Summer in Sweden (Part 2)

After coming back of the Island we continued north skirting the coast. The main E22 'motorway' runs up this stretch but it's not a motorway in the traditional sense. First of all, it's not rammed with cars and lorries making the driving very relaxing. Also the service stops in Sweden are amazing. They are incredibly well kept with no graffiti or rubbish and really clean toilets. You can stay overnight safely at these places and some of them even have chemical toilet disposal points.

Immaculate motorway services stops

As you drive along the E22, you can choose to pull of onto any one of hundreds of small villages or harbour towns that line the coastline here. Although you are not yet on the Stockholm archipelago as such, this area is made up almost entirely of small islands and inland waterways where you can stop for a swim, or pick up a boat to tour around. It is often possible to tag along on on the post boats although you usually need to book a day in advance to get on these.

Beautiful Stockholm

By chance we pulled off to a place called Valdemarsvik where we ended up for a couple of nights. There is a free aire here right on the pretty little harbour. The town is at the end of a large inlet so has the feeling of a cove (minus the sandy beach). There are a few restaurants and bars here plus the friendliest Tourist Information staff that you could ever hope to meet. You can pick up boat trips here or drive or cycle along the inlets out to more open water on the Baltic sea. We managed to do some fantastic open water swimming here as there are quite a few pontoons provided giving direct access to the water.

The nest major stops north form here are Soderkoping and Nordkoping, both of which have aires and both of which are worth a day's visit. Soderkoping is on the 190km long Gota Canal, which claims to be Sweden's biggest tourist attraction. 

The Kaknas Tower

Further north from here we travelled onto Stockholm. As is often the case in this blog, I just don't have time to do justice to some places and Stockholm is one of them. Suffice to say that it is one of those places that you need to go before you die! We spent three days on the city centre site just 5 minutes bike ride into the city. it's an amazing water-bound city with stacks to do. Our particular highlight was viewing the city from the 155m Kaknas Tower.

After Stockholm we headed west. The main highlights in the central part of Sweden here are its two largest lakes, Vanern and Vattern. As you might expect it gets quite rural in this middle section and could best be described as lakes and forests, with all the activities you would associate with that.

We continue west with a two day visit to Gothenburg, which is a compact, pretty city. From there we went south to Malmo, which had a similar feel about it. It is also the gateway to the amazing Oresund Bridge, which we have now crossed twice in our lives. As a little tip, the price structure is for motorhomes up to 6m and then the price jumps for motorhomes between 6 and 10 metres. Nobody jumps out and checks so they took our word for it that we were 5.98 metres. If you are under 6 metres it's going to cost you about £100 to get to Denmark.

On the Oresund Bridge

Once you get over the border the first stop is Copenhagen where we spent three nights on a site just a few miles from the city centre. Again, I can't do justice to the city here, but it too needs to be on everyone's 'bucket list'. 

The direct route toll-free home now takes you through Denmark, Germany, a bit of Holland and Belgium and into France to pick up the Calais ferry. If you've got time there is plenty to keep you busy on the route home. On previous occasions we have built in trips to Hamburg, Koln and Brussels all of which were fantastic.