Sweden via Holland,Germany,Denmark

---

We had a few things to pick up from Sweden so we decided to have a bit of a road trip, we hired a van and booked the ferry from Newcastle to Ijmuiden Holland. Our journey was about 2000 mile round trip, through England, Holland, Germany, Denmark and Sweden.

Thé ferry crossing was a little rocky, but we witnessed a beautiful sunset and some very strange robot type dancers. A 50 year old dutch lady on the ferry dance floor, followed by her 60 year old friend who was bashing out moves that shakira would be proud of. Quite disturbing to be honest!
After arriving in Holland we put the pedal to the metal. With maximum speed to get out of there as there is not a lot for us to see here (cheese and wooden shoes). A wrong turn in Hamburg had us going straight through the city in the wrong direction, in rush hour.

We finally arrived in Sweden, at 10pm, after a second ferry and a very expensive bridge. As it was so late we decided to check into a hotel just outside Malmö, as we had already been driving 12hrs solid, in a transit van!!!
Next day we set off and arrived in Trollhättan, picked up a few things from various relatives and then went over to Ilonas aunties to sample some more of her amazing cooking and try our hand at some clay pidgoen shooting.

A big part in Swedish culture is hunting, we where lucky enough to be served some Elk meat. Cooked to perfection, as usual by Inger. Clay pidgoen shooting is always excellent, Ilona has now mastered closing the correct eye and was hitting targets like Billy the kid. As usual when firing this Berreta shot gun, i have a large bruise on my cheek from the kick back.

Next day with the van fully loaded, we set off back towards Holland (or at least to Germany). The weather had taken a turn for the worst,( -5 on the night) and it had begun to snow a little. We however were in a english van with no snow tyres, which is not a real smart move. We headed south a quickly as possible hopefully missing the bad weather, we were lucky!!!

Next stop the lake district for a rock climbing trip!!!!

---