Time to leave Sweden. It will take us a couple of days to get back to Frankfurt as we choose not to drive that long with the kids in the car. Gothenburg is about 2-2.5 hours from Malmö so that’s doable. In Malmö, we cross over the Öresund bridge into Denmark, get around Copenhagen and find a nice campground. That’s the plan.

Rain was forecast for today but only later in the morning. Number 3 and I bought bread rolls in the shop on the campground which made our breakfast quick and easy. Looking at the sky, we decided to pack up quickly while it was still dry. With no awning, the tent was packed up super fast, thus we decided to take advantage of the kids’ bathroom. Everybody got a shower or bath. There was even time left to explore the playground a little.

As soon as it started drizzling, we hit the road. Both kids were tired out from bathing and then playing and fell asleep right away. Flo and I got to listen to our audio book, look at conveniently placed charge point and even discuss if we’d manage to find a restaurant that serves köttbullar for lunch time.

About 24 minutes before our lunch break, we heard a loud noise. It certainly startled me, Flo probably too. We couldn’t see anything straight away but it just sounded as if a tire blew. The car, however, was still running without any swerving. Flo checked the tire pressure and we were losing air fast in one of them. Time to get over to the shoulder of the road and stop. Warning light came one, warning vests came out and both our kids were still asleep. By the time Flo had emptied out the trunk to get to the repair stuff, the Agent woke up and complained that it was cold. And it was cold. Freezing in the chill wind, Flo tried to fix the tire with spray but it didn’t do any good (no more spare tires in new cars).

A road side assistance car stopped behind us and from there on, things sped up again. The tow truck would be there in 20 minutes to take the car to the workshop. Once it arrived, we all went into the assistance car and drove after our poor Puru Hiko. Number 3 was very excited about the tow truck but also anxious that we were grounded for now. The Agent simply screamed for the most part: It was cold and different and strange men were handling her car seat and wtf was going on?!?

The workshop had a matching tire available so we could have it changed right there. In no time, we were ready to be on the road again. I didn’t do anything in all that time other than look after the kids. By this point, they were also quite hungry. Number 3 had asked to have his dragon plushie with him which we thankfully managed to take. The workshop also managed to produce two plushies called “Blinky” so every kid had something to cuddle with. In the meantime, Flo had called around. ADAC, our insurance or mobility guaranty with Kia…who would make sure that we could go on now? He’d managed to get someone on the line who guaranteed that the costs for the repair would be paid but Flo should NOT pay upfront. They wanted to deal with the workshop themselves. The guys from the workshop were unhappy about it because in their experience, that just took time. In the end, they were right. It took until 3pm to get the e-mail saying “We will definitely cover the costs” to the right hands. Lucky for us, the car dealer had a restaurant so at least we had proper lunch. *le sigh*

It will still haunt us in Germany though as the workshop broke one of the automatic tire pressure thingies on the tire they changed (Flo: TPMS). BUT we could continue back home! With only 2-3 hours lost!

When we finally, finally got to Malmö, I seriously suggested that we could camp here for another night. But we had to cover more distance. So we crossed over the Öresund bridge. By bye Sweden, you are such a lovely country! Thank you for our holiday!

Headfirst into Denmark, the first thing you encounter is Copenhagen right on the other side of the bridge. Trying to get around it, we hit a bit of a traffic jam and then the problem that there were no campgrounds in the city. Our originally picked one was probably still our best chance. I looked at the website, saw that they had their own bakery next to the campground and said “go!”. If everything failed, we’d probably still be able to get food at the campground. We arrived there at 6.15pm, about 15 minutes before the kids’ bedtime.

Asking for bread rolls, Flo was given four bread rolls from this morning for free. We chose our site, set up the tent in record time, ate the bread rolls and put the exhausted kids to bed. Man, what a day! Our poor kids. And poor Flo. This was not how we had envisioned this day at all. But we’ve made it. In Denmark now with a full belly and another looooong day in the car ahead tomorrow.

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