It’s Rhine-ing again

I woke up this morning at 8.10 and knew we needed to get a move on as we had a lot of ground to cover. By 8.45 we were on the road, amazing job. Luckily, yesterday we had got close to the ferry port so it was only a 10 minute drive and a short wait and we were driving onto our ferry. We parked our van and then headed for the stairs. We could either go down a level to where the Irish folk were dancing, drinking Guinness and generally just enjoying the craic or we could head upstairs, it was too early for us so we chose the latter. We grabbed a coffee, some chai lattes and a selection of Danish and then headed up to the poop deck to enjoy the crossing . It was only 45 minutes so soon enough we were heading back down to the van and ready to go ashore and onto Germany.
We were off the boat fairly quickly and hoping to cover some ground but of course we had just spent 3 weeks in a leisurely cruise around Sweden so we had completely forgotten about German traffic, within less than 5 minutes we had hit our first section of roadworks and associated jams. It felt like the first section was stop start all the way and then we got near Hamburg and the map was telling us there was going to be a whole lot more stop than start, and on top of that there was a fair bit of rain which made the conditions pretty poor. But Jess managed to find us as route that went off the motorway but would actually be quicker, all we needed to do was Elbe our way through some of the su urns va and industrial areas, which we managed to do. Then we just needed to find a place to lunch and swap drivers which we also accomplished, it was a roadside services which had its own brewery, as you do. It also served a wide variety of beer direct from the fridges, I guess if you were in a hurry, and miniature bottles of Jagermeister at the cash register, I suppose in case you needed a bit of a heart starter. I passed on all options..
Jess took over the driving and although not as bad as Hamburg, it still just felt like really slow going. We weren’t even getting much joy from place names, not so much as a Bad Schlongung or a Vettpach to be seen. Another few hours passed and then it was time to switch again and to head for the campsite chosen for the night. I’m not sure but I feel like we may have crossed the Rhine 3 times on the way. Anyway, the campsite that looked so lovely on the site did not look quite so appealing in reality but by this time we did not have much choice so this is where we are staying. On the plus side, Jess did manage to find us a restaurant so we did not need to cook, just the small matter of a 2km walk to get there, but after sitting in the van for the best part of 10 hours that wasn’t a problem for any of us. A very tasty German dinner was had, washed down by some cold German beer and then when we got back to our van we had our first taste of some very yummy BTS Oreos. Now it is time for sleep with another day of driving tomorrow.

Allegra’s recap
It’s been almost four weeks since we left la belle France to spend summer campervanning around. And when I found out we were going to Sweden I was very happy because it’s always been one of my dream destinations and I had suggested it multiple times.
It didn’t take too long to adjust to the van life, we quickly found our rythm and our roles in the set up (special mention to Tate who made our bed for the grand majority of the trip even though we were supposed to take turns). 
I had so much fun these holidays, they were very different from the last two years where we basically lived in our swim suits and went to the beach every day, but it’s good to switch it up. 
I loved the bike rides we did even if I got very sunburnt and the walks were so much fun. My favourite was probably the 20km one where we had fish and chips mid outing. 
One thing I noticed was the lack of arguments, I don’t think we argued even once which is probably one of the biggest differences without Lily and Ruby.
Our cake consumption was really valid, shout out to the carrot cake with lime shavings on top that we had on Orust. it just hit different.
I loved Stockholm it was a very nice city very calm and even though it was the middle of summer it felt like an early spring day not too hot at all so that was a nice change from heatwave France. And I found it cool that they have boats like the metro system.
Now we are driving back home and even though I am sad to be leaving I’m very excited to see my sisters again and even more exited to sleep in my own bed. 
The four weeks have passed so quickly but you know what they say; time flies when you’re having fun.
 I really enjoyed all the things we did and spending time as the fantastic four, we are a very funny group of people (mostly thanks to me and dad and sometimes mum, Tate is more of a spectator who laughs at all my jokes even though they aren’t funny, she’s a real one) 
I don’t know how to end this so I’m just gonna hit you with the live, laugh, love Sweden 🇸🇪!Baca selengkapnya