Travelling to Sweden at the end of May, and particularly in June will guarantee you a late sunset, if one at all. Our recent trip to Sweden gave us the "midnight sun". On our furthest north the sun was setting around 3am and rising again around 5am. Even though the sun had set, it still hovered around the horizon, giving a strange light, almost like dusk. A magical place and time to travel this part of the northern hemispere.
We travelled via Rostock in Germany, to Trelleborg in Sweden on Stenaline ferries. For a very reasonable £100 we sailed for six hours across the Baltic sea with our Motorhome Daphne, trailer with two motorcycles, and our dog Otto.
We made it by early evening and the temperature had dropped a welcome 10 degrees Celsius on arrival to southern Sweden. A welcome relief after a heat wave in mainland Europe.
You may notice we are pushing a weird trolley type thing. This is because our miniature Daschund Otto, had a back operation a few weeks before we travelled. As part of his rehabilitation, he was not allowed to walk, apart from toiletting for at least a month. The trolley ensured he could still come with us and experience the sights and smells.
Straight away we adapted to life travelling in Sweden. We wanted to stay close to the Baltic sea and stay on the east coast for this trip. Scenic park ups, clean and empty roads became our norm. A perfect temperature of around 21 degrees Celsius stayed with us the whole trip.
We loved the lakes and forests, plus being in nature and relatively on our own.
Single track roads (guarded by cows 😅) leading to nature reserves, with places to park and swim were a wonderful feature of our days.
We either camped off grid or in campsites, with excellent facilities and at reasonable cost. The Matchless motorcycles came into their own and we explored the empty smooth roads of mainland and numerous islands. Keeping our eyes open for wildlife. We saw a lot of Golden eagles, red squirrels, Storks, many birds of all kinds and moose. Instead of rubbish or graffiti, colourful lupins lined many of the roads.
Sweden is made up of over a staggering 250,000 islands, more than any other country in the world. So wherever you tour you are near water. Bridges connect you to the bigger islands or ferries can take you where you need to go. Everywhere feels very clean, well kept and pretty laid back.
That is until we visited Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. Now, thats where all the people are. For 10 days we had been blissfully enjoying a quiet rural life. A capital city was a bit of a shock. What a lovely place though, made up of thousands of islands. A beautiful old town, a stunning royal palace, where we saw the changing of the guards, and an enjoyable day out. Especially at happy hour - hic!
After city life we headed back to rural living and enjoyed visiting some of Swedens heritage sites. Old fishing villages and industrial areas, stopped in time, showed off some of Swedens historic strenghts and gave a fascinating insight into times gone by.
Many of these places were beautifully scenic and allowed overnight stays. Providing showers, toilets and waste services for free.
As time went on, and we headed further north we experienced light skies until late into the night and early morning. Our dream of travelling to the land of the mignight sun was alive. The photos above were all taken past midnight.
Days were spent exploring on our bikes, hiking and enjoying a few beers. Finding waterways, hidden forests and lakes. Of course of favourite supermarket was Willys! Sweden took our hearts and we cannot wait to go back.
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