The McKenzie's Official world tour site
# Sunday, 27 July 2008
Moving onto Swedish Adventures......

Hi there,

The amount of well wishes from people we meet along the way – who are going to keep a check on us through the website- is overwhelming! We are genuinely amazed at the amount of interest we are generating! Kinda safer feeling with this many ‘big brothers’ looking our way!

So we left Tonder on Sunday (a week ago!) and went to Naerun (near Copenhagen). On the way I made a fuel chart so that we can keep a record of the cost and amount of that dreaded stuff we use!

We found another friendly site with helpful  English speaking people! We have been very lucky so far – with being able to communicate easily. When we arrived at this site we were slightly confused about the time of year as we were met by many Christmas decorations glittering around the caravans? We later found out that there were 8 Father Christmas’s staying on site as it was traditional that they have a meeting in July to make their arrangements for the following Christmas!

We took the little blue train from Naerum to connect up to the underground metro into Copenhagen. A  much cheaper and stress-free way to travel into the city. We enjoyed a guided boat tour around the city and saw several of the most important sites,including the Royal Palace. We did not realise that Copenhagen is similar to that of Venice (although of different style) with its network of waterways and very low bridges to negociate! The children even spotted a coot who decided to nest on the back of a moored boat! We also saw war ships and torpedo boats.

Back at the site we managed to use Wifi and Skype back to England for the first time! At least we know this works when we have connection!

We left Denmark and moved across to Sweden. We were left in a state of shock at the toll prices to cross two bridges - £120!! Because Nessie comes under HGV for toll pricings – over 7 metres long. Even if one happens to be the longest bridge in the world (we think) –this is still expensive travelling. If we had time to move further north – a ferry would have made a more cost effective method of travel. We found a fantastic campsite (not our intended one from our travel book) but as is often the case – a site we just happened to come across! These often result in being more satisfactory to us with our very flexible nature! On this site we were able to pitch right in front of a lake (with plenty of room for shallow swimming!) The children were off into the water within minutes of arriving! Phil was also stung on the base of his foot within minutes of arriving by a very vicious looking bug. This was EXTREMELY painful – we must remember to wear shoes!

We were fortunate enough to enjoy the best sunny weather that Sweden has had in a long time with temperatures rising  to the high 80’s – even 90 degrees F. I began to sort my ghostly white English skin out although I think this job will take a lot longer to complete!

We met a lovely friendly Swedish couple –Leif and Inger Nystrom and spent interesting times with them finding out about more Swedish fact- iods (wait until the end for these!) Once again their good English saved the day and Phil had found himself a Whisky drinking buddie!

Thursday 24th – morning – up to have a shower but  NO WATER! What is going on –the tank is full? Off Phil goes to investigate and luckily it was nothing more serious than a pipe which had blown off the water pump. A bit more tricky to get at to fix as it was inside a sealed unit....problem solved – we expect there will be more where that came from in our duration of time!  Our good friend Leif took us all out for a trip around  a small proportion of the lake (Ringojon)  in his motorised dingy and this cheered everyone up! Thankyou!

On Friday (25th) we enjoyed a great day at the Skanes Djurpark (the world’s largest zoo park with only Scandinavian animals). There were over 800 animals belonging to about 85 different species, including bears, lynxes, wolves, wolverines and elks. Many of these species can only be seen at Skane Zoo as they have become extinct in the wild and it is only through the zoo’s successful breeding programmes that they have been saved from total extinction. As the brochure boasts these animals are homed in generously proportioned enclosures- adding to the fun as we had to often track them down first!

 Another few days in the sun – again high 80’s and swimming! Phil helped our new neighbours – a young Swedish family who did not have any lights working in their caravan. Daniel and Jenny  thanked  us by  bringing around some Swedish cakes and a bag full of chilled beer  which went down very well that evening! (Phil can never stop working!) We then enjoyed some time together exchanging notes  and making good friends .They have said they would like to come and visit us when we get back to the UK – this would be great! ......look forward to meeting again......

So we leave the lake behind (at the Swecamp Hoor – Jagersbo-Sweden)  tomorrow (Monday) and have a ferry booked from Ystad to Poland direct to save going back over the bridges!

*FACT-OID – 1 Swedish mile is 10kms!

* FACT-OID – Traditionally all Swedish houses were painted red as this was the cheapest way to make paint out of copper and water. These houses also have wooden painted panels with the corner panels painted white.

*FACT-OID - It  is not possible to buy alcohol which is any stronger than 3.5% volume in any supermarket type shop. You can only purchase stronger alcohol in a state owned store (for tax purposes) and also pharmacies are state owned too. You will never find any privately owned medicine stores in Sweden.

* FACT-OID- Snus is a Swedish alternative for smoking cigarettes. It is very popular among males but also ladies too! These little poaches are like miniature tea bags and one is put under your top lip – sitting on your top gum. This is a direct form of nicotine into your system and is equally as additive. This method is obviously more sociable in terms of passive smoking and is kinder to your lungs. However – apparently it is not so kind to your gums or lips.

WILDLIFE HIT:

Phil is proud to announce that not only do we have Osprey as regular visitors to this lake – but he has managed to film the moment one dived and caught a fish!! Fantastic!

UNTIL NEXT TIME – TAKE CARE ....

 


Sunday, 27 July 2008 16:33:19 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Comments [3]  Sweden

Sunday, 27 July 2008 19:49:34 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
looks really pretty hope all ok love carrie and james xx
carrie
Tuesday, 29 July 2008 21:15:06 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
Hi!
Nice of you too mention us in your blog. You should have asked me about changing size on pictures. But ill show you when we come to the UK.. hehe We hope you have a superb trip, and look forward too your next update.

/Daniel, Jenny and Camilla
Daniel
Tuesday, 05 August 2008 17:20:09 (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
Looks absolutly beautiful! I knew i should of jumped in the garage! Damn lol. Hope you are all well, and having a fabulous time. Look forward to hearing more soon. Lots of love Clare xxx
Clare
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