Accidentally got up an hour early as the several clocks in the Tandy are set on odd times, non Swedish, and I miscalculated ! A nuisance as campsite office didn’t open until 9am and we were ready to leave at 8. Managed to get on our way by 8.45 heading west to Malmo. First we had to cross the long bridge to the mainland then we followed the same road, the E22, nearly all the way across southern Sweden. Took one short detour when Bob found a minor road we could use instead of the E22, as I tend to nod off on motorway type roads. I immediately woke up and very soon spotted a bright summer-coloured deer in a clearing. Uneventful but pleasant drive as the countryside is very pastoral with plenty of cows and ... read more

Glorious weather has returned - blue sky and hot sun. Made even better by the news from the UK (which has been having a drought / heat-wave), that it is now wet and chilly. We left our very nice campsite at Gamleby and headed for our last stop in Sweden on the popular holiday island of Oland off the East coast. Easy drive there through pleasant countryside and we stopped at Kalmar to admire the castle, the beautifully maintained cemetery next door and the most wonderful scented roses which filled the air with their perfume. Good to see that down here in the south of Sweden not all the wooden houses are painted the deep red of the north but are in lots of lovely colours. Especially like the bright yellow and egg-shell blue ones. From ... read more

Left the heat of Stockholm and headed south for a quieter spot on the coast. Stopped to shop on the way and bought what we thought was milk but turned out to be ‘curdled milk’. Yuk - does not make good coffee ! Really pretty driving in this part of the country. Everything is far softer somehow though there are still plenty of trees everywhere. We headed for Gamleby which seemed to be a reasonably small town on the coast, albeit in one of the deep coastal inlets as occur all the way down this Bothnian Sea coast. Found our Kustcamp campsite and liked it. Has a super sea water pool which is delimited by a floating pontoon. Our swim was quite delicious as we have needed a proper cool down since the heat of Stockholm ... read more

Within 10 minutes of arriving in Stockholm we had decided it was a wonderful city. We walked into town from the campsite, a pleasant 2.5km along the edge of the lake (could be sea at this point - tricky to tell where one becomes the other !) and over the bridge into Gamla Stan, the old city. The buildings are amazing. Stunning architecture, wonderful decorations and they all seem to harmonise so well with each other. We decided to find the Royal Palace first and did but on the opposite side to the entrance so had a good look round the other side first. There is water everywhere as Stockholm is built on a series of islands all linked by bridges so one side of the Palace is on the lake and the next side is ... read more

Long drive today and weather glorious so pleased we have cab aircon in the Tandy. I spent quite a bit of the trip trying very hard, but failing, to stay awake. Driving along the tree-lined E4 is like counting sheep. Its not that I don’t like trees, actually I like them a lot but not in such quantities and in such a monotonous arrangement. Both sides of the E4 are lined continuously with trees, nearly all conifers and, what I think makes it worse is the fence which is obviously newly installed between the forest and the road all the way along. Makes everything so regimented somehow. Not a branch out of place as it were. I presume it is to keep the Elks off the road but did still manage to spot one through the ... read more