Sweden: Stockholm to Mora

Since our last post we’ve spent three nights in Stockholm and a night in Mora, and are about to spend another, before heading to Oslo tomorrow.

In Stockholm we stayed at Bredang Camping about 13km’s from the city centre, but located a short walk from a metro station, so access to the city centre was easy. Our bikes took a rest as we opted for public transport, the hop on hop off boat, and of course walking, as the best options to see the city, and we saw as much as we could in the two full days we had there.

Stockholm is spread across seventeen islands so taking a boat trip is a must. There is an easy to use ferry service that is part of the public transport network but we chose to buy a 24-hour pass on a sightseeing hop on hop off boat, and we were more than happy with this. We bought our pass late on the first day and took the full round trip, and then the next day used it to get from island to island and explore thoroughly.

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Andrew and the guard at the Royal Palace, Stockholm

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Strolling through the quaint streets of the Old Town, admiring the beautiful Royal Chapel at the Royal Palace, meeting the Vikings at the Swedish History Museum, and getting your head around the art at Moderna Museet were all experiences that didn’t cost us a cent, and there were plenty more too in Stockholm, proving you don’t have to spend a lot to see a lot.

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The Old Town, Stockholm

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One museum we did pay for was the Vasa Museum. This is an outstanding museum and a unique experience that neither of us will forget in a hurry. The Vasa was a 17th century warship that sank in Stockholm harbour 20 minutes into her maiden voyage. She lay on the sea floor for 333 years before being salvaged in 1961, and now she sits fully intact inside this impressive museum. The reconstructed vessel is 98 per cent original, and the sheer scale of this splendidly adorned ship is quite awesome. The museum is constructed around the Vasa so each floor takes you further up the ship allowing you to see just how huge she was, and also the glaringly obvious design fault that ultimately caused her to sink, there was far too much above water and not enough below. It was a case of the King’s design not being questioned until it was too late.

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The impressive Vasa at the Vasa Museum, Stockholm

Staying three nights in Stockholm allowed us some time to do “house-work”, such as some much needed washing, and stocking up on supplies ahead of our trip to Norway, which is renowned for being extremely expensive.

While at the campground we met a group of enthusiastic Austrians who had just arrived on their vintage tractors towing caravans. They had already covered 2,000 kilometres on these century old machines and were heading to Helsinki before taking the ferry back to Germany and then home to Austria. It takes all types!

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A group of vintage tractor enthusiasts who had already traveled 2,000 kms

From Stockholm we travelled four hours north to the small town of Mora in the Dalarna County of Sweden. The moment we arrived we decided a one night stopover would not be enough and we extended our stay. Mora is under snow for the best part of 7 months of the year and is famous for hosting the oldest and longest cross-country skiing race in the world, the 90-kilometre-long Vasaloppet. It’s hard to believe this lush green countryside bathed in warm sunlight is freezing and dark for most of the year.

Mora is also the birthplace of Anders Zorn, one of Sweden’s foremost artists, who, after finding success abroad, made this town his home again for the remainder of his life. The Zorn Museum was wonderful to visit with a stunning collection of his work, which he and his wife donated to the Swedish people after their deaths. Many of his vibrant water colours and rich oil paintings depicted the landscape and life in Mora and surrounding Dalarna. It’s not often you get see an exhibition by an artist of such fame in a small rural town.

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Anders Zorn’s house, Mora Sweden

Ten kilometres around the lake from Mora is the small settlement of Nusnas where the centuries old art of making the wooden Dala horses continues. These simple wooden horses are brightly painted in typical Swedish designs and have become an iconic symbol of Sweden. Liking the idea of having a locally handcrafted souvenir we took to our bikes and cycled around the lake to visit these Dala Horse factories. These are not factories as you may think. More like artisan workshops. The horse shapes are roughly cut from a slab of wood and then passed on to members of the community who each carve the horses by hand. They are then returned to the factory and lovingly hand painted by artists, and because of this process no two horses are the same. Some of the artists are more renowned so their horses command a higher price, but in general they are very reasonable for an authentic handmade souvenir, and knowing the proceeds support a community to maintain their traditions makes it even more special. However, deciding which horse to buy took a while. A stylishly adorned black horse will be coming back to NZ with us.

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Dala Horse factory, Nusnas Sweden

Tonight we’re celebrating being on the road for two weeks. We’ve travelled 2,700 kilometres and been through six countries, Norway tomorrow will be number seven. We’re currently just running over budget (about 30%), but we always knew the first two months would be more expensive as we travel big distances through Scandinavia and allow for ferry crossings, toll bridges, and the notorious toll roads of Norway – our next update will no doubt have more on this. Right now it’s time for a glass of wine under the awning with Mr Love.

Denmark to Sweden

Our first stop in Denmark was the small port town of Kolding, about an hour north of the German border. We had decided to overnight on the way to Copenhagen and I had read that Kolding was worth visiting for its 13th century castle and historic township. Despite relatively good weather for the journey from Hamburg, when we arrived in Kolding a terrific thunderstorm had us sheltering in our van for a couple of hours waiting for it to let up. When it did, we were on our bikes and heading to town. Unfortunately, the respite in the weather didn’t last and we were caught in another downpour so took shelter in a pub and tried a local Danish draught while drying off.

The next day we drove through to Copenhagen crossing the Storebælt Bridge, an 18km long bridge which links the eastern and western parts of Denmark. It’s one of two toll bridges in Denmark, the other being the Oresund Bridge which connects Denmark and Sweden. To cross Storebælt cost us $76 NZD, but it was worth it to experience this engineering marvel.

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Storebælt bridge, Denmark.

We got a bit of a shock arriving in Copenhagen to see our “camp ground” was a city parking lot with temporary fencing and port-a-loos, surrounded by construction sites and overlooked by an ominous power plant with three chimneys protruding and unusually named Dong Energy. Once we drove through the gates and met our enthusiastic host Finn Asved, who relayed the benefits of the location, our concerns were reduced. Finn is a retired businessman who operates Copenhagen City Camp for 12 weeks a year during the summer season, offering a secure parking area for campervans close to the central city. He lives permanently onsite for those 12 weeks and says he loves every minute – beats retiring!

Being in such close confines with other motorhome owners gave us the opportunity to share a few stories and ask advice about some of the things we’re still not sure on – how to get your gas bottle filled in Europe being the big one, and travelling into Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania being the other.  We think we’re now a bit clearer on both.

Although not solving the problem, having our fellow campers available to assist, reassured us when we did the unthinkable and locked ourselves out of our van after the door slammed in the wind.  Luckily, I had left the garage unlocked and was able to squeeze through an impossibly small gap between the bed and the wall to get inside. Andrew may not have made it. We will be carrying our keys with us to the shower from here on.

We loved Copenhagen! It’s a beautiful city that’s easy to get around and everyone seems very laidback and friendly. We spent an enjoyable two days exploring the city by bike, foot and water taxi. This city has amazing public spaces and makes great use of its waterways.

Freetown Christiania was an eye opener. This is a neighbourhood that declared independence from Denmark in 1971 and has never moved forward from the hippy era, with the residents living a non-conformist life quite contrary to the city that surrounds them. Pusher Street is where traders openly sell all types of hash with mind-bending names and no doubt similar characteristics. As marijuana is not legal in Denmark, when we went to take a photo we were politely but sternly told “no photo.” Apparently, the police have an understanding with the Christiania drug traders and tolerate them to some degree, however it was less than a year ago (August 2016) when a drug trader shot and wounded a policeman that resulted in Christiania to be closed to the public for a time and caused the delicate relationship between this alternative neighbourhood and the state to become very strained.  It’s not all about drugs; this community grows and sells organic produce, creates art and crafts, puts on live music and performance, and is completely car-free. It really was like walking into a time warp.

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Freetown Christiania, Copenhagen

A water taxi ride to the Little Mermaid, watching the changing of the guards at Amalienborg Palace, and lunch at Paper Island were all highlights. Paper Island was named because this was where the warehouses were that stored newspapers for the Danish Press. Now these grey industrial warehouses are teeming with vibrancy, containing contemporary art exhibitions and an amazing international food hall. We visited this twice.  We stopped in while biking to the Opera House on our first day, and on seeing how cool it was decided that would be the destination for lunch the next day. It didn’t disappoint. The people watching was a good as the food.

Originally, we had planned to cross the Oresund Bridge to get to Sweden, but on talking to other campers we were told the ferry from Helsingor to Helsingborg was a more interesting way to cross. Helsingor is the home to Kronborg Castle, the setting for Shakespeare’s Hamlet, so I was more than happy to change our plans. It wasn’t cheap, the 20-minute trip cost $160 NZD, but the bridge cost the same as the government controls the pricing so you don’t have much choice. You can see where your money goes – the ferry is very modern and comfortable, far more than it needs to be for the quick crossing.

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Kronborg Castle, Helsingor

From Helsingborg, we drove through to the town of Jönköping situated at the southern end of Sweden’s second largest lake, Vattern. We spent a couple of hours in the township before heading to our campsite 10kms away in the small community of Habo, nestled in the forest next to Lake Vattern. It was lovely to get away from cities and traffic and walk along the beach and through the forest without anyone else being around. Hopefully this is a taste of things to come during the rest of our Scandinavian adventure.