We left Oslo, Norway and were quickly into Sweden. We traveled about 175 miles over good roads and through a pretty countryside. That took us to Karlskoga, a lovely town on one of Sweden’s largest lakes (and I do not remember the name of it). We decided to stay there and booked into a nice hotel just a block from the center of the city.

There was a nice sized river that ran through the town, emptying into the lake. The bridges were decorated with many baskets filled with bright flowers. A park ran along the side of the river and people were sitting at tables having lunch.

It was a delightful town and we decided to stay another day to explore a bit more. So, after two nights in Karlskoga we headed on toward Stockholm, a hundred and fifty miles to the east. With good roads and a generous speed limit, we were in Stockholm before noon.

What a beautiful city. Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, claims nearly a million people in the municipality, with perhaps two million in the metropolitan area. It sits on fourteen islands in what is called the Stockholm archipelago. All this connects to the Baltic Sea twenty to twenty-five miles farther east.

We checked out the Stockholm City Hall and Concert Hall, where the Nobel Prizes are given out. (The Peace Prize is actually awarded in Oslo, Norway, but I wasn’t going to get that one, so we didn’t bother to look up the location where it is awarded.) These are near the Stockholm Palace, which is quite large and not all that good-looking from the outside. We did not go inside. We took a boat tour around much of the city, getting off a few places to investigate further. There were many beautiful parks. Added to the great weather (days in the mid seventies and nights close to seventy), it was a very pleasant day. We stayed at a nice hotel on a shipping harbor and watched large cruise ships come and go.

Since we were driving, we frequently found ourselves in tunnels that seemed to go on forever, with many branches here and there in the tunnels. One could be lost in those for days, but we managed to limit it to only hours.

The following night we stayed in the Stockholm suburb of Kista. Here we encountered the largest mall we have ever seen. And it included the largest food court by far, with food from every country we could think of, and a number we could not think of. But again, you can see the American influence here as well, with many U.S. chains represented. When we are traveling, we try to experience the local foods. But when I saw the sign to the left, I had to stop for a hamburger and a Dr Pepper.

The next day, we headed south. We explored some of the mills, and small towns, and felt obliged to go into an IKEA store as it was founded in Sweden by a seventeen year old kid and now the largest furniture retailer in the world. This one was quite different from stores we’ve seen in the U.S.

We stopped in Jonkoping, a lovely town on the south end of the long lake Vattern. Earlene had developed a bad throat, to the extent that we went to the hospital emergency room. It was Sunday late afternoon. The nurses there talked with Earlene a bit, put their heads together and then said that it was not an emergency and if they did anything with here, they would have to charge us and then send us to another doctor. So, they made us an appointment with a doctor at 5:30 on a Sunday afternoon. We went to see the doctor. He took a culture, ran some tests, and decided it was not strep, gave er a sht and prescription and told us where we could get it filled on a Sunday evening. We were favorably impressed with their medical system.

The next day, we drove to Malmo. We found this town an interesting place to spend our last day in Sweden. It is ranked fourth in the world in the number of patent applications per 10,000 residents, and the sixth most bicycle friendly city in the world. We found it visitor friendly with many interesting buildings, distinctive architecture, and beautiful sculptures. It was a nice way to end our Swedish adventure. The next day, we returned to Denmark again.

Next month, Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxemburg.

jim callan