We’ve been back a few weeks and I still haven’t got round to posting the second half of our Skandi Trip so here we go – it been fun reading it back …….
The second half of month meant we were heading south starting with the West Coast of Sweden. Sweden is huge country and I was very conscious that we were only getting a slither of what it has to offer, but the minute we went across the bridge from Norway I could feel the difference in the two countries. Immediately it felt busier but that might have been the fact that we got caught in a lengthy line of traffic crossing the border.
Our first stop was Stromstad, a small town situated in Kosterhavet National Park where there are a lot of small islands and rocks with channels, rocky bays and beaches to explore. The archipelago is a very popular area for holiday makers, kayakers, boat enthusiasts with lots of marinas full of speedboats and nature style campsites set along the coast. Much of it is a protected area with numerous islands to visit some connected by roads and some only via boat trips.
We stopped at a large Swedish chain Motorhome site as I had clothes washing piling up and to get our bearings. Stromstad town is a small port for ferries to Norway was uninspiring but the site was close to the water and I went for a dip at the waterside next to the site. Washing done we headed off to explore one of the many islands that dots the coastline. As it was approaching the midsummer holiday weekend all the sites were getting booked up but we managed to book into one for a night set amongst the forest and we explored Rosso Island on our bikes.
There were very few roads in these areas, but it has pockets of beautiful residential properties with little marinas full of boats of all sizes. The land was flat with small inclines, sandy terrain with rocks and heathland with tall pine forests. The beaches of white sand are set amongst rocks with crystal waters to swim in but often full of jelly fish which put me off going for a dip. The island is popular with walkers with info boards about trails to follow but as it was particularly windy whilst we were there and sadly Bobs knee wasn’t great both prevented us from doing much walking.
We did stop at a very pretty marina with a local shop that doubled up as a take-away and did the most amazing pizzas with cold beer. So, we sat in the sun sheltered from the wind on the pier and shared a pizza whilst we looked out on the islands and rocks around.
Midsummer is Sweden is a national celebration and the whole weekend is centred around the longest day. Everyone dresses up, many women dress in white and wear crowns of flowers. Families get together and celebrate from lunchtime with a big cold buffet spread washed down with plenty of alcohol. Town centres and parks often have events where they decorate a maypole with flowers and at 3pm come together to erect the pole and then the children and some adults dance around the pole. This all happens on the Friday before midsummer day and the rest of the weekend is spent with a variety of activities.
We learnt all this from observation and from chatting to a Swedish couple at a local bar. As we struggled to find a site for that night we ended up at a motorhome park one of the pretty marinas on the outskirts of the town of Lysekil. When we walked into the town centre we passed many groups of families celebrating together but sadly nothing was going on locally.
Bob was really struggling with his knee at this point and as we had an exceptionally long walk home we didn’t manage to join in any events. We did get to watch a beautiful sunset along with other campers at the marina.
Lysekil was a nice town with a very interesting board walk and boulders to clamber along the coastline which we hadn’t intended on doing as Bob was in a lot of pain with his knee but we took a wrong turning and walked an extra 3 miles before ending up where we started and still had to walk the mile walk back to the motorhome which for Bob was not a pleasant experience.
Heading further south our next stop was Marstrand – a little fishing port steeped in history and was at one point the centre of the Herring industry in Europe. It is set on the edge of an archipelago just north of Gothenburg. It is another popular area for visitors with a cobbled port area, walking trails around the island and pedestrian streets that are lined with grand wooden painted houses with fine glazed verandas. To get to the island you must take a short ferry to cross the water, the weather was cold and windy so we popped into an art gallery of modern impressionist artist Lo Fehrling, whose paintings we would have loved to buy had we been able to afford one of them!
Before heading off the next morning I managed to pop to a delicious bakery and bought my breakfast of a mixture of Swedish pastries.
Meandering down the coast line (avoiding Gothenburg) over the next 2 days we stopped at Varberg another lovely town where we went on a great bike ride along the coastline, Grotvik harbour with a very pleasant motorhome stopover at another pretty mariner, a picnic at Hovs Hallar nature reserve with fabulous views of the sea and rocks below and our last night was spent in a private harbour called Vistorps Hamn right next to a long sandy beach, a very quiet and peaceful area off the beaten track.
We thoroughly enjoyed exploring a little bit of Sweden we only had 5 nights but managed to get a feel for the west coastline. We then headed over the bridge from Malmo into Denmark with a night in Copenhagen. I was extremely excited about the bridge as we’d watched the Danish detective programme The Bridge based around the area and going to Copenhagen which we’d read has the best cycle routes around a city. I read up on the rules – Keep right on the paths; use hand signals for turning and stopping; lock up your bike when you park up.
This turned out to be good advice, we had such fun cycling around Copenhagen -it was a ridiculously hot day and was very busy with cyclists. We spent most of the day exploring the streets on two wheels. Sat with an expensive drink at the Nyhavn, gawked at the amount of people sunbathing next to the water in swimsuits, kayaking and paddleboarding amongst the boat trips – can you imagine doing this along the River Thames in London! We loved Copenhagen, it felt young, vibrant and fun to visit – especially all the people on bikes going about their daily activities.
The Oresund Bridge was opened in 2000 and is in fact part bridge and part tunnel. The Danish end is close to Copenhagen airport so they could not construct a bridge that impacted the runway or make it too low so that ships couldn’t sail under it. Therefore, they created a manmade island in the middle from the rock from the tunnel. The bridge between Sweden and Denmark was a turning point in connecting continental Europe and the Nordics and now around 70,000 crossings are made daily. It wasn’t cheap to cross – over £100 for our motorhome!
The following day we visited the island on Mon in Denmark and took a trip to Mons Klint – limestone cliffs made from fossilised algae giving the sea a milky blue colour below the white cliffs.
From here we took the ferry from Rodbyhavn to Puttgarden in Germany and stopped over for a few nights in Germany, firstly at a campsite next to a lake near the town on Eutin where I had the best swim and then the next night at a campsite by another lake in the town of Holdorf. Germany is great for bikes with marked routes to follow and we did a short ride around country lanes surrounded by fields of wheat and barley.
Our Nordic trip ended with the last few nights with my sister and her husband in Keerbergen in Belgium.
What a fabulous month it has been and how lucky we are to have gone on this trip – we had so many new experiences and saw some amazing places covering over three thousand miles.
Our motorhome is really clocking up those miles! Next trip is back to the farm in Ireland in August…Can’t wait!
One Response
I really don’t need to travel anywhere your blogs do it all for me! One day I may get to experience the midsummer festivities in Finland as my sister has a property on a lake out there (Finnish husband).