Wight Weirdos

Unusually I’m writing this in the middle of the day, as things have come to an abrupt halt and I have some time to kill. The van died on the E6 today. A return of the engine management light, but while we managed to restart we only got a few hundred metres each time. So we’ve just spent a couple of hours on the hard shoulder, been recovered by a lovely tow-truck driver and are sitting waiting to have the van fixed. It may happen today, we shall see. If not I think we might be spending the weekend in a Gothenburg hotel!

Our first stop today was the Tanum rock carvings. I’d fill in the details but I can’t remember, but they’re old, and carved in rock. It was an interesting visit even if the key facts haven’t stuck… Nice (free!) museum too, especially the display projected on the ceiling, with cushions underneath to lie on!

   

Then we drove into Fjällbacka, part of Susan’s Scandimurder tour (more on that later I suspect). It was a showery day but nonetheless a really nice visit. Very attractive seaside village backed by huge cliffs which you can walk up giving a fantastic view over the surrounding Islands. We bought ice creams in spite of the weather; well we were by the sea, it’s almost obligatory. 

We then dove on to our next overnight stop, another layby with a view! We took what we hoped was the scenic route, which had its moments but wasn’t quite as coastal as we had anticipated. Our journey included a FREE ferry, quite a novelty for people from the Isle of Wight. Loading and unloading all done using traffic lights, the only staff were on the bridge. Along the way the van lost all power and the engine management light came on. Managed to restart a few minutes later and we carried on hoping for he best, making it to our overnight stop with no further problems.

   

Obviously as I love murder mysteries and we are going to Sweden we will be going to Ystad as we travel around the west and s [Read more…]

We left Oslo behind and headed south into Sweden. As the weather was good we headed to a lake I’d identified as a possible good spot for a swim. We rolled up at Tåsteröds Stora Vatten (Tåsteröds Great Water) and pulled up in a little layby. There were a couple of people swimming in the lake, but by the time we had made lunch they were packing up. We ate lunch and then took the plunge!  The air temperature was pretty cool, with a moderate breeze making it cooler, but the water wasn’t too cold (much warmer than the Norwegian water we’d stuck our toes in!) and the swimming platform and rocks around it were in the sun. It was fabulous swimming there, with the lake entirely to ourselves. We then had a coffee and Norwegian cake/pastry/bread thingy that we bought with the last of our Norwegian Krone as we left the country, sat on the rocks listening to the lake lapping gently by our feet.

 

That’s been it for the day really. We left and headed to a nearby rest spot on the motorway. We’re in a picnic area slightly set back from the main stopping area, with only the distant hum of the motorway to remind us where we are. It’s a beautiful setting and even has some handy rocks which we’ve used to dry our wet gear on!

 

We woke to sunshine this morning, hoorah!  The drive down the E6 proved to be much more scenic than expected, and we enjoyed today’s section much more than yesterday’s, through a combination of easier driving, sunshine and lots of water. We arrived in Oslo mid-afternoon, had a minor issue with the satnav (it turns out they don’t work in tunnels, who knew?) leading to several loops round the same two roundabouts near the Colorline terminal but fairly quickly got back on track and found the Sjølyst Marina motorhome parking area. This will probably be our priciest overnight stop  but it is right in the city a short bike ride from the centre. We had problems with the electrical hookup (two pin European socket rather than the three pin connector we carry) but a nearby Swedish family from Woking (!) kindly lent us an adaptor. Equipment list note – adaptors for all older connectors across Europe!) and so we are powered up again. A waterfront spot would have been nice, but our timing wasn’t right so we ended up in the back row.

We quickly got going on the bikes, following some excellent cycle tracks into the city and doing our seemingly standard hunt for an illusive tourist information centre that isn’t quite where the map says or the signs point. A friend who comes from Norway kindly made some suggestions on Facebook about places we should visit when we said we were going to Oslo. The closest to us was the Opera House, not somewhere we would have sought out, but we thought we’d take a look. Wow!  What an amazing building. It has been designed so you can walk onto the roof, which slopes and steps at weird angles allowing you to wander up and giving great views across the city and harbour. It’s all bright white which was quite spectacular in the sunlight. The inside was equally interesting – even the urinals in the gents had clearly had the architects attention!

  

 

We then meandered through the city, past the Parliament building and City Hall, and up to the Kings Palace (Susan telling me that after me Nick Blake was her favourite man ever as thanks to his tweaks to her bike she could make it up the hill! So another plug for Island Bikeworks if you too need greater hill climbing ability).

Next we headed to Frogner Park, home of the Vigeland installation, an amazing collection of sculptures created by Gustav Vigeland. This was the key thing we had wanted to see in Oslo and it was really worth the visit. The installation is incredible, even more so when you consider all the sculptures were created by one person.

  

We then cycled back through some cycle tracks and back roads, one of the pleasures of the bikes is cycling through random parts of towns and cities that you wouldn’t otherwise see.

So, if you ever find yourself in Oslo we strongly recommend a visit to the Opera House and Frogner Park. Though it looks like a fine city with much more to offer too.