictures Neil .
It's good to catch a glimpse of a mighty scotts green coop with yellow calipers in one of your pictures.
Enjoy the Ålesund event and your stay in Norway.

http://s156.photobucket.com/user/nailed_...rt=2&page=1 for today's efforts.

Went to see the tall ships race leave Aalesund, only to discover they'd already left. And it was raining... perked up a bit later, so wandered around the town a bit. And photographed some more of the NFR cars.

Norway, what is not to like?

A hotel car park full of Fiats. Weather that changes as often as it does in Yorkshire and views that take your breath away. When you do get blue sky and sunshine it is accompanied with cool air (For the engine). There are also lots and lots of tunnels

Atlantic road was a fantastic day out

I'm loving the Multipla

I took the pictures just for you

Today's pictures start at the bottom of this page: not so many (the battery died on the camera!) http://s156.photobucket.com/user/nailed_...rt=2&page=3

Most of the people have gone home today; one or two remain with us until tomorrow when we will all have started back except Umberto who is fishing.

A bit of a grim day today, raining all day, so we visited a couple of islands via some amazing tunnels (ferries are so last year, dahling) and a couple of light-houses, and then a visit to an amazing aquarium covering local and Atlantic species. Next tonight is Umberto's Pizza Challenge: if I can eat it all he pays for it. He doesn't know me...

...I ate it...

And Umberto Paid!

A nice prize from the blonde German lady too

It's a shame about the weather.
Hopefully, it will be a little better down here, but I wouldn't hold my breath

Absolutely cracking drive down from Aalesund to Haugesund - a mere twelve and a half hours for six hundred and sixty kilometers... In convoy with Bob and Trish down to Geiranger and the Seven Sisters waterfalls, then well above the snow line to over a thousand meters as we went south. Somehow, on the second ferry crossing, we managed to meet up with Sander and Mrs Sander - completely by chance since when we spoke last they didn't know where they were going!

Loads of waterfalls, loads of mad goats blocking the road, two ferries, loads of tunnels... the longest tunnel was 25km long, complete with three 'moonlight effect' dogging trysting places every six km or so. We thought that one was the bees knees until we met a complete Carlsberg of a tunnel: drive in, and after ten km discover - still in the tunnel - a roundabout. Take the right exit, pop out of a cliff face above a fjord and discover you're on a suspension bridge, then straight into another tunnel with *another* roundabout! Stunning, and worth every one of the 150kr charged by the toll machine.

Now at the Best Western in Haugesand, Kristian, so if you want to meet up give me a bell or a pm. Forecast says rain (though the hotel man says not a chance) so it could be a viking day. I don't think we'll be doing much walking...

http://s156.photobucket.com/user/nailed_...rt=2&page=1

Good to hear you made it to Haugesund in one piece.

I believe you'll have to do without me today. I'm stuck at work today with a couple of hefty deadlines over my head.

Hopefully I'll finish my work so that I'm available in the evening.

I hope you'll find something to do in the area anyway.

No worries, call us this evening? PM'd my phone number.

Will do Neil.

Our day was a bit less exciting than that of Mr & Mrs B. When we left them we headed up to a 1500m view, but the clouds were at 1300m &#55357;&#56862;

We then headed for another tourist route which took us south east through the Jotunheimen national park. There was some stunning scenery last night but this morning we were again in cloud with 20m visibility at best. So we headed through three hours of rain to a much brighter Oslo and the best hotel we've managed to find on our travels.

http://s156.photobucket.com/user/nailed_...rt=2&page=1

Some photos with distinctly dodgy verticals, horizontals, and/or focus - hand-held in very dark locations in (yet another) viking museum, this one at Avaldsnes, and a distinct lack of any pictures of the times I actually hit the target (poor wooden pig!). Spot the barnacle(s)...

Then down to the village of Skudeneshavn, a pretty place but sadly no sunshine.

Really enjoyed Oslo yesterday and found a cracking place for dinner too. Today we had a leisurely morning before boarding the ship to Kiel. Tomorrow we'll aim to see Bourtang if the weather is good.

Oh and get saving folks, next year the meeting is in Flam, much closer to the UK

Today, a guided tour around the Haugesund area, courtesy of forum member Kristian... the tall ships that we missed at Aalesund went past us, but really too far out to photograph.

http://s156.photobucket.com/user/nailed_...rt=2&page=1

And the long trip back in an increasingly grubby car begins.

The bottom left corner of Norway is different from the fjord country further north, but still incredibly pretty, and the sun shone for us. Stopped for lunch at a roadside place, and a vintage Porsche - early 911, aircooled I guess (I'm no expert) pulled up alongside and we chatted a while.

Made it to the ferry with loads of time to spare, so we watched a few of the tall ships we'd missed at Aalesund arriving.

The the ferry, from which some unfortunate fellow had to be medically evacuated by coastguard helicopter - all very exciting.

Nice easy day down to Hamburg/Quickborn tomorrow; maybe we'll go and play on the Reeperbahn.

Never a dull moment by the sounds of it

I've enjoyed the pictures, that locomotive looked tired but I'm sure with some duck oil and tinkering she'll run again.

We arrived in Kiel and headed for the Dutch border. We visited the village of Bourtange before taking an overnight in Gronau.

This morning we had plans to head for Bruges but decided to pass by and head for France. We enquired about taking the ferry a day early and a small charge had it done. All the P&O boats were running late today, seems the French fellows have been at it again. We were supposed to leave at 20:30 but our boat was almost two hours late, so they put us on an earlier boat which was over an hour late but left not long after we expected.

Dover was chaos for departing folks with huge queues leading to the docks. We got out ok but the torrential rain and standing water was causing huge problems. We saw so many accidents on the way home

Those of you who have me on Facebook are probably sick of the picture updates by now but rest easy.... I'm finished

I hope that the mess at the Tunnel is sorted by tomorrow night... we have a short trip today - four hours or so - and a final longer one tomorrow.

The weather is dreadful here today but yesterday was one of the nicest days.

Joe, I thought you'd like that little engine...

@b&b: thank you both for the fantastic Norway write-ups and pics.

@bob: did the coop ran sweet again after the small Autobahn mishap had been cured?

@neil: good luck catching the train.

It appears that not all the port chaos is French related. Today we had an email from P&O apologising for the delays at Calais and said the port delays were due to UK immigration! We did see HUGE queues at the terminal immigration yesterday afternoon but we encountered only a small delay of just 25 minutes or so.

Our main delay was the late arrival of the ships, which were being packed to the rafters UK side. For our trip the boat was barely half full!

.

Yes and no

We never encountered any more misfires but twice, when coming through Belgium, the car appeared to cut out. It was only for a split second or two but it had me worried.

Last leg today - 700km to the channel and then 120 miles home (way to mix metric and imperial!).

Yesterday's 'short' journey took six hours due to the weather which meant that at times we could go as fast as 40mph... Anita and I went to play on the Reeperbahn where we both wrapped our lips around eight or nine inches of prime beef.















At the Rodizio Argentine Steakhouse...

Hope you have a better run than we did...

Driving through Germany was fine. Oddly driving through Belgium was rather problem free too, despite slow traffic around Antwerp. France was only a small leg but was also not too bad.

Sadly though the leg through Holland was terrible. We were dumbfounded at the standards of driving in Holland on a busy Friday. We had Cars and vans driving just cm's off our rear bumper, then passing and pulling into the gap you leave to the car in front and then braking (HARD) because the gap wasn't sufficient for them to fit. Then just moments later pulling out again to pass the car in front and repeating the same action to them! The lane changing was just incredible. We saw several drivers just pull out to overtake causing other drivers to swerve or break - it was madness At one point we were passing a car with caravan and slow truck. Suddenly the Caravan driver indicated and pulled out, if I hadn't braked his caravan would have taken me out!

The road craft shown by the Dutch drivers on Friday was the worst we saw on our whole trip. It was worse than driving around London

Anyhow...

Having now returned home I have added some pictures to the Photobucket.

Norway and Beyond 2015

A selection of pics from the folder...

A pit stop to rectify a misfire and vibrating brakes.


Then the ship to Norway, a magnificent beast


Meeting up with Mr & Mrs B and then the others for our run to Alesund, two of us diverted via the Troll pass. Oh and who said PeteP wasn't going?


We then took a trip to the Atlantic (Not Pacific) road

Well, the international rescue and recovery squad can stand down; we're back too, with the only casualty one dead headlight which gave up in disgust overnight.

3,523 miles (5,670km) door to door, at an average consumption of 37.6mpg and a best sector of 41.5mpg (those Norwegian speed limits do wonders for consumption!).

I must have had faith in the recent rebuild; the only tools I took with me were a wheel brace and a foot pump, and I needed none of the oil I took just in case (ok, ok, I *forgot* the toolkit...).

Nice filling station you found there, Bob - nice pictures all round, though I would like to point out that in all those photos of me, I *am* sober. In spite of appearances.

Guys, thank-you very much for the stories and the photos. By all accounts you all had a great time without too many car problems.

Thought there would have been some older Fiats there (other than the Topolinos). I have a friend in Oslo who has several Fiats from the 1920s but he did not attend, although he did offer to host me if I had made the trek; maybe next year.

Nice to see that all of you survived the visit to Norway

Also Neil, great meeting you and Anita here in Haugesund.

Indeed, Kristian, and our thanks for your hospitality - above and beyond the call of coupeness! If you're ever over here...

Our mileage total for the trip was 2588. Some of it became a little tedious if I'm honest and we should have perhaps tried to split the Norway element up a bit more. I am now so pleased that we decided to take the Kiel to Oslo ferry or we would have been looking at between 1000 to 1400 miles, depending on route

This trip coupled with just over 2000 miles undertaken in the Mustang on our USA trip we've done just short of 4700 miles on road trips this summer The two trips were quite different though.

One trip was in a brand new Ford Mustang the other in a 16 year old 100,000 mile Fiat Coupé.

One trip was mostly extremely hot and dry (about a 15 minutes of rain at most!). The other was mostly sub 20 degrees and, in Norway at least, quite wet!

We've enjoyed both trips but the USA trip did feel more like an adventure than Norway trip did. In the USA we often left the road to investigate identified tourist spots. In Norway we discovered a Museum of the road on the way up and was pleased that Neil convinced us to break from the others and take our original plan to visiting the Troll pass. Other than this, and the detour into some fellows front garden fuel station, I feel that we didn't discover too many unusual things.

I suspect the weather is what really put a bit of a block on exploring. We did pay the toll to go up to the 1500m view point, only to discover it was in the clouds

This makes me think that we may have to attend the 2016 event in Flam. There is so much more of Norway to see and we really need to explore more. Sadly we may though choose to fly in and rent a car there, rather than drive again

Bob: if you're attending the Flåm-meeting, I'd suggest you fly in to either Stavanger, Haugesund or Bergen.
That way you get to experience some of our delightful west-coast roads.
Also, it should be possible to reach Flåm in one day from all of those places.
It will be a stretch from Stavanger, but still quite possible.

Just found a video of the road you discovered Neil... Hardanger Bridge

How cool is that?

Follow it on autoplay and you get Trollstigen, too...

Amazing engineering, here's a video on the build.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po-HcJ0aHAw