With a boot full of camping equipment and our hearts beating excitedly in our chests, we leave Stuttgart early in the morning and head north. A small family on our first big road trip, ahead of us is a 3,000-kilometre drive through Germany to the Baltic Sea, followed by a tour across southern Sweden and back.
Our son Neon has been on plenty of journeys with us — we spend a large part of our lives travelling — but ten days completely "on the road"? This is new territory for our family of three, and it is our hope that the trip will feel free and flexible, but at the same time comfortable and safe.
With the Porsche Cayenne S at the front and the Hymer Eriba Ocean Drive caravan at the rear, we’ve found the answer. The Cayenne, in elegant Biscay blue metallic, cuts a pretty good figure off the rough Baltic coast, as Swedish idyll meets technical progress.
With 440 hp (Fuel consumption combined 9.4 – 9.2 l/100 km; CO2 emissions 213 – 209 g/km) under the bonnet, it feels as if we are gliding like feathers in the Cayenne, despite a caravan and camping equipment in tow. With little Neon on the back seat, there are no concerns about comfort or safety.
"it feels as if we are gliding like feathers in the Cayenne" Mia Bühler and Thies Janknecht
Thanks to the individually adjustable seats, longer distances fly by: Thies, with his seat ventilated to keep a cool head, Mia warm and comfortable next to Neon during the night-time rides, thanks to heated seats in the rear. The little one is soon at home too: within just a few kilometres he falls into a deep sleep, while we mostly admire the scenery, in quiet amazement.
The idyllic scenes we had imagined in our heads before the journey to Sweden become reality on arrival. In Midsummer the days are long, the sunsets gentle and while rich purple bellflowers blossom at the roadside, the landscapes begin to appear as if they have sprung from one of writer Astrid Lindgren's famous stories.
Lindgren’s hometown of Vimmerby is the first stop on our journey, and a visit to the wonderfully designed "Astrid Lindgren Värld" (Astrid Lindgren World) proves worthwhile — especially with children in tow.
From here, the road leads us through typically dark green forests and past deep blue lakes towards the coast, and the city of Västervik. Here, the site of our first longer stop, we find a picturesque camping site directly by the sea; the rough sound of the beautiful Baltic lulling everyone into a peaceful sleep, before we rise early the next morning to explore the city in the Cayenne.
The opportunity to leave behind our camper and equipment for day trips and spontaneous outings is probably appreciated more than ever in Sweden, where the "Everyman's Right" gives adventurers and wild campers like us the freedom to roam. Whether on cobblestones or off-road, the Cayenne repeatedly proves to be the perfect companion for our trip, as we pass through the old town of Västervik, which is dotted with rustic cottages in the traditional "Swedish red".
Thanks to its ingenious driving stabilisation system, the Porsche quickly and safely tackles obstacles large of all sizes, to give the ultimate feeling of freedom.
We make particular use of the car’s capabilities at our last destination: the wild and wonderful island of Gotland and its little sister island Fårö. Here, kilometres of lonely roads, often unpaved, are perfect for off-road adventures by the sea and Fårö has a reward for the long drive necessary to get to it: Rauken. Measuring up to ten metres tall, these dramatic, ancient salt rock formations, build up in front of the Baltic Sea like dancing giants, leaving amazed onlookers to feel tiny at their feet.
Back home, the indescribable beauty of southern Sweden and the feeling of freedom we experienced on the road in the Cayenne, remains with us. We have a feeling that this will not be our last road trip for three.
The authors
Mia Bühler and Thies Janknecht live in Stuttgart with their little boy Neon, where life mostly revolves around deadlines and traditional Swabian ravioli. As Social Media Consultants with their own agency “creading GmbH” and bloggers about various topics, these workaholics are more likely to be found on the road than at home – with their feet in the sand at their favourite destination, the Maldives, or with the Porsche Cayenne through Sweden.
