Söderköping 16 July 2014

It’s not every day you get to see an overhead projector in use. We arrived in Söderköping (pronounced Serdersherping) yesterday and walked around the charming town on the banks of the Göta Canal. We noticed an extremely long queue to, what we thought was, a regular restaurant but turned out to be a very famous ice cream shop (must grab one today if queue has disapeared), and a poster announcing a talk on town history at 1900 hrs.

rune stone outside the church

We duly arrived at the museum at 1900 only to find we were his only attendees. This did not deter the effervescent Ola Lönnqvist whose enthusiasm for Söderköping was only outweighed by his knowledge of the place. It was a little disconcerting to see the overhead projector on the table as we were ushered into the old schoolroom but he flashed his transparencies with a flourish as he answered one open ended question over a period of 45 minutes.

the Soderkoping bunnies - helping a baby bunny cross the river

Söderköping was an important town in the medieval period but as the land rose and the harbour diminished its importance declined and it now survives on the tourism which came with the popularity of the canal. There is a large rune stone outside the church which is not mentioned in any of the town literature. Ola suggested it was from around 1050 AD.

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Loved the ice cream from Smultronstallet - can now understand the queues! After a stroll around the town looking at the gorge houses we headed off for Berg, further along the Gota canal. It was very touristy and packed so we continued on to Borgansberg which has a manually operated lock - a rarity on the canal. 

munching on an ice cream

We were told of a rather fab farm shop out of town so decided to cycle out for a bottle of cider. Twenty six kilometres later we found it. We had missed it - clearly - on the way out but found it on the way back with five minutes to spare before it closed. The aforementioned cider was 0.5% alcohol so not exactly 'getting off one's tits' material. 

loving a lock

Further along the canal tomorrow as we explore the central lakes of Sweden.

5000 miles

We have just topped the 5000 mile mark which is a pretty exciting milestone (for us anyway). As we have been pretty unsuccessful in catching any fish and, over the last couple of days, have had no major events to report apart from chilling out in the sun, we thought we would share some statistics:

Countries visited so far:

Cornwall

England

France

Belgium

Holland

Germany

Denmark

Sweden

Norway

Finland

almost circumnavigated the phallic shape

Days on the road                     57       

Miles driven                            5092

Miles per gallon (avg)             30.38

Money spent on diesel            £ 1142.00

Average overnight cost           £ 5.07 (over half of our stays have been free of charge)

Average food spend per day  £ 19.00 (for the two of us, including drinks in van)

Cost of LPG                           £ 85.00 (for heating, cooking and hot water)

All in all it’s not bad. The high cost of food in Scandinavia has been balanced by the low (if any) cost of overnight stays. Now we have left the area of endless tolls and ferry charges (Norway) our costs should diminish further.

Touch wood Dickie has behaved very well indeed and seems to love driving at 50/60mph which is the speed limit (80kph) on many of the roads in Norway and Sweden. He just purrs along all day and unlike our previous vans he hardly notices the hills and mountains. Kevin the Small But Mighty troll sits menacingly on the dashboard ensuring all is well.

We have managed to get online in the van at about three quarters of our overnight stops thanks to the wonderful, external wifi antenna. Sometimes we take a lunch break outside a Tourist Information or McDonalds and catch up on any urgent correspondence courtesy of their free wifi. Ah the joys of the modern age.

Getting water and emptying the cassette toilet (Dickie’s dunny) has not been a problem. In Norway many garages provide all the required facilities free of charge. In Sweden many of the rest areas in lay-bys have dedicated chemical toilet emptying points and external fresh water taps – all free of charge. It can get a little ‘close quarters’ however and we were most amused by a chap emptying his dunny this morning. He seemed to have an exceptionally large deposit in his cassette which took a rather lot of shaking and jiggling to remove. He was so embarrassed he kept going away before the job was complete, then returning for another round when he thought we weren’t looking. #chortle.

Motorhoming is very popular over here and in some parts of Norway every other vehicle seems to be a Bobil (as they are called there), so they are well catered for. Free parking is often offered to motorhomes even if cars have to pay.  It is appreciated that drivers of Husbils (Swedish for motorhomes) will buy their supplies and generally spend money where they are made welcome – a lesson that the UK could do with learning!

Stockholm

"Well I'm so glad we stumbled upon that". Mr Fluffy's sarcasm was palpable as we left the concert hall to the strains of a dungaree clad soprano singing a rather dramatic Swedish aria (for free I might add). It can be said that female opera is not Mr Fluffy's favourite style of music. She had a great voice but I'm not sure about the outfit - very unconventional.

welcoming us to Stockholm with a brass band

We had spent the morning wandering around Stockholm. I had hoped to go to the Vasa Museum but, being July, the queues were hideous so I placated myself by having my photo taken at the nearby ABBA museum, face plonked into the slot normally saved for Agnetha. I had hoped to buy a small trinket for my friend David (who taught himself Swedish so he could read their biography in the original language) but as the museum shop did not deal with cash, only tokens purchased from the hotel next door, I came out empty handed. We didn't go into the museum either.

Kerriagnetha

Stockholm is not Graham's favourite city so it will be good to leave tomorrow so I can see a smile on his face once again. It is a lovely city to walk around and we have parked at Langholmens camping area which is about a 3km walk into Gamla Stan (the old town) and then a short walk to the rest of the islands.

 

Dickie from Flyover - who wouldn't love this?

We were hoping to go to the island of Gotland but, once again, as it is July, the ferry was around £350 return and pretty much booked out. A good excuse to come back off season I think. So tomorrow we head south along the coast as we make our way towards Denmark.

K

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trying not to be miserable

Stockholm is a beautiful city with lots of water, and lovely old boats and huge numbers of tourists. I can’t put my finger on why but I (Graham) don’t really like the city.  We are parked under a flyover in a good campsite that is costing us £25 per night and is a lovely 3 kilometre walk along the canal to the ‘old town’. Today we noticed that there is another unofficial (and very nice) motorhome parking place along the road (Strandvage) near the bridge to Djurgarden where the Vasa museum is located. We did not visit any of the many museums as they were mainly closed/crowded and so expensive – the queue for the Vasa museum was very long and slow moving.

piggy wiggy doodle all the day - royal boat 

folding boat

The old town was mainly a collection of tourist tat shops with the odd pizza joint or burger bar and the ‘main’ town had many of the well known chain shops interspersed with more expensive cafés and restaurants selling food from around the world but few with Swedish dishes. Yesterday we dined in a very good Thai restaurant and today we ended up with a beefburger and chips and a plaice with one small new potato.  Kerriann had ordered the burger thinking it was something else – when it arrived she didn’t like it so we swapped.  Kerriann also doesn’t like fish with bones so I ended up eating the plaice as well. Luckily there was a nice baguette served with the meals so K pigged out on that - then snaffled the rest of the baguette for breakfast tomorrow.

in happier times when we stayed on a poisonous industrial site

36 deg C

We took the day off today, swam in the lake, sunbathed and enjoyed the 36° C temperatures.

who'd have thought...

Living in the UK has turned Kerriann into a wuss (Aussie expression meaning wimp) and she was moaning about the heat and mosquitoes all day – as an Aussie you would think she would be used to these things.

By the way, if you have a dirty Dickie, rub it with some soggy jeans and the dirt comes off a treat. As Graham cannot do nothing for more than five minutes we decided to wash the insects off Dickie’s bonnet. No mean feat with the number of mozzies they have flying around here. Dickie’s grey water was duly emptied into a bucket and we attempted to remove the carpet of dead insects that coated his front. Regular cleaning cloths were not up to the task but rags from Kerriann’s old jeans were ideal for this unpleasant job. And now K has a lovely pair of miniscule denim shorts which she will have to hide from the fashion police if ever they come calling.

As Mr Fluffy presumed Scandinavia would not be hot in the middle of summer he did not bring a pair of swimmers, so instead, has to go swimming in his undies. We have to wait until women and small children are clear of the area so as not to terrify them with the sight of his undergarment-clad form. Graham has experience in this area. We visited Iceland in October last year and he did not think it necessary to take a coat. We had to make a quick purchase when we arrived to near zero temperatures.

We are still having problems sleeping – we either open the vents and put the mosquito blinds in place and stay cool but have daylight all night or we close the vents and blinds and get hot. This 24hour daylight can be a pain in the backside where sleeping is concerned, especially when the aforementioned backside is being bitten by mozzies.

Seas and Lakes

The temperatures reached 36 degrees today, hot even by Kerriann’s Australian standards, so we headed for the coast and spent a pleasant afternoon on the rocks fishing. I caught nothing but weed, but Kerriann caught a record breaking fish with her new rod. Yes, she has got the fishing bug and now has a smart new rod.  The record I refer to above was for the smallest fish ever caught with a fishing rod – it was considerably smaller than the lure used to catch it. It was lovely catching a few rays even if we didn’t catch any fish (other than Kerriann’s tiddler of course).

catch of the day

The aire in the village, Skeppsmalen, was a bit of a building site and the Surströmming (rotten herring for human consumption) museum was closed so, despite our massive success at fishing, we decided to move on a little down the coast

Kerriann’s navigation skills, along with Tommy the sat nav, have brought us to a lovely aire run by the local community in Nordingra, a small village in the High Coast National Park.  We can park next to a sandy beach on a lake – they suggest we leave a donation of £5 in the box provided. The grass is cut, a fresh water tap is provided, there is a small jetty with a ladder for swimmers, a barbecue/ fire pit is ready for use with spare logs in an adjacent pile.  How nice that the community cares enough to maintain such a lovely place for visiting motor homes, caravans and tents. We have gladly popped our donation in their box with a thank you note.

good rocks - no fish

There is a Finnish couple in a caravan next to us who seem to be ignoring the ‘no camping’ rules (that is you don’t put anything outside your van like chairs etc unless you’re on a campsite) and have erected a full awning with flower pots, barbecues, etc. There is a small tent with two people in it to our right and that is all. Quite a surprise as it is middle of the holiday season and it’s such a nice spot.

not bad to wake up to

The midges, however, are having a field day now that the sun is dipping slightly lower in the sky. Graham has finally succumbed to the lure of ‘Skin So Soft’ (secretly known as ‘Man So Hard’) and has been spreading it liberally on his badly bitten person with no more protestations of a reduction in his masculinity for using such a ‘girly’ product. We are both a tad sunburned today so hopefully this will turn into a luxuriant bronze shade before too long.

Graham savaged by wild beast

Kerriann has been trying to persuade me of the advantages of acquiring a small canine friend to accompany us on our journeys around Europe. The tour of the Huskies was part of K’s scheme but it didn’t work – I watched as the semi-wild beasts eyed up the smallest member of our group (a two year old child) with evil intent.  

wild beast close up

Yesterday, after parking, we went to inspect our (free of charge) campsite. Passing the van parked next to us I was suddenly aware of a chained dog lunging towards me – the chain was too long and before I could avoid it the savage beast had sunk its fangs into my leg (well given me a little nip actually). The injuries were so severe that the red mark showed for over an hour. So why would we want our own aggressive animal in the van with us? From what I have observed they smell rather a lot and seem to enjoy rolling in the remains of rotting animals and other unmentionable smelly substances. They leave hairs in the furniture and mud on the floor and they stink when wet.

wild beast alert

Finally they require exercise. Much as I enjoy a good walk, I like to do so on my terms not those of a dog who will probably prefer to be out and about ridiculously early and in inclement weather.

Every morning I have the job of emptying Dickie’s dunny – that is enough for me! The thought of picking up newly laid, warm and smelly deposits from a dog revolts me as does wandering around the countryside with a bag of poo!

Kerriann who, as you may know, always looks on the bright side of life ignores these problems and has developed a ‘small dog noise’. Whenever she sees such a creature she gets excited and says ‘we could have one of those’, and makes a particularly irritating ‘aaaawwwww’ noise.

I will need more convincing.

Luckily Mr Fluffy gets me to check his entries before I put them on the blog so I have right of reply. We have met several extremely cute dogs on our trip, particularly those of the bichon frisée type who do not shed fur and are very lovely of personality. They are small enough to fit into Dickie nicely and would make a lovely smiley face out the window. He is very fond of Stella and Louie (who belong to our friends in Boscastle) and I am still on my mission to add to the Godwin King family. Our next trip over winter may very well have a new addition.

By the way, the lady owner of the slightly nasty animal was very apologetic and took great trouble in coming to our van to let us know Lewis Hamilton had won something. We were extremely grateful for this information and put on the appropriate excited faces, smiling happily at each other with the thrill of this fantastic news. We still have no idea what he has won but the lady seemed pleased that she had made our day after her dog tried to bite Graham’s leg off.

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get big or get out

Whilst wandering through the woods yesterday searching out ancient burial mounds and an old stone labyrinth Kerriann was worried that we would be attacked by the local population of wild bears. I found her a stick for defensive action should such an incident occur. It seemed to comfort her to some extent but she had read somewhere that the best defenc eagainst bears was to ‘look big’ so every 5 minutes our progress was hindered by K raising her arms in the air and attempting to look aggressive. It must have worked as we managed to escape the forest un-injured apart from a few insect bites.

I actually heard a TED Talks about making yourself big in the bathroom before an interview to give yourself confidence. This could be taken a number of ways but actually means you stand with legs spread, arms up and making your body as big/tall as it can be. I think it works as I felt confident I could defend myself against any bears that came my way – especially with my special stick.

 

walking the labyrinth

Gammelstad Church Town

Woke up to 36 degrees in Dickie this morning as we were unable to open any windows due to the midges. The 24 hour sunlight means we need to close all the blinds but their design means they have small holes along each side. The determined mozzies would be able to get in and as Mr Fluffy is covered in bites it is not a great idea to subject him to further threat. I have renamed 'Skin So Soft' as 'Man so Hard' in a vain attempt at getting him to put some on. It seems to be working so far. 

steps into hayloft at Hagnan outdoor museum

Visited the UNESCO World Heritage site of Gammelsted outside Lulea  today. It's a 17th century (or earlier) town made up of cottages where parishioners, mainly farmers who lived several km away, would stay when they had to attend church. It was very interesting to see the little houses preserved and a guide told us about them in great detail. Am loving stencilled walls!

doesn't look very exciting but it is

There was a lovely church in town (obviously) which was quite uninteresting on the outside but very ornate inside.

ornate bench end

small piece of the altar

There is an open air museum, much like the Weald and Downland in the UK, where they have relocated century old houses and had people dressed in appropriate costumes. I got in trouble for stirring the bubble water as I a unable to read Swedish for 'please do not stir the bubble water.' I was also unsuccessful in my attempt to make bubbles.

at least I can wear a summer frock again

We are now parked up near Javre and plan an archaeological walk tomorrow as there  are supposed to be several neolithic sites around here.