August 1-7

We stayed overnight on the edge of Stockholm then visited the Royal Palace. Drottningholm Palace was built in the 17th century for the Dowager Queen Hedvig Eleonora who was widowed at 24. She bought it in 1661 with a wooden structure from 1580, which burnt down shortly after purchase. Since 1981 it has been the main residence of the Swedish Royal Family. They live in one wing and the rest is opened to the public. We spent a few hrs looking round it and the gardens.

Aug 2nd….. we went to Torso which is an island in Lake Vanern, the biggest lake in Sweden and the EU and the third largest on the European continent ( the other 2 are in Russia). The house belongs to Matilda’s Mum and Matilda lived there before coming to NZ. Her Mum is away but we went anyway. The kids went swimming, we had a bbq and Matilda got her paddleboard out and I had a go.

She took us foraging in the forest and we picked yellow mushrooms, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and lingonberries. 

Then stopped at Mariestad for icecream and checked out their cathedral (1500’s) and cobbled streets, on the way home. A very pleasant day.

August 3rd….Today is a cruisy birthday day. GD is sorting a little bike issue and I get to sort out my hair. They are making a Pavlova, a bit of kiwi that Matilda has continued doing. We have a nice bowl of berries from yesterday to go on top.

Philipp’s mum Viera, arrived to take one of the kids out but took us instead for a sightseeing drive. We visited Varnhem Abbey. A monastery was founded here in 1150 with the church being consecrated in 1260. The monastery was abandoned in 1533

In the mid 17th century the whole complex was given to Magnus Gabriel De La Gardie who restored the church and turned it into his burial church. During this restoration a wooden floor was laid over the entire church and concealed the graves of Birger Jarl, his son and his 2nd wife from the late 1200s. He had been the right hand man of King Erik Eriksson and then Erik’s son. Birger Jarl is credited with establishing the foundations of the Swedish social system. He created the first Swedish tax system, made laws, built castles and founded town’s. There is a sandstone portrait of the Jarl in the abbey and after comparison with his skull is now deemed to be the oldest portrait in Sweden

Nice dahlia garden next door

August 4th….In beautiful weather we headed north up around Lake Vanern towards the Norwegian border. Quick stop at what is thought to be the only covered bridge in Sweden. It was built in the mid 1800’s.

Then passed over the Gota Canal that was built by soldiers and completed in 1832. It joins Lake Vanern to Lake Vattern allowing boat travel right through to the East coast. Prior to vehicles it was a major transport route.

Into Karlstad to replace the back tyre again. The one we put on in Trondheim has not lasted at all, only 5,500km. Arrived at 3pm in light cloud and when we came out of the shop after completed there was the most awful looking black cloud with thunder and lightning. Quick trip (3mins) to BK for some lunch/dinner and a change if plan for accommodation. No tent tonight….have a great room in a hostel instead.

Aug 6th….Apart from the drama with rescue services on the river looking for a body 😢, apparently a woman had jumped into the river

The camp we stayed in last night was one of the best this trip. Elverum Campground, Norway. We rang in the afternoon to book a cabin as the weather is very unstable at the moment. He offered us the smallest cheapest cabin, twin beds, no water, at pretty much the same rate as most other cabins we have stayed in with the same description. What he failed to tell us though, is that it had a kettle, coffee machine, fridge, bench top oven, 2 elements and all the kitchen gear we needed + most importantly a 10 litre bottle to fill with water and a big bowl with dish cleaning equipment. The only thing we needed to leave for was the toilet/shower! They even had free bikes for us to ride to the supermarket. Loads of showers and toilets with the dressing compartment separate from the shower in each cubicle (with doors!!) so everything stayed dry. Today we are heading to the middle of Norway to ride some areas we missed on the way up. Cloudy and threatening rain a lot of the day but we managed to skirt around it. Nice curvy narrow roads. The weather forecast is for very heavy rain up to 100mm in the next few days 😱☔.

August 7th…Got this warning on the Norway bunk a biker site…..we have decided to stay put for at least tonight and review tomorrow. We are right in the middle of the red zone!
“Dear all, we are expecting a HEAVY rainstorm (named “Hans”) that will last 2 days in total. Please follow the local weather forecast where you are, f.ex. on the app YR.no. For those travelling in the area: seek shelter in time! The rainstorm is supposed to be the most powerful one in 25 years, with up to 80-100 mm / 24 hours. It can be stronger locally. So, to all the people hanging on the fence, wondering wether to host or not! Now is your chance to save a traveller! Post here if you can offer shelter, but don’t have a pin. We normally don’t use the site like this, but this is an extraordinary severe situation!”

I don’t think GD was impressed with us staying put as the rain has not been too bad ….BUT….I had to laugh when his phone just received one of those phone alerts warning people to stay put due to severe weather warning😂🌧️

Update…..he just got another alert and we might be here tomorrow night as well as the alert says most severe weather tonight and tomorrow. Flooding and road slips in Sweden and parts of Norway. Tue update….. We won’t be moving. The road to where we were headed is closed, there is substantial flooding in many places, a main road has lost a big chunk of road (not one we were going on), other roads are closed, trains are cancelled etc and warning is in place till tonight. We are in hilly/mountain country so slips etc are a real threat. There have been evacuations and injuries. We will move on tomorrow and then Thursday we had already arranged a 4 day home exchange break in oslo. We have to be sensible tourists. 3 fishing tourists went out midday Monday and got trapped on a little island. Needed to be rescued. We don’t want to be those tourists that cause additional work for police 🚓

Just rain, rain and more rain