MIVOAKA: 23.07.2019
We want to look back at a wonderful and exciting landscape that we experienced on the West Coast of Sweden, surrounded by the Baltic Sea, archipelagos, and impressive nature.
Our starting point was the town of Helsingborg. From there, we drove further and further north. We spent the first few nights in Höganäs because we had a super nice parking spot right by the sea with a small beach shower and wonderful sunsets. On our journey, we enjoyed a piece of cake with coffee or juice in a beautiful Swedish garden. This café is located in Arild and was founded by seven sisters.
Since we sometimes read travel guides, we decided to visit the largest shopping center in Sweden, and even in Europe. So we drove inland to Ullared. The closer we got to this Gekas, the bigger our eyes became. About 2 kilometers before the shopping center, there is a campsite that was fully packed with many motorhomes. We saw the same scene later at the Gekas itself. There were thousands of cars and motorhomes parked. We parked our bus and joined the masses. It was only in the Gekas itself that we realized it is a huge store where you can buy absolutely everything. It was a massive chaos of people, goods, and junk. We quickly escaped the hustle and bustle without making any new purchases.
Our next destination was Gothenburg. However, we read that many motorhomes have been broken into on unguarded parking lots, so we decided to stay at a campsite. Since the most central one was already full, we camped outside Gothenburg by a beautiful lake. We could easily reach the city by train. We went into the city without a plan and immediately found the most beautiful neighborhood, Haga. There were many small restaurants and shops. We enjoyed a coffee in the bakery that bakes the biggest cinnamon buns in all of Europe. Tourists stopped and took photos of us (or maybe of the cinnamon buns right behind us in the shop window?). The rest of the city didn't really impress us, and we were glad to have only planned for one day there.
Following Sara's recommendation, we drove further north and were able to experience the impressive archipelagos ourselves. In Marstrand, we visited a small car-free town with a ferry. In Skärhamn, we had the best ice cream we've eaten in Sweden so far. And in Fjällbacka, we climbed the Wolf's Gorge, following in the footsteps of Ronja the Robber's Daughter.
So we were almost at the height of the Norwegian border, and it was time to turn inland to the hundreds of lakes and for our canoe trip.