North Cape 2004 Parts One and Four

0/691 - Autogrill Motorway - Wurzburg

Traffic in Austria was heavy but flowing. After paying the vignette at Tarvisio, the toll booth operator at the second ticket (€ 9.50, increased compared to last year) wanted to see the registration document, not believing that my vehicle was 35 quintals gross, in fact weighed at departure it was 43, but it says 35 and he couldn't say anything GERMANY Diesel € 0.92 – 0.94 – 0.91 per litre queues and slowdowns before and after Munich and many construction sites open for resurfacing the road.

22/1385 - Maribo - overcast - Parking by the lake

Quiet night, except for the Estonian drivers who chatted until late at night 672/1363 Puttgarden Today the transfer to the boarding was quiet and less monotonous than yesterday, the motorway crossed hills, woods and forests, flowing traffic, heavy on the left heading south, congestion near Hamburg, still roadworks in progress at various points, before and after Hamburg the motorway is still concrete and that continuous jolting because of the joints is particularly annoying Ferry Puttgarden/Rodby.30 min 126 € At the boarding, after buying the ticket, including the Helsingorg/Helsimborg part, we waited only 10 min. and boarded, the ferry was half empty.

One could have saved further by doing a return trip, but we prefer to take the Malmo bridge on the way back, it will cost more but we want to see this new bridge We were looking for a place for the night and found one at Maribo at the kajak club on the lakeside, at 20:00 a light breeze was blowing and a girl was swimming, we saw later that she was in the company of other boys/girls and there were many empty beer bottles

74/1651 - Bastad - Parking near the cemetery - 140 sek

192/1577 - 83 Helsimborg - overcast wind visit to: Historic centre - Karnan - Sankta Maria Church - Town Hall - Fredriksdal Park - Paid parking at the port The number you see next to the name of the village or city is the page of the TCI green guide

At customs Tina went to declare the importation of the cats, all the documents and the various medical examinations turned out to be in order, two stamps and off we went, our fear was that there might be some bureaucratic error that wouldn't let us continue the journey, but everything went well. As soon as we disembarked, before the exit near the tourist office, there is a nice car park, from there you can easily visit the centre and the rest on foot When you leave, you always forget something and it happened this time too: the cable to connect the digital camera to the PC, at the first computer shop I bought a card reader, 390 kr (€ 43) eating into the already meagre budget, with my wife's grumbling.

Bastad is worth leaving the motorway to visit this town, beautiful little houses with flowered gardens, the botanical garden is a marvel, similar to many of our gardens on Lake Maggiore or elsewhere For the night we are in a car park that also authorises campers, but with a ban on overnight stays, let's hope for the best!!!! a Belgian camper pulled up next to us, there is strength in numbers…. In the facilities of this car park I managed to drain the tanks with a basin

181/1832 - 119 Goteborg - overcast - Camping Karralund 235 sek

Wake-up at 7:30, it's pouring with rain, I wanted to empty the tanks since we had a shower last night, but I gave up. Rain and wind all along the motorway, 4 very wide lanes with a good surface, the signposted service stations are not always at the sides of the motorway, I found one 6 km off, anyway it made me take one road to get there and one to come back, very beautiful by the sea. Arriving in Gothenburg with glorious sunshine, we stopped at the Karralund Camping, nice, well equipped with toilets/showers, the CCI card is worthless here, they issued us the "Scandinavian card" which will still give us various discounts at campsites and elsewhere. We will later realise that in Norway it is worthless and not requested, in Sweden, on the contrary, it is required and the discount is automatic. To visit the city you take the tram, line no.

5, at the exit of the campsite, after 12 stops you are in the centre. Those with children can go to the amusement park at the 6th stop After wandering through streets and squares, at the fish market we bought some prawns, very fresh and cheap, back home Tina boiled and cleaned them, I made a mayonnaise and we ate them in defiance of the Germans and Dutch who watched us eating tins

293/2155 - Oslo - sun/overcast - Camping Ekeberg - 39 nok

30/1862 118 Fjallbacka Wake-up at 7, departure at 8 at the opening of the reception, after emptying and filling the water. Tonight was very cold (14°) and we turned on the heater. The motorway goes as far as Uddevalla then on an old two-lane road, it will resume in Norway During the journey, Tina, reading the TCI green guide, saw an interesting little village, we left the motorway and went to Fjallbacka, a narrow but very interesting road, through woods of oaks and birches, then hugging the sea we arrived at a characteristic fishing village nestled in a small fjord.

CONTINUES IN "Capo Nord 2004" Part Four

148/7047 - Antnas - sun/overcast - Autogrill parking

CONTINUES FROM "Capo Nord 2004" Part One

138/6932 00 Haparanda Border The E75 continues to the border, then becomes the E4, at first wide but with a disastrous surface, then towards Lulea it improves and we hope it lasts until Stockholm Now we are stopped at a kind of service station, but with vending machines, there is no one.

348/7395 - Ornoskoldsvik - sun - Parking before the Bridge

115/6595 - Skelleftea - overcast/rain - Nice little town - P. 10 sek Tonight I had toothache, in the first town we stopped to look for a pharmacy, we found it and at the same time we visited the town, modern but pretty, the centre closed to cars with many shops, the joy of my wife and I think of all women, plus various supermarkets where we stocked up on what we needed, note: you pay for parking even at supermarkets

48/7807 - 00 Sigtuna - sun

56/7451 - Sundvall - sun visit to the Town Centre 308/7759 72 Uppsala - sun - visit to Gamla Uppsala - Wooden museum - Cathedral - Duomo with wooden bell tower Today, finally, we drove on a real motorway at 110 km/h In Uppsala after visiting the cathedral we stopped at a typical Swedish restaurant and had dinner, quite good, I had meat and Tina fish, spent 600 kr, back in the camper I had milk and biscuits ………. I was hungry Having left Uppsala we stopped at the first village and parked for the night. Unfortunately the car park was near a pub, with loud music and shouting and me still with toothache, we moved towards the railway station, a much quieter place, here I noticed that it was dark, there was no more midnight sun…… we are back to normality, I must tell the truth, that continuous light 24 hours a day bothered me, I'm used to sleeping in the dark.

70/7916 - 34 Stockholm - rain/sun - A/A Langholmen - 380 sek 2 days.

39/7846 - 56 Skokloster - raining - The most beautiful castle in Sweden Early in the morning we went to Skokloster to admire the castle, to get there follow the E4, exit at Alanda, turn right for Sigtuna on the 363, when you reach the E18 turn right and follow the signs, once there we realised that on Saturdays it opens at 12, after wandering around in the rain, we decided to set off again, we might come back by boat from Stockholm. Tired of travelling, we stopped at the first signposted place, an equipped area, a dreary and poorly equipped place and, in my opinion, very expensive. Today absolute rest, tomorrow first visit to the city, possibly we'll move to a campsite.

0/7916 - Stockholm - raining - A/A

2-hour boat tour - 320 sek Royal Palace - 220 sek Changing of the guard at 13:00 On foot you reach the centre after 1.5 km from the A/A, first of all we settled on a boat that in two hours showed us Stockholm from the sea, very beautiful!!! on the way back after the visit to the royal palace we watched the changing of the guard, the changing itself was no different from many others already seen in other countries, the spectacle was the band, about a hundred members who, playing various marches, performed changes of position and formation, at the end they moved to a small square near the cathedral and continued playing cheerful music. Stockholm, even on a grey and rainy day, struck us for its cheerfulness and liveliness.

Town Hall - 100 sek The Cathedral (Storkyrkan) - 80 sek Vasa ship Museum - 140 sek Having left the A/A, we took the camper to a car park along the lake near the town hall, where other campers had spent the night, after booking the visit to the Town Hall for 11:00 with an Italian-speaking guide, while waiting we visited the Cathedral, at 12:00 we had lunch and then went to the Vasa car park. I had already seen the Vasa 45 years ago, then there was only part of the hull wrapped in a cloud of steam to prevent it from drying out after being removed from the lake waters, now it is beautiful in all its imposing size and completeness. After this last visit we decided to return to Italy, we left beautiful Stockholm with regret, with the promise to return and visit it with more time, unfortunately tiredness is making itself felt and more than anything my teeth need the dentist.

200/8116 - Along the E4 - raining - Autogrill Parking

We stop at a parking lot by a gas station on the E4, after doing some shopping in a nearby small town.

20/8624 - along the E47 - sunny - Autogrill parking

460/8576 - 89 Malmo - overcast - visit to the old town center and the Town Hall 5/8581 - Oresund Bridge - sunny - 560 sek (€ 62.11) Given the cost, the same as the ferry, I think it's better to take the bridge: it's faster and the view from the bridge is magnificent. Denmark 23/8604 - Copenhagen - sunny

503/9409 - A7 Motorway - Autogrill Parking

134/8758 - Rody - Ferry to Puttgarden - 30 min. - € 63 Germany Diesel per liter € 0.98 – 0.95

766/10027 - E7 Motorway - Autogrill Parking

Austria - Diesel per liter € 0.88 Vignette 7.60+9.50 €

136/10163 - Majano HOME

A short stretch of highway and we're home