Thirty-one Healeys, fifty-nine people, 10,000 miles of ocean and 2,500 miles of driving....... what could possibly go wrong? Despite a of year of intensive and extensive planning, it was with some trepidation that Cindi and I boarded our flight to Oslo, Norway on June 6. While we had quite a bit of Tour experience in our West Coast group, about half the participants were Hirst-time overseas Healey tourers. How would they fare? Did they bring well-prepared cars? Could they handle their own inevitable breakdowns? Could they follow the route directions? Furthermore, for a full quarter of the trip we were going to be attending the 6th European Healey Meeting in Geiranger, Norway over which we had no organizational control. How would that go? How would sixty “non-Europeans” be treated? Would the small Norwegian Healey Club be able to handle 250 Healeys and 500 guests? Let’s just say my fears could not have been more unfounded. The Meeting was extraordinarily well planned, the hotel was fantastic, the navigators navigated, the pilots piloted, and mechanics “mechanicked” as needed. As the weeks went on, even the newbies became more independent and self-sufficient. The smiles outnumbered the frowns 100-1.
Now the good parts. Norway is FANTASTIC. Not on your bucket list? Neither was it on mine. It should be, and I’m going back. Green valleys, towering mountains, endless fjords, and hundreds of waterfalls (we could see twelve from the balcony of our room in Geiranger). And then there are the tunnels, well over a hundred of them when we lost count, many of them miles long. (The longest, the people were friendly and welcoming and almost universally spoke (American) English.
After all, they grew up on Hollywood movies and TV. The food was over the top and the service excellent. And all of it EXPENSIVE! Not to dismiss Denmark and Sweden. While they don’t enjoy the spectacular scenery of Norway, they make up for it in gently rolling “Healey hills”, great for driving. And Copenhagen and Stockholm are full of history and attractions, both worth a week each (which we didn’t give them).
The European Healey Meeting - It was a long trip (four weeks), so this could be a long story! Let’s break it up a bit and start by talking about the Meeting itself. Every five years the European Healey Clubs put on this gathering. It’s not unlike a Conclave (or California Healey Week for that matter), only bigger. 250 cars and nearly 500 people Hilled two hotels in the fjord-side village of Geiranger. The Hotel Union served as ground zero for all the activities and the Meet organizers were able to put almost all the Americans there, by moving many of their members to the overflow Hotel Havila.
There were the usual cocktail parties, nightly banquets, three long driving tours, two of which ended with gondola rides up the mountains, a car show, gymkhana and Cornish auction. And lots of socializing. Well organized, well managed and well appreciated.
Speaking of socializing, yours truly got a picture with all the Healey celebrities in attendance: Hans van de Kerkhof (Director of the Healey Museum in the Netherlands), John Chatham (Mr. Big Healey, famous Healey race driver), and Peter Healey (grandson of Donald).
The highlight of the Meet, for us, was the awards. In all, our group captured four of the top seven awards, including Best Sprite (Jeff Porada and Nancy Bacon of Mid-Ohio), Best Modified Healey (Brian and Linda Hubbard, in Ed Neumeyer’s car) and Best of Show, also Ed’s car. In addition, former AHASC member, Steven Kingsbury, won the Gerry Coker “Spirit of the Healey 100” Award for restoring a 100 to attend this Meet after losing his first one in the Paradise Hire. Quite a haul.
I could go on for many more paragraphs about the spectacular drives at the Meeting. Hopefully some of the photos which accompany this article will give you a flavor.
There are also a couple of great videos online: For an absolutely stunning drone video of the event and surroundings, go to : https://www.facebook.com/larsen.thomas/videos/215042364769475/?idorvanity=676858999748422 You may need to be a Facebook user to see this. https://videopress.com/v/qfaDFNCE This is Jeff Boysen’s video of one of the “snow roads” we drove.