Denmark to Sweden

We took the fast train from Copenhagen central station. Our tickets said Copenhagen Airport,  so I'm not sure how we would have known to catch it at the central station if it was not for Bo and Kirsten. It didn't even stop at the airport (just went straight through) . We knew we were in Sweden when Trevor received a message from Telstra telling him the new charges for the new country.

Copenhagen Central station

The countryside as we rode the train up the lower western coast of Sweden was teeming with holiday makers. We could see crammed caravan parks and many people swimming and kite surfing along the beaches. The water still looked very cold to us, and although the sun was shining brightly the wind was still quite chilly.  Beaches varied from sandy to rocky. In many areas there were smooth rocky areas (much like the granite around Port Elliot). Small tidy towns of white houses with red roofs, or brick brown houses with black trim dotted the green countryside, and many cows enjoyed their lush environment. We were also treated to views of industrial areas, railway graffiti, forested areas, and the tiny narrow paths winding around. At one stage we caught sight of a whole block of tiny houses in varying colours separated by what looked like garden plots.  Not sure if it was a community garden with tiny sheds for each plot, or what. We were joined on the train by a mother and her two daugthere.   The girls (about 9 and 11) we're both reading novels written in English.

Three hours after leaving Copenhagen the train pulled in to Gothenburg station.
The signs were no easier to read here, and there seemed to be much less English translation. I braved a subway store, getting us some lunch while Trevor checked out the local signs and identified where we could find a local map and the car pick up office.   The local Europecar guy spoke English, but we had to sign a form in Swedish, so of course we read that very carefully (not). Then we negotiated our way to the underground parking garage to make friends with our car (Leon) and out into the daylight. Thanks Martyn for the GPS with the European maps.  It is making a huge difference, and this, along with the green signs to Oslo clearly visible on the highway, helped us to make our way out of the city and on the northern road without incident.

 There are many high cliffs on the side of the road where it has been cut through the granite mountain, and high bridges even out the climb over delightful valleys, dotted with the same brown or white houses with their large barns.  Driving on the right hand side in a manual car had Trevor pretty busy, and we are appreciating the rumble strip on the outer edge of the road as we learn the size of the car and the feel of this new activity. By the evening we were both feeling much more comfortable with turning right into a roundabout and giving way to the left.

After a short detour for essential shopping we made our way to the small stop at Haby and our motel perched  beside the highway between Gothenburg and Oslo. This is a little like some of the truckstops along Australia's major highways.   A garage, Burger King, and Motel are the main buildings.

Our motel

They have a pretty reasonable looking  restaurant serving truckstop type schnitzel with chips , burgers etc ( menu all in Swedish) and a salad bar. We took a short walk down the road and found they also have a gas pump (30 SEK for a kg of gas- which we think works out to about $1.50/litre) and also chargers for electric cars. We hadn't noticed electric cars, but they must have them around.

Electric car charging station

Trevor need to investigate a little further.  This is what the screen says if you play with the buttons

We had heard that the town of Smogen ( about 30 minutes away) is really lovely, and since it was only about 4.30 and we knew we had many hours of daylight still, we decided to try out the GPS, and brave the road a little more.  We took the winding way around lovely damp inlets, with small houses dotted on the limited flat land beneath the high granite hills, past the zoo for endangered species only ( Nordens Ark)  out to the western coastal town and found ourselves gasping in pure delight. As we rounded the bend we were met with a classic view- many white houses, with red roofs spilling down the mountain to a lovely bay decorated with the many boats.

We negotiated the parking meter with the help of a stranger ( and found how difficult it is to use a credit card to pay for parking time when you can't read instructions) and took to foot, to walk back across the bridge and take some photos of the view. These will give you some idea of the beauty of the place and why it simply took our breath away.

We then followed the trail of holiday makers in the opposite direction.

On our way into the town centre

 After a km or two we found ourselves in a small shopping area. Here we found the restaurants which I had heard of, selling their prawn baguettes, and other seafood meals. For only a little more than  we would have paid for schnitzel at Haby, we sat amongst this happy bustling community , laughing with the Swedish people, watching the kids feeding the birds, and the older people peeling their prawns and  extracting their crayfish while we ate our fish and chips.

Our dinner of fish and chips

Other wares available for dinner and very popular.

Just past the restaurant where we ate was the outer harbour, with the dock where the visiting boats were pulled up, three abreast in a village of their own.  Many Norwegian, Danish and Swedish flags hung from the boats and some had blasting music, with crowds making a ruckus and clearly getting into some liquid refreshments. Others revealed families and friends sitting down quietly to snacks and drinks beside the ultra expensive sailing outfitters, and swanky eating places. As we followed along the path the waterway became narrower and quieter, lined with boathouses and smaller boats.

As it has so many times before , geocaching led us past the obvious tourist areas, and we discovered a distillery area beneath the granite , a quaint playground, and another peaceful harbour area around a little, as we strolled through the beautiful town , up and down the winding streets, between the white houses with their window boxes of red geraniums.  Every now and then we saw a sign saying "rum" (which we decided means "room available") and many signs saying "utfart" which we think means no parking- but there are many signs which are a complete puzzle to us.

Where the people don't usually go!

We headed home to our motel, happy and tired.