Sweden

Not long in Sweden for us on this trip and two places we'd not stopped overnight before.

Uppsala
Staying in a room in what is primarily a youth hostel was a new experience for Dave. But the location was close to the station - v necessary when catching a train at 8.30am.

With only a few hours in the town on a Sunday evening didn't get to see a great deal, but the Krog Kampen (Battle of Bars) did detain us. Watching the bar staff celebrate the end of the season it´s a knockout style was worth a few minutes of our time. Although we did wonder about the quality of service that would be on offer that night!(Ans - v good)

Otherwise we simply enjoyed the late summer evening sunshine.

Uppsala-Östersund

SJ were transporting us some 500km north and East to the lakeside city. Before that Andrew had to run the gauntlet of a "fearsome" Norwegian lady who seemed to live up to her view that the people from Trondheim told it like it is and are hard as nails. She was confused as to why a non-Norwegian would have a ribbon in the colours of her nation's flag on his luggage. Then she laid into him about smoking. Basically done with a smile, but at that time of the morning can prompt the wrong response. Think we managed to placate her national sensibilities.

The journey to Östersund took longer than expected first due to probs on the train in front, then probs with ours. But the weather once we got there was splendid.

See next entry...