Guest of the Week: Janne Varne and Frank Olsen, motorhome travellers on a trip around Europe

Janne Varne and Frank Olsen, from Sandnes in southern Norway, enjoy travelling with their motorhome. Less than two months ago, they embarked on their longest ever motorhome trip. They have begun the journey by experiencing Norway properly and will then travel through Russia, the Baltic States, Poland, the Czech Republic and Croatia, among others, to reach Greece, where they have a holiday home and holiday apartments for rent.

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On their way home, they will drive westwards, including Italy, France and Spain. They expect to be back in Norway by Christmas. We took the opportunity to ask about the preparations, planning and the journey so far. If you want to continue to follow the exciting journey, you can do so on the couple's blog. Janne and Frank's travel and motorhome blog.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself? Who are you and what do you do when you're not travelling by motorhome?

We have been a couple since autumn 1990. We have a total of 6 children, all girls, three each! Janne has 3 grandchildren, Frank has two. Janne is 54 years old. She is a trained carer (vårdbiträde). In her spare time she knits, walks in the woods, reads and spends time with family and friends.

Frank is 58 years old. He is a trained electrician and has worked in the production of electrical equipment. In his spare time, he goes for walks with Janne, spends some time with his family, and is otherwise just happy to be free :).

How did you come up with the idea of doing this long campervan journey?

We always thought that the holidays (semester) and weekends were too short, so we never got far enough with the campervan. Then Janne had the idea that we could take a year off work, save some money, and drive all over Europe.

Can you tell us a bit about your travel route and where you are right now?

The journey started from our hometown Sandnes 1 May. The itinerary is planned with a lot of time, almost 3 months, in Norway. We want to see as much of our beautiful home country as possible. In between here also a week in central Sweden.

Then, from 23 July, the tour goes through Russia, the Baltic countries, Poland and the rest of Eastern Europe down to Greece and Crete. In Crete we have a resort with holiday apartments for rent: www.villamarella.com. We will be doing some work here to get it ready for rental from the 2017 season, and then in November we plan to start the return journey via most countries in Western Europe.

Right now we're in Sundsvall, but we're always on the move, so by the time this is published we'll be back in Norway, at the end of the year. Bodø. From 20 May, we have a 5 week period where we will be visited by some of our daughters and grandchildren who are coming by plane. Updated itinerary can be found here at all times: Travel route.

You plan to travel through some more unusual motorhome countries, such as Russia and Belarus. What are your thoughts on this?

We want to visit every country we haven't been to before. Russia has always seemed exciting to visit, due to the fact that for so long it was "inaccessible" to tourists. We also want to see more of the country than just St. Petersburg which most tourists find their way to. Therefore we will spend 11 days between Murmansk and St Petersburg. We haven't decided on Belarus yet. We'll do that when we get to Vilnius. You can get a visa there.

How long did it take to prepare the trip and what preparations did you make?

It didn't take long to decide to do it really, but from the time we decided it took about 3 years until the journey started.

Preparations: We've saved up some money, we've both quit our jobs, we've rented out our house on a long-term basis, and we've organised our visas to Russia. We have also spent some time creating an approximate itinerary.

What has been the best part of the trip so far?

Freedom! Not having to get up early to go to work, and not having any obligations to employers and customers/clients. And living in the present. We don't really know where we are going tomorrow, for example, just roughly. Every day brings new surprises and new experiences. And we love getting out in nature and experiencing new places all the time.

Have you experienced any mishaps or something that didn't turn out the way you intended? Tell us about it!

Fortunately, we haven't had any mishaps (missöden) so far. The only thing that has not turned out quite as planned is the route we take. We google our way to sights, and often take a different route than initially planned to get sights and places that we did not know about in advance. Thank goodness for Google :). We also carefully check campsites and their location before deciding where to go the next day.

Finally, a question we ask everyone we interview: What is your dream destination?

Our dream trip is the one we're on now, a journey without one destination, but with many. We also look forward to future motorhome trips to places we can't reach this time.

Thank you Janne Varne and Frank Olsen for sharing your experiences and thoughts!

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