Sweden in July with the 4 billion trees, mossies and the flies!

We then headed inland towards Sweden having finally decided to miss Finland and head eventually to Stockholm.  We trundled into Sweden via the Sagavegen which runs from the high fjell country of Norway towards the east coast of Sweden – stopping at a free overnight spot making Sweden’s flies and mozzies appear like jumbo jets compared to Norway’s! 

everybody said Finland was boring but my God no-one told us about the trees in Sweden!

Altho all the blurb claimed the Sagavegen to be THE road to take we found it all a bit monotonous with km after km of pine trees, flat, no houses – just on and on.  To be fair it has a “history” being the road that “joins” the two peoples of Norway and Sweden where in fact they’re not bothered to which country they belong. 

Unbeknown to us however, is the fact that this area is the southern Lapland area of Sweden always thinking that was somewhat further north and originally the home of the Sapmi (Sami) the indigenous people who have inhabited the area for up to 3,000 years.  They are a people unconstrained by borders originally spanning 4 countries – Russia, Finland, Sweden & Norway.   The majority live in the North Sami area where their dialect is understood by all from wherever they live.

We decided to stop at Vilhelmina being one of the centres of southern Lap culture where the ancient cultural game of mini golf was played at the camp site!  The weather was pretty hot so we swam in the lake at the site which was pretty cold but the Swedes seem to find it ok, walked to town and generally relaxed as usual.  Visited a couple of touristy shops picking up more info on the history of the area.  A few examples of Sami houses were to be found (wooden “wigwam” made of upright sticks) – the campsite had some replicas for people to stay in.

We were still over 600 kms north of Stockholm so continued southish through similar countryside although some now became rural with land cleared of pine trees thank God….arriving at Solliftea, a pretty spot on the Angermanalven River – reminded us of the UQ part of the Brisbane river.  A centre for logging – nice spot.    Headed via a minor road for Ramvik – Snibben camp, fantastic spot on the edge of the lake.  In high season, if you ensure you arrive at these sites around lunchtime you are assured of the best spots!  If it had been warmer reckon we would have stayed at Snibbens a bit longer, name puts you off a bit!

And so the pine trees went ON and ON!  Hundreds of kms of them……the little red houses outlined in white even became monotonous….maybe should have traversed the other side of Sweden!  Where does everyone live!  Surely this country has SOMETHING else besides logging and fishing!  Continued south taking a little known road on the east coast called “Kustvegen” where we found people enjoying Sunday lunch and music by the water, few cafes – great atmosphere but the wind blew up.  Continued on via small roads, sometimes dirt eventually joining the main E4 via Harmanger, nothing special – finding ourselves a day later at the worst mossie infected place IN THE WHOLE WORLD in Osterfarnebo!  Found the place down by the lake, picturesque, pine trees behind us but we couldn’t get out of the van!  They even wormed their way thru non existing holes in the fly screens, it was AWFUL!  We had been warned but didn’t expect that they would congregate around our heads in waves and swarms as though they hadn’t eaten EVER! 

So as we approached Stockholm about 75 kms away we found ourselves at a great spot at a place called Mariefred.  The camp site was just 2 kms along a little path to the town which was alongside the lake (again!) but no mossies THIS time.  The town is dominated by Gripsholm Stott an old renovated castle originally built in 1537.  Magnificent building built as a fortress/royal palace restored in the 1890’s with emphasis on historical preservation. 

Mike thought he’d gone to heaven and back again finding a very well operated narrow gauge railway operated by the OSJL and rebuilt as such after closure of the standard version in the fifties using wood burning elderly locos and other rolling stock 7 operating a daily schedule. The station had been renovated as original and all personnel wore uniforms of former times.

The good news was that as we have travelled further south we have spied the sun attempting to actually go down and with the cloud cover it “appears” just a little like dusk at the early hour of 10-11pm!

So on 7^th July we trundled into Stockholm finding the campsite at Bredang easily and WHAT a good job we’d booked!  These high season sites are a bit scary after so many months in off season Greece and Italy often with the site completely to ourselves!  After having explored the various alternatives for travel and sightseeing we settled on the 3 day Stockholm card which, at SEK595 (about AUD100) seemed rather expensive for us but we determined to use it to its fullest with it covering all museums, palaces, buses, trains, tram and one or two ferries.

Over the following few days we managed to visit numerous museums – the middle day in torrential rain!  We thought the weather might be a bit more “summery” seeing as it was July but with only one day hitting 20 degrees the rest of the time it was quite bleak and wet with the last sightseeing day seeing the sun poke through later in the day.  Our favourite visits were the Musik Museet (Music Museum) which was a very “hands on” place – good for kids and us!  Taking one around the varied “sounds” that can be made with a variety of implements it then took one through “world” sounds with examples of each to listen to.  Of particular interest was the Swedish instrument called “Nyckelharp” which was a cross between an “auto harp” and a violin where the strings are bowed with keys along the fret board pressed like a piano.

Having visited the Palace in the city on the first day, which was extensive, interesting and exhausting we determined to visit Drottningholm Palace on our last, a little way out of the city up the river where the Royal family have resided since the 1980’s.  It was built in the 1660’s commissioned by Queen Hedvig Eleonora. A pretty building designed by a Frenchman and certainly the gardens seemed like a “mini” Versailles in their layout.  But the highlight of this visit was the splendid Drottningholms Slottsteater which dated from 1766 and was almost untouched since that time.  The stage had hand-painted sets that are still operated by hand – a magical theatre and after having been “sleeping” for 120 years from the late 1700’s it is now used quite a few times for operas during the summer.

But we cant “leave” this missive without mentioning the most wonderful sights – the “Vasa” a warship that was built for King Gustavus Adolphus from 1626 to 1628. The ship foundered and sank after sailing less than a nautical mile (ca 2 km) into her maiden voyage in August 1628. Vasa fell into obscurity after early attempts at recovering her cannons in the 17th century. However she was located again in the 1950s, just outside the Stockholm harbor and then salvaged with a largely intact hull on 24 April 1961.  Numerous “tunnels” were bored beneath her through the black mud, cables slung thru the tunnels and finally she was lifted intact. She was housed in a temporary until 1987, and was then moved to the Vasa Museum. The ship is one of Sweden's most popular tourist attractions and has attracted more than 26 million visitors.

Vasa was built top-heavy with insufficient ballast. Despite a prior knowledge of this, she was allowed to set sail foundering a few minutes later. The impulsive move to set sail resulted from the insistence of King Gustavus Adolphus, who was abroad at the time and was impatient to see her join the Baltic fleet in the 30 yrs war. At the same time, the king's subordinates lacked the  courage to discuss the ship's structural problems frankly or to have the maiden voyage postponed. An inquiry was organised to find someone responsible for the disaster, but no sentences were handed out.

During the 1961 recovery, thousands of artifacts and the remains of at least 15 people were found in and around the hull of the Vasa by marine archeologists. Among the many items found were clothing, weapons, cannons, tools, coins, cutlery, food, drink and six of the ten sails. The artifacts and the ship itself have provided historians with invaluable insight into details of naval warfare, shipbuilding techniques and everyday life in early 17th-century Sweden. When she was built, the ship was supposed to express the aspirations of its king at the time thus an inordinate amount of money was expended in its building, decorating, equipping etc.  She was one of the largest and most heavily armed ships of her time and was covered in 1000’s of sculptures many painted in bright colours.

So, sadly we “set sail” (literally!) taking a wonderful ferry or should we say “cruise ship” the Victoria from Stockholm to the capitol of Estonia “Tallinn”.  The journey took 16 hrs and we had a tiny inside cabin, cheapest we could get.  For some reason, they picked us out of the line up and loaded us first so we were right up front and seemed to be first off  before anyone else had blinked!  The ship was like a cruise ship with restaurants and cafes to suit all pockets, duty free, bars, casino, sauna room, open deck with bar and an enormous lounge with stage and live floorshow at 11 pm.  Preceding that was a great Swedish band.  However the floor show was abysmal, Mike will think that is exaggerating but they entitled it “Viva Las Vegas” and Elvis was DEFINITELY turning in his grave!  Kind of Estonian version of “Cabaret” but so much artificial smoke you could hardly see anyone, the singers sang flat and all in all when you’ve actually BEEN to Las Vegas and Folies Bergere to boot, how could we appreciate this poor entertainment?  Apart from that, the ship was great and well worth the money! 

So, sailing for HOURS passed tiny islands in the Baltic Sea, some of them no larger than a rocky outcrop we finally reached open sea before the sun finally attempted to go down just before midnight and we said farewell to Sweden!

And once again, we need to add our observations of the Swedish people.  They are certainly much more colourful than their neighbours in Norway!  Seems like there are many people living the “alternative” life style, they are quite laid back – towns are nowhere near as neat and tidy as Norway and Denmark.  They have an open door policy which means you actually see dark skinned people around, which was a great relief to us realising that they were human!  They were very friendly, not at all stand offish and incredibly polite drivers though drove twice as fast as Norwegians.  Its still a strange country with all its action in the south where the big cities are congregated – the north seemingly just full of a trillion bloody pine trees and biting insects in similar numbers!  And so, we move onto Estonia.