Russia Scandi

In June 1981 I did a 6½ week Russia Scandi coach camping trip. A lot of booze was consumed over the period with 23 passengers on board a coach and the driver and courier.

First we crossed over on the ferry to Europe then did Amsterdam, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, then worked our way up the coast to Hammerfest, and back down the Finland side Rovaniemi, Helsinki, Lenningrad, Kalinin, Moscow, Smolensk, MinskWarsaw, Prague, Berlin, Cologne and back to London

We got off to a great start by buying 100 dozen of Elephant Beer on the ferry (which later got us an overloading fine in Norway, so we had to drink faster)

In Amsterdam we did all the usual things that I revisited many times later such as Red Light area, live shows, Banana bar and several other seedy establishments.

Up at Hammerfest we went out on the North Sea fishing and caught more fish than we could eat in a month, in spite of the ice cold weather.

At the Artic circle on the Norway side the snow was higher than the bus where a snow plough had kept it clear.

Coming down the Finland size he had a night in a campsite with Saunas, that was fantastic.

In Berlin the campsite backed onto the Berlin Wall, looking over the fence we could see guards with machine guns. At the camp was the usual beer boot party and 120 bottles of Kuemerling. We did a day trip across Checkpoint Charlie into East Berlin and about a 20 minute walk to the Berlin Tower and had a meal in the revolving restaurant at the top.

In Prague it was the first time our courier had been there and whilst changing money on the black market we ended up with counterfiet notes which was not ideal.

We did visit Auschwitz which was a real eye opener. We had a guide and were shown the huge buildings with specticles, bags, shoes and we were also shown the area where they were set up as showers and were in fact gas chambers. Quite a sad place to visit.

I will be in Berlin again this year (2024) and have booked a table at the same Tower Restaurant some 40 years later.

A fantastic trip but I have not managed to get back in contact with anyone off that trip since.