Category Archives: Sweden

Day 8 – and so, it begins …

It was raining as had been forecast. We didn’t have bread or enough milk with us to have a full breakfast. Thus, we made semolina pudding to feed the kids, ate the leftovers and planned to have a decent second breakfast on the road. Flo had already looked up a place called Tindered where we could charge AND have lovely food at the “Lantkök”. It was maybe half an hour away.

We stuck around a while and waited until our neighbours stirred as we wanted to say a proper goodbye. By that time, we had packed everything already and were taking the tent down. After brief talk, we said goodbye and hit the road. Number 3 expressed that he was very angry and sad that we left his new friends after just one brief exploration of the forest. That was clearly not enough time with them.

Once we arrived, everything worked out wonderfully: The fast charger was available and working; the place looked lovely and even had a playground! Number 3 was allowed to go on the flying fox even before going in. It was an exception as it wasn’t raining when we arrived and I was worried that we’d promise a flying fox ride after our stop which wouldn’t happen in pouring rain.

Tindered Landkök had a little shop that we passed when we went into the restaurant space. It looked like a country estate with a lot of decor inside. We bought cake and coffee/tea and sat down. The Agent of Entropy took a liking to Flo’s strawberry cake and seemed ravenous so she got her own small kanelbullar for round two. We finished up and left via the playground where all three kids had a good go on the seesaw, the slide and a balancing parkour. 😛

Fed and charged we left the loveliest random roadside stop we’ve had so far. From here, it was a good long drive to Norrköping, our destination for today. Both kids took a nap so the drive was relaxing and filled with listening to an audiobook. Once in Norrköping, we were hungry for a late (well, for us) lunch. I had already checked out the recommended lunch places in the Lonely Planet on the way. Some of them had closed down, probably because of the pandemic, but I found one that I liked. There was a charger in a parking garage nearby so we headed there. Being in a city again was quite the change. Number 3 was mesmerized by the trams, the fountains and the art installations. Unfortunately, the place I had looked up wasn’t around anymore either and we were really, really hungry so we let Number 3 choose one of the cafes in the vicinity. They all looked cool and hip and tasty. He chose well. Getting our food, the helpful waitress made the fatal mistake to mention that the kids’ dish was pancakes. After that, we couldn’t persuade him to eat real food anymore: It had to be pancakes. Oh well, the woes of an English speaking kid.

When we left to explore more of Norrköping, it was raining again. Norrköping is an old industrial city where the factories and storage halls have been restored and repurposed. Many of them are museums, restaurants or boutiques. Flo is a big fan of re-imagined turn of the century industrial architecture so he was looking particularly forward to Norrköping.

Thus, we explored in rain. There was a hydropower station with a waterfall which would have been stunning in sunshine. The old brick buildings with the big windows housed museums. There were two enormous rollers for pressing papers, made from granite, used a public art. In short, it was right up Flo’s alley. It was also cold and wet and when we tried to hide in the Museum of Work, we realized that it’s Monday and all museums would be closed. Such a shame. We finished our loop around the inner industrial heart of town and then called it a day.

We drove further north, into the direction of Uppsala, where we wanted to go tomorrow and arrived late at the soaking wet campground. It was rather miserable and I don’t think we took a single picture. I mean, the campground was lovely and we camped right next to the playground but because of the rain, we just wanted to hide in the tent. In gumboots, Number 3 couldn’t even climb up the slide on the playground. This concludes our first day of constant, relentless, unforgiving rain. 🙂

Number 3 made a sculpture of a flamingo out of weedes in the rain

Day 7 – Master and Padawan

We took our time in the morning so that the kids got a chance to experience the lake before we headed off again. Number 3 was quite interested in the other kids there: A couple were catching tiny fish and putting them in a bucket while a couple of girls were flying kites.

Flo and I managed to blog before we packed and when I looked up again, one of the older girls was letting Number 3 use her kite. She was really good at explaining what Number 3 needed to do. He was a little distracted by all the things that were going on though.

We left a little after 11am, but it was only a very short while to get to Karlskrona. Sunday limited our options for lunch a bit, but we were quite happy with the 3G cafe we ended up in. The big ticket item though was the world famous in Sweden ice cream parlour “Glassiären“. Famous unfortunately not for the quality of their product but for the insane portion sizes they serve. They have to bake custom waffle cones in-house that are actually large enough to hold the equivalent to 10 scoops for the three flavour option. The surprisingly low price of 5.50€ should have been the last warning sign, but as might have been suspected already: The quantity comes at the complete and utter sacrifice of quality. We had genuine trouble making out the difference between pistachio and pear, other than a taste of “sickly sweet bubblegum”.

With the sun melting the lot down faster than we could eat it, we begged Number 3 to put an end to our misery and throw it out, but he insisted that no bit of ice cream shall ever be wasted before him and we forced our way through the entire thing. Now we at least have a benchmark for worst gelato as well …

just to be clear, it is not Number 3’s hand holding this abomination

Off we went north, for a really enjoyable bit of road-trippy cruising. We decided to take another short break, if only to keep Number 3 from sleeping the whole two hours. That random stop following a sign for a picnic area and campsite turned out to be an absolute amazing hit for us: A perfectly manicured, municipal campsite sitting adjacent to a spotless bathing spot. We were immediately sold. The kids invaded the (otherwise empty) playground.

The icing on the cake (almost literally) came in form of an ultra-cute kiosk selling coffee and waffles to be enjoyed in a little windproof pavilion with lake views. With no one around, we were worried that we might not be served, but the ladies at the place were quite charming. It had the vibe of a charity bake – we did not need to be asked twice and tucked in, waffles with whipped cream and strawberry jam. Hmm … what an insanely cool thing for a random road side stop.

On we went then – after a moment of consideration to decide whether we wanted to camp right here and now – to press on a bit further towards Uppsala and to our designated camp for the night. And what a great pick that was as well. It only had very basic facilities, but that also meant we were among the cool kids now of small vans, pick-up cabins and the like. Much better than the white wall.

We immediately got into a friendly conversation with our neighbours, taking on the challenge of making an uneven spot work that did not yield for their larger van. I did, and almost as soon as we were settled, Number 3 clicked with the youngest of the three girls off with their mom. So off they went into the forest right in front of us – he the eager pupil to her 9 year old joy of teaching and guiding. What a peaceful setup we had 😀

Dinner was further improved by their find of an abundant supply of blueberries. The new guide was even cool enough to check in with us first before just munching on the things, but when I checked and gave the OK, more girls were summoned and the hunt was on. Cereals with fresh fruit – only slightly marred by the Agent of Entropy`s return to form: She flipped my full bowl, spilling the contents over herself and the ground.

Number 3 had many inquisitive questions about the pit toilets, but went to bed without too much of a fight after that. That meant we both had enough time to be invited over to a spot on our neighbours’ campfire before calling it a night. They were mildly disconcerted by learning our usual getting-up time of 6.30am … 😀

It got quite cold during the night and the morning was overcast. So we put on the woollen things to keep warm

Day 6 – Juicy

Flo:

Maybe I should’ve gotten to bed earlier. But the company was too good and sitting around a little fire just added this magic to it. Now it’s early and I’m a little bit tired. But even at 6:30am, it just gives me back my energy.

We were among the first to have breakfast and, with no awning to pack, were really fast breaking down our camp as well. So we took the time we gained and gave Number 3 his wish: a really big loop in the forest. We found cool and hidden things and he had a real good time, most of the way. Only near the end, an hour in, the novelty of it started to wane. So, in the car we hopped and off we went!

Instead of going straight north we decided to push on east first to go up along the coast. Nina read a Lonely Planet recommendation about the orchards there and found a cool place to spend lunchtime. We were still early so we were thinking of maybe checking out the fast charger in the town we were going for. It was fast and free, but a poor Swedish lady arrived just a minute after us and her exaltation that I would use the CCS plug leaving the ChaDeMO to her turned to despair when it turned out this station could only fuel one at the time. We were ready for lunch anyway, so we left it to her and headed off.

Nina:

Once we arrived at Kivik Musteri, I immediately got into the looooong queue just because it was there. That left Flo some time to get the kids ready and check out the place. It turned out that Kivik Musteri offered free charging for electric vehicles anyway so we were all set up right here.

Kivik Musteri consisted of the butik which I was queuing for, a restaurant, a little 6 room museum and a cafe. After some thought, I left the queue again as it didn’t make sense for us to get into the shop where we basically couldn’t buy anything (no space in the car) and it was lunchtime anyway.

We decided to go to the cafe which also gave me an option for cake. J After a good lunch break, made slightly uncomfortable by wasps, and a coffee/cake dessert, we were ready to tackle the “garden” and the museum. Number 3 enjoyed jumping around in the garden and looking at the different apple trees dispersed with other fruits.

The museum started with a room full of preserved fruits. It then went on to the history of Kivik Musteri, followed by the factory parts and a kids’ activity area. Number 3 got to be a little bee as well as testing his strength at pulling up 1kg of apples.

All juiced out by Kivik and all juiced up by the free charging, we left for our camp of the night. It was a nice campground at a lake where we really and definitely needed to do some laundry. We arrived late and it looked like rain so we quickly set up our tent. With me doing laundry and Flo organizing a cooked dinner, it left Number 3 to explore the lakeside by himself. He loved it even if he decided to go into the water with his shoes and socks still on.

After our dinner, Flo and Number 3 had one last round to check the place out before the kids went to bed. It was my turn today to tuck them all in. The Agent was already asleep when Flo opened one window from the outside and called Number 3 and me over. “Look, there’s a rainbow now!” So cool that Number 3 also got to see it. The rain stopped and we had a lovely, quiet evening at the lake.

Day 5 – History Nerds

In an attempt to make the absolute most of an annoying situation, I found a place to drop off Nina and Number 3 while I would hang out at the world’s most uninteresting petrol station waiting for Puru Hiko to get her buzz on. Emporia megamall – glitzy new addition to Malmö’s outskirts! We made it off the campground in record time at 9.15 am and 15 minutes later, the Agent of Entropy was fast asleep and the other two got dropped off in search for a replacement camping chair and some groceries.

The view from the tower, with the Longhouse, and dwellings in the center and gardens to the left.

The Ionity charger worked fine (there are tons of them, as they have partnered with a large petrol brand and outfitted many a K-station with 350 ampere HPCs), so I had at least only 40 minutes to kill. I did some trip research and planning while a very strange and peculiar story unfolded via WhatsApp with Nina. Turns out, almost everything in the mall, with the exception of the supermarket, would only open at 10am. So there were no visible signs, no people and even the electronic info panels would only show “open” shops – so Nina had no idea where to go. They decided on the sensible thing and headed for the only lit place: the ICA supermarket …

I outfitted myself with incredibly bad Burger King coffee and we met up just about an hour after leaving the camp. No good chairs had been found, but we had bread and milk to be prepared for eventual free camping …

But first – south to the small town of Höllviken to visit real Vikings of Fotevikens! Well, at least a neatly reconstructed village with a sort of re-enactment group of living there full-time while doubling as guides at the museum. Let’s get right to it – it was pretty awesome. I am a big history nerd and both of us have been to medieval style fairs in Germany before. The guides were really open and friendly – my sincere respect for pulling this off, living there full-time. I got into a few really cool conversations. It was quite delightful to see how they lit when it was clear we could skip the basic stuff about when Christianity arrived and that Viking helmets had no horns (Romanticists invention) and dig into the weird stuff. Talking to them, I could not shake the thoughts of comparison with other lower tech cultures we encountered in our travels. The village had the same vibe as one on Flores, Indonesia and the culture reminded me a lot of another seafaring warrior culture we have learned to love …

Number 3 had a blast, too. Going into houses, checking out stuff and trying to find the chickens belonging to the empty coop of the merchant’s household.

Southern Sweden still has a very central European landscape, just with fewer people.

Rather than getting back in the car to look for a good lunch spot or getting our whole kit out, we decided to take the easy route and drop into the resident bar “Smokies” for some fast food. The burger, fries and baked potato were pretty decent and I learned to like the low alcohol cider that apparently is a thing around here.

After all that sun and excitement, and well and truly stuffed, there was only one more hour of driving on the menu. I found a nature reserve from one of the local councils with marked tenting spots. Now, we do have a tent, but it is also bolted to our car – so I was a bit apprehensive about the rules and if they applied to us. The good thing was that we were both early and there would be an alternative proper campsite close by. I just really hoped that we could escape the wall of white whales for at least one night.

That pure joy – so infectious. Forrest was his highlight of the day.

As it turned out, this was the jackpot. A beautiful grassy area, with parking areas big and close enough that we could pop the tent without annoying everyone and it even had proper toilets and drinkable water just around the corner (in a converted farm now serving as a rentable venue for “nights in the countryside” for the locals). Everything was very beautiful, quiet and all in all amazing. Number 3 immediately took off into the forest and had the biggest, most joyous laughter ready for us as he paced through the pines and over logs.

We arrived at 3.30 pm. Enough time to soak in the sight and really feel like we made it to Sweden for the first time. This right here is what we were looking for. Let’s just really hope for more to come! I even got a bit of campfire company for a good chat arriving later that evening. A family of four in a two-roof-tent Jeep and trailer combination. Good times!

She slept through the whole re-charge. Oh, and she loves the Dragon. We named it Roary …

Day 4 – Malmö

We had made it to Sweden yesterday. So today, we had a full day to spend in Malmö. Our campground had not much going for it (for us at least) apart from being right next to the bus station which brought you into the city center of Malmö within 30 minutes.

The Agent of Entropy on the bus ride home

We packed all our gear for a city trip and then decided to spend some time on the blog so the kids could play on the fantastic playground. Unfortunately, we don’t even have a single picture. Number 3 even went up to some other kids with trucks in the sand pit and asked politely if he could play with some of the trucks. I was so proud of him for doing that. J

Finally, we went on the bus which took us to Malmö. We got off a little before the city center as Flo, who directed this part of the journey, wanted us in easy walking distance to the chocolate factory I wanted to visit. Once we were there, we realized it was closed. I mean, they are still making chocolates there, just the whole shop and touring for the public got cancelled due to corona. What a pity! I love touring chocolate factories.

From there, it was a good 20 minute walk into the old town. While walking we came across an art exhibition in the Malmö Konsthall and the cafe Smak in the same building. It was just about lunch time for us and we grabbed a bit to eat before looking at a small side exhibition on the anti-racist gaze.

Further on our way, we crossed the canal Rörsjökanalen around the old town which had paddling boats on it, marking it in our minds as a fun activity for later. Number 3 was quite upset that we didn’t stay at a playground for him to explore everything. It was the first time that we realized not having a lunch nap today might be a problem.

In the old town, we made our way through the alleys and lanes into the direction of Lilla Kafferosteriet. Number 3 complained about the walking…but got better again when I went into a tourist shop with a colourful horse on the sign and he got to pick souvenirs for himself and Opa. J

The cafe turned out to be lovely. The Agent who had kept me up almost the entire night (I am exaggerating but we didn’t have long between breaks) slept through the entire affair.

Gamla Staden, the old civic square, was still on my list. The oldest pharmacy is on the square which the Agent of Entropy gave us an excellent excuse to enter: We NEEDED teething gel!

The square was one big temptation for Number 3 with a ferris wheel, a carussell with horses, big balloons and other things. The tantrum of not being allowed to go on any of these accompanied us on our way back towards the canal. Flo was smart enough to indicate that we would not tell Number 3 about our plan to go on the paddling boats until we were certain that it would work. However, he himself broke that smart plan by telling Number 3 what we were queuing for only to realize that we would have to wait for an hour for a free boat which we would then hire for an hour. Two more hours in Malmö was just too long to go. Number 3 was rightly disappointed.

As a way to make up for it or have him experience one of the things he wanted, we let him ride the “flying dumbo” carussell. Just one time. All alone. It worked brilliantly. He had so much fun and he was so proud.

It failed in getting him distracted from the boat disaster though. He screamed all the way back to the bus and then fell asleep on the ride home. Uff. Malmö, I don’t think you worked out too well for us today. But then maybe, we are primed for a bit of Swedish space and wilderness. Not another European city.