Europe tour with round the world distance
VOLKSWAGEN Under the project name "Crafter2Craftsmen", the new VW Crafter is driving through 30 countries in four months, covering 42,000 km in the process. It recently made a stop in Switzerland. The Crafter2Craftsmen tour started at the beginning of November 2016 in Hanover, Germany, the headquarters of the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles brand. In the meantime, the new Crafter has been traveling through Europe and [...]
The Crafter2Craftsmen tour started at the beginning of November 2016 in Hanover, Germany, the headquarters of the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles brand. Since then, the new Crafter has been traveling through Europe and Morocco for over three months. The team has already visited 17 countries and 15 craftsmen on the big trip and has already covered over 30,000 km. The driver pairing of Andreas Renz and Axel Strohmeyer is currently at the wheel. A total of three teams of drivers are sharing the long distance and contributing their experience to the work. This should help to identify and eliminate any teething troubles at an early stage. But don't worry: the Crafter has been running like clockwork so far and shows no weaknesses in tough continuous use. On the road, it not only attracts the attention of the visiting tradesmen. Many are seeing it live for the first time and want to take a close look at it (the first customer deliveries for Switzerland are planned for March). "We are often asked about the vehicle and people keep asking to try out the seats. The load compartment is also examined particularly critically," say the two drivers.
However, Crafter2Craftsmen also provides an insight into unusual craft workshops. So far, the team has visited 15 craftsmen in Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, England, Ireland, Scotland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway and even Iceland. Switzerland was added at the end of January. The tour then continued to Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Austria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland, before finally returning home. At the end of its tour, the new Crafter will have covered 42,000 km - roughly the circumference of the earth. Whether bagpipe maker in Scotland, windmill restorer in the Netherlands, royal Danish flower supplier, axe smith in Sweden and now a sculptor in Switzerland - to name just a few of the crafts - they all have one thing in common: a passion for their craft and its perfection. The stop in Switzerland was in front of the Schibig sculpture workshop in Steinen in the canton of Schwyz. The sculpture workshop has been designing and carving figurative and ornamental works from wood since 1956. The traditional company is a second-generation family business. Among other things, Schibig Bildhauerei created the wood carvings for the organ in the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Martin Schibig, the owner of the sculpture workshop, was delighted with the visit from the north. The two drivers of the Crafter2Craftsmen tour set off for Italy on the same day. The next visit was to a gondola maker in Venice.
The tour can be followed on social media such as Facebook and the microsite www.crafter2craftsmen.com can be followed. Videos and pictures illustrate the visits to the craftsmen.
