ABBA Country
Sondrum – 20th May
Yay! We have arrived in ABBA country! We left Copenhagen and drove to Sweden via the Oresund Bridge, another amazing structure that has enabled transport links for many countries. The Bridge starts as a 4km tunnel at the Denmark side and comes out at an artificial island in the Oresund Strait. From the island you travel on an 8km bridge to Malmo, Sweden. There had to be a tunnel section because ships still needed to use the strait and planes at the nearby airport needed the air space. The aerial shot attached shows the bridge disappearing into the sea; it isn’t quite that dramatic as the island is larger than it looks in the picture. Over 70,000 people commute over the bridge each day 50% in road vehicles and 50% on the train, equating to NZ$400 million revenue per year from a bridge that cost US$4.5 billion. The toll for us non frequent users was NZ $121 [Ed – the bridge was built in less time than the NZ government has been talking about a new Auckland Harbour Crossing.]
We left Denmark on the public holiday of Whit Monday with light traffic and arrived in Sweden on Monday, no public holiday, with busy traffic. Touring Sweden could take us awhile, even though you can bypass most of the big city centres the suburb areas have 30 – 40 km speed limits and the non motorways 70-80 km, the locals adhere to the speed limit because there are cameras everywhere.
Our first stop was Sandskogen for 95 petrol, NZ$2.82 per litre, a lot cheaper than Denmark and very comparable with New Zealand’s 91 petrol. Not only was I glad to see hills in Sweden, you can get a better perspective of where you are driving, but I was pleased to see they have bakeries. We had lunch at a bakery where you choose your bun and then a basic filling, like subway but different, and definitely cheaper.
Sandskogen also has a geocache called pulled pork; you have to pull the rope to lower the toy pig down from the tree top. The biggest concern was the bald patches on the ground where it looked like a real pig had been rutting.
Next stop was Margretetorp for our driver to rest his eyes, it was 23.5 degrees, and I needed a geocache stop to stretch my legs. Sadly you just get a picture of the town sign where I couldn’t find a cache, we had a poor day for photo taking.
We arrived at our newly renovated basement accommodation, beautifully done and roomy, with blinds. After sleeping for a week in a suntrap with no curtains and no air-conditioning I’m looking forward to a sleep in and not sun strike at 5.00am. We stocked up on groceries at the local supermarket, their English isn’t as good as the Danish, but their prices are reasonable. Lunch at the bakery, lollies from the sweet shop, tonight’s tea, breakfast and drinks for a few days, and some essentials like butter was, all up, NZ $47
Today’s ABBA tribute is ‘As good as new’ (1979) for our latest accommodation with the newly refurbished bathroom and laundry, almost bigger than our bedroom back home.