Aug 7, 2012
Ferry crossing from Finland was 4 hours, it was a smaller ferry and not much to do on board. Luckily we brought our readers and the computer and tablet with us, though the wifi wasn’t working we spent the time reading and I even had a chance to watch a movie on the tablet. Our arrival in Sweden was very low key and after driving onto Swedish soil we decided to follow the coast road which was said to be nice. It was a pleasant drive, but we didn’t see much coast and after a night spent in a small campsite by a lake we headed inland and drove through the heartland of Sweden. We stopped at Fallun and had a look at their historical copper mine and then visited renowned swedish artist Carl Larssen’s home in nearby Sundborn. We did learn why there are a lot of Swedish buildings painted dark red at the mine,The paint originated from the copper mine at Falun in Dalarna, Sweden. The traditional colour remains popular today due to its effectiveness in preserving wood
The paint made from copper in the paint that comes from the mine, made fashionable by the Swedish King years ago and as it resembles brick.
We then spent a day in Stockholm under a bridge (felt like trolls) which was extremely noisy. Usually we put in ear plugs to sleep when we are in a busy place but this night we were waiting for a phone call to let us know when our new grandchild, not much sleep was had that night but we did get updates from our daughters in law about the progress. Poor Jade ended up having a 39 hour labour and a cesarean section before welcoming our 2nd grandson into the world.. Patrick Antonie, we couldn’t be happier, except if we were there for all the cuddles. We have to wait another 4 weeks but thanks to skype we were able to see him and our daughter the next day.
We decided to leave Stockholm after only 1 night, after 2 nights of interrupted sleep we needed to find some peace and quiet. We headed west and found a nice spot on the end of a disused road behind a thick stand of trees where we stopped for a night. It was so quiet and peaceful we enjoyed an uninterrupted nights sleep and felt better for it.
We made a stop in Orebro which turned out to be a nice town with a castle and an open museum; Wadköping, which gives an idea of what Örebro´s buildings and city environment used to look like. Wadköping has been located here since its opening in 1965 and comprises wooden buildings and court-yards moved here from central Örebro. We then visited the water tower of Örebro, named Svampen (The Mushroom), which is a popular destination as an outlook tower, where we took the lift to see the views. We were going to have a coffee in the cafe at the top, but after a quick looked decided it would be a good idea to get back on the road and find our next nights stay.
Vadstena was our next overnight stop, parked right in front of the castle next to the marina, we couldn’t have had a better stop (or view). It started raining on our way to Vadstena so we shut ourselves in for the evening and night and enjoyed the quiet patter of rain on our roof while we slept. We woke to a lovely sunny morning and went for a walk around the town, still early it was quiet and we admired the old buildings and church before heading back on the road.
One of our brochures told us of a Elk (or Moose) and Bison park where you could drive in your own vehicle to see the animals. We thought this would be a good idea and headed for this park. After purchasing a ticket and buying some souvenirs, we drove into the park which is 3 kms of winding road through a forested fenced park. At first we didn’t see anything much, we thought they had vamoosed, then we saw a baby Elk with its mother, then the Bison and at the end of our drive we came across a lot of the Elk hiding in the trees, lying down keeping well out of the way of the tourists. Just before we were to drive out a lone young moose came directly up to us looking for food, almost put its head in the cabin of the camper and then took off when we had nothing for it. A close encounter with a moose, Ewout was thrilled.
Our next tourist stop was a Foteviken, a Museum and interactive display where you can walk around between the houses and learn more about the life’s of the Vikings. During the summer months people live and work in the village as in the times of the Vikings playing out the roles of villagers and interacting with the tourists, telling about how life was lived in the Viking era. We were looking forward to seeing this Viking village and were a little disappointed. Although it was quite interesting there didn’t seem much to see and maybe this was because it was a week day and not the weekend when they would expect more visitors. Still it was a pleasant visit and we decided that living like a Viking would not be the easiest way to spend your time.