More Stockholm

 

A beautiful tall ship towers over the old town 

Random bits of sculpture.... 

Exploring the narrow streets.

 

Another City Another Hard Rock - Stockholm

Lunch today in our 19th Hard Rock Café

Changing of the Guard

The changing of the guard takes place at midday every day.

Today at 11:50 it was a pleasant day - 5 minutes later we were drenched by a sudden downpour!

 

The marching band leads the procession from the barracks to the Royal Palace.

Stockholm

We're now in Stockholm, staying in the Official (and expensive) MH parking. It is however convenient for visiting the city by bicycle.

 

Gamla Stan - the old island

A Swedish take on an English pub - straight out of old London town!

The narrowest street in Stockholm

The Royal Palace

Botaniska Tradgarden - Upsala

Clearly a budding David Attenborough

 

Lovely Orchids

My rose....

 

Uppsala

After spending last night in another lovely (yes really) Swedish motorway service area, this morning we're visiting the University City of Uppsala.

 

The Domkyrkan (cathedral) dominates the city

 

The Gothic interior

 

The 119m high twin spires are the tallest in the Nordic region.

Sign of the Day

 

We haven't had one of these for a while - suggestions on a postcard please.

Grisslehamn

We spent a second night in Öregrund, this time in the official MH parking, before coming to visit Grisslehamn this afternoon. This is the closest point in Sweden to Finland and as such is pretty much dominated by the ferry terminal.

 

In 1902, painter and writer Albert Engström moved to Grisslehamn - this reconstruction of his home sits atop a rock with fabulous views out to sea. Sadly it wasn't for sale!

Taken through the window because surprisingly(!) it was closed, this is the artists studio

Emma rolls out the big guns!

 

Öregrund

When we arrived in Öregrund it was dark so we followed the satnav's directions to the MH parking place shown in our trusty Dutch Motorhome app. 

 

This morning we woke up in the carpark of a small University building! Nobody seemed to mind but on walking down to the seafront we found an official free Aire so we moved here with this lovely view.

A wooden clocktower

Pretty houses running down to the sea.

Typical fishing village

 

The lightship had become embedded in concrete!

 

Österbybruk

This afternoon we came to Österbybruk to see the world's only fully preserved Walloon forge, unfortunately, like many things in Sweden outside of the two week summer period, it was closed.

 

We had planned to stay the night here in the car park but decided to move on at around 9pm when the local boy racers started driving around.

 

Statue of Louis de Geer who bought the foundry at Österbybruk in 1643 with the clock tower in the background.

 

Manor house surrounded by "English" gardens - actually they were rather empty!

The Beaver Lodge

I never could resist a challenge! 

Forsmarks Bruk

This morning we're visiting the historic ironworks of Forsmarks Bruk

One of the old forges where they made and repaired tools used in the ironworks

 

The well preserved rows of whitewashed houses and a manor house were built in 1767-74

 

 Remains of one of the ironworks buildings - all of the machinery was water powered by a complex system of belts and pulleys

 

Emma didn't fancy a swim  today...

One of the Iron Smelting kilns

Lake Storsjön

We spent last night parked in a carpark next to the road which bisects lake Storsjön.

 

 

Very peaceful on the lake this morning.

Gävle

Today we left the campsite at Ljusdal and headed south to Gävle. We couldn't get into the two official motorhome spaces as they were occupied so we hid Kiki in the corner of the carpark and hoped for the best.

 

The town hall in Gävle

 

 

Interesting Sculptures

 

 

 

 

How to combine Boating and a BBQ

Another day spent chilling on the campsite and we spotted this rather ingenious contraption - it's a powered raft complete with BBQ and gazebo.

BBQ Time

It's been beautiful weather over the last couple of days so we've decided to stay here until Monday.
Enjoying a rest and the hot, hot sunshine.


Believe it or not this is our first BBQ of the year - shocking!

Ljusdals Camping

We arrived at Ljusdals Camping yesterday afternoon and have decided to stay a few days to have a break from driving and to catch up on the washing.


The lake view from Kiki's back window tonight.

The High Coast

This morning we drove along the High Coast which is a very pretty area. It's listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site and was created as a result of the land rising 300m since the glacier ice receded 9,600 years ago. Amazingly the land is still rising at 8mm/year!


Brief glimpses of the sea with lots of pretty little harbours. We stopped by one for coffee and were surprised to see that there were free bikes available for visitors to use whist they were moored in the marina.
 

The Hogakustenbron bridge was modelled on the Golden Gate Bridge.
  
We're now on our way to a campsite at Ljusdals where we plan to stay a few days resting and catching up on the washing.

Kopmanholmen

We found the hydroelectric powerstation but unfortunately it wasn't open to the public so we returned to the coast and found a carpark by the ferry terminal in Kopmanholmen for the night.



We stumbled upon a rally of classic American cars which nearly filled the carpark.
Emma liked the pale metallic green Dodge.
 

Shortly after we arrived they all rumbled off and we were left with another MH for company.
 

Tonight Emma is wearing a fleece because it's a little chily.
The sculpture appeared to be made of rusty metal but on closer examination we think it was actually the local red granite!

Umea Energicentrum

Once again a lack of signs made finding Umea Energicentrum a challenge for the satnav. More bumpy unmade roads and we eventually made it only to discover that it's only open from June to mid August!


The grounds were open so we took a walk around to see the exhibits.
This is rather a leaky mill leat!
 

A water powered sawmill - you can just make out the waterwheel at the bottom.