Vanagon EuroVan
Previous messageNext messagePrevious in topicNext in topicPrevious by same authorNext by same authorPrevious page (May 2001, week 4)Back to main VANAGON pageJoin or leave VANAGON (or change settings)ReplyPost a new messageSearchProportional fontNon-proportional font
Date:         Fri, 25 May 2001 12:42:36 +0300
Reply-To:     Stebbins <stebbins@AUCEGYPT.EDU>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Stebbins <stebbins@AUCEGYPT.EDU>
Organization: The American University in Cairo
Subject:      Cairo Report: The Trip Home
Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

In four days we will be leaving Cairo to return to our home in Halifax. The easy way to do it would be to ship the van & we fly back to Halifax --- not my style. So, as I don’t start teaching again until September, we have decided to fulfill our desire to see as much as we can, by DRIVING from Cairo to Amsterdam and shipping the van from there to Halifax while we fly. Easy to type, more difficult to do.

Our itinerary calls for a May 29 Cairo departure and for us to drive to the Sinai port of Nuweiba and take a car ferry to Aqaba in southern Jordan. (It would be much easier and cheaper if we could drive through 20 kms of Israel to Jordan, but any evidence of travel to Israel would preclude travel through Syria to get to Turkey ---aaraggg!). In Jordan we plan on driving up through Wadi Rum (where Lawrence of Arabia was filmed), on up to Petra, and several other sites, past Amman up to Syria to see Palmyra and Krac Des Chevaliers and others. Then into Turkey for a drive up the southwest part of Turkey (Epheseus & Troy) with a detour to Istanbul (where we can drive the van across the bridge from Europe to Asia & back!!). Greece will get a lot of our attention as there is just so much to see there (and if time permits, we may try for a Greek island tour for a few days). After Greece we will take the car ferry to Italy and go north through Rome & the Tuscany region and on to Switzerland, Austria, to the Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Germany and whatever else catches our fancy. We have air tickets for August 7th from Amsterdam to Halifax.

We did bring our Canadian license plates, registration, and van title with us, so that is not a problem. We have purchased comprehensive international car insurance (called a Green Card - about US$700 for 3 months) for the van and have checked with customs of the various countries about being able to drive through their country for a few days. Syria is the only country that we’re are not 100% sure about being able to get a temporary import permission, but we are 98% sure. So we hope that we will not be required to have a Carnet de Passage en Douane for the van (a “carnet” is a posted bond for the value of the van to insure export of the van from any and each country – a passport for the van).

We expect to be on the road for about 9 or 10 weeks (end of May to the first week of August) and cover about 8 to 10,000 kms, three continents (Africa, Asia, & Europe) and 13 or so countries. En route, we hope to visit 4 more sites where the 7 Wonders of the Ancient (European/Middle East) World were located, raising our total to 6. Can you name them all??? (see below for all 7).

From our past experience we are budgeting about US$100+/day on average (inclusive of gas, camping, food, museums, sites etc.). (Last August our 26 days in UK cost us about CDN$200/day). Anyway, US$100/day times 70 days, will be about US$7,000 for the trip and this does NOT include shipping the van from Amsterdam to Halifax (another US$800) or the airfare. Both the van shipment & airfare are being reimbursed by the Am. U in Cairo as part of my contract. We expect Jordan & Syria & Turkey to be much cheaper than average, and for things to become more expensive as we head through Greece & Italy, with prices again going up as we hit Switzerland/Germany/Belgium. If we go through Eastern Europe, prices will be cheaper than in Western Europe.

It will be very hot getting out of here, but we hope that it will cool off a bit after we head north from Greece. The van has new VW (orange) coolant, Mobile 1 synthetic oil, new oil & fuel filters. I checked the timing and dwell (Pertronix is still “spot-on” after 20,000 kms). I have an extra alternator & belt, fuel pump, distributor, oil & gas filters. For the humans, we have a thermometer, aspirin, cold pills, diarrhea pills, band-aids & antiseptic ointment and even hemorrhoid cream (we’ll be sitting for 10 weeks!!) We have about 7 Lonely Planet books & lots of maps to cover the whole route. Basically I drive and Pat is the “tour guide”. As I was changing the oil yesterday, I noticed that a bracket on the muffler had been pushed up into the muffler, so I took off the muffler and had the bracket welded back on. We thought that the van sounded a bit “throaty”, better now.

I will be off the list (except for any HELP postings) for the duration of the trip, but I’ll let you all know how the trip went when we arrive “safe and sound” back in Halifax.

May the Vanagon gods smile on this trip. Malcolm & Pat ------------------------------ 7 Wonders of the Ancient (European/Middle East) world:

1) Pyramids at Giza (the only surviving ‘wonder’) (Egypt) 2) Pharos at Alexandria (Lighthouse) (Egypt) 3) Temple of Artemis (Ephesus, Turkey) 4) Mausoleum of Helicarnassus (Turkey) 5) The Colossus of Rhodes (Greece, off Turkey coast) 6) The Statue of Zeus at Olympia (Greece) 7) Hanging Gardens of Babylon (Iraq)


Back to: Top of message | Previous page | Main VANAGON page

Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!


Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com


The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.

Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.