Round the Baltic - the other way!

There is quite a lot of Sweden. After we left Stromlund we continued south on the Inlandsvagen, (aka E45) meeting the odd car or truck once in a while, and stopped for the night on Friday in another small town going by the uninspiring name of Sveg. The local hotel restaurant was doing a Friday night special meal deal called "After Work" which we decided would save cooking and washing up and that was about it's best feature! We were still in the northern half of the country and again it was a cold night (+2 when we awoke on Saturday morning.) A Swedish guy I met in the washroom commented that Summer had now ended and it certainly felt that way. We got under way about 10.30 which was quite early for us but just a couple of kilometers out of town I realised that we were getting low on fuel and should have filled up before leaving. I decided to carry on, assuming we would get some at the next town we reached. After driving 20 kilometers and having passed a couple of signs in...

Helga's external sensor was reading +3 on Wednesday morning at 7 o'clock and it was only +9 inside, so we ran the gas fired central heating and it was soon a comfortable 21 degrees inside the van! The weather up here certainly feels a bit more 'backendish' although the trees are all still green at present. A short way out of Arvidsjaur, we stopped at a small craft centre 'Arctic Glas' where they did some attractive etched glassware with local nature motifs, reindeer, elk, etc. and also marketed craftwork from other local artists. We were also able to have a cup of coffee in a traditional Saami round hut with a fire burning in the middle. We had quite a long drive ahead of us, heading south on the 'Inlandsvagen' the spine road which runs down the middle of Sweden, rather than following the coast road. This was a suggestion from the old fishermen in Kamlunge, as the coast road in this northern part of Sweden is rather straight and tedious with nothing bu...

We have now moved on from Finland into Sweden. We left Oulu yesterday and drove north, apparently quite close to the coast, although we rarely saw any sign of the sea because of the forests which surrounded us, and eventually came to Tornio in Finland which morphed into Haparanda, Sweden just by crossing a river bridge.   The first major feature of Haparanda which became visible was a towering IKEA sign and, as it was about lunchtime and we were in need of a comfort stop, we decided to call in. The place was huge, at least twice the floor area of the one in Leeds and being IKEA you couldn't go straight to the restaurant but had to follow the arrows on the floor. (At least they put the WCs near the entrance door!) We eventually found the restaurant but had also somehow nearly filled one of their yellow bags with various essential purchases. The meatballs tasted much the same as they always do, although Edith had a seafood salad that seemed a bit more locally inspired. We had no ...

We left the site at Helsinki on Friday and drove up to a small site in the middle of Finland. Again this is a site we stayed on in 2007 and in this case it didn't seem to have changed very much. It is a lovely setting, in a forest by a lake, and is probably more of a weekend retreat for locals than a tourist site, although there are walks through the forest and a nearby National Park. The view from Helga. We just stayed the night and then carried on over towards the Baltic coast (actually up here it's technically the Gulf of Bothnia!). It was a long day's drive, including some persistent rain, and a slightly unnerving experience for me when Edith volunteered to drive for an hour or so! (The roads have got very quiet now.). Eventually we arrived at Oulu quite near to the top of the Finnish Baltic coast. This is a seaside resort, albeit with quite a short season, and the campsite we are on is just next to the main beach. This morning (Sunday) we decided to cycle into ...

We left Tallinn at lunchtime on Tuesday and enjoyed a delightful Baltic cruise . . . . for three and a half hours, which is the time it took the Tallink ferry to travel across to Helsinki. It was a very smart new looking ship, the sun was shining the sea was like a mill pond. We spent most of the journey sitting out on the sun deck enjoying our packed lunch and a beer from the bar.  Ta ta Tallinn  . . . . . . .                                              . . . . . and Hello Helsinki! We are on a campsite a few kilometers from the centre but next door to a Metro station with regular trains into the city. We spent Wednesday exploring the waterfront Market place with its stalls selling fruit and veg, fish, tourist souvenirs and Moose burgers! However, we settled for savory pancakes with ham and cheese instead. We also looked around a very large dep...

We are now in Estonia, on the Tallin City Camping site. Ten years ago Tallin's camping facilities were a definite low point on the trip and, regrettably not much has changed. The site we endured in 2007 is no longer in business, although I wasn't entirely sure that it was then! There now appear to be just two choices available for camping, within the city bus route area, and both are criticised on Trip Adviser for various shortcomings. We opted for TCC and can confirm that all of the criticisms are substantially true. This is a seasonal 'pop up' site like the one in Riga, but where the Riga guys have really got it together and created a pleasant environment which is fun to be part of, the Tallin people have failed miserably.  However, it is only for a couple of nights so we will grin and bare it. We left Riga on Friday after getting the tyre repaired at a very helpful garage. If you ever need a tyre repair in Riga, I can recommend Lanneks. One 4 cm!! nail removed, th...

We left the site at Vente in Lithuania on Sunday morning and it's now Wednesday morning so I need to think back quite hard to remember what we've been doing. That's the trouble with not doing this every day, you soon lose track! The main excuse for the break is the lack of a suitable WIFI or WLAN as they seem to call it, although a certain degree of holiday over-relaxation and laziness might also have played a part! We drove up the coast a bit to the popular resort town of Palanga, as we needed to find an ATM to replenish our Euros and it seemed worth a look. We found a carpark ok and knew we were quite close to the centre but turned the wrong way on the main street and found ourselves, eventually, coming through the sand dunes onto the beach, nearly a kilometre away from the pier, which we took to be the centre. After a pleasant walk back along the busy beach in the sunshine, there was then a long pedestrianised parade of souvenir shops and cafes before we eventually fou...

We awoke yesterday morning, had a leisurely breakfast overlooking the lake and watching two Russian men in a little boat fishing. We were surprised to see families arriving and setting up to cook their lunch at just after 11am (we later discovered that Lithuania is another hour on from Poland, so it was actually gone 12 o'clock.) We drove round the Kaliningrad border, close enough to see the border markers at the side of the road in places. This part of Lithuania is very rural and peaceful but clearly not very affluent, indeed it is quite reminiscent of Belarus in many ways.   Lunch stop at a roadside picnic area  We made our way out to the coast at Vente, another site we stayed on in 2007, which doesn't appear to have changed very much in the last 10 years, except that it isn't raining this time! (Although it is quite windy.)  It does have showers and electricity, although some of the services are a bit primitive. There is a hotel and restaurant/bar a...