Oulu. Youth. Tattoos. Coffee. Bars. Life. Markets. Culture. Islands. River. Sea. Beaches. Boats. Beauty. Ah! Life. Oulu has so much, and after the forested wilderness it’s all the more welcome. Finland. It’s exciting to cross a border and immediately know you’re in a new and different land. Cross from Haparanda in Sweden, to Torino in […]
The Cornish Wanderer
Rotting Volvos, and underpants. Musings from the E10.
For me Sweden will for ever be synonymous with trees, thousands of miles of trees. We’ve seen a few cool sights. Elk. Three of them, each on separate occasions. Huge and lumbering, they look like creatures from a different time (as indeed they are). Reindeer. A single male, and then a complete delight as a […]
Commissioning your camper van. Hints and tips from the road.
Thanks for all the van spec questions on text and email asking what’s good and what’s not about ArchieVan. If you think that we can help you to spec your van better just drop me a note on kelvin@kelvincollins.com As we’ll be gently cruising down through the forested tunnel of northern Sweden for a few […]
Norway. Part 2. The midnight sun.
Lofoten. We arrived full of cold, tired from too much driving. The ferry journey was special indeed, out of Bodø, past many skerries and islands, but we were a bit too knackered to take it all in. We drove the three or so miles from the ferry to where we parked up. We sighed, and […]
Norway. Part 1. The Architect’s Toilet.
An invisible border. Narrower roads – shit that truck was close! Yellow lines down the middle. And hills, and views, and coast and, and, and there’s so much to see. Fjords. Real ones like we expected. Huge sides carved by glaciers. Choppy, freezing cold looking, ultra blue water. Spirits lift, the road opens, and we’re […]
Sweden. You’d better like green.
Sitting outside of the port of Gothenburg 150 large ships await instructions from hedge fund managers. In their penthouse suites the guys in control watch prices move until the right moment to dock. Our vast Stena Line ferry glides by on battery power taking us a long way into the city, past calm sweet islands […]