Thursday 8th June – Gothenberg, Sweden
The trip across the Oresund Bridge was just magic. The longest bridge on the planet. The first part, going through the really long tunnel was quite eerie. Would not like to suffer from claustrophobia as it just went forever. Certainly worth the toll cost to cross it – think it may have been around $168 AUD as we are over 6 metres long.
After paying the toll we were directed to the customs gate. Ziggy smiled, I smiled and my best friend smiled (my driver) as the customs official looked at our passports and said “have a good day” in his best English and waved us through. The car behind was not as lucky as he headed for the inspection area. We are hoping this will be the trend for all other border crossings, though we are a bit worried about getting into Norway as we think we may have one or two bottles of vodka too many :-). There is no alcohol limit into Sweden but there is to Norway.
A long day travelling today as we are keen to get to Norway as quickly as possible. Norway is one of the places we want to spend a lot of time in exploring the fiords and wilderness. Has been in our bucket list for a long time now.
Not a very nice day with light rain during the day. Arrived in Gothenborg around 4pm and found a free park about 12kms from the city centre. Risholmsviken is located on the harbour (though no direct harbour views). The motorhome spot is located overlooking the Volvo head office car park on one side and a minute walk on the other side to the harbour. Beautiful view across the harbour with bike tracks stretching along the waterfront as far as you could see. Tomorrow we thought, would be a good day to explore using the bikeways.
The rest of the day (daylight does not disappear from the sky until after 11pm) we sat and watched a group of young guys doing stunts on their motor bikes around the car park below. Obviously they do this regularly as they were really good and quite entertaining. Lots of riding on the back wheel only while doing stunts.
Think they left around 11pm and all was quiet. Only two other motorhomes here for the night.
Friday 9th June – Lysekil, Sweden
Woke up to drizzle and cold again this morning so bikes stayed firmly planted on the racks ready for another fine day.
We left Gothenberg which is a very large port based town and headed into the countryside. We passed huge industrial sites on the way out but soon the countryside changed back to lush green pastures and large forests of magnificent pine trees.
We arrived at a beautiful little harbour town called Lysekil. This is one of the many tourist Swedish coastal towns. Very expensive homes in traditional Swedish style architecture and heritage listed homes and restaurants dotted the harbour line and the surrounding hills.
On the way through town we had sighted another motorhome camp spot on the marina, but they were wall to wall and no view except for the restaurant in front. Not for us so we moved on.
We had read some information about a special camping place from one of the blog sites we follow. Up and down the narrow back streets we drove and then rounded a corner and there it was.
This is what it is all about – finding unique places. There in front of us was a car park with magic harbour & ocean views. You are allowed to park in these places overnight . No one else was there so we took up the front spot and sat in our dining room overlooking a ten star view. Unique pale pink and tan rock formations bordered our spot and a small rowing club was set amongst the rock formations.
It was such a shame that we didn’t have blue skies as this would have made it a twenty star view. Took some photos in overcast conditions and hoped tomorrow would be a better day to retake these in better conditions.
Headed into town for a look around and admired some of the beautiful yachts at the marina. Would be spectacular sailing in this harbour. We then ventured over to the rowing club and climbed the hill behind it only to find another harbour tucked in between two hills with more sailing and motor boats. The harbours edge was dotted with little forty or fifty beach shacks, all the same size and colour (Swedish rust red). Bit like Brighton in Melbourne.
Never want to leave this place, it is just so beautiful. We took a beer for my best friend and a rum for me and sat on the rocks and just admired the view.
Saturday 10th June – Tanumshede, Sweden
Woke up to rain again (sounds like a cracked record) and watched the walkers outside with five layers on battling the rain, wind and cold. No photos today (such a shame).
Reluctantly decided to move on while the weather was bad.
We passed through three other coastal tourist towns but being a Saturday, each town was too busy and there were no special spots to be found to stop. We are now close to the Norwegian border and it looks like every man and his dog has come across to take advantage of the cheaper prices, particularly grog and cigarettes in Sweden.
We are passing so many motor homes now so will probably have to fight for good spots for a while now.
We found the Vitlycke Museum or Bronze Age Museum in Tanumshede. This museum has been placed on a heritage site where they have found rock carvings created about 8000 years ago. The carvings are scattered over the hills beside the museum and of course are all long climbs uphill to find them. The museum itself talks about the history of these people and at the back of the museum they have created a small town with huts and tools etc from that era. It is sponsored museum and does not charge entry.
No special place found tonight as it is getting late now. Found a park beside a church overlooking green fields just outside Tanum. We are the only ones here and it is very quiet with only a few houses and some farms about.
Sunday 11th June – Stromstad, Sweden
Still raining this morning so opted to do some shopping at the Tanum shopping centre. It like so many in Sweden, is massive. The major food outlet here is Coop and has everything you could wish for. Really miss Lidl though. It may not have everything but because each shop is pretty much the same – food shopping takes half the time. Also took advantage of free wifi so my production manager found a quiet corner to download our photos and finish another blog while I did some more food shopping to stock up before Norway.
Rained all the way to Stromstad and we were happy to stop for the day. All the streets in the centre of town were narrow and lots of new construction everywhere caused our sat nav to have a minor coronary. Finally found a great spot right on the harbour again so put on our rain jackets and walked around the harbour foreshore and through town. Being a Sunday, most places were closed except the odd restaurant.
Back to the harbour and after drying off settled down to watch the activities on the busy port harbour. Several large ships carrying passengers came and went and the ferry service using high speed catamarans left every 15 minutes or so. – expect they were going to Norway. A little disappointed in Stromstad as it was nowhere as quaint and pretty as some of the other towns we have seen in Sweden.
Settled down to a small pre dinner drink of Kozel Beer 1.5 litre bottle, Czech beer that Piotr had given us in Poland. Had to help my best friend drink it and it really was a great tasting beer. Not sure of the strength of it but left us both happy. We had to consume it before Norway as we were well and truly over the quota allowed to come into Norway. Thank you Piotr.
