Södermanland

We didn't drive far today but we saw our first glimpse of the Baltic Sea from the East Coast of Sweden. We didn't immediately recognise it as the sea because there are so many large lakes on Sweden's land mass and so many little islands offshore!

Outside of the large urban areas, the roads up here are pretty quiet with little traffic on them and we've found other drivers to be very considerate on the whole.

We pulled in at a picnic spot near one of the many lakes for lunch but chose to eat in the van because it was overcast. We could have stayed overnight, especially considering there was a dedicated cubicle for emptying toilet cassettes alongside the regular ones.

Norrköpping, where we stopped for two nights, was a free camperstop for a dozen vans that even had electricity provided without charge (excuse the pun). It was surrounded by bushes and low trees but beyond these were several greens over which ducks and Barnacle Geese were waddling and an estuary with a large but quiet marina.

We took a walk in to town, along a riverside path and had a nose around the castle. There were graduation celebrations going on, with family and friends gathered outside a hotel holding flowers, presents, balloons and banners congratulating the young academics. There were also several bike shops, the closest of which sold us 6 new spokes.Read more