Freedom is Calling

Going Home

EW September 1, 2024

It got cold and rainy in Sweden with more rain and wind in the forecast.

Therefore, we decided to drive back to Germany. From our position, that were about 1800 km (1100 miles).

So, there are going to be a lot of video clips driving …

1. Swedish roads – almost a meditation: https://youtu.be/QW_UkZTsUIY

2. Enjoying empty roads: https://youtu.be/w2SCtKNjFkE

3. Leaving Sweden: https://youtu.be/hKmjBc9-wKg

To sum up the trip

The old postal van did a good job taking us 9844 kilometers (6076 miles) there and back again.

Essential things, we would not miss on our next trip

a handbroom (it was used many, many times!)
ventilaton grills for the side windows
mosquito screens
paper towels (the very absorptive kind)
a power station
foldable solar panels
TP-Link for internet

What would I like to do better

the storage rack needs to be reconsidered. There have been things I would have liked to be more readily accessible
there was too little space for wet clothes
the light in the back could have been better

I guess I need to do some thinking how to take care of these issues.

That’s it for now. More to come.

Be well and if you like share this post and

Have you ever used an outhouse that smelled like a spruce forest? Well, I thought my nose-to-brain connection played tricks on me when I had to go to the „thunderbox“ at a remote badplats, and found this:

Usually, you’d better hold your nose when you enter. But this time I found the outhouse not only very clean and well equipped. It actually exuded a fragrance like a bubble bath.

Someone with a sensitive nose must have poured a load of bath salt into the pit. What a cute idea!

This is one of the many nice memories I’ve taken home from Sweden.

A rewarding experience

Yeah, it was a great trip! But after six weeks in the bus and almost 10.000 kilometers on the road, we both felt it was enough.

The weather didn’t play along anymore and we were not ready to change to bed and breakfast and the town culture.

Germany welcomed us back with sunshine and temperatures around 30 degrees Celsius. This came almost as a shock after nights in the van at 8 to 9 degrees.

Meanwhile, we have gotten used to it and enjoy swimming in our Bavarian lakes with luxurious water temperatures of 22 degrees.

So, what are we missing?

If I want to put it in one word, it’s stillness.

While Germany seems to be crowded, noisy and hectic, Sweden switches back a gear. And the further you get away from the big cities and the tourist places, the more relaxed and calm the country appears.

You can find beautiful places in nature, where you are all alone and the only sound you hear is your own breath.

For people like us this is just awesome!

Feeling like Pippi Longstocking

We will also miss the lakes and the romantic Bullerbue style villages that come with the traditional red wooden houses, the original churches, the stone walls, the flowery gardens and lush green meadows.

And this certain „Pippi Longstocking touch“ that makes you feel you are free to do anything you like in a cozy, friendly and safe environment.

That’s it for now. More to come.

Be well and if you like share this post and

5th week

EW August 25, 2024

We are sitting huddled up in our van. The rain is pummeling the roof, the wind is howling and cold keeps creeping in.

I used a break in the rain to film the clouds passing by and the gusts shaking the trees as you can see on YouTube: https://youtu.be/D4hPDxMkjLw

Three days of rain. But we had some gorgeous days before.

We visited the ruins of a church dating back to the 1600th century.

Vatten (the Swedish word for "water")

Water, like lakes, hold a special attraction. However, if you seek solitude it’s the wrong place to go for beautiful spots like this tend to be quite crowded. Nevertheless, one can get some quiet moments.

Woodlands

Swedes use their trees as crops to be harvested at times. In places, only some tall solitary survivors stand against the setting sun.

Thanks to mother nature, young trees soon reclaim the area to give it new life.

That’s it for now. More to come.

Be well and if you like share this post and

Winter is coming …

GEF August 25, 2024

… not only for the „Game of Thrones“ guys. The Swedes are getting prepared, too.

Summer holidays are over, the kids are back in school. The grown ups are fanning out in the forests, checking their firewood and bringing in their large, noisy equipment for wood cutting.

Slowly turning South again

Bad news for us. We used to retreat to the woods and avoid camp grounds and bigger parking lots, because we were overwhelmed by the masses of RVs or „Weissblecher“ (white tinners) as a friend of ours calls them.

Sweden seems to be the new go-to place for those who don’t want to expose themselves to the heat of the Mediterranean. They want „coolcations“ with the comfort of their own home on wheels, as we could read in a newspaper article the other day.

So, we looked for hidden, quiet places (as we showed you in former posts), where we could be by ourselves and just surrounded by nature. Up to now, we have been lucky and found nice spots off the beaten track most of the time.

These are going to be harder to locate now.

Another downer:

Meanwhile, the temperatures at night tend to be at the single digit level. This is becoming a little uncomfortable, even in our cozy sleeping bags.

And – the weather has been great so far. But now it’s getting rainy and windy more often. Not ideal for people who live in a little camper van like we do. Once our clothes are wet, there is no space to store and dry them properly.

So, sooner or later, we will be turning South again.

Thumbs up!

After five weeks on tour with Big Paul, it’s time for an appraisal.

Was it a good idea to buy an old Postal Service van, make it „liveable“ according to our own needs and wishes, reduce baggage to a minimum and hit the road?

Absolutely!

We’ve had a great time! Big Paul has been runnig smoothly and accepting even the narrowest, bumpiest gravel roads with the largest and meanest potholes, we have ever been caught in.

So, we could experience the country like no „normal“ tourist would do.

We learned so much about the land, the wilderness, the Swedish mentality and lifestyle and the very special Scandinavian touch.

Being outdoors a lot, adapting to sun and drizzle, wind and haze and temperature rollercoasters between 9 and 40 degrees Celsius (Big Paul doesn’t have air condition), has been an enormous boost for our immune systems.

Also being confronted with a completely different diet.

Usually, our camping stove would boil water for tea and coffee. We didn’t have many opportunities to cook a full meal.

Also, we adapted to the Swedish taste quite fast. As we already mentioned: The Swedish taste buds are wired differently. They have a tenency to go for „sweet, sweet as can be“.

My intake of sugar during the last weeks will suffice for the rest of my life, I’m sure.
At least, this sugar orgy made me the most diligent teeth brusher ever.

My berry spree

But the real treat has been, what the Northern woods are offering generously at this time of the year: blueberries.

When I was little, I loved them very much. Not only because of their delicious taste. The clou was that after eating a handfull I always came up with a „Chow Chow tongue“. And I could proudly present it to everybody without getting punished for bad behavior.

Apart from the sweet blueberries I find the red lingonberries really luscious.

When they are fully ripe and dark red, they are very juicy and their „off-dry“ aroma is at least as nice as chocolate with a high percentage of cocoa.

Chanterelles are plenty

Another gift of the woods are the mushrooms.

When I was a kid, my Mom took me mushroom-hunting every August. She had what they call a „green finger“ and had a deep knowledge of the European flora.

I wish she were still around, because I think there was no mushroom she didn’t know.

Now, the forests are full of them, but I only remember some of my favorites and am cautious what I pick.

Anyway, with chanterelles you can never go wrong and they make a wonderful add-on to our lunch.

Wish I could take the "badplats" home

Our daily routine to check for a „badplats“ (place for swimming) is another benefit of our journey to the North.

Out in the wild, there often are a lot of bogs and reed beds to pass or slippery rocks to climb, before you reach a lake and get into the water.

And since the Swedish love being in and on the water as often as they can, may it be rivers, lakes or the ocean, the local communities take care that you have an easy access to the aspired „vatten“.

Such a „badplats“ oftentimes has a sandy beach or a little stage or jetty that makes diving in really comfortable.

No matter what temperature, as long as we have the opportunity to warm up again after the swim, we go for it.

And it’s always refreshing and energizing.

Never felt healthier

BTW, this is what the Swedish seem to be doing all the time. Neither rain, nor hail, nor cold can keep them from taking a quick dive after work and on weekends.

So, you very rarely have a badplats for yourself, except on stormy days – and this is when you really don’t want to be wet and cold yourself.

That’s it for now. More to come.

Be well and if you like share this post and

Going Home

To sum up the trip

Essential things, we would not miss on our next trip

What would I like to do better

Bye bye Bullerbue

A rewarding experience

Feeling like Pippi Longstocking

5th week

Vatten (the Swedish word for "water")

Woodlands

Winter is coming …

Slowly turning South again

Thumbs up!

My berry spree

Chanterelles are plenty

Wish I could take the "badplats" home

Never felt healthier