Welcome to the September edition of the newsletter. Although we have not had any tours out in August it has still been a busy month as we have been up to the Arctic Circle to recce our big expedition for next year. We have a brief report on that later.
We are also continuing our "Spotlight on..." series as we look at one of our brand new tours for 2025, our 25-day France Grand Tour.
Our last batch of tours of 2024 are heading out as we speak with four tours in September including Lake Garda & Venice, The Loire & Burgundy, Provence & the Ardeche and Croatia & Slovenia. Although it is too late to join us this year, please take a look at next year's schedule if you fancy it in 2025.
As usual, we have another great cut-out-and-keep recipe and this month's motorhoming tips are a cautionary tale about electric bike batteries.
2025 Tour Update
Just a reminder that we are now taking bookings for the 2025 season. Last month we added a further tour into the schedule, which will be a Spring outing for our Lake Garda & Venice in May. Some tours are now full, but please contact us to check availability if you see anything you are interested in.
The full tour schedules are available on the website and you can also view or download the brand new brochure too.
Click the links for more information:
Tour Schedule: https://www.crossingsmotorhometours.com/tours
Download the brochure: https://www.crossingsmotorhometours.com/brochure
Sweden & The Arctic Circle recce
It's a hard job, but someone has to do it! We have just returned from a whistle-stop tour of Sweden and the Arctic Circle in preparation for the tour next year. Our recce focused on the northern section between Stockholm and the Arctic Circle as we already know the southern section really well from previous tours.
In fact, we have always offered a tour of Sweden ever since we started Crossings at it is our favourite country to visit in a motorhome. One of the main reasons for this is the fact that there are only around 10 million Swedes spread across a country that is twice as big as the UK - that's fewer people than live inside the M25!
We have found over the years that many folks are not really sure what to expect when they go to Sweden. Abba and Vikings are two common themes and yes you can go and experience both of these if you want to. However, there is so much more to the country than that. Here are the (heavily) edited highlights of the recce...
Let's start with Stockholm, the capital of Sweden and probably the most laid-back city in Europe. Set over 14 islands you can hop around on buses, trams, the metro or on water taxis and sightseeing boats. Star of the show for me is the Vasa Musuem, home to the resurrected wreck of the doomed warship that sank on its maiden voyage in 1628. Total distance travelled - just under a mile. Preserved by icy waters, you can now view the intact ship in dry dock housed in a boat-shaped museum.
There's plenty to keep the traveller busy for days in the city. Michael Portillo has just done a (quite) good show on Stockholm, which you can find on My5. Worth checking out.
Heading north from Stockholm, to get to the Arctic Circle you need to spend a few days on the E4. Now that doesn't sound very glamorous but it is a lovely road that follows the Gulf of Bothnia (the body of water between Sweden and Finland), with lots of interesting things to see on the way. One of the highlights is the High Coast Bridge that spans the mouth of the River Ångermanälven. This is the fourth longest suspension bridge in Europe with cracking views across the open water to the forests and rocky outcrops.
It takes about four days to drive up the E4 and there plenty of other places to keep you amused along the way including the university towns of Umea and Lulea, both set out on a grid system with a blend of old wooden houses and ultra-modern architecture. The water is never far away with the Gulf on your right hand side for the whole journey and lots of forests and lakes to your left.
It is a haven for motorhomers with quiet roads and lots of places to stop where it is very easy to get the motorhome in. In fact, the further north you get all you really see is leisure vehicles (Germans and Norwegians mainly), motorcyclists heading for the Arctic Circle and logging trucks (there are a lot of trees).
When you get to the Arctic Circle in Sweden it is celebrated with a very small sign in a typically Swedish minimalist fashion. To make the achievement of getting all the way to 66° 34' N, we head across to Finland and the Christmas town of Rovianiemi. Here you will find Santa (in fact there are two of them, which shatters the illusion a bit). You can sit with him, have your photo taken and discuss your local football team.
Apart from Santa, the Santa Village has dozens of shops, restaurants and other attractions including husky feeding. You can visit the post office where all the letters do actually get sent and see quite a few over-sized elves who all look like students doing a summer job (because they are). Better yet, the line of Arctic Circle has been marked throughout the "village" where you can take photos with one foot in and one foot out of the Arctic Circle. Photos with Santa are not free by the way and cost between 20 and 50 euros. Photos on the Arctic Circle you take yourself!
Once the excitement has settled down you can keep and eye out that night for the Northern Lights. They usually start around late August and there are some good spaces to spot them when you are this high up. There is about a 1 in 3 chance of seeing them during our tour and you can get an app to alert you.
Our tour will then spend another four days passing south through Sweden's hinterland on the way back to the Southern Archipelago. Rather than retracing our steps on the E4 we will be using the E45 among some other small roads. It is here that you drive and drive through gently undulating countryside and miles of miles of forest and lakes. You can expect some great views across the swathes of trees on higher ground and have the chance to spot bears, mouse, reindeer, deer, wild boar and storks in their natural habitat. On our recce we had to stop for a reindeer stag and its mate who were just plodding across the road.
It gets quite remote out here with the mobile phone signal dropping in and out and a noticeable lack of petrol stations and roadside stops. In fact, for long stretches we didn't even see another vehicle. It was great.
After a few days of this we were happy to get back into the land of the living, where our recce stopped at the top of Lake Vattern, Europe's sixth largest lake. Our tour next year will include the lake and neighbouring Lake Vanern, which is even bigger. It will also include Copenhagen, Malmo, Gothenburg, the naval city of Karlskrona, the quaint tourist town of Soderkoping (famous for its ice cream) and the mighty Oresund Bridge that links Sweden to Denmark.
Full details of the tour are on our website: https://www.crossingsmotorhometours.com/2025-sweden-and-the-arctic-circle
We are now over-subscribed on this tour for 2025 but please contact us if you are interested in joining us. We do operate a reserve list and we are also planning on running the tour again in 2026.
Spotlight On...France Grand Tour
If you are disappointed that the Sweden Tour is full, at the time of writing we do still have availability on our brand new 25 day tour of France.
We have always done French tours and people love them. Over the years we have (and still do) focus on specific areas such as Brittany & Normandy, The Loire & Burgundy, Provence & The Ardeche. Despite this, we have never done a tour that goes all the way around France so that you can experience a bit of everything. So that is what we are putting on in 2025. There will be coast, mountains, countryside, cities, towns and villages, rivers, lakes, forests and of course lots of opportunities to enjoy the food and wine of the various regions.
Our tours starts in Burgundy, best known for its vineyards and medieval towns. We stay at perhaps one of the prettiest of these in the walled town of Beaune with its cobbled streets lined with bistro. Beaune is surrounded by vineyards and is one of the most important wine-producing towns in France.
For a change of scene, we head away from the gentle slopes of Burgundy to the rugged beauty of The Ardeche home to deep gorges, rocky outrcrops (who is this Rocky Outcrop?) and high ridges. Star of the show round here is the Pont d'Arc, a giant arch carved out of the rock by the river. Here you can paddle downstream from the campsite, go under the arch in your hired kayak, jump out and then let someone drive you home in a minibus!
Next stop is the enchanting Provence region with the mighty Rhone River running through it. We stay close to the historic city of Avignon home to the Papal Palaces of the 14th Century. The intact walled town is a network of cobbled streets and open squares packed with restaurants, cafes and bistros. Perhaps our favourite small city in France.
Next stop is the seaside and we are going to the Occitanie region where you can expect long, sandy beaches and attractive resort towns. This area is also home to the Camargue Wetlands, one of the largest deltas in Europe completely packed with wildlife including over 400 species of birds (including pink flamingos) and wild horses and black bulls.
We then head west across the country with the Pyrenees Mountain Range just to our south. We will spend time around the historic city of Toulouse. As we are not that far from Spain here you will feel the Spanish influence with the terracotta roofs and pink facades on the buildings. You can expect a lively, bustling city or just sit it out in the Occitanie countryside!
Next stop is the meandering Dordogne River, home to medieval hilltop towns, tree-lined gorges, riverside cliffs and troglodytes (yes people still live in caves here but many of them would not be out of place on Grand Designs). We will be staying in the vines here as this is the Bordeaux region. You will get the chance to visit the city, an open, fairly relaxed place sometimes compared to Paris (in terms of its architecture at least). You will also be able to get in among the vines and enjoy a tasting.
It's back to the coast again but this time back up in Brittany. We will be staying close to the historic port town of La Rochelle with its ancient harbour walls and towers and a very pretty walled city with arcaded shops and cobbled streets. Rather than stay in La Rochelle we have chosen a resort town just to the south where you can walk or cycle along miles of corniche and enjoy the local shops and restaurants.
Our last major stop is on the Loire. The Loire is best known its mighty river, which you can happily drive right next to in your motorhome. It is also home to hundreds of vineyards and chateaux. Often there is a chateau with a vineyard attached so its two for the price of one! Some of the finest chateaux in France are on this stretch of the river.
As you can see we really cover the bases with this tour over the 25 days. It is worth pointing out that although we have the chance to visit some big cities, our campsites are not in the cities themselves, which we find makes for a much more relaxing tour. We typically spend three nights in each of the key locations so the pace is not too frantic. In fact we only cover around 1700 miles across the 25-days so it is quite steady!
Full details of the tour are on our website and we do currently have availability if you would like to join us next year: https://www.crossingsmotorhometours.com/2025-grand-tour-france
Coq au Van (the amusingly titled recipe feature)
Swedish Meatballs (what else?)
Ingredients
400g lean pork mince
1 egg, beaten
1 small onion, finely chopped or grated
85g fresh white breadcrumbs
1 tbsp finely chopped dill, plus extra to serve
1tbsp each olive oil and butter
2 tbsp plain flour
400ml hot beef stock (from a cube is fine)
Method
In a bowl, mix the mince with the egg, onion, breadcrumbs, dill and seasoning. Form into small meatballs about the size of walnuts – you should get about 20.
Heat the olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan and brown the meatballs. You may have to do this in 2 batches. Remove from pan, melt the butter, then sprinkle over the flour and stir well. Cook for 2 mins, then slowly whisk in the stock. Keep whisking until it is a thick gravy, then return the meatballs to the pan and heat through. Sprinkle with dill and serve with cranberry jelly, greens and mash.
Motorhoming Tips
A cautionary tale today. You may have heard in the news about the dangers of electric bike batteries and thought that maybe it is just the press being over dramatic. Sadly, the worst has happened for one of our customers. Happily they are OK and we wish them well.
E-bikes are generally very safe and in our opinion are great bits of kit that enable people to get about, particularly motorhomers, However, as with all products that use lithium batteries, there is a risk of fire. It appears that the risk is greater when the battery is charging.
Rather than repeat all the advice available out there, I have included a link below to the UK government website on e-bike safety: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/battery-safety-for-e-cycle-users/battery-safety-for-e-cycle-users
Keep in touch
Facebook: crossingsmotorhometours
Instagram: CrossingsMotorhome
Please feel free to contact us at any time. When we are away, calls will bounce to our mobiles at no expense to yourself.
Σχόλια