Scandi Update- On the Road
Well,
It’s been a little over a month that I’ve been on the road for my Scandinavian tour and I’ve had a couple of comments asking about what life is like living in a van for that period of time. Since I’m just past my halfway point on this trip, thought I would answer that.
The VW Westfalia continues to amaze me, both in performance and comfort. The German automakers really thought this model out and continue to improve with convenience. One would think that living in that small a space would start to drive you nuts however if you are getting out almost every day hiking and sightseeing, it’s a comfortable place to come back to, especially when you can stay dry and cook things.
Since this is my first long trip in this car, I am just learning to cook more with the stove. Every morning, I make my coffee and have cereal and fruit. The fridge works great, even when the car is not running (spare battery). I have purchased a few kitchen things on this trip(spatula, better knife) and will get a bigger pan to cook noodles for future trips. In this photo, I just made quesadillas and they turned out quite nice
Working in the car is pretty comfy. I purchased a 15” Macbook Pro before leaving the states and it is now my main computer. I no longer have a desktop, just plug this into the big monitor when I get home. The screen and graphics on this work great and battery power is pretty good, depending on what I do. Every morning when driving, I recharge it to 100%.
Something that is a continual challenge, especially when hiking and sweating, is keeping clean clothes. Thank God for synthetic shirts, which don’t get a lot of stink and dry quickly. When ever I stop somewhere (if it’s not in a city), I will hang a line out to dry the clothes.
Sometimes it doesn’t get dry fast enough, so I run a line in the car and drive with a window down. It all gets there eventually.
Lastly, about every 3 days, I’ll find a campground to recharge. Refill the water for the sink, charge up the spare battery that runs the back part of the car, and take a nice hot shower (not in a sink at a restaurant bathroom :-).
Well, that’s about it. I just reached the Arctic circle yesterday
and will be leaving Norway tomorrow to spend a couple of weeks in Sweden and then start working my way home. I’ll post another Norway blog update in a few days when I have internet again. Some nice pix from the Fjords and glaciers. Cheers Laurent
It’s been a little over a month that I’ve been on the road for my Scandinavian tour and I’ve had a couple of comments asking about what life is like living in a van for that period of time. Since I’m just past my halfway point on this trip, thought I would answer that.
The VW Westfalia continues to amaze me, both in performance and comfort. The German automakers really thought this model out and continue to improve with convenience. One would think that living in that small a space would start to drive you nuts however if you are getting out almost every day hiking and sightseeing, it’s a comfortable place to come back to, especially when you can stay dry and cook things.
Since this is my first long trip in this car, I am just learning to cook more with the stove. Every morning, I make my coffee and have cereal and fruit. The fridge works great, even when the car is not running (spare battery). I have purchased a few kitchen things on this trip(spatula, better knife) and will get a bigger pan to cook noodles for future trips. In this photo, I just made quesadillas and they turned out quite nice
Working in the car is pretty comfy. I purchased a 15” Macbook Pro before leaving the states and it is now my main computer. I no longer have a desktop, just plug this into the big monitor when I get home. The screen and graphics on this work great and battery power is pretty good, depending on what I do. Every morning when driving, I recharge it to 100%.
Something that is a continual challenge, especially when hiking and sweating, is keeping clean clothes. Thank God for synthetic shirts, which don’t get a lot of stink and dry quickly. When ever I stop somewhere (if it’s not in a city), I will hang a line out to dry the clothes.
Sometimes it doesn’t get dry fast enough, so I run a line in the car and drive with a window down. It all gets there eventually.
Lastly, about every 3 days, I’ll find a campground to recharge. Refill the water for the sink, charge up the spare battery that runs the back part of the car, and take a nice hot shower (not in a sink at a restaurant bathroom :-).
Well, that’s about it. I just reached the Arctic circle yesterday
and will be leaving Norway tomorrow to spend a couple of weeks in Sweden and then start working my way home. I’ll post another Norway blog update in a few days when I have internet again. Some nice pix from the Fjords and glaciers. Cheers Laurent
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