Wednesday 16th July

I’m sitting at James’s dining table after a good day out. We arrived yesterday after disembarking from the ferry in the rain which got heavier and heavier and we were glad we scrambled to get the hoods up before we left the ferry. The road spray was pretty bad on the E20!

Motley crew on the Sirena Ferry

Approaching the toll!

Having negotiated our first bridge, the Stora Bältron, we paid the £23 toll and carried on to a middle bridge, the Lila Bältron then finally on to the Oresundsförbindelsen (the one that goes between Denmark and Sweden and was in the TV series) and paid our £42 (gulp) to go through to Sweden. After a couple of stops and a chat with some chaps who were transporting a broken wind turbine to south Dernmark, we finally arrived at 6 Tulpanvägen to be greeted by James and Marie 🙂

It was great so see James after 2 years of talking about the trip and an aborted 2013 trip and we soon settled in with stacks of gear and gifts for James. Marie made us a very tasty meal in the evening and we chatted till later before adjourning to bed after a long trip.

Wednesday morning saw us eating breakfast in the sunny garden and enjoying a bright, warm morning.

James and Marie were super hospitable and we enjoyed a healthy Swedish breakfast before setting off for a visit to Ystasd. We had an easy drive in thanks to Keith who led but there was fun and games at the Petrol station trying to work out how to use the pumps. Then we thought John’s car was leaking but decided that it must have been someone else parked there previously who had left some of their radiator water behind. Moving on to Ystad we headed for the Tourist centre and caused a bit of a stir trying to find somewhere to park. Once parked we caused another stir trying to get parking tickets with our Visa cards. There was quite a queue while we tried to work out how to work the ticket machine but we got there eventually. keith thought he might have a water leak but it all seemed OK, it was probably just the hot sun and a bit of traffic that caused the car to overheat. We arrived at the car park with Keith’s car steaming and he topped it up with water later and all was well.

Ystad is a pretty town. We had a wander through the main drag, had an ice cream then a beer then headed off for a drive rounnd the area following a cycle track that we though would be good for the Marlins.

Apart from a slight wait for John who overshot the junction we were turning at, we had a pleasant drive through some lovely roads and then we headed back to Skivarp, bought a load of provisions and trundled basck to James. An hour later ater preparing the spuds for later, we headed to Smygehuk, Sweden’s southernmost point. One Morgan joined us in the park up but we didn’t get to ask “Is it a Marlin?”.

Later we had Swedish meatballs back at James’s’ (yummy!) and Bob’s home grown potatoes and chilled out in the kitchen. Lovely.

Tomorrow we plan to go East. Or maybe West. We’ll decide in the morning. Night night.