Europe 2023
We started early in the morning of Friday July 21. We turfed on our way there and stopped at Säbrå Church close to Härnösand as usual, had kebab at a restaurant at Alsike, also that as usual. At Gränna we saw the famous peppermint rock candy, (polkagris in Swedish), at a filling station. Close by was Brahehus, a well-known castle, built in the 17th Century, but sadly left a ruin after a devastating fire in 1708. In the evening we came to the Vox Hotel at Jönköping.
The next day we drove on and visited the church ruin of Hallsjö and the church of Hamneda in the Jönköping County. We had lunch at Center Syd in Skåne and after that we crossed the bridge to Denmark. Lizette was the driver. We decided to go by the Great and the Little Belt Bridges and we saw a lot of Denmark. One of our turf goals was to get the Germany Explorer medal, which meant we would have to visit all 16 states of Germany. As we had already taken zones in eight of them before, we only had to visit eight more and take at least one zone in each one of them. In the evening we took two zones in Lower Saxony, Niedersachsen, and two in Harburg, a borough of Hamburg. After having done so we drove to the little village of Egestorf south of Hamburg, where our newly-built hotel was. Lizette was told it was done only three weeks ago.
In the morning of Sunday July 23 Lizette drove on the Autobahn for the first time of her life. We went to Holland and the freeway across the IJsselmeer, which I have wanted to see ever since I saw it in an encyclopedia when I was about 7 years old. We then went to Alkmaar, but after that we decided to go to Amsterdam. The sun came forward from behind the clouds and we had a really good time there, walking and turfing. Lizette was there a few years ago, and showed me the places where she had been then. In 2019 we discovered the Hague's beach resort, Scheveningen, and we took in at Easy Hotel, close to the beach. The pier at Scheveningen is marvellous and we visited it in the evening.
We wanted to go to the Hague and Delft, a city close to the former one. On the tram we could see that it went to Delft, so we started the day by going there. We discovered that there were canals there, just like in Amsterdam. Delft is famous for its porcelain, and there were many shops dedicated to it. We saw the square and then headed to the Hague, and in the city center we saw the restaurant Five Guys with its irresistible hamburgers. We also went to the Mall of the Netherlands. I am fond of cheese and dutch cheese shops are pleasing to the eye. In one of them in the mall I tasted coconut cheese for the first time and it was absolutely delicious. We then went for a walk in the Hague Forest, a large forest not far away from the city center of Hague. Later in the afternoon we visited the Paleistuin, a park with many hydrangeas. The evening was spent on the beach and at the pier at Scheveningen. Late in the evening we took the tram to the city center of the Hague.
The next day it was time to go to Germany, but before we crossed the German border we visited the Netherlands American Cemetery at Margraten, close to Maastricht. In Germany we first went to the former capital of Bonn in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Nordrhein-Westfalen, which we needed for the Germany Explorer. Now only five remained. It was a long time ago since the last time in Bonn, so we walked in the city center before we went to Wiesbaden in Hesse, Hessen, for the next state. We took a zone at the cemetery Südfriedhof Wiesbaden before we crossed the bridge to the city of Mainz in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Rheinland-Pfalz, another region in turf. Now only three regions remained. We saw the city center and on the shores of the Rhine I took a ride in a bumber car.
The Saarland was the next state we needed for the Germany Explorer and we went to the city of Neunkirchen before we decided to go to the next state, which was Thuringia, Thüringen. We went to the supermarkt Real before we came to the Dorint hotel Erfurt, possibly one of the best hotels we had ever stayed at. We had more or less forgotten how beautiful the city of Erfurt was. There were picturesque houses all over the city and we had a Thüringer Bratwurst at a nice restaurant in the city center. We also saw the bridge, Krämerbrücke, a famous landmark in the city.
The day after we went to the Thüringen Park - a shopping center on the outskirts of Erfurt. We then drove to the Harz Forest, but it was raining and in the evening it was time to get a zone in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, thereby earning us the Germany Explorer. After that we had a walk in the city center of Lübeck.
We took the ferry between Puttgarden and Rødby and had a wonderful breakfast buffet onboard. We shopped and had lunch at the Shopping Center Emporia at Malmö, and then drove from Höllviken along the coast to Smygehuk, the southernmost point in Sweden. In the evening we came to Scandic Stora Hotellet at Nyköping, a nice hotel, and we walked in the city center before going to bed long after midnight.
In the morning of Saturday 29 July we shopped in Stockholm and saw the Uppsala Castle. We were home in the evening at Umeå.
Length of Stay: Friday July 21- Saturday July 29 2023
July 21 Jönköping
July 22 Hamburg
July 23-24 Scheveningen
July 25 Mainz
July 26 Erfurt
July 27 Lübeck
July 28 Nyköping
Means of Transportation: Mercedes X213
