When we were at the beginning of our trip to Sweden, we received a message from a friend we had met on our motorcycle trip in Morocco in 2023. He had invited us to stay with him. As we were going to take the ferry from Sweden to Germany again and then come to the region where he lives anyway, we only arranged to meet at the end of our Scandinavia tour.
We arrived on the island of Björkö on Saturday. At that point, we were still waiting for an answer from our friend Mosko, as we didn’t know exactly where he lived until then and had to decide on a direction and a place to sleep. As luck would have it, he currently lives on his boat two islands and a 20-minute boat ride away from our spot on Björkö.
This was very practical, as we were able to stay with WENNE on the pitch right by the harbor and he picked us up on Sunday at 10 a.m. with his boat to show us the area where he lives, both from the boat and on land.
The joy of seeing each other again was great on both sides and
we had an incredibly nice day together.
Björkö is the island we are currently standing on. It is an island in Mälaren about 30 kilometers west of Stockholm. Today it has an area of about 420 hectares. When Mälaren was still a bay of the Baltic Sea in the Viking Age, it was considerably smaller. Due to post-glacial land uplift, the land has since risen by about five meters, so the southern part of the island is no longer a separate island. Today, this part consists mainly of rocks and undeveloped moraine. Rocks from the Bronze Age can still be found on the highest mountain.
The first island Mosko took us to was the island of Hönö, where he lives. However, we only picked up a friend there who then took us to the island of Vinga.
Vinga is the westernmost island in the Gothenburg archipelago and the furthest out to sea.
It is about 1000 meters long and 500 meters wide.
From 1890 to 1905, Evert Taube, who later became known as an important author and composer, lived on Vinga as the son of a lighthouse keeper. Around 40 people lived on Vinga during this time.
Today, people only come to the island to work. It is therefore only busy in summer.
The 29 meter high Vinga Fry lighthouse was built in 1841. Its gray, square tower is made of granite stones.
A pyramid-shaped red beacon has stood next to it since 1857, making the island of Vinga unmistakable.
The boat trip continued back to the island of Hönö.
Alex was also allowed to take the wheel.
We had a look around the island where our dear friend lives. Before he took us back to WENNE, we met a few friends of his and he invited us for a beer.
At 3.38 km², Hönö is the largest island in the Gothenburg archipelago and is located directly north of Gothenburg.
A big thank you for the wonderful day goes to our friend Mosko. He really is a very nice and lovely fellow. We like him very much.
The next morning, it was an almost 8-hour drive from the island of Björkö to Trelleborg. We parked in a small parking lot about 1/2 hour from the ferry port. The alarm clock rang at 6 o’clock the next morning. We were supposed to be at the ferry port three hours before departure.
In the end, we were an hour late due to a technical fault. We found boarding the ferry very chaotic. It felt like there was a bit of a lack of coordination. After they first sent us on one line, they called us back and we had to go backwards on the ferry so that we could then get on the other line.
With an 8-hour drive, we had decided to book a beef burger in advance. But then we also had to have dessert 😉
When the captain greeted us, he apologized for a possibly bumpy ride due to the wind and waves.
We were able to leave the ferry shortly after 8 p.m. and looked for a place to spend the night near Lübeck. The large official parking space at the City Center was again expected to be more than full. So we lined up in the industrial area behind the truck drivers at the side of the road.
The next morning we went to DEKRA for a gas test. But the gentleman in charge told us that we wouldn’t get a test because the pressure reducer had expired over 10 years ago.
There was a dealer about 15 km away where we got an up-to-date pressure reducer. Thanks to closed roads and detours, the journey took much longer. There was another possibility to have our gas test carried out near the camping outfitter. Without further ado, we called this test center, explained our request and 3 hours later we had an appointment.
In the meantime, Alex installed the new pressure reducer. We went shopping at the nearby supermarket and had something to eat before our gas test appointment at 2pm.
The nice man from the vehicle inspection center also said that we wouldn’t pass the gas test because the connection hose was 20 cm too long ist🤦🏽♀️
We agreed that he would complete the entire test so that we wouldn’t have any more problems and that we would go back to the nearby camping outfitter at the end to get the correct connection hose. No sooner said than done. After Alex had also replaced the hose, we finally got our sticker.
We had our sleeping place for the night at a quiet official campsite in a small village in Lower Saxony.
We continued on to Delmenhorst the next morning. We had an appointment with friends there.
They picked us up in their car and we spent the day together at their home. First we were treated to coffee and cake and then we had a barbecue before rounding off the evening.
We were picked up again the next morning. Susanne and Micha showed us around Bremen. They took us to the places we hadn’t seen on our last visit. They told us some interesting stories about Bremen and the different parts of the city.
Among other things, we visited Bremen’s Schnoor district.
The term “Schnoor” comes from the Low German word “Snoor”. It means cord. The district was so named because the small houses are lined up so closely together like pearls on a string. It is the oldest district in Bremen where river fishermen and boatmen used to live.
The very narrow streets, the many small stores and nice restaurants were really nice to look at.
The Bremer Hochzeitshaus is several hundred years old and is probably one of the smallest hotels.
The history of the wedding hotel dates back to the Middle Ages and is not necessarily typical of Bremen.
Back then, as in many large cities, there were wedding houses like this. If couples wanted to get married in the cathedral, they had to prove that they could afford an apartment in Bremen. This was particularly difficult for young people from the village. They could rent accommodation in these so-called wedding houses for a short period of time and thus had proof of residence. And because apartments in the city center were often very cramped, these wedding houses not only rented out apartments, but also offered rooms for wedding celebrations.
In the candy factory, you can watch how the treats are made. You can also taste them and we were allowed to choose a jar of sweets that Susanne and Micha gave us as a gift.
We opted for the Happy hour mix with different flavors. Thank you both very much for that.
Past the Christmas Dreams store, we went to a soup restaurant for lunch. Inexpensive, homemade and incredibly tasty.
The old, authentic quarter is also interesting.
Sielwall is a historic street in Bremen on the border between the districts of Bremen-Mitte, Ostertor and the eastern suburbs.
There are still some really nice little stores with quality goods here. It was fun to stroll past them.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the Sielwall intersection was the site of the drug scene.
Even today, New Year’s Eve riots still occur at the intersection, with large police forces deployed. The Ultras are also regularly out to cause a ruckus at soccer matches.
We took a break on the Schlachte.
Afterwards, we slowly made our way back home to our friends. Before we ended the evening with a game, we had a delicious dinner.
A big thank you goes to our two friends. We had two really great days.
Thank you so much for picking us up every morning and bringing us back to our pitch in the evening, despite the roadworks and detour.
Thank you very much for the interesting city tour, for the lovely barbecue and games evening and the great time with you. It was great that we got to know each other in Gibraltar. And even nicer if we could meet up again somewhere sometime.
In Ihlow Ostfriesland, we arranged to meet up with friends we had met in Portugal. They had lived here for many years before their full-time motorhome life. And Rainer is a true East Frisian from this area.
The joy of seeing each other again was huge on both sides.
After a welcome drink (12:30), there was a lot to talk about.
Later, the couple showed us their former home. Then we went to Ihlow Monastery.
Ihlow Monastery was founded in 1228.
The dimensions of the church are enormous: almost 68 meters long and around 35 meters wide in the transept.
The sacred building in the brick Gothic style was the largest church between Bremen and Groningen at the time.
During the Reformation, the Ihlow monastery was dissolved in 1529 and the church destroyed. Since then, the other buildings have been used as a manorial hunting estate. These were also demolished in the 18th century. A hunting lodge of the East Frisian princes was then built on the monastery site.
A lookout point made of steel and wood was erected. As far as we can tell, it must have been built on the site where the monastery tower once stood.
Stones from the various East Frisian monasteries were walled into the reconstructed pillars as a reminder.
In the monastery site museum “Stille Räume Ihlow”
you can see numerous excavation finds from the past years.
From medieval archaeology and brick tombs encased in glass to the relics of other lost East Frisian monasteries.
Since 2008, there has been an exhibition in the Room of Traces. Here you can experience the historical and spiritual dimension of the Ihlow monastery.
An original cairn from the old monastery with the original footprint of a dog. This skeleton of a dog was found during the excavations and could probably be its footprint.
They invited us to eat fish sandwiches.
We have never eaten such delicious fish sandwiches.
Our last stop was at the Upstalboom.
During the period of Frisian freedom in the 13th and 14th centuries, the Upstalsboom was the meeting place of the delegates of the Frisian communities, the Seven Seas, west of the present-day town of Aurich. Here, they regulated coexistence within the communities and represented the union politically to the outside world. A stone pyramid has commemorated these meetings since 1833. During the National Socialist era, the site was to be transformed into a Thingplatz. However, these plans were never realized, so that the appearance of the site has remained largely unchanged since 1879.
(Source: Wikipedia)
It is said to be the place where East Frisia was formed.
We spent a quiet night in a parking lot near the Ihlower Meer, where we had pizza for dinner.
