We have now started our return journey and drove 185 miles in beautiful sunny weather from Oland to Rostanga, which is about half-way back across Sweden. Rostanga Camping was not very impressive as it had a pool which was full of kids when we arrived, however by about 5.00pm nearly everyone had left - obviously only there for the weekend - just us and 4 caravans left. We had dinner and sat outside in the sun with our drinks, then went for a stroll around the site.
Mon 7th June - Woke up to the inevitable pitter-patter of raindrops on the roof again, so the planned visit to the safari park is on hold at the moment. At least this site has wi-fi (free) so I am spending the morning catching up on emails and blog. We’ll see what happens later.
Well, it rained all day, so we did nothing useful, just played cards and Sol Suite.
Tues 8th June - A lovely sunny morning, we had fresh baked rolls for breakfast and then set off for the “zoo”. We found a beautiful church at Billinge on the way and stopped for a mosey around. All the graves were beautifully looked after, mainly gravel which had been raked in lovely straight lines with some vases on. Even the paths looked as if they had just been raked.
We met up with a husband and wife who were the gardeners and found out that they did all the raking every Friday. They asked if we wanted see inside the church, so unlocked it for us! It was not so ornate inside as some we have seen. Unfortunately, our camera batteries died so we have no pictures.
The “zoo” was a bit of a disappointment, very tired looking and run-down, as well as being full of school parties. It is billed as the biggest in Northern Europe and we were given tickets by the campsite, but would have cost £20 each to go in!!
On the way back we found a nice little B&B which did lunches, so had a late smorgasbord (open sandwiches) and coffees, costing about £12.00 and delicious. We also called in to the Tourist Office in Rostanga and had a long chat to the lady there and found out another couple of places to visit, hopefully tomorrow.
We even were able to sit out in the sun with our drinks after dinner until about 9.30pm, but it is still light at 10.30pm. Unfortunately, it also gets light again about 3.30am when the dawn chorus starts so our sweet dreams are very short at the moment.
Weds 9th June - Would you believe it….it is b….y raining again!! So as we speak, we have changed the sheets on the bed, tidied up, taken some photos off the camera, listened to Radio Kent and now I am typing, in the hopes that it might get nicer a bit later.
After lunch it dried up a bit so we went to Soderesens National Park, up to an area called the Copper Hat, which is apparently an extinct volcano. However, it was very misty and we could not see very much. Back down at the Tourist Office we had a look at some very nice paintings done by stroke patients, then walked for about an hour around the lake and through the woods. Back to base for the final dinner and tidy up and a little bit of sun.
Thurs 10th June - It was grey and damp when we got up, but we managed to pack up in the dry, just. We left about 10.00am and had only been travelling ½ hour when the rains came again and stayed with us all day. We drove 219 miles in the pouring rain along the motorway that was more like a river than anything else. We actually found Kolding City Camp fairly easily for a change, about 3.00pm, without use of the sat nav, but it was quite a disappointment, right on a dual carriageway, noisy road with lots of decrepit caravans around. Luckily it stopped raining just long enough for us to get the camper up and watertight, although we had quite a few wet cushions and curtains inside where the water had got in whilst we were driving. There were no food shops very close by, so we fell back on our tin of ‘Chicken Supreme + sweetcorn + potatoes’. Sometimes tins come in handy!!
Fri 11th June - Still raining, we are now soaked, but good old Pennine canvas hasn’t started leaking yet! We faffed around all morning, doing some washing and tumble-drying, cleaning shoes and other necessary bits and pieces. After lunch we braved the road (by going 5 miles out of our way to go right round a roundabout and back up the other side!) and the elements to find a Super Brugsen (like our Co-op) in order to get some dinner food. It is quite difficult to find suitable cuts of meat and green veg seems to be non-existent. If one likes sausages or meatballs you are OK. Anyway, we found 4 pork chops (£12) and a pack of mince (£8), so I managed to make a decent casserole for a change. We have now come almost to the end of our brandy/whisky, so we feel a French shopping trip coming as soon as we are close enough!
Sat 12th June- It actually stopped monsooning during the night when the winds arrived, so first thing this morning we had to attach some more guys to all our ’flappy bits’ .
We took a drive down the coast to Haderslev and back via Christansfeld as it was marked on the map as a scenic route. The towns are quite pretty and we had a look around the shops in between showers. We even bought some broccoli!!!- probably the first lot we have seen over here. Tonight will just have to be the other 2 chops roasted. It is still very windy and a bit showery, but hopefully things are looking up.
Sun 13th June - After a very windy night with not much sleep, we got up late, then had a long chat to an English gent who was living full-time in a small campervan, travelling and working in it. We eventually set off for ‘Legoland’ at Billund as it is the original park. The 45 minute drive was very pretty, through farmland along empty roads. We arrived about 12.00 and stayed there until gone 4.00pm - like big kids having a go at everything! As we have never been to Legoland in England, we have no idea how it compares.
We had a mixed grill lunch in the saloon in the Western area and listened to a country and western band called Rattlesnake, who were not too bad. It was an enjoyable, but very expensive day out - £70 to get in + £40 for lunch!!!! Ouch….I’ll just have to do some more days work to make up for it.
Tomorrow we plan to go in to Kolding City on the bus, so I am going to take my memory stick with me to see if we can find internet anywhere, as wi-fi is £1 for 10 minutes here on the camp-site.
Tues 15th June - Must have been the worst day of the holiday. We left Kolding at 10.00am in sunshine, then ½ hour later down the road realised our euros were still in the camper ! Luckily as we crossed the border in to Germany there was a pit-stop with a bank, so we changed our remaining Danish and Swedish Kroner in to euros and set off again. We stopped for lunch around 1.30 for a while with less than 100 miles to go. It was hot, there were lots of lorries and as we were towing we were not allowed to overtake. Then came the roadworks, mile after mile of them…eventually we found our turn off the motorway, followed the directions in the camp site book and got hopelessly lost. When we found somewhere to pull in, a nice German gent who had been following stopped as well and offered to help. He gave us directions back the way we had come, which we followed to the letter, even found the road with the camp site on it, only to find that it was closed due to the roadworks on the motorway above!!! So there we were down a very narrow lane doing a 20point turn with the camper on the back, down the ditch and in the hedgerow, to get back to the main road, with no clue as to where we were going to go next! After much shouting at each other, we decided to go back the way we had come about 20 miles, to Camping Hanseat, the camp-site we had stopped at on the way out, arriving around 5.30pm having driven 250 miles.
Were we pleased to get set up, have a cuppa and a shower and a good night’s sleep.
Weds 16th June - Sun is still shining, we got up late, had breakfast late, went to get diesel and some milk, came back and sat in the sun until it was time to walk around the corner to a nice restaurant who cooked dinner for me for a change. Came back to type up the blog and found that we could get the internet, so am trying to play catch-up with emails etc. once more.
Fri 18th June - I was not able to get logged on to blog the other evning, so have bought a 1 hour voucher here in Holland to do it.
We drove 258 miles yesterday in sunshine the whole way, arriving here at Ottelo (where we stayed on the outward journey) around 4.30pm. We aim to go to Belgium on Sunday and stay there until the ferry next Friday.
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