So we left Denmark and headed south. In between Denmark and Germany there was a car ferry which only took about 45 minutes but broke up the days journey quite nicely. We try to spend only 2-3 hours driving during the day and stay at least two nights so you can go and do something during the full day.

Our first stop was Lübeck which I remember clearly from when we visited in 1990. It’s a beautiful Hanseatic city with a lovely old town. We went for a big walk and enjoyed beers in the sun in the square. Next stop was Bremen (which I also clearly remember from our 1990 trip). I wanted to go and see the old town and the statue of the Musicians of Bremen.

The Brothers Grimm tale tells of a Donkey, a Dog, a Cat and a Rooster that decide to leave their farms and form a band of wandering musicians (as you do when you are a disgruntled farm employee). Along the way they convince a group of robbers that they are a horrible witch by standing on top of each other to form a strange shadow and then the Donkey kicks them, the Dog bites them, the Cat scratches them and the Rooster makes a horrible noise. They never actually made it to Bremen as they stayed in the robbers house but there’s a statue of them there anyway.

From Bremen we legged it into the Netherlands (who did not understand the assignment) and provided only one windmill, no tulips, no clogs and not one dike! Then down to just outside Dunkirk (which ended up being Belgium) for two nights. There we watched two movies about Dunkirk (including Dunkirk). Then on to the famous Dunkirk beach.

Almost 400 000 Brits and French were evacuated from there. Winston Churchill’s famous “We shall fight on the beaches” speech was informing parliament of what had happened there. What I didn’t know until we went there and did the research was that King Theobold of Belgium (who married Princess Astrid of Sweden, who later died in a car crash), had tried to remain neutral but couldn’t and so asked for British help to stop the Germans invading. Promptly after Churchill got everyone there and enlisted France’s support, King Theobold surrendered to Germany which left everyone stranded at Dunkirk (what a dick move).

So Churchill had to organise a way to get everyone out and it was easier to evacuate to UK than try to fight their way out against the Germans (don’t mention the war). Churchill was very angry about it though as he felt that retreat is not how you win the war. But praised his Air Force who were battling it out in the air with the Germans to try and protect the troops. The whole speech is actually a really good read if you ever get the chance.

From Dunkirk we took the ferry to Dover where Ed Sheeran had to learn how to drive on the left again. Drive on the left, drive on the left. We then had three very administratively and logistically challenging days preparing for the conscious uncoupling of Trailer Swift and Ed Sheeran. We had to pack and clean and drop all our stuff at Stefan’s in London, then get back to Southampton. It looked like such a big pile of stuff when we dropped it off and we did feel a bit bad about it. I’m not sure our cheerful “There’s heaps of things you can use Stefan” and our gift of three bottles of French rosé really made up for the mound of stuff on Stefan’s floor. But the next day Tetris Stefan had fitted it all into one cupboard neatly with “room to spare” he said. We do appreciate it Stefan .

Then a big driving day to drop Trailer Swift with the shipping company before heading back up north to sell Ed Sheeran back to the guy we bought him from. I have to admit I was truly sad to see them split up and genuinely sad leaving our happy little home for the past seven weeks all by herself in a UK shipping yard.

“Be good Trailer Swift, see you in New Zealand”.

After dropping Stefan at the airport, the next day we headed south to go to Skövde. A little town midway between Stockholm and Gothenburg. There we went for lunch with a very good friend of my dad Bengt.

His name was also Bengt he has been a priest his whole life and in 1985 he sent a letter to my dad to say that his son Anders was coming to New Zealand and that he would like to meet us in Foxton. He told my dad that he was flying from Sydney to Auckland on a certain date but didn’t say what time. We happened to be in Auckland on that day and so my dad went out to Auckland airport and met every single flight from Sydney with a sign saying “Welcome Anders!” At around 6pm Anders arrived along with his girlfriend Nina and their friends Mats and Mia. They were so surprised that someone was at the airport to meet them, and my mum was equally as surprised when dad came back with not one Swede but four!

Years later I received a message from Anders to say that his son Carl was coming to NZ and so I was at the Auckland airport with a Swedish flag and he came home to us in Orewa. Then when Stefan visited in 2019 he stayed with Anders and Carl. We also met with Anders and his beautiful wife Maja on this trip and they served us a real swedish smörgåsbord. Hospitality has a way of finding its way back to you. 

Bengt and Bengt grew up in a duplex house in the small village of Danmarksby right next to our beautiful church. I had last met Bengt when we stayed with him and his wife  Helena in 1990 so it was lovely to spend some time. I had asked him to tell me stories about my dad and my grandparents.

He told the story that my mum and dad met because of him. My dad had been visiting Bengt when he boarded the infamous train back to Stockholm where he met Margaret. He told me that my grandmother was the Commander in Chief of the family, that she had gone back to work only a few weeks after my dad was born and that his family use to get a little bit annoyed with her every August. This is the traditional time to eat Surströmming (fermented herring) and the Fromén family would eat Surströmming every day for a month. Brita, my grandmother would then store the empty cans in the shared cellar space of Bengts family where it would reek and envelope the area in a rotten stench. 

We returned to Sweden in 1972 as a family and had a wonderful winter (which I don’t particular remember as I was just over a year old). 

Bengt told me that he was one of the first to receive a heartbroken phone call from my dad when he returned to Sweden the second time since leaving and found out his mother had died while he was travelling. He told me how he couldn’t understand what was happening as my dad was crying so much. He said that at my grandmothers funeral my dad lit four candles on the far side of the globe so that me and my siblings and mum could be there for the funeral too.

He told me that he helped my dad to clear out the house after his father died which was the third time my dad returned to Sweden. He also said that after the service for my grandfather my dad got down on his knees at the grave and said “I don’t have a home here anymore, everything is gone”. I know now that he was wrong on that front. Our family have such an amazing connection to Sweden and it now grows in Stefan as he views it as his second home. My dad would be so happy that we have all made so much of an effort to keep up that connection. I just wish I could experience what I know now with him. And that he and Nigel could eat all the fish like the locals.

Bengt also reminded me of the fourth time my dad returned in 1990 and we all stayed with them at their beautiful home. My brother John played the organ in his church and I sang (knights in white satin if I remember rightly).  My dad loved that trip in 1990, he connected with every single person he ever knew. We ate shrimps and drank schnapps and ate more cloudberries than I care to remember. 

Bengt told me that my dad was a really good friend to him and that the whole Fromén family were very respected and loved members of the community. He told me that my dad loved politics and that he would quite often stay in Bengts wife Helena’s flat in Uppsala and smoke all Bengts cigarettes. 

I remember looking at my Dad as we left on the ferry from Trelleborgin 1990 as he stared towards his homeland. It was the last time he saw Sweden and it was a really sad moment for us all, as in some way I think he knew it. 

I was asked while I was in Sweden if my dad missed home. He did. But he loved his life in NZ as well. I know he would be so happy to know that our connection lives on, through family and friends and a shared love of Swedish hardbread. 

We love Sweden, like absolutely love it! We love the food, the landscape, the nature and there are loads of friends and family there that we love too. So as we came through the Stockholm archipelago on the boat from Estonia we felt truly happy. It takes about 4 hours through the little islands so close you can almost touch them.
We sailed past the house we rented in 2018 on Tynninge and remembered some really good times.

We parked Trailer Swift up at Rösjön Camping about 20 metres from where we were parked in 1995 in our little van, where we lived until it got too cold and we got an apartment. We knew what bus to take to town and remembered swimming in the little lake from last time. The best bit about all this was that Stefan was there for the week and so we hired him a little stuga (cabin) so he could work during the day. We then rocked up every morning to have breakfast and use the shower and then he would come with us to party at night.

After we picked him up at the airport we went straight up to our church outside of Uppsala where my grandparents and parents are buried. The summer flowers were out on the grave and it was just absolutely beautiful. We’re so happy they are all together in such a special and beautiful place. 

What is also cool is that Stefan now has his own Stockholm after visiting so many times and after studying there. He showed us his favourite spots and where his neighborhood was. He took us to his favourite pizza restaurant around the corner from his flat and told us all his Stockholm stories. 

We had an amazing full schedule of seeing friends and family. Our friends Magnus and Jen even threw a Crayfish party for us with some of their friends, which was epic. We played games and ate little red crayfish and drank schnapps. My Swedish got even better with more schnapps, Stefan’s got worse!

Everyone we saw showered us in the most incredible hospitality. We caught up on all the news and determined who was supporting AIK in football and who were Hammarby supporters (don’t make the mistake of assuming that everyone on the family supports the same team!

We did administrative things too as we still have a bank account and pension in Sweden so we trotted off to the bank to get all sorted with Swedish Bank ID (which you can’t do much without now in Sweden).

Then we’d go back to our little camping spot and play cards and eat shrimps and just have a lot of fun together. We loved every minute and it was a bit sad seeing Stefan off at the Airport, but also great knowing we’d see him again in a couple of weeks.

To us, our Sweden truly feels like home. 

So we have been to Poland before to stay with our friends in Warsaw.  On one of the days we went with them from Warsaw to Poznan as they had been offered a job there and wanted to see what it was like.  I recall a city square that was ok, it was the middle of winter and so very cold and icy and the square was covered in dog poo. 

I think they made a life decision that day based on the amount of dog poo and the condition of the road to get there which was terrible, as they stayed in Warsaw. 

Fast forward 19 years and after becoming part of the EU, Poland has built great cross country motorways. We stayed close to Poznan and there didn’t seem to be as much dog poo. We stayed on the outskirts of Warsaw and spent the evening in the grounds of a palace. 

We wanted to spend as much time in the Baltics as we could so we kind of legged it through Germany and Poland. We bought polish beer for our friend and ate sausages and salads along the way.

We hit Lithuania and immediately hit roadworks after the highly efficient Polish four lane highway. The roads didn’t get that much better to be fair and Google took Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift down some decidedly narrow roads. We spent a few nights at a campground outside of Vilnius the capital. 

That’s where we decided that it wouldn’t be the world’s best decision to try and hop into Belarus as it’s on virtually every countries ‘Do not travel’ list.  Belarus is Russias closest ally in the war on Ukraine and is run by a dictatorial leader who according to the UN stole the previous election. It is very volatile and you are likely to encounter military action from Ukraine.  So Belarus will not be making it to our country list right now.

We took a day to head into Vilnius and have traditional Lithuanian food. It was cold beetroot soup (Borscht) and a potato dough thing with meat inside. It was nice.  Nigel also had the best caviar he’s ever had so that was a bonus. We also got to see a TikTok challenge happening in the main square. Groups of gorgeous girls (mainly) all lined up and when a TikTok song would play those that knew the dance routine would step into the middle and those that didn’t would wait on the sides.  Seemed like this was the thing you did in Sundays in Vilnius.

Next on to Riga in Latvia. The roads got better, their English got better and the food got even better. It felt less Soviet and more Scandinavian and the streets of Riga were cobble stoned and really sweet. We loved wandering about and seeing a beautiful mixture of old and new as the old city merged into the modern with high rises and architecturally inspiring buildings lining the river. We spent some good time driving around and seeing the outer suburbs as well with some spectacular old buildings.

Then we headed off towards Tallin in Estonia and it got even more Swedish. The town names and the houses and the flagpoles all looked familiar to us. The roads got even better, the English got way better and there was a very familiar feeling for us. We stayed on the outskirts of Tallin and so took a train into the Centre to have a look around. Wow what a cute colorful beautiful old town. Very medieval. You could wander the streets getting lost in the alleys for hours. Everywhere we turned we wanted to see what was around the next corner. There were a lot more tour groups than the other Baltic countries and as it is a port city built for cruise lines that’s probably why.

I had googled authentic Estonian food restaurants which led us to a medieval place right in the heart of the old town. It’s a themed event with the serving staff dressed with wimples and shoes with curled up toes. The menu is apparently authentic to what would have been served at the time including duck, elk, wild boar and bear! The bathrooms are authentic to how it would be in medieval times (except they flush) it was really really cute. There was a lot of saffron and berries and herbs and grains. Everything came with a story and a ritual to perform. Along the way you had schnapps and wine and herb beer. We loved it. 

So far our decision to come up through the Baltics has been such a great one. The thing that I love most about travel is going to places you’ve never been.  The feeling of what’s around the next corner?, will we be understood?, is there actually a campground at the end of this road?, keeps you on your toes and alive. There is comfort in the familiar and excitement in the unknown. 

It is however really annoying to constantly buy sparkling water instead of still because you forget to use your google translate. Three times now!!!!

Sweden and Stefan and family and friends and crayfish parties and feeling like home and the familiar is next. 

So it was the first unusually hot day in the UK that we decided that Ed Sheeran (our car with an intermittent A/C fault and Taylor Swift (our caravan with a fan but no A/C) were not going to take their tour on the road to Spain.

Let’s go to Estonia!

Never been there, apparently great and we can clock up four countries if we are sneaky and have a quick blat into Belarus.  But before we head east we wanted to go to Normandy and see the beaches where the allies fell and always remember them.

So we hopped on the ferry in Dover, they are actually quite pretty those white cliffs but not a lot of bluebirds on the day we went. Across the channel and finally Ed Sheeran was driving on the right side of the road. Drive on the right, drive on the right became so much easier when you have a left hand drive car! 

Children speaking French are the cutest children in the world. “Bonjour madam! Blurblarablarblurblareblu?” We had great conversations.

Considering my father was a language teacher and I was sent to Tahiti when I was 14 to learn French, my French is shit. Enough to get myself into a campground and order a baguette but not enough to get a refund on a washing machine token. 

We wanted to see Normandy and the beaches that the allies landed on. Nigel also wanted to check out the oysters as they are apparently the best on the world. Well, according to oyster connoisseur Nigel they are about as good as a Mahurangi oyster and nowhere near as good as a Bluffie.

So after we stocked up on French wine we headed across the border to Germany. Autobahns are great, but very boring. We looked forward to our little narrow street encounters even though the caravan needed to cede to the rest of the road. 

So German campgrounds have stupid fucking rules that make no fucking sense, and the Germans love to come and reprimand you about them.

No driving your car between 1pm and 3pm! Why? Can you drive at 1.01pm? Or maybe 2.59pm? What if you have all your groceries? Makes no fucking sense. Standing in the middle of a campground with more than one person telling you in German that “das ist verboten” is not the most relaxing way to spend an afternoon.

What we have encountered is some lovely lake swims. As you know I need water temperature to be high enough to hit a Jen score before I get in. A 1 being the Swedish archipelago and 10 being Bahamas. So when we found a 7/10 lake in Berlin it was all on! Beautiful after a 30 degree day. 

Anyhoo…. Poland next! Google translate to the ready

So life is an adventure and when you’re traveling you add an extra level of complexity that you don’t normally encounter. You don’t know the names of the chain stores to buy the things you need. In NZ you know what Bunnings has and Super Cheap Auto and Briscoes. In the UK we now know what a Halfords is and a B&M store and a Tesco Superstore and a Camping Go store.  We visited all of these multiple times and now we’re loyalty members of them all.

So after gleefully picking up the car which we had pre bought (which is an American imported left hand drive, so not overly compatible with UK standards) we headed off to a hotel in Bedford (as it was close) to sort things out. We had no idea how long we’d be in Bedford, but we were there until we were done. We also managed to have fish and chips with curry sauce and mushy peas and watch England lose to Spain in the UEFA while we’re were there, very British. 

Day one and we had our list of things we need to do and a smile and a good attitude and we headed out for the day. Got in the car and click click click dead battery, we suspected it was old and buggered when we got it. Bugger. 

Anyway one day of researching what sort of battery we need and buying a battery charger so we could start it to get to a battery place we headed off to the nice chaps at Bedford batteries. Sweet! Now for the tow bar attachment! The nice chaps at Bedford American car parts obliged with that. Now we need various bits and bobs so Nigel can wire up the lights for the caravan so Bedford Halfords saw multiple visits. We got to know Bedfordshire pretty well as we trundled about from here to there and usually ended up at the same Sainsburys Superstore intersection where we would say “Hey kids look, it’s Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament” a niche pop culture reference to National Lampoons European Vacation.

We also beetled about and looked at two places for caravans until we found the one! She’s a Swift caravan so we have named her Taylor Swift and we’ve named the car Ed Sheeran as they hang out together but aren’t a couple so it won’t matter if one stays on their European tour and the other heads off to NZ. We decided on Taylor Swift pretty quickly and went back the next day to put the deposit down. They needed five days to get it serviced and set up for us so we moved to a quiet remote little Air BnB near St Albans so Nigel could spend the days wiring up the electric for the caravan and I could catch up on Brigerton and watch the full series of Baby Reindeer (highly recommended).

We had squirrels in our little garden and wood pidgeons and Kites (the bird) flying around. We did washing and had catch up’s with Stefan as it was a direct line from where he lives out to St Albans. We got a five star Air BNB rating when we left to go and finally get Taylor Swift. 

So if you are ever interested in buying a UK caravan we can highly recommend Bedfordshire Caravans. It was there that we met Laurence who is the spitting image of Nigel’s best man Andrew.   When we arrived the caravan had been fully serviced including wheel bearings and he had accumulated a whole lot of stuff to give us. “Here’s a European plug adapter, here’s a European gas bottle so you can swap it when you get there. A brand new battery and an added awning, did you want the steps too? Oh, no tent pegs no worries here’s a bag of mixed ones you can have”. We were blown away with the added extras that they had thought of. He explained that he had been to NZ many years ago and bought a car. “Lots of people helped me then, so what goes around comes around” what a great guy. 

So then we spent UKs hottest day getting everything ready and cleaning and sterilizing Taylor Swift so we could  head off on our big adventure. The tow bar turned out to be a bit too low for the caravan so with a bit of kiwi ingenuity Nigel turned the whole thing upside down and we now have added clearance. We had our first couple of nights nearby to make sure everything worked and went and bought some last minute things to make life more comfortable. This is where we encountered the English caravan park people. 

Firstly they all have a little dog (that they can’t control), secondly they are very chatty (how ya doin alright?) and thirdly they do not like Pikies! Pikies (our neighbor on the first night explained) are travelers who are not Romany gypsies (who are equally as bad apparently). They are travellers with no fixed abode (sound a bit like us).They are also all thieves! “ (not like us). “You better put everything away or the Pikies will thieve it!  I’ve seen four by the entry gates and I think that one next door is one too. All thieves they are, thieves! Mark my words, they will take anything not locked down”.

So after surviving a night without loss to the Pikies we headed off to Calais, next stop France. Even we don’t know what we will do next! Eat a baguette?

The most important person in the world to us is Stefan and we are really glad we both have a great relationship with him and we all care for each other so much. So when we saw him at the arrivals hall at Heathrow with a sign saying Welcome Mum and Dad I promptly burst into tears and grabbed my boy. It was also very useful to have an extra pair of hands to help with the four suitcases (one of which was filed with Stefan’s tramping gear and the other filled with stuff for the caravan. He negotiated our way from Heathrow via the more comfortable Elizabeth line to his flat in West Hampstead, where we could catch up and sort things out before going out for a really lovely dinner.

It was so great to be the three musketeers back together again. It was a really long day and we chatted well into the night but it was such a great feeling.

Next day we met up again and went off to see ABBA Voyage. Wow, this really is what the future is like. The 3D projections of the band looking as they did when they were young were amazing and truly tricked your mind into thinking you were seeing the real thing. Add the aerial lighting experience and a live band and it was pure joy on a stage. You don’t have to be an ABBA fan to love it so if you ever get the opportunity to go, do it. You won’t regret it.

The rest of our five days in London was spent going to some of Stefan’s favourite places to drink craft beer and chat and catch up. We also managed a fairly spectacular prank on one of Stefan’s friend’s Sophie who was out on a date. Long story short I “surprised” Sophie, who we’d never met before with her long lost auntie from NZ who she’d never met but seemed to know a lot about her. I’ve never seen anyone so confused. We laughed, she laughed the date she was with was just confused.

Nigel and I went to Greenwich to see the meridian line one day which was really interesting and we spent every waking moment we could with Stefan. Grabbing lunch while he was working playing trivial pursuit and watching football in bars at night. Meeting his flatmates and using his flat to do washing before we headed out to the airport. See you soon, we said as we left him in London and we did.

Another great family connection we have in Europe is Nigel’s cousin Chris from NZ who has lived in Vienna for 30 years with his Austrian wife Ulla. They have two girls who are similar in age to Stefan so there has always been a connection for them as well.

We have always kept contact over the years and visited with each other often in Austria and New Zealand. They also came to Sweden to stay when we were there and we have lovely videos of the three kids all dancing to the Wiggles in our lounge.

So we arrived at the airport and Chris was there to take us to their lovely home and promptly welcome us with a very large schnapps! We had arrived the weekend before their daughter’s graduation and so we had a party every night. We met her friends at a Viennese summer house party and met the extended family at her graduation party. We met the boyfriends and the aunts and the grandparents and everyone was just lovely. We learned some Viennese sayings and saw squirrels in the garden and swam in the pool.

Oh yes, we went sightseeing one day and got to see Schönbrunn Palace for the first time (despite having been to Vienna many times). We also got to catch up for brunch with Stefan who happened to be at a music festival in Vienna at the same time. It was lovely to see him again, he was having quite a different Vienna experience at the music festival. And as we left we said “Love you, see you soon” and we will… tomorrow!

So Stefan decided to move to London and my theory of telling your kid to go off and experience the world became completely ironic. What? Why would you spend all those years raising a kid to have them be independent and resourceful and ambitious and then they decide to go and leave a great career and an awesome friend group and move to London? The fact that he has ended up working for the same company in a better job and all his friends moved to London too meant that he didn’t really give up anything. But, it’s not supposed to be that way. It’s not supposed to be anyone else at the airport going off on an adventure’s it’s supposed to be us!

Leaving Stefan at Auckland airport is one of the hardest things we’ve ever done. Not because we were sad that he was going but sad that we weren’t. It was weird. We drove home from the airport and watched the flight tracker to see how he got on. We watched the flights arrive and depart LA knowing the pain in the ass that LAX is, we saw the flight arrive at Heathrow knowing the amount of time it takes to clear customs. We watched it all reflecting on our time doing the same thing. I think you go through stages in life where you grieve for a life that once was and know can never be again. I needed to grieve my “I’m moving to the other side of the world life” and I have. It’s easier because we have left a door open that we will move to the other side of the earth again one day, you never know. We do still have a Swedish pension fund.

Anyway, he went and we said we will see you in summer and so here we are with some flights booked, an instagram post to say we’re going and some very loose plans. The theory is that we will buy a left hand drive car and a caravan in England and travel to the other side of our house latitudinally and longitudinally which is in Spain. There I will use all of my Dualingo Spanish to inform the farmer who owns the land that we are from the other side of the world and that’s why we are taking pictures of our feet! What could possibly go wrong. Dualingo however has only told me so far how to say the man eats an apple. Hopefully it is an apple farm.

Anyhoo, long time listeners first time callers will know that Nigel has never been to Spain… but I have! That has given me a 1 country advantage over the years but still doesn’t make up for places he has been that I haven’t. Congo, Pakistan and Antarctica which while not officially a country is a continent and so gives him all of the continents. Being only 1 country behind has been manageable, livable even. So I have consistently told Nigel that Spain is a waste of time, it’s full of tapas and wine and sun and beaches and hot Spanish people. Why would you want to go there? But now I am going to have to concede. I will forever be 2 countries behind… bugger!

So our planning begins, I’m contacting people along the way and advising of some dates we may be in their part of the world and maybe wanna say hi! So far we’ve had 100% hit rate of people wanting us to come by and stay which proves my point. If you say to me when I meet you travelling in Vietnam to look me up if you’re ever in Montreal! Then expect us to take you literally at your word and turn up at some point, Lise and Daniel I’m looking at you! A shared love of craft beer and travelling will get us through the French English language barrier. I am also contemplating putting a post out on Facebook asking for anyone who knows anyone in Europe with a driveway that we could park in to nominate their person. A friends of a friend type scenario. I think that could be quite fun and would also provide a washer dryer option maybe?

So off we go, no real plans but a smile and a good attitude. Follow along for our adventures. I’ll be blogging along the way and Nigel will be approving the blogs before they post (after the Vietnam pooping story which he really wished I hadn’t posted).

Remember when you wanted what you have.