Down time and planning in Nyköping, Sweden
Zagan the motorhome is fully charged and raring to go after a couple of days at the free aire in Nyköping (N58.74453, E17.01499), about 100km south of Stockholm.
After a few days full of sightseeing in Stockholm, and the realisation that we haven’t looked at a map of Sweden or read about anywhere to go and see, we decided to find somewhere to hole up for a couple of days. Looking at the Park4Night database, I spotted this place was a decent enough drive to get us out of the capital, but close enough to not blast past anything. Of course being here has nothing at all to do with the free electricity, marina (for Jay to fish in) and the fact that the description mentioned it is walking distance to Lidl!
Nykoping
When we got to the main shops we could have been back home – although I suspect health and safety would have a word about the ramp access into the takeaways!
Our drive out of Stockholm wasn’t quite as eventful as our drive in. This time I was armed with a map of the city and satnav was programmed to avoid the gauge-bridge thing that tried to take our exhaust. It all worked well and soon we were driving under the congestion charge gantry, exiting the city. If you are planning a trip to Stockholm, it’s worth noting that the congestion charges vary depending on the time of day, and you get charged both going into and coming out of the city. By arriving at the weekend (when it is free) and leaving on a weekday outside of rush hour we only clocked up 11 Sek in charges. It will be interesting to see if a £1 invoice arrives at our house (no need to register, they just invoice you direct), as surely the printing and postage will be more than the charges?
Nykoping
Hundreds of geese here at the moment, great to see them in their V formations flying over Zagan
Parking up, we got a bit of hand washing done, as it looks like they don’t have launderettes in Sweden and we won’t be on a campsite for a while. As that hung out to dry on the back of Zagan we headed off for a look around the local supermarket. Feeling like a traitor we walked right past Lidl and into the store just up the road to see what delights we could find. Don’t worry folks, we haven’t gone crazy, we were back in Lidl today and will be stopping there before we leave to stock up on pooch food (at 10kg it was a tad heavy to carry back to Zagan). After the supermarket we wandered around the town, along the water front, then as the sun dipped and the air cooled we retreated back to Zagan and put the electric heater on. We cracked open our box of wine from the SystemBolaget, and got a bit tiddlie to keep out the cold. Last night it dipped to just below 4°C outside.
Three buffet counters in the supermarket, help yourself for just 150 Sek (£1.50 ) a kilo.
If you like tubes of food you’ll love Sweden. Here’s a three course meal – Pea Soup, Brown Beans, Rice Pudding!
Easy to see which is the favourite Swedish ready meal – meatballs, mash and jam!
We’ve had the maps, guidebooks and parking databases out and our map of Sweden has been drawn all over. We now have a vague plan (as all our plans ever are) but have to admit to struggling a bit with finding places we want to go to. Sweden, like Finland, suffers from being next door to Norway. My advice would be to do Sweden and Finland as a trip on their own, they are both beautiful, welcoming, safe and green countries, but I am sad to say that after Norway they do seem a tad boring. We were talking about it today and decided that if we were to live in one of the Nordic countries it would probably be Sweden or Finland. That way we could visit Norway easily but still live somewhere that’s more reasonably priced for food and booze, and you can drive around for free on nice big main roads. Norway would be our impractical, costly mistress of a country, that we love to pieces but only visit from time to time.
We call the service point at Nykoping ‘The black water stage’ as you are on show to the world as you empty your loo cassette
We’ve got about three weeks left of our Scandinavian adventure which should be just about enough time to finish off Sweden, do a bit of Denmark then shoot across Germany and The Netherlands. I have to keep reminding myself that when we were back in Corporateland we would be ecstatic with a two week holiday, now three weeks seems so desperately short, how our lives have changed.
Ju x
Sweden is such a big lump, but what is there to see? I advise caution in or around Malmo, Swedish mafia are not a myth and MoHo’s have been known to disappear. I didn’t believe it at first either. Please take extra care guys, but do enjoy. Kindest, Wayne.
I remember having to empty out there, yes you are up on a pedestal for all to see.
Don’t leave yourselves too short a time in Denmark. It was our favourite of the three main Scandinavian countries during our 2 years travelling in our motorhome.
Keep enjoying it.
Pete and Val
Right-o, thanks guys.
Looking at Jay wearing his jacket it made me think. We have 33 oC due today and 23 overnight, but maybe tomorrow we have to get close to Hurricane Matthew, not sure which place I want to be.
Hi
Just catching up on your inspirational blog as we are away on our own trip to Northern Spain at the moment. We have followeed your adventures for several years and indeed downloaded your Moroccan book and followed quite literally in your footsteps on the 1st of our two trips to that fascinating country. We have been particularly interested in your latest trip as we are planning to visit Norway and return to Finland and Sweden in the Spring. We were completely “gobsmacked” by Magbaz gate although we were aware of their hissy fit with MMM and had them marked down as pompous, self important gits. Hope we never have the misfortune to come across these selfappointed arbiters of opinion. They are quite simply despicable. Looking forward to fishing in Norway. Tony & Ginny Garner
‘Magbaz Gate’ – fantastic – had us both laughing when we read that guys! :-) Thanks for the support – appreciated – and enjoy the Norwegian fishing, it’s immense. Cheers, Jay