Time for a road trip - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

kerry · #1 05-14-2015, 02:22 PM

Daughter's been studying in Lund, Sweden for the past year. She gets out of school next week and we're heading over to spend a month in Scandinavia. Rented a car for the month ($520 according to the reservation--we'll see if that holds). We'll drive around Sweden, Norway and Denmark including a ferry to Visby on Gottland and this road in Norway, north of Bergen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_GPf8jUNDs

We're also going to fly from Stockholm to Helsinki and take the ferry to St. Petersberg. If you take the ferry, you can visit Russia for 72 hours without a visa.

Should be interesting I hope.

t walgamuth · #2 05-14-2015, 03:04 PM

Looks like fun! Keep us posted.

P.C. · #3 05-14-2015, 04:23 PM

$520/month for a rental car? Do they allow you to drive it?

Chris W. · #4 05-15-2015, 06:27 AM

Agree on $520 a month. That seems insanely low for Sweden. Check that it's not a weekly rate.

kerry · #5 05-15-2015, 09:41 AM

That price is for a month according to Travelocity. Tried another search starting a week later and there were prices as low as $388 for a month for the smallest car. Ours is a slightly larger station wagon. This is renting and returning from Copenhagen airport.

Simpler=Better · #6 05-15-2015, 10:13 PM

In Sweden the fuel will be what, $50,000?

kerry · #7 05-17-2015, 05:32 PM

Just learned about this. Looks like we'll be doing some Viking sailing.

Daily summer sailing trips - Vikingeskibsmuseet Roskilde

kerry · #8 05-20-2015, 01:06 PM

Got a Nissan Qashqai to drive. Diesel 6 spd manual. Weird parking brake like a truck air brake. Push on the brakes and pull a little lever and it locks the hydraulic brakes. Back up camera and audio alarms in all directions. Light illuminates on the A pillar if someone enters the blind spot. Way too high tech for me. Mirrors electrically fold. Need that on the narrow streets over here. Took me forever to figure out how to release the parking brake and then to pull up on the lower gear shift housing to get it into reverse.

kerry · #9 05-24-2015, 02:54 PM

We landed in Copenhagen early afternoon Wednesday after a stopover in the labrynthian airport at Frankfurt. Jasper met us at the terminal and we immediately went over to Avis and picked up our rental car in about ten minutes--a brand new Nissan Qaiqai diesel 6spd. ($520 for the month). We also got a transponder and paid for two passages over the bridge/tunnel from Denmark to Sweden. We then drove to Lund in about 30 minutes using our newly purchased European Garmin GPS. It warned us that our hostel was on a restricted street and sure enough when we arrived there was a cicular sign with a car and motorcycle with a line thru them. Looked forbidden to me. Streets are narrow and busy but I found 10 minute parking and Pauline sought out the hosteller to inquire as to how to get to the hostel and its parking space. He told her to ignore the restriction, drive down the street, then down a busy sidewalk to access a tight lane leading to parking behind the hostel. We did. Sharing a six bed room, nice showers and a large kitchen we explored Lund until Sunday night seeing lots of intriguing sights and celebrating gay pride day on the same day that the Catholic church lost its moral authority in Ireland. Packed up early this morning and drove 4 hours to Oskarshamn through delightful countryside to catch the ferry to Visby in Gotland. Arrived this evening uneventfully. I didn't get a lick of sleep last night after midnight since a roommate woke me up and my body clock is still insisting it
s mountain time in America. Put a quarter of a tank of diesel in the car on the drive--$30. Quite a production to buy fuel since my Visa has neither a pin or a chip, which to the Swedes, amounts to a Visa from the Stone Age. They have to run their own Visa card thru the pump first and then I have to go inside, prove I'm not a Russian scammer and actually sign a piece of paper. Car has an automatic hydraulic parking brake. Took me forever to figure out how it worked since the manual is in Swedish. It is nice though on steep hills where it automatically holds the brake until the clutch engages. Cameras on every side and warning lights and alarms scream at us if it thinks we are about to be attacked by another car or curb, or fence or building.

JB3 · #10 05-24-2015, 08:34 PM

Pics!

t walgamuth · #11 05-24-2015, 09:01 PM

Sounds like fun!

kerry · #12 05-25-2015, 01:46 AM

Bought a small winbook tw700 tablet fro the trip and am having a hard time managing photos with it since it doesn't hve a mouse. Lets see if I can save a phot of Lund cathedral and post it here. Attended a nice Mass there on Thursday.

kerry · #13 05-25-2015, 01:49 AM

Medieval clock in the cathedral. Still works.

kerry · #14 06-18-2015, 07:54 AM

Drove 2204 miles in Scandinavia with an average of 48 mpg and a cost of $6 per gallon of diesel, costing use $227 in fuel. Driving in Norway was spectacular. The E7 between Oslo and Bergen has to be one of the best paved highways in the world. Even better than the Atlantic Road I think.