The beginning: Galway

My trip from Uppsala in Sweden to Catania in Sicily, Italy, was my maiden journey in the long distance trucking department. I had discovered the pros and contras of travelling by road. I had learned a lot, especially that if I wanted to enjoy the scenery, a night drive wasn’t the best idea. I also figured out that a trucker’s life is both exciting and unnerving, and it takes a lot of focus and willpower to move large hauls among the highways and byways of mainland Europe.

It was a wonderful experience and I decided that I was ready for a new adventure. I was wondering where my next project could take me, and had a few options in front of me. But then I decided it would be great to start close at home. As a native of the British isles, I realised it could be pleasant to begin in the west, at Galway bay, a place I had visited long before it was made popular by a red-headed pop star from England.

So I knew that I was going to start there, on the emerald island. But where to? I had gone from north to south, so it was only logic that I headed from the west to the east, starting in a place that I had known very well, the British Isles with all its different, beautiful regions. That was the first thing I set out to do. Visit Ireland, Northern-Ireland, Scotland, Wales AND England. But what would the destination be?

As I was scanning the map of Europa I found the perfect place to end a journey that was equally as ambitious and seemingly as thrilling as my first endeavour. Instead of stopping somewhere across the same latitude, like Poland or Belarus, but to head a bit more to the North (Is that cheating?). I decided that I would take another bend and finish in Tallinn, capital of Estonia, so I could also visit a large bulk of the Baltic states.

Perhaps I would revisit some of the place I had been on my first journey, but there was plenty of unchartered territory left to make it interesting. And, because of changing conditions, even the places I had gone to during my trip from Uppsala to Catania might make an entirely different impression on me. I was very excited with this new project, and, sitting in the Galway bay, couldn’t wait to head to the Baltics. I would start near the water and end near the water, and in between, I would again find myself in an ever-changing landscape.

Stage 12: Naples – Catania

So here I was, just outside Naples, ready for the final stage. Due to certain circumstances fate decided for me that I was to leave around 3 PM. I decided to drive as far as I could, but to rest during the largest part of the night, so I wouldn’t make the same mistake and reach my final destination in the dead of night and under cover of darkness. I was hoping for some cheery blue skies, but as I left Napoli, all I saw was grey skies, rain and mist.

Leaving Naples

Soon after my departure the sun set and I was again driving through some wonderful Italian landscape without being able to truly appreciate it. Perhaps it was a lesson for my next journey, although as a trucker I wasn’t in the capacity to wait for dawn every stage. I had a deadline that often interfered with my love for the picturesque and the beautiful.

A beautiful landscape wasted on the eye/camera

After about a third of my journey, I decided to take a rest, and 5 to 6 hours I was ready to head into Calabria, the last region on the Italian mainland before I would reach the island of Sicily, hopefully bathing in the sun. And there it was, shyly at first, as I crossed a wonderful bridge on the Salerno to Reggio Calabria interstate. I had seen and crossed many bridges, but the view from this one, across the Mediterranean, was particularly stunning.

From Salerno to Reggio Calabria

And I was in for my next treat, as I entered Villa San Giovanni, a coastal village of about 14.000 people, located beautifully along the strait of Messina. It was here that I was going to take my second and last ferry, from the small village to Messina.

La bella Italia

Villa San Giovanni

Finally, early in the morning, I was heading for Sicily

Waiting for the ferry

When I drove out of the ferry, I immediatly entered new and exciting territory. Messina was founded by Greek colonists and is now the third largest city of Sicily. Despite it’s Greco-classic history, it does also have a distinctly Italian feel, mixed with some wonderful classical architecture.

Entering Sicily

The city of Messina

Onto Catania

The view when leaving Messina was nothing compared to the one I got halfway my journey to Catania. There I saw the mighty Etna, the last of the outstanding landmarks that had begun with the Norwegian Fjords and ended here, on an Italian Island, more than 2000 miles to the south.

Mount Etna

it wasn’t too long before I reached the end of the end, Catania.

Catania

I began in Sweden. From there I went to Norway, Denmark, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Italy, on a diverse and wonderful journey that had me experience Europe, or at least a part of it, in a new and exciting way. As I was standing there in the Catania marina, looking out over the sea, I decided there and then this wouldn’t be the last of my endeavors. Something was already brewing. And I knew I had to start closer to home and end even further away. But that was for later. Now I was enjoying my destination. Sweden was a thing of the past, but more than a faint memory. Catania was my here and now, and yet it would inevitably be linked to all the places and cities my truck has brought me. Yes, it’s true. La vita e bella.

The end

Stage 11: Rome – Naples

There’s the saying “All roads lead to Rome”. You also have another one. “Vedi Napoli e poi muori”, to see Naples and to die. I had no death wish, but considering the fact that I was going to drive deeper and deeper into the boot, I liked the idea of going to Napoli and the bay of Naples. I soon left the Eternal City and reached Artena, a small, picturesque town on the outskirts of the Italian capital.

The (almost) empty streets of Artena

Outskirts of Rome

Again I was driving in the late hours. I did enjoy the landscape that passed by, mainly the Alban hills and other landmarks in the Lazio region.

Lazio’s landscape

The 11th stage was a short one, especially compared to the last ones. With about 140 miles to go, I could just enjoy the ride, without it becoming to tiring or tiresome. Soon I left Lazio and entered Campania.

Entering Campania

Soon enough I entered the city of Naples. I decided, before taking a rest, that I wanted to see the bay. So I drove a bit further. It was an excellent spot to sit and relax and to think about the past eleven stages, from the Scandinavian pine forests, to the big German cities, the Bohemian countryside and then onto the Alps and finally my last two days in la bella Italia. I had only one place left to go, the end of my route. It had been a wonderful journey, and as I was sitting there, watching the ships roll in and the lights of the houses in the bay shine bright, I could only hope the end would be as memorable as the beginning.

To the marina

Contemplating my journey

Stage 10: Venice – Rome

Just like in Venice, I wasn’t expecting to see too much of Rome, a city I had visited two times already and one of my absolute favourites. However, I did hope to have a bit of scenery along the way, knowing that my ride would take me through parts of Umbria, Tuscany, Lazio and the Apennines.

Italian countryside

Still waiting for the blue skies

And indeed, the short drive through the Apennines range was a modest highlight, not as beautiful and breathtaking as the Norwegian fjords, but because of the conditions a bit more of a surplus then the Alps covered in the darkest of nights.

Appeasing Apennines

Leaving the main Italian mountain range didn’t mean the landscape became more mundane. I still had a streak crossing the beautiful green Umbria ahead of me. Driving through Italy is quite a pleasure. Even along the highways you have beautiful vistas and sometimes a small village with its characteristic houses or a renaissance church appears out of nowhere.

History is always around the corner

Beautiful Umbria

As the sun was setting I kept on driving through the same hilly landscape with a small village appearing out of nowhere. Sometimes I crossed a small stream or river. I loved the tranquility of this stage, as a resting point between the touristic  Venice and the touristic and hectic Rome.

Hills to the left of me

When nearing Rome, I left Umbria to enter a new Italian province with a stunning name and a rich past. Lazio, center of the Roman Empire and the Papal States. I was just a humble truck driver entering though.

Umbria -> Lazio

Rome itself is huge, though I didn’t enter the historic center and remained on the outskirts. Still, it was an impressive sight. All ways lead to Rome, and once again I was shown that is absolutely the case. I couldn’t have forgiven myself if I skipped the opportunity to pay a small visit to this biggest and most beautiful of cities.

Roma

Stage 9: Zurich – Venice

Where to go next? What could match the Swiss jetset of Zurich? I had a few logical options. Either I could remain in Switzerland, and go to the capital of Bern, I could head to the east to Slovenia or Croatia or I could, as I set out to do on this trip, enter Italy. I decided to choose the last option, and what better destination as Venice, with one of the most romantic city centres, although my truck wouldn’t come near the bridges and canals (not to mention the potential hasard of the pigeons). It was a win-win situation as I would pass through the Alps, towards Milan and from there on bend eastwards, into the Veneto region. However, I made a mistake. I decided to leave at night.

Like a thief in the night

Not long after leaving Zurich, I saw a familiar sight, a sight that I had first seen, to a lesser extent, in Austria. There they were, the mighty Alps.

But my problem, or my miscalculation, becomes instantly visible. I drove through the most impressive parts between 2 and 4 AM, with my headlights and the occassional road lightning as my main source for a better look. The combination of light and darkness can create magic, as the Belgian painter René Magritte proved in many of his paintings, but a ray of light would have done wonders for my Alp experience as well.

Towards the Gotthard tunnel

Giants looming in the dark

Black mountains, not the Welsh ones

So it was only once I left the mountains behind me that the sky was getting a big clearer. But not before I passed another natural landmark of the region, lake Lugano, which, rather significantly, meant that I was nearing Italy.

Entering la bella Italia

Crossing the border, I had another large part of the trajectory ahead of me. First I had to pass Milan. I decided not to make a detour, I had been driving for almost 6 hours and wanted to get to Venice without having to take a long break. I did enjoy the view from afar, though.

Passing Milan

The part between Milan and Venice was mostly highway, but it did prove the added value of sunshine. Ordinary stretches of road became beautiful when bathing in the morning light.

Everything is prettier in the  morning light

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Yes, it’s a plane

The closer I got to Venice, the more beautiful the weather became. And to be honest, I did hope to get some blue skies in Italy, even at this time of the year.

Hoping for blue skies

After 9 and a half hours and more than 372 miles I finally reached Venice, although it was the part that few tourists would remember the Floating City for.

No tourist traps here

I was happy, melacholic and a little bit disappointed at the same time. My passage through the Alps was a bit of a let-down because of the late hour. My entrance into the North of Italy was memorable because of the rising sun. And most of all, I was almost there. The trip from Venice to Catania is about 800 miles. Still enough time and distance for some wonderful discoveries and experiences, but not enough to postpone the arrival at my final destination. Luckily, my journey would take me to at least one more must-see. I would travel to the Eternal City.

Venice Harbour

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stage 8: Salzburg – Zurich

On my journey I drove through some major cities and some interesting minor ones. I don’t know in which category Salzburg fits best, but it is a classic, in a lot of different ways. Classical too, as it is the hometown of musical boy genius Mozart. His music is quite something else, compared to the songs that blast through my radio, although I must say I do think Iggy Pop’s The Passenger or Talking Head’s Burning Down the House is more suited for a ride from Austria to Switzerland.

Exit Salzburg by night

I left Salzburg at 6 PM, but due to the time of the season, it was in total darkness. I’m sure there is some Tibetan saying that goes like this “To achieve what we want, we sometimes have to move away from it”. I had already put that into practice when heading for Aalborg via Bergen and the Norwegian fjords. This time it was a bit different. I longed to see the Alps, but before I’d do that I had to head for Zurich. It would be a less interesting route, but it did lead me to four different countries: Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. My first detour was through Bayern and its capital Munchen.

Munich

City lights

It was nice to see such a prominent German city, though I’d been to Hamburg and Berlin, and those two certainly had made a more lasting impression. I found myself thinking the same of one of the bridges I had to cross. I had been particularly impressed with the Scandinavian ones. But, to be honest, this route, especially in total darkness was rather uneventful so I welcomed every bit of novelty along the way.

Hurray, a bridge

After spending some time in Germany, I returned to Austria for a bit.

Hello, auf wiedersehen

Swiftly, as only a couple of miles after that I drove into yet another country, and this time it was a principality. Liechtenstein has the population of a large English village, but it does have a special status within Europe, so I won’t be downplaying its importance too much. Again, due to the nighttime (and probably the rain as well) my passage through Vaduz wasn’t as memorable as it could have been.

The principality

Not long after that I finally arrived in Switzerland and a bit later in Zurich, a global center for banking and finance and also home to many of the mightiest organisations in Europa and the world. Personally, a simple pseudo-trucker like myself wasn’t too impressed with the setting. I couldn’t wait to leave the man-made wealth behind me, and enter the natural riches of the Alps.

Home of the rich and the powerful

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stage 7: Prague – Salzburg

My Bohemian rhapsody (terrible pun, I know) was about to end, and perhaps a bit too fast. I really love the Czech Republic and would have liked to linger there a little longer, but my journey was taking me to the south and the Czech Republic is a rather “horizontal” country. So I was leaving the city of Kafka and Der Golem, among others. Luckily I was able to move from one beautiful historic town to another as my journey would bring me to Salzburg.

Goodbye Prague

The journey was about 237 miles. About 124 of those were spent in the beautiful forests of Bohemia. The sun was at its highest point and illuminated the countryside in a wonderful way.  As I was heading towards the Alps I truly felt the previous and this stage were pivotal in my journey, and that the rather mundane section from Aalborg to Berlin was mostly an accident de parcours (luckily not literally).

Outskirts of Prague

Bohemian countryside

Up and down

Soon I reached the Czech-Austrian border and found my surroundings and the overall landscape changing. The hills were making way for the Eastern Alps, first subtle and in the distance, but soon enough I was nearing the first slopes, as my truck was put to the test on a couple of climbs. I had no time to stop in Linz but it was an interesting sight from across the bridge over the Danube, a river that was just as iconic as the Alps, themselves.

Linz and the Danube

Shy mountains

Towards the Alps

I now had a terrific vista and wasn’t too far away from Salzburg, the destination of this seventh stage, in my seventh country. I was nearing the Italian border. Perhaps it would end in 3 or 4 stages. But this wasn’t about dwelling for dwelling’s sake, this was about the magnificent discovery of a continent and the freedom of going from point A to point B in whatever way I wanted it, with one eye on the road and the other on a maximum of diversity and natural and cultural splendour.

Salzburg and the Eastern Alps

DISCLAIMER: From now on the screenshots will also feature the work of ProMods, who have done a wonderful job to enhancing the already great work of ETS2.

Stage 6: Berlin – Prague

After my detour to the east I had to make sure I advanced to the south. I had a few options ahead of me, but I thought a capital to capital ride would be fun, so I set out for Prague, the beautiful capital of the Czech Republic, which I had visited before as a city trip. I knew it as a beautiful country so I was looking forward to my trip. I left Berlin at the dead of night, letting my head lights do its enchanting magic in the darkness.

Arcade Fire – Ready to start

If there’s one thing that I learned on my journey is that there is a certain kind of music for a certain kind of atmosphere (I know, nothing groundbreaking). Foo Fighters are great to listen to during an early morning sunrise, Arcade Fire work wonders in the evening and at night I grew fond of One Night in Bangkok from Murray Head (yes, weird but very uplifting).

My journey from Berlin to Prague was set during these transitioning periods, from the dark of the evening till the first rays of sunshine. This particular sunset came after a rather hefty spell of rain.

Misty dawn #1

Misty dawn #2

When I was nearing the border between Germany and Czech Republic and truly entering the center of Central Europe, the rain ended and the forests went from misty mysterious to bathing in light. What a great first impression!

Bathing in light

Bohemian splendour

Not long after that I finally reached Prague, yet another wonderful city with great architecture and atmosphere and home to one of my favourite writers, Kafka. Luckily for me my journey had been anything but Kafkaesque so far.

Wonderful Prague

It was more a combination of Romantic poetry and Kerouac’s On the road (without the drugs and counterculture). I had driven about 1800 miles and had at least another 1200 left ahead of me. I had been in awe when driving through the impressive Norwegian fjords, but now something entirely different was waiting for me. Heading south from Czech Republic meant that I had to release my inner Hannibal. I was about the cross the Alps.

 

 

 

Stage 5: Hamburg – Berlin

As a music enthusiast I always associated Berlin with some of the best musicians of the 70’s, mainly David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed, who all resided there and were inspired to make some of the best albums in music history (Berlin/Heroes/The Idiot among others). If trucking and driving through Europe has learned me one thing, it’s the fact that music is also a welcome addition during driving. Sometimes it just helps against the tiredness, sometimes it enhances experiences. Like having Queens of the Stone Age’s My God is the Sun blasting through the speakers when the sun is rising or having Arcade Fire’s Ready to Start as the soundtrack to the first few miles of an epic journey. But anyway, I was going to Berlin.

Night drive

Hamburg – Berlin was another journey that had me go mainly on highway roads, although there were a couple of redeeming features. First of all, I left Hamburg in the dead of night. In my experience even the most mundane of roads becomes just a bit more spectacular in the darkness. Perhaps it is the fact you need to focus harder, because your sight decreases. Perhaps it’s just the artificial light bathing the landscape and the road in a yellow gloom.

From the north country to the east

About 50 miles before arriving in the capital of Germany, my eye fell on a tank station and parking area on the side of the road. I had been on the move for almost a week and had  traveled four countries. To me this was a challenge, another way of seeing cities and experiencing new things. For the people in their trucks, resting and having a snack or something to drink, this was their life, their existence, to be constantly on the move. I didn’t know whether to be jealous or not. Perhaps I could answer the question once I reached Catania.

A trucker’s life

It goes to show that today I had a lot of time to reflect on things, from the relationship of music and driving through the loneliness or happiness (or perhaps both) of the truck driver. After 190 miles of easy driving and pondering I arrived in Berlin, the wonderful city of music and art, where every street is a testament of both the creative spirit of the city and its rich and troubled history. What a sight!

Berlin

Stage 4: Odense – Hamburg

Odense is Denmark’s third city but despite this it has a cosy city centre with colourful houses. My short stay in this wonderful city somewhat improved the view I had of Denmark. It wasn’t enough to keep me from going south though, and I had a few options ahead of me. I chose to head to my fourth country, Germany, and more specifically Hamburg.

Out of Odense

Heading towards North-Germany meant that I had to revisit a part of yesterday’s journey. It did mean I got to see the likeable Lillebaeltsbroen, the Little Belt one, again, a suitable way of saying goodbye to Denmark, its flat countryside and its many many windmills.

Bye bye Little Belt

Windmills as far as the eye can see

94 miles after departure, following the same highway, with the same type of scenery I crossed the border and left Scandinavia behind me. Perhaps I didn’t stay in Denmark long enough to be able to truly appreciate the country, but as I left the country my thoughts lingered towards Norway and to a lesser extent Sweden. I could only hope that the views would again get better and more memorable in this fourth country on my journey to Catania.

My four visited countries in one image

And despite not knowing what to expect I was rather impressed by the North-German scenery. It was much more hilly as expected, with the forests along the highway giving me lessened Scandinavia-experience (really, I should get over it). Especially with the setting sun it made for a nice ride.

Sunset in North-Germany

From the border it was another 95 miles towards my final destination for this stage, Hamburg. I drove through the city and ended my ride in the harbour district, with the sky coloured picturesquely for the occasion. It wasn’t as spectacular as day 2 yet, but I did enjoy today’s drive a lot. My arrival in Hamburg was a great way to end this stage.

Picturesque harbour