Toward the North Cape - Sweden 1/6 — travel diary by stellina_latina

The story

TRAVEL DIARY

The trip is made by camper and made up of four people

Saturday 27.07.91

Departure from Milan at 5 in the morning by camper. At 6 the Swiss customs and purchase of the Swiss motorway vignette. We give a lift to an English student from Heidelberg, where we had stopped for lunch, to Hannover. Here we stop to have dinner and sleep.

Sunday 28.07.91 SWEDEN

Departure from Hannover at 6 in the morning. We do the shopping for lunch. We take the ferry to Denmark, lasting 50 minutes and including the ferry to Sweden too. At 11 we are at the Danish customs. At 15 we take the ferry to Sweden, which lasts only 15 min, and take a few photos of Helsingor castle. We then pass the Swedish customs. Arrival at 19 in Graanna on the great lake Vattern. Campsite on the lake. After dinner a walk along the lakeside and to the harbour.

Monday 29.07.91

Visit to Graanna; the town runs along the main road. While waiting for the banks to open, a visit and photos of the church gardens and the gardens and cemetery attached. We buy bread and pastries. Along the avenue that slopes down to the lake. Departure from the campsite at 10.30. At Soedertaljie we take the wrong motorway junction; at the first exit towards Stockholm we left the motorway to have lunch. In a garden car park, then we rejoined the motorway in the opposite direction to take the turn-off for Marienfied. We visited the castle and the gardens around the lake; they are enriched with cannons captured from the Russians and rune stones. After the visit, departure for Stockholm. A campsite, signposted on the motorway, seemed to be on the outskirts but was served by the metro. We looked for other campsites in vain; in the end we returned to the first one.

At 19 we reached the Bredang campsite.

Tuesday 30.07.91

Visit to the city using the metro. Visit to the historic centre, the church of Eleonora, the royal palace. On foot we reach the museum area, walking along the central street full of shops, not particularly interesting. We visit the history museum (Histiriska Museet) 100 SK, the Nordic museum 100 SK, Vasa Museet 100 SK, very interesting. Lunch at the restaurant in a garden by the sea, with squirrels, hares and pheasants scampering over the lawn among the tables, 475 SK. Return to the campsite by metro. We have the sauna at the campsite.

Wednesday 31.07.91

Departure from the campsite at 7.30 in search of the port. Excellent road signs: boarding at 9 in Stockholm for Naantali. A wonderful day, a calm and beautiful crossing among a myriad of Swedish and Finnish islands. We sunbathe on deck. On the VIKING LINE ship, the motor vessel ISABELLA, there is a nautical chart that lights up the route covered. We reach Naantali at 19, where there was a campsite, but we went on to Turku, where by then everything was closed. We visit the Cathedral from the outside. We drive along the main canal that leads to the sea, then head for Helsinki. At 23, tired, we stopped to sleep in a service area. The Diary continues with the Finland chapter

ITINERARY

1100 Km MILAN, Basel, Frankfurt, Kassel, HANNOVER

700 Km HANNOVER, Hamburg, Puttgarden, GRAANNA 500 Km GRAANNA, STOCKHOLM 300 Km STOCKHOLM, HELSINKI 300 Km HELSINKI, CORPILHATI 370 Km CORPILHATI, KAJAANI 400 Km KAJAANI, KEMIJARVI 560 Km KEMIJARVI, KARASJOK 250 Km KARASJOK, NORDKAPP 230 Km NORDKAPP, ALTA 390 Km ALTA, NORDKJOSNORN 370 Km NORDKJOSNORN, NORSVIKBOTN 380 Km NORSVIKBOTN, MORSJOEN 350 Km MORSJOEN, STEINKJER 300 Km STEINKJER, SJOA 250 Km SJOA, OSLO 250 Km OSLO, LJUNGSKILE 250 Km LJUNGSKILE, VIBORG 430 Km VIBORG, HAMBURG 740 Km HAMBURG, FREIBURG 480 Km FREIBURG, MILAN