Day 12 and 13 - Road trips

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Well, we finally got a couple of rainy days. When it rains here, it rains hard! It rained most of Sat morning and into the afternoon. Then it got nice and stayed nice for the rest of the day. Sunday morning started out nice and then we had scattered showers around lunch time. Then it gets nice and sunny again between showers. So, we did some road trips to see some towns a little further away. We went north as far as Gavle (on the Baltic) and then back down to Uppsala. We quite enjoyed walking around Uppsala and did a little shopping. Today we headed the opposite direction down to Nynashamn (on the Baltic coast) and then on to Arsta Havsbad (on the Baltic) and then Sodertalje. In Nynashamn there was a festival going on with huge tents and big stages for performers. The festival had been on all weekend and today was the day for families (mostly kids) so we walked around quickly and then headed for the pier. We found the restaurant that we had read about online and it was great! I will be able to check a few more Swedish foods off my list! Then we walked up to the church at the top of a hill in town to get a view of the docks and the ferry. In Arsta Havsbad we saw lots of smaller cottages by the water but we did not get out of the car as it was raining at the time. Last town was Sodertalje and we drove around this one too. It was very pretty. We also drove on much smaller roadways today and got to take in lots of Swedish farms and lovely country roads.

During all of this driving, we like to play our license plate game. Here is what we have seen so far: NL (Netherlands), F (France), EST (Estonia), BG (Belgium), FIN (Finland), D (Denmark), LV (Latvia), LT (Lithuania), RO (Romania), PL (Poland), CZ (Czech Republic), P (Portugal), and E (Spain). Many of you are probably wondering about the daylight here. It does not get dark until around 11pm right now and even then, it is not blackness. Then it starts getting light again around 3am. Cars here are about 30% Volvos and next most popular is VW. There are not many mini vans and no pick up trucks but also not so many small cars as we have seen in the other places in Europe. The Swedes love their lakes and ocean and will swim in any decent weather although the water is cold. The bathroom is called Bad maybe cuz of the smell. Their toilet paper (Nigel has tested it all over this part of Sweden) is like sandpaper. We are all sore "down there".

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Photos

Nyna Roki
The famous smokery restaurant by the pier

Food pic - sorry
Russell had the Shrimp in shells and it was great! We all had some!

Shrimp sandwich on baquette
This was my lunch! Yummy!

View from the top
From the church on the hill