About Clunegapyears

Travelling around Europe with James in our motorhome. And now solo, with friends

Days 24-25 Uppsala, Marlaren Lake & Sigtuna

Posted on May 13, 2015 by Clunegapyears

Monday – Uppsala

Leisurely clear up and repatriate odd bits of cooking kit and food to Chardonnay from the Aged P’s cabin. Chard emptied of unmentionables and fully loaded with clean water and we dropped the Aged P’s N of Stockholm at the airport. Been really, really good to spend time with them … Mutt is such a supper organised tour guide; you really must not pass the guide book over to me!!! Helsinki would be a good next meet!!!???

We drove onto Uppsala, home to the first Swedish University in 1477 (Oxford opened in 1096 – but we’re not competitive!). Has a castle now Art Museum – shut on Mondays. Has a Gustavianum Museum 1477 with a faithful reconstruction of where public dissections of executed criminals took place – shut on Mondays. Must remember Mondays are not good for entrances. The twin towered church was open and we saw the gold shrine containing the Swedish patron Saint Eric. Uppsala is also well know as the home of Carl Von Linne – for you gardeners out there – he created the two part Latin naming system, the “Systema Naturae” in 1741. God created and and Linne organised!

King Gustav Vasa brought in Lutheranism and trained his castle cannon on the Church to keep the Bishops in order

Chuch twin towers and dome of Gustavianum

Fab painted Church interior

Parking had been a problem so we had taken up 4 bays, bought multiple tickets and left a note on the windscreen, so we only had 2 hours here.

Drove back to Skokloster Slot, where we had stayed the night before collecting the Aged P’s from the airport. This time no inconsiderate other ‘van’ – we got prime spot. BBQ (yes, chicken again!) and watched the sun set over the lake … aah!

Yep – chicken again

Sun setting over Lake Malaren

Tuesday – Sigtuna

Sigtuna is the second oldest town – original main street

St Olaf ruins, one of the 3 of seven remaining Medieval churches.

St Olaf ruins, one of the 3 of 7 remaining Medieval churches.

Twisted tree outside St Maria Church C13

Amazing choc base with passion fruit cream, and before lunch!

Can you sense his enjoyment?

Not even a crumb left for patient Mrs Mallard

Bike ride to Steninge Slot 1690. Architect Tessin the Elder. Owner Count Axel ven Fersen, Playboy, renowned for his fling with Marie Antionette

Bike ride to Steninge Slot 1690. Architect Tessin the Elder. Owner Count Axel ven Fersen, Playboy, renowned for his fling with Marie Antoinette

Even the bee hives are painted red for brick and yellow for stone

A lost soul?

One for Nic - she would have skipped, kicking up her heals, through this meadow.

One for Nic – she would have skipped, kicking up her heels, through this meadow.

Sigtuna marina – our Tuesday berth

We had not intended staying in Sigtuna but it really took our fancy, a lovely bike ride and beautiful timber houses with real charm. This morning we awoke to our car park being resurfaced by a Cat grader 140M (I am not anal about earthmoving equipment) AND I went out running in the rain for the first time in some months – now on to Birka the oldest town in Sweden….. More anon…..

Days 21-23 In and Out of Stockholm

Posted on May 10, 2015 by Clunegapyears

Friday

Weather boded fair so we planned a boat ride out to one of the islands. Caught a boat to Sandhamn, a yachty island. Not the ferry company or the destination or quite the departure time we had planned, but blame it on the un-charming, unsmiling Tourist Info lady on the Old Town. However, we got to see lots of islands, some inhabited by wealthy humans with boat houses and boats lifted out of the water, and others bedecked in white from feathered inhabitants! Sandhamn had no cars just tractors and bikes, a wonderful sheltered bay where we had out picnic, knocked back with wine. A drink (G&T -mother in keeping with the en virons) at the Yacht Club and a 2 hours 20 minutes return ride. Had not really done a lot, except sit, eat and drink, but all pretty knackered. BBQ – chicken again but done cajun style.

Boat houses on way to Sandhamn

Our lunchtime Sandhamn beach

Caught the Aged P’s actually laughing – only as unaware I had camera in hand!

Lunch – all you can see are wine beakers!

Sandhamn

More Sandhamn

Islands view from boat

Saturday

Drove to Drottningholm Palace, which is still the main residence of the Royal Family. Built from 1662 for Queen Hedwig Eleanora, who ruled the then powerful Sweden until her son came of age. There are wonderful grounds, the oldest working theatre and a large Chinese Pavillion complex. Tours by very charming English speaking guides. Really pleased we went.

BBQ – Chicken with Johnny’s Salts – is this the 4th time in a row – but due to popular demand! Eating, however, in Chardonnay as the wind gets chilly.

At Drottningholm

Drottningholm long vista

Marble staircase with 9 Muses and their protector Apollo

Royal bed – given birth in!

Collected on a Grand Tour

Slow shutter speed to capture the droplets … such a camera expert! That would be a fast shutter speed!!

Right royal selfie … Dad is just in the corner, my arms ain’t long enough

Drinks pre-chicken BBQ

Sunday

Train into the City – we are very expert a buying exactly the tickets we need on the equivalent of an Oyster Card which is cheaper than buying individual tickets.

Did a walk around Sodermalm island today. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo territory. Some great views of the city area and Gamla Stan (old town), C18 buildings and an area of summer houses / cabins in allottments / gardens. A guide book recommendation and good Trip Advisor reviews and into the Bla Dorren (blue door, but it hasn’t one) for a good lunch – J and Dad tried the Herring lots of ways with a local cheese (like strong cheddar with a hint of parmesan) and then three of us had veal meatballs with mash potato and longinberries. Swedish theme 🙂 and excellent service. Overstuffed the younger ones had a nanny nap on return to the campsite.

No BBQ – if we have room cheese and salad.

Houseboats, now hotels and restaurants

Great views back to Gamla Stan (old town)

Different sorts of herring and local cheese

Veal meatballs (more like skinless sausages), mash, lingonberries and pickled cuecumber

Station selfie – is it the wine or the chilly day making us look pink?

Days 18-19 Stockholm and Aged Ps

Posted on May 10, 2015 by Clunegapyears

Wednesday

Drove in completly the wrong direction (west) to fill up LPG which we is we use for the habitation (cooking, heating and fridge) for 40 mins to find a small one man band who was not even in residence. Ho hum.

Drove east to the airport to collect the Aged Ps. Slight detour to SE Stockholm to a garage that did sell LPG (apparently only 35 LPG stations in Sweden) and could not work out which Autogas attachment to use and how to make the pump actually deliver the gas … 30 mins later with a little help we were on our way again. Another learning curve, but a vital one. We’ll know for next time.

Visited the Vasa Museum. Bit of a drive through the city centre … cast London from your mind as nothing like that, traffic wise. Parked and lunched in the large tourist bus parking. Went to check with Vasa Museum staff if we could stay there … ticket man left his post, walked out with me, spoke to tourist bus driver and came to the conclusion that whilst the bus drivers did not mind as it is not high season and not busy, there was no guarantee we would not get a parking ticket. Such helpfulness you would never encounter at home. K wrote a windscreen note that we had asked about parking, and had a lame 78 year old with us (K’s Dad – fit as a flea!) with us. No parking fine, but not busy 🙂

The Aged P’s and K had all visited the Vasa previously, but happy to revisit – truely amazing. It went down in 1628 on its maiden voyage as too top heavy by far and ressurected in 1959 BUT what is so amazing is the cold and lack of salt mean it is 98% intact. The details on the carvings etc are stunning. Really impressive.

Incredible ornate carvings

98% intact from 1600s

Very top heavy to keeled over on maiden voyage

Campsite fine if a little faded – Aged P’s cabin basic but has necessaries. Can park Chardonnay adjacent. BBQ.

Thursday

Tunnelbahn into Stockholm City centre. Wide open streets, government buildings and water, water everywhere. Did a walk around the main parts of the city to see where some palaces which are now largely Gov buildings. Crossed into Gamla Stan, the old city island. Hoped to join a walking tour, but no show on tour guide so used guide book and did our own tour. More former palaces now Gov buildings and narrow charismatic streets. Charming and attractive. BBQ.

Water aand views at every turn

Buildings are painted red tp look like brick or yellow like stone

Not so distant shores

The Aged Ps

Typical corner

Wrought iron church steeple

We knw what you were doing – Dad vacating public toilet

James’ turn – told to “Pisoir Off”

Centre of Gamla Stan – the old town

Back of the Opera House

Day 17: Up the coast

Posted on May 5, 2015 by Clunegapyears

Tuesday

Stayed at Kalmar last night, left at 0800 hours and motored north towards Stockholm, stopped to see the spectacular Gota Canal with its seven locks, through central Stockholm rush hour traffic, and on to Skokloster Castle for a gin and tonic and minor Martini… now parked at the lakeshore and K preparing haute cuisine from a tin and gonic, sorry, tinonjonic, Swedish for food….. tomorrow we will meet Katherine’s parents who will stay for six days and bring food parcels and their excellent company…. then next week on to N Sweden and Findland….

Gota Canal / Bergs Slussar: series of locks

Days 14-17 Copenhagen by foot and bike and into Sweden

Posted on May 5, 2015 by Clunegapyears

14 – Saturday

Easy bike to the city centre and it really is easy. Every street, and I mean every single one, has a double width cycle track in both directions. You follow the dedicated cycle traffic lights at junctions and stop to let people cross over the cycle track to get on and off busses. Incrediably easy and safe.

Joined a free (tip what you think at the end) walking tour with Maria, a 6 foot red head from Yorkshire, quite a Viking look. She focussed on the central part of Copenhagen and explained a lot about several fires flattening parts of the city, the Royals and stories from WW2. All most excellent.

Indecisive gold lady barometer: comes out on a bike if fair and with an umbrella if not

Walking tour coffee break

Bishop Absalon should have been on a pony, but the scultpr thought it did not look impressive enough

Bishop Absalon should have been on a pony, but the sculptor thought it did not look impressive enough and gave him a big’un

At NyHaven

Nyhavn used to be the red light ditrict, but now a humming cafe and bar area

Nyhavn

After a Burger King lunch for J (missing his chips!) we cycled back to Chardonnay with the intention of spending the rest of the afternon in the Carlsberg factory. Slight change of plan …. we’d been robbed !!! The buggers had got in through prising open and breaking the three fastenings on a window, broken into the laptop store and pulled loads out of cupboards. So instead of sippling beer, we spent the afternoon in the Central Police station! The very efficient police officer said on hearing our story, ‘thats a real bag of shit!’ They were very supportive and efficient. Thankfully it is only ‘stuff’ they have taken and we were not here, but it is inconveneint. They left all the booze :). We have now bought a Chromebook so we have USB to upload images and play DVDs, but it is a poor exchange for the Mac Book Air, Ipod, Ipad, James camera, small cash… but they left our passports and our external hard drive with all our photos and our mifi internal wifi router…

For you Latin scholars, non illigitimi carborundam…..

We eventually found a lovely campsite just east of Copenhagen to hole up in until we could get the window fixed.

15 – Sunday

A profitable day – two loads of laundry, showered ourselves and did an exterior (much needed) wash of Chardonnay. A walk to local shops and we bought:

a six pack of Carlsberg, as we still needed to drink some
meat for a BBQ – our first of this trip
a wine box for £14, just to top up our supplies.

The really helpful young man at the desk also identified no less than 4 caravan repair / service companies for us to try.

Closed the day playing with the camera tripod, a BBQ and fire log.

Using the tipod for a selfie

Proud of our clean Chardonnay, and then it bloody rained and a tree dropped crap on her

15 – Monday

Early start and drove to the outskirts of Roskilde where the really lovely workshop chap only charged a tenner to replace the three window catches. And then we were on our way …. off to Sweden as we have to be in Stockholm on Weds to meet the Aged P’s.

Despite the break in, we still really like Denmark and the Danes and will be back!

The Oresund crossing was a first for my very own bridge master. First tunnel and then bridge.

Denmark and into the tunnel

Crossing into Sweden in the middle of the Sea

Crossing into Sweden in the middle of the Baltic Sea

Cable stay part of the bridge

Rather than bomb up the motorway, we hugged the coast as much as we could. Changing scenery … flat and the best aggricultural land in Sweden …. rolling hills and rocky outcrops … can tell is is damp here as the mosses and lichens are amazing colours … forests of pines and silver birches carpetted with spring flowers … beaches and holiday resorts / small fishing ports.

Sweden has a right to roam and you seem to be able to park up pretty much anywhere. There are also a LOT of motorhomes around, predominently Swedish and German. We spent the night in Kalmar, right on the sea, next to a beautifully maintained graveyard and fortress castle.

Clune Gap Years

A journal and reflections of our motorhome travels

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