Scandinavia

The next day the alarm went off at seven, we have a long journey ahead. After we got up we packed our things. After breakfast we put everything in the car and left Bogense at 9:20 am. Via a number of local roads we ended up on the E20, the highway towards Sweden. Near the town of Nyborg we crossed the Storebælt via an 18 kilometres long bridge with the same name. This is a toll bridge for which we had to pay 245 Dkr (± €32,=). Across the bridge we entered an island called Sjælland on which Copenhagen lies. We continued our way towards this city, but we ignored it and continued towards the next toll bridge, the Øresund tunnel/bridge combination under/over the Øresund. First you drive through a 4 kilometers long tunnel and after that you cross a 19 kilometres long bridge. The toll for this one was 225 Dkr (± €29,=). A rather expensive day. The border between Denmark and Sweden is in the middle of the bridge and we hadn't entered Sweden for less than a kilometre when it started to rain. It was not the only rain for this day in Sweden, sometimes we had lots of it, some times just a little bit, but other times we had a bright blue sky. Across the bridge we stopped at a restaurant with an adjoining tourist info. We had some coffee and at the tourist info they had an internet PC so we could check and send our email. After that we continued. We passed Malmö and drove northwards along the coast towards Helsingborg. There, at a parking place, we ate our lunch. And from a hill nearby we had a beautiful view over the water, we could see the ferries crossing from Helsingborg to Helsingør as well as the Øresund bridge. After lunch we moved on northwards via the E4 in the direction of Jönköping. We had (pre) booked a room in the no longer existing hotel 'Winn' in Huskvarna just north of Jönköping near the highway and the shores of lake Vättern. From our room we had a beautiful view across the lake.

The next day we also got up early for the next part of our trip to Stockholm. After breakfast we packed the car and left. At first we drove along the shores of lake Vättern, but after a while we went eastwards. At Nyköping we left the highway to go to Mariefred via some local roads.

In Mariefred there is a museum steamtrain to Läggesta. We wanted to take a ride with it. It was a very nice trip, but a bit short. Both ways only 15 minutes. Back in Mariefred Ciska went for a ride on the back of a pony. After that we continued our way to Stockholm. Our hotel is in one of the suburbs of Stockholm, Bromma, close to the airport with the same name. In the evening we took the metro to the centre of Stockholm to have dinner. We went to a restaurant close to the hotel where we stayed two years ago when we visited Stockholm for a short citybreak. In the restaurant it took quite a while before we got our food. And when the first course finally arrived only Hilleke got hers and for Arjan it arrived five minutes later. With the main course is was the other way around, first Arjan and Ciska, and five minutes later Hillekes plate arrived. The waitress apologized for the fact that all did not go as planned. We got our desert for free to compensate. After paying the bill we took the metro back to our hotel.