Finally located full strength beer!
Trip Start
Sep 04, 2009
1
9
17
Trip End
Sep 20, 2009
Karlstad, Swedish Lakeland, Sweden
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Damn school kids woke us & Jas up at 1.30am! Anyway they were just having fun ( and without Jas we probably would have joined them!) and eventually p*ssed off someplace else. Little bit cloudy morning but nonetheless still picturesque. We managed to get out of the camp site at a record 11.30 am this morning which could even be further improved upon given that this was a complete pack up including the van awning and the tent. I took the liberty to do a spot of cleaning on the way but the lack of sunlight made packing up the tent slow because I didn't want to put it away wet. The inside of the van got the once over with my new cigarette lighter plug in vacuum cleaner (which incidently couldn't suck the flour off a crepe)! As well as cleaning the van the trip has been a fantastic opportunity to finish all of those chores on the van that haven't been possible since Jasper arrived. I've nearly got the trims back on the new roof windows that were recently installed. The new windows flip out and give excellent cross-ventilation when cooking which is a godsend given that the last 2 old crappy windows were cemeted in place. On top of which they look smart and make the old Westfalia fibreglass roof a more modern appearance. Did I mention the rust in the gutters has also been fixed the day before we left so the van (whilst very old....26 years old) shapes up good from a distance and does us no shame when cruising into the campsites against a backdrop of geriatrics who have spend their entire pension fund on a massive (non brand specific) Winnnebago. To complete the hippy make-over we finally adhered the sparkly "Purple Ohm" sticker (purchased last year in Ibiza) to the back of the van this afternoon next to the number plate. This complements the Green Earth sticker and the Toro sticker (that I suspect Sime and Sal put on her when they were travelling around Spain in Alahabama Whirlygig....aka Madam). To bring me down of the hippy trip I discovered another rust hole in the floor plan just on the foot step up into the drivers side cabin.
Lizzie made an intereswting observation, we seem to be the only campers with a "hippy van"....in other words, we don't see any other real campers (either type T1/2, T25 or T4's). They all seem to be the retiree type vans or caravan and car set-ups.
So Lizzie writes, we drove to Karlstad which is the capital of Varmland. A nice city by the lake and we did a spot of shopping at H&M and Lindex. We also discovered the busiest shop in town, the Systembolaget. Yes this is where the Swedes get their full strength beer and not even that, 10% beer and 7% Cider! The place was packed, so much for trying to minimise alcohol consumption. There are no off-licences to go to get any full strength alcohol past 5pm or 6pm when the shops close, so basically this is the only place besides bars and restaurants to get your alcohol. Interesting concept.
We had a delicious meal at Cafe Vero in a sunny courtyard (yes it had struggled to wake up but was creeping through the clouds) and then headed via the supermarket to our campsite, Bomstad Baden, on Lake Vanern. This is a very large site, with about 500 pitches and many of them either taken by permanent vans or by happy campers. It has a pretty large beach on the lake.
And bless little Jasper was a little grumplicious today (thanks Ada for that fab word), poor little bubba is teething like no tomorrow. But overall he has been such a great little baby to travel with. He seems to like the van and knows that despite an initial grizzle when he sits in his car seat that its time to sleep. He is one happy camper baby! :)
To finish the day sat beside our van with our sleeping baby and supping on a 7% beer, looking out over the lake with a nice sunset, we think we heard a woodpecker high up in the pine trees. Off to give the little one a bath.
