Sweden

1 July - Day 107

We fly to Stockholm today from Tegel Airport Berlin. Air Berlin customer service was very good, and helped us check-in an extra piece of luggage ie Marcus' guitar for an extra 50 euros. It was put through the oversized luggage system where they take more care of stuff. We also stuffed the guitar into a sleeping bag before putting it in the soft-case for extra protection.

We will we staying with our friends Kee Huat, Per and their eight-year-old son, Jeremy in Uppsala. The plane was delayed, so poor Kee Huat had to wait for Marcus and I for a good 45 mins. There was no customs or immigration at Stockholm's Arlanda airport because Sweden is part of the Shegen common border system with EU. It was a 20 min drive to Kee Huat's house in Sunnersta just outside of Uppsala. Sunnersta is a summer resort with a lake that runs all the way to Stockholm.


 

2 July - Day 108

We are very excited today because my mother, Tessa Maylene and Wang Theng will be here after travelling 25 hours from Wellington. Kee Huat picked them up from Arlanda and we had a very happy reunion when they arrived at the house.

 

3 July - Day 109

Per took us out for a wander around Uppsala. It is a very pretty town with a twin tower cathedral and a castle. The town supports Uppsala University and also has a science park. Kee Huat works for GE Life Sciences based in Uppsala. So this is a very scientific place. Linneaus, the Swedish scientist who invented the nomenclature for naming fauna and flora, did most of his work here.

The kids cycled around Sunnersta's lake.

 

4 July - Day 110

We took a day trip to visit the Grinda Island, part of the archipelago of Islands around Stockholm. It involves driving to Vaxholm township, and of course stopping there for ice cream (or "glass" in Swedish).

The boat ride took about an hour which took us past:

A castle guarding the waterway.

Summer homes on various islands.

Lots of boating traffic.

Lots of people disembarked at Grinda island, a popular picnic and swimming spot.

There are a few cafes here and we managed to get a table for the 8 of us. I had a very nice dish of deep fried herring.

Sweden is the most expensive country we have visited so far. For example petrol costs about $3 a litre compared to $2.40 in France. A burger meal is $16 compared to $8 in NZ.

There are a lot of rules around alcohol too. Supermarkets are allowed to sell low alcohol beer only under 3.5% or lower. All other types of alcohol can only be purchased from System Bolaget shops, a government monopoly outlet. A bottle of Stoneleigh Savignon is $30. To encourage recycling, every bottle and can carries a refundable deposit, typically 20 or 50 cents. There are machines at supermarkets that will scan the bar code and issue a voucher to be used at the supermarket, or you can choose to donate the refund to the Red Cross.

The boat back to Vaxholm from Grinda Island was a slightly battered looking/fume diesel ferry. It was largely empty, and we had the run of the ship.

 

5 July - Day 111

Stockholm is an hour's drive from Uppsala and has lots of bridges connecting lots of islands.

We visited the Vasa museum which exhibits a very large and mainly intact wooden warship. They built the museum around it but the main mast sticks out. Around this, the displays explains everything about the ship, life on board, the weapons and so on.

We ate lunch here, every main meal ordered comes with a complimentary bread board selection.

Next we took a nice walk along one of the avenues to the music museum. This is a hands-on museum so there was a lot of banging, strumming, drumming and other noises. The noise disorentated Marcus and caused him to walk straight into a mirror.

We met Per's parents for a bit of Fika (tea break) afterwards but I had a glass of Ol (beer, the O should have two dots "umlaut" above) instead.

After our Fika, we went around the corner to the Swedish Army museum. It traced the army history back a few hundred years to today's deployment in Afghanistan.

This is a Swedish made self-propelled anti-tank gun.

And directing this gun crew to attack Marcus.

Marcus retaliating.

I don't know why these monkeys are here. I doubt that the Swedish army used angry monkeys to do their fighting at anytime.

 

6 July - Day 112

Kee Huat has organised for all of us to do a tour of Oland island and Gotenborg over the next 5 days. First stop was Oland island, southeast of Stockholm about 300km from Uppsala.

Lunch break at Katrineholm.

Oland is a very long island running 200km along the west coast of Sweden in the Baltic sea. The bridge connecting to the mainland at Kalmar is about 7 or 8 km long.

Oland is peppered with disused windmills. Main activities here are tourism and farming.

Marcus pointing out the brilliant sunset at Oland at about 10-ish pm where we were staying. Per took this great shot.

7 July - Day 113

Oland is famed for its glass works and we visited the glass museum which included a viewing of the glass blowers at work. (Erik Hoglund, whose works we are familiar with through Hoglund Glass in Nelson, was one of a half dozen noted artists featured in this museum).

Kee Huat made us wear these Swedish milk maid dresses.

They made these water jars with breast and blue nipples on them. These sell for $200 each discounted from $300.

Kee Huat was very keen on the numerous Loppis (white elephant flea market stalls) on this island and so the girls did this.

The boys did more sightseeing and the highlight was this recontruction of a walled village, with in-costume staff.

Marcus was a terrific archer, scoring a bulls-eye with his first shot.

Per and Marcus tried medieval bread making.

Jeremy and Marcus had a duel with wooden swords.

After which a vicious pillow fight erupted on these ball busting beams.

The village horses scratched their itchy backs in the sand and brown-eyed us at the same time.

Later Per took the boys for a swim and water fight.

 

8 July - Day 114

Today we drove to Vaxjo for an overnight stay before continuing our journey to Gotenborg. We stopped at a moose farm to check out the mooses there. We saw dad, mum and baby moose.

Wang Theng stepped on a huge pile of moose poos even after I'd warned her about it.

Dinner that night in Vaxjo was at a newly opened Indian restuarant. The kids decided they wanted pizza, so they left us to get takeaways. The restaurant was still on its trainee alcohol licence and was only allowed to serve light beer in the interim.

 

9 July - Day 115

It was a short 50km drive to Gotenborg, so we messed around in Vaxjo a bit, checking out the twin-towered church. Kee Huat's family went for a swim in the lake, and we had a Fika picnic by the lake.

The swimming costumes were laid out to dry on the tonneau boot cover in Per's stationwagon. So we endured the smell of drying swimwear all the way to Gotenborg.

On the way we drove past Almhult the IKEA headquaters and town where IKEA started. We stopped here for the girls to have a look around and a very nice IKEA meatball lunch.

We were greeted by the sight of a large ferris wheel and wooden roller coaster as we drove into Gotenborg. Kee Huat booked us into very nice bed and breakfast cabins in a campervan site. Everyone was hungry so we got some quick Thai takeaways for dinner much to Jeremy's dismay.

 

10 July - Day 116

We bought the Gotenborg GO card which for 24 hours gave us transportation on trams, buses and ferries; entry to most museums and the fun fair. We took the tram into the city and visited the Natural History museum. Even with the card we had to queue for tickets.

It had a dinosaur exhibit, and indoor rainforest, aquarium and a forensic science area.

Gotenborg, like Stuttgart and Munich, is home to a car manufacturer, Volvo. I suggested we visit the Volvo museum.

It was pretty awesome.

They had a space for the Volvo Ocean Race.

All the cool Volvo cars are here.

Maylene doing the Saint next to the P1800.

Maylene looking cool in a convertible.

Volvo rally cars.

Fire engines from the past.

Volvo baby seat innovations.

We went to a Malaysian restaurant for dinner, but they were fake Malaysians, because they didn't understand any of the Malay Kee Huat spoke.

 

11 July - Day 117

It was a 400km drive back to Uppsala today, which took us 6 hours, one fika and one lunch stop. Lunch was at Maxs, Sweden's McDonalds.

 

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