Sweden: North through the Forests and Lakes

The glorious warm, sunny and totally unexpected weather we have experienced on this trip continues and we decided not to continue east to Stockholm but to start our journey north. As we headed for a small town called Leksand and a campsite by yet another lake we stopped for a break at Falun to see their huge abandoned copper mine. At its peak two thirds of the worlds copper was produced here. This copper is also the source of Falun Rödfärg (Falun Red Paint) that is seen everywhere on Swedish houses. It used to be used as a sign of wealth but now is a ‘symbol of Sweden’ that nationals are justifiably proud about and use in abundance.

We then glimpsed the stunning and somewhat awe inspiring ski jump in the distance and resolved to hunt it down. The sheer size and height is staggering and to think that when covered in snow people actually launch themselves off this gave us new respect for Eddie the Eagle!

Continuing north we stopped in Rättvik to admire the 628 metre long Långbryggan pier built in 1895 to allow steam boats to moor in the shallow waters close to the town.

It was a long driving day of some 250 miles and over 5 hours on the move almost entirely through pine forests dotted with numerous incredibly beautiful lakes but very little else.

The beauty and peacefulness of this landscape slowly morphed us into a state of semi boredom with more and yet more of the same for mile upon mile – oh yes, and interspersed with the odd small town or hamlet here and there (with a pizza take away in nearly every one even if there were no other shops at all) plus of course the red houses and occasional Volvo, now with spot lights along their front bumpers and the odd truck laden with logs.

We eventually reached the E14 (the main road from Sweden’s east coast to Norway’s west coast) and turned left towards Norway where the signpost informed us it was 364 km all the way to Trondheim on the Norwegian west coast and a place we plan to visit.

We spent the night on a small campsite at Gällö right on the edge of a beautiful lake where we took too many photographs of trees and sky reflected in the water.

In fact most of our campsites in Sweden have been next to or very near lakes or rivers.

This was the furthest north we have been so far and we decided it would be fun to see what time the sun set and rose. Well we had a glorious red sky that started at around 9.30pm and stayed with us well past 2am when it seemed to get light again, so we had no real night at all as you could have gone for a walk and not needed anything to light your way. The internet suggests sunset at 22.21 and sunrise at 03.35 today but real darkness doesn’t happen in between! The birds were singing all night too which was somewhat disconcerting. See our two photos – sunset taken at 12.40am and the second was the next night at 01.45 and neither were taken with a flash – some night!

The following morning we had a short 45 km journey briefly broken to look and photograph an unusual church with a separate low level wooden bell tower then on to our next stop at a campsite near Ǻre, Camping Ristafallets. Here we were right next to the Ristafall which is one of Sweden’s largest waterfalls that right now is in full spate given that the last of the 2 metre deep snow in this area only melted in the last 10 days or so. The falls are a total of about 50 m wide and 14 m high and once again we took far too many photographs of the falls from both sides of the fast running river.

Whilst walking in this area we noticed signs that indicated we were on a path for Pilgrims. We seem to stumble across Pilgrim routes in Europe and this time we have found ourselves walking on marked trails for the St Olaf Pilgrims route to Trondheim. It seems that this pilgrims trail from the Baltic Sea to the Atlantic Ocean in Norway (580 kms) is Scandinavia’s version of the Camino Trail and is in honour of King Olav who in 1030 marched his army along the route to Norway with the aim of converting the country to Christianity and to win back his throne after several years in exile.

Ǻre is Sweden’s premier ski resort with access to Mount Ǻreskutan via a cable car which takes one to within 150 metres of the 1,420 summit. So having decided to stay an extra night and explore Ǻre and the top of the mountain, the next day we set off in high anticipation but had our hopes dashed when the girl running the campsite said ‘enjoy the ghost town that is Ǻre’! Well she was absolutely right, all the chair lifts were stationary and the cable car closed until 21^st June when their summer season begins.

We walked around the ‘ghost town’ which is set in the most dramatic scenery and returned to our campsite by the waterfall where we enjoyed a lazy afternoon reading, sleeping, cleaning the motorhome and utilising the free WiFi to research some recommended scenic road trips in Norway.

Sweden has been enjoyable but hasn’t captured our hearts, we have seen some stunning scenery, enjoyed walking and running (Annie) in the easily accessible and beautiful nature reserves and national parks whilst being blessed with exceptional weather for this time of year. The travel has been easy (if at times a tad boring) as the roads are very quiet and the people are so friendly and helpful. We noticed a few things which may or may not be particular to Sweden; at weekends there are a lot of vintage American Cars being driven about, we wonder if this is a particular Swedish hobby or whether we will continue to see them in Norway;

there are no toll roads (apart from two bridges and peak times on two city roads); parking is nearly always free with everyone having a time clock on their windscreens and finally nearly every garden has a flagpole proudly flying the Swedish flag. It was wonderful to see patriotism displayed that isn’t remotely nationalistic as Sweden is known to be a country that has welcomed so many refugees.

Our Sweden experience whilst positive can in part be reflected by quoting Chris Stewart from his book ‘Driving Over Lemons’ (p166) when he says “I have been going to Sweden twice a year for fifteen years but somehow that Nordic utopia has failed altogether to find a place in my heart…swamped by the uncontaminated but dreary landscape and the dullness of its spiritless towns and cities.” For us, many towns seem to lack any heart and the inland landscapes whilst wonderful are so vast and so much the same that in a way it dulls your senses.

Norway beckons although we understand that the Norway roads will be toll heavy and expensive ferry’s a necessary additional expense!

Sweden – Bohuslän coast and the drive east

Leaving the huge Lake Vänern in blazing sunshine we decided to spend a couple of days exploring the Bohuslän coast area which is the west coastline north of Gothenburg.

It is a stunning region of islands, fishing communities (historically Herring fishing), picturesque villages with higgledy piggledy streets of typical Swedish wooden homes from huts to grand mansions all surrounded by nature reserves that are made up of huge granite boulders and mossy forests.

On our first stop we took a ferry to Marstrand and had a lovely walk across the rocky outcrops to see some of the archipelago (aka ‘a sea or stretch of water having many islands’) and rounded this off with two small beers for a mere £12, interestingly at a hotel that is now cash free, it’s cards only. This seems to be the way in Sweden with very few people seeming to ever using cash any more even for the smallest purchases.

We took the motorhome on narrow roads from one island to another, several necessitating a short car ferry and to our surprise all of which turned out to be free.

We’ve also been to other car free islands on some passenger only ferries and these have cost over £15 for us both for only a 5 minute journey.

One particularly memorable visit to an island called Gullholmen involved us meeting a lovely old local man called Thor-Bjorn who told us all about the history of the island and took us to see his nature exhibition in the island community centre. He had created the most amazing display of over 70 birds and mammals on which all but 7 of them he had performed the taxidermy.

He then introduced us to the ‘Summer Priest’, a delightful man who kindly unlocked the church for us and told us stories about the history of many of the things inside the church. In fact they were both competing to tell us stories and kept telling each other to stop it was their turn now!!

Although very picturesque and in stunning locations some of the villages we visited have been almost deserted and lacking any heart or atmosphere, they are clearly places for holidays or summer homes.

So we were delighted when we arrived for two nights in Kungshamn to spend a day cycling around the town and after crossing the high bridge on our bikes, the island of Smögen both of which had shops, restaurants and an obviously active fishing community.

We were even extravagant enough to spoil ourselves with lunch at a fish restaurant, sitting in the sun next to the market where the catch had only been landed a few hours earlier.

Since the public holiday weekend has ended we have found the campsites almost empty and we are often almost alone parked in a field surrounded by permanent caravans. We guess these places must get busy at the weekends although their high season doesn’t start until mid-June.

Our last coastal stop was at a small town called Fjallbacka that was Ingrid Bergman’s summer home and the area is full of mementos, pictures and buildings named after her.

Leaving here we headed inland and stayed overnight at a place called Ed by yet another lake, this time Annie walked around the whole lake! There was also a Moose Farm opposite but sadly this was closed.

There were a large number of Norwegians on the campsite and yes, you’ve guessed it there was another public holiday this time it was Norway’s Constitution Day (May 17^th) and there were Norwegian flags all around the campsite. If we had been in Norway we would have seen colourful parades in almost every town with people dressed in traditional folk costumes or national dress (Bunad). Like the Swedish they are deeply patriotic.

From Ed we drove up part of the Dalsland Canal. The central feature of the canal is the amazing aqueduct and series of locks at Håverud designed and built by Nils Ericsson in the 1860’s where a set of rapids had previously existed making the whole waterway navigable, a feat many thought was not possible.

Our journey east ended at Örebro, the seventh largest city in Sweden and one of the largest inland hubs of the country.

Here we visited Örebro Slott (castle), Wadköping which is an area to which a number of original old city buildings have been relocated, a building called Allehandaborgen that used to house the local newspaper’s former offices and bizarrely a Svampen, a water tower known as the mushroom where we took a lift to the top for some city views.

Our campsite in Örebro was fabulous with nice big pitches even having TV aerial plug points, hotel style toilets and showers, an amazing communal kitchen and a lovely bar and restaurant, we almost didn’t want to leave except it was our most expensive campsite to date.

 

 

Next it’s time to head north.

Sweden – the first few days

Arriving in Sweden one of the first things we noticed was that we were again in good company as there were so many motorhomes on the roads. In Denmark we were very much in the minority as the Danish prefer a caravan and car combination probably due to their campsites in the main being situated away from any towns or attractions and that towns don’t have anywhere for motorhomes to park. We also noticed the even quieter roads with miles and miles of green fields either side of the roads and the occasional typically Swedish red house or farm building. The journeys can feel long with very little change in the scenery but so far we haven’t had to resort to inventing any silly games like counting whether there are more Volvo cars than motorhomes in any given distance, but give it time!

We broke our journey to our chosen campsite in Haverdal to explore Båstad, a small very classy town on the coast which is home to Sweden’s Open Tennis competition every year and to find an ATM and have some cash in our pockets.

When we got to the campsite we were told we had to pay an extra £16 for a ‘Camping Key Card’ and that it was compulsory for many campsites in Sweden but the good news was that we had a lovely large pitch and it was only a 10 minute walk from a long almost empty beach with big sand dunes and a few kite surfers.

The following day we drove up the coast road south of Gothenburg stopping to enjoy a few sights on the way. Most memorable was Varberg where they have an unusual Moorish style bathhouse for saunas and sea bathing in the nude, separate sections for men and women but all very private, a beautiful marina, plenty of walking and biking routes along the coast and a lovely old fortress on a small promontory overlooking the sea shore.

The afternoon brought a happy couple of hours spent with an old friend from our Reading days, Matt Dry who now lives east of Gothenburg and it was a chance for us to meet his wife Hana and their daughter. It was wonderful to catch up having not seen Matt for 15 years. Matt also opened our eyes to the size of Sweden saying that from the south to the north of the country is the same distance as Malmo (Sweden) is from Rome in Italy!

Our second night was spent ‘lodging’ on a full campsite on the edge of one of the hundreds of lakes in Sweden at Alingsås. By ‘lodging’ we mean that they kindly found us a corner of grass to park on overnight and charged us a nominal rate, we had to pay to use the showers though! Yes you have guessed right we have chanced upon yet another public holiday weekend. We have also found that few campsites in Scandinavia have a restaurant or bar, they seem just to be a field (often in beautiful surroundings) with a small shop, showers, toilets and if we’re lucky Wi-Fi. Not only are they of very high quality but they have communal kitchens which are very well equipped with several cookers, microwaves and some have communal dining areas where you can eat with other campers.

Setting off from Alingsås we thought we had better see Sweden’s largest lake, Vänern, and after driving for a couple of hours on near empty roads we started our day with a visit to Läckö Slot,

an imposing castle on the southern shores of the lake where Richard managed to get some very atmospheric photos with the mist rolling in off the lake and then driving south-west on to a lake side campsite at Vanersborg for the night and an afternoon of laundry and chores.

Sweden (and we gather Norway as well) has something called Allemansträtten which is an ancient right to roam and camp anywhere as long as you honour the principle of ‘do no damage and do not disturb’. The only other rule seems to be that you can’t be within 100 metres of someone’s home and that if you are on private land you must ask permission from the owner.

Disappointingly we were in the Gothenburg area a week or so too early to meet up with Annie’s second cousin Clare and her husband Harry who also live nearby but were on holiday themselves in Italy. We were so grateful for some really helpful advice from them for places to see in Sweden and it would have been lovely to have a few hours with them too.