A long-cherished wish of Club President Walter Köhler to undertake a Beetle trip to Norway came true. His preparations took over half a year: 14 Beetles with 24 people set off on an unusual "Beetle expedition" from Kiel to Oslo by ferry from 17 June to 3 July 2016. Thanks to his friendly relations with the VW scene in Norway, he had a lot of support.
To emphasise the togetherness of the Beetles even more, each Beetle had the driving route and a start number stuck on the doors.
As soon as we arrived in Oslo, we were greeted by several Beetle fans with Norwegian Beetles. With a joint city tour to take photos of us and our Beetles in front of Oslo's landmark at the striking city hall, the "Norwegian Beetle Journey" began with over 3000 km of driving.
In the Norwegian VW magazine of the Bergen VW Club, there was a four-page report about the VW Beetle Club Última Edición e.V. and its trip; this came out about two weeks before our visit. So word had got around in the VW scene where we were and when, and what route we took. Unbelievably, many "air-cooled VWs" were parked at the side of the road or in front of houses, which signalled a "warm welcome" for us. In fact, the last-built Última Edición Beetles have so far only been seen on paper in Norway - not in "natura".
We were invited by the Bergen VW Club to their clubhouse and workshop - what a great meeting to meet like-minded people and talk shop.
When we drove into Stavanger, we were accompanied by several "Luftgekühlte" (air-cooled) who "chased" us into the car park and gave us a warm welcome and presented us with their club T-shirts. Not only petrol talks were the order of the day.
Some highlights: Fjords, pass and serpentine roads, impressive waterfalls, stave churches, glaciers, most diverse fascinating landscapes like the Valdresfykle National Scenic Route, Spectacular Road 653, Atlanterhavsveien (Atlantic Road), Old Strynfjell Road 254, Holmenkollen ski jump, parking the Beetles in the pedestrian passage of Ålesund.
A 17-day fascinating, eventful, unique and air-cooled Norway Beetle trip flew by far too quickly. Daily highlights like you can only imagine them in your dreams and the fascination of the Norwegians, the other tourists to discover us with the Beetles in the convoy was overwhelming, the mobile phones were pulled out, the thumbs went up and at every stop we were involved in conversations about how "cool" it was to travel such a country with these vehicles. Often even in groups, people stood in front of the Beetles to follow the route on the doors, take pictures with the air-cooled ones and they were more than amazed at what the K-UE Club had organised.
