Have we reached our destination?

Kvarsebo

From the beautiful Lake Ågelsjön we told you about in the last post, we continued further inland.
A first for us: in Kvarsebo, we were parked by a Swedish fjord.

Well, who can spot the bus in the first photo? 🙂

As you can tell from the cover photo: laundromats are a rare find in Sweden. So we made do with good old hand-washing and the dryer (model: BUS 2408 H). 😉

Södertälje

On the way to Stockholm, we stopped in Södertälje for two nights.
Fun fact: this is also where Scania's international headquarters is located, along with a large port.

And with Södertälje Süd, a regional train station sitting on a bridge over 2 km long. Pretty fascinating. 🙂

We tried our hand at baking cinnamon and vanilla buns ourselves. Turns out, not that tasty!
Just kidding, it turned out surprisingly good. 🙂

Stockholm

We spent almost a week in the capital, where Christian's family came to visit.

We got to take in plenty of culture and sights.
For example:

=> World record dachshund parade (with around 1,300 to 1,500 dachshunds), beating the previous record holder Regensburg with 897 dogs. 🙂

=> The Royal Guard patrolled all alone, just for us. 😉

We skipped the ABBA Museum in favor of the Vasa Museum, an absolute highlight in Stockholm.

Here stands the almost entirely original warship "Vasa" – it sank in 1628 during its maiden voyage after less than 1,300 meters and was salvaged from the seabed over 300 years later.

You stand right in front of this gigantic, 64-meter-tall wooden colossus and can hardly imagine it actually spent that long underwater. Over 95% of the ship is original, thanks to the cold, oxygen-poor water of the Baltic Sea – not a single worm stood a chance here. The intricate carvings on the bow and stern are also still remarkably detailed.

On top of that, you get a really vivid impression of life on board and can step into faithful reconstructions of the decks, cabins, and even a mast lookout. Truly impressive! 🙂

To wrap things up, we took one of the countless ferry rides that week out to Drottningholm Palace.
We got a lovely send-off from the neighbors' husky.
Was he maybe a little jealous of our empty dog den? 😉

Älmhult

After a long day of driving, we arrived in Älmhult.
The last few kilometers took us through deep forest with no sign of civilization, only to end up in a place of "great significance."

But before that: the bus just hit 50,000 km! Since we bought it and have been on the road for almost a year, we've covered around 13,000 km. Not as much as you'd think, right? 🙂

As a little present, it got a new vehicle battery – just normal wear and tear.


Back to Älmhult. So what makes this place so "significant"?

This is where the very first IKEA store in the world opened in 1958.

That very building is now home to the IKEA Museum, which we visited.
Too bad I didn't have such stylish work clothes before. 😉

Some products from IKEA's history were definitely... "special."
Two fancy kids' chairs spotted in the ball pit. 🙂

Trelleborg

The "Huckleberry Finn" (well, who caught the Mark Twain reference?) carried us on a roughly six-hour ferry crossing from Trelleborg in southern Sweden to Rostock.

Thankfully without much wave action. What it did come with was a tight squeeze onto the outdoor deck parking spot and even a sauna on board. That's the way to do it! 🙂

Have we reached our destination?

–CLOSING WORDS–

Almost a year ago, the very first "test drive" of the finished bus took us from Berlin to Rostock. I even got to drive the first few kilometers with my brand-new C1 license. 🙂

How fast a year can fly by.

Our planned one-year bus trip is probably nearing its end here…

We're going to keep driving on to Berlin. Meet up with friends.
After that, we'll head on to our families and more friends.

Is that it?
Are we going to sell the bus?

If we take another close look at the offer from a good friend of ours to buy the bus (his bid: current mileage in €, capped at 100,000 km), we have to admit — we'll probably be on the road a while longer after all. 🙂

The rough plan is to head south again starting early-to-mid November, possibly spending the winter on the Canary Islands once more.

There won't be any new posts for the time being until then.

A big thank you to all our many, dedicated "followers."
See you soon!