Sommer in (Өмнөд) Швед 😄 Баяртай Швед

We have now arrived in southern Sweden and the warm summer weather has stayed. Initially with about 23 °C and cooling, white clouds and now up to about 25 °C with a pleasant breeze. Just perfect for us and not nearly as hot as it currently is in Germany 😎

After our fresh water tank was empty, we reluctantly left our idyllic campsite (the most beautiful one so far on our journey) because we didn't want the brownish discolored water (supposedly due to high iron content and despite filtering) in our motorhome. And since it's not like Norway, where there are free water and waste disposal stations scattered throughout the country, we couldn't avoid this (so we had to fill up with water and then return) 😔

But we didn't go far. Just a few kilometers away, we found a campsite where we could park right by Lake Vänern 👍

The Vänern is Sweden's largest lake. It is often referred to as an inland sea. In fact, the Vänern's area is three times larger than that of the second largest Swedish lake, Lake Vättern (which can be found a little further on the map). The Vänern is 75 km wide and 140 km long. If you drive around the lake once, you cover a distance of 400 to 500 kilometers. The exact distance depends on how close you follow the coast. Furthermore, the Vänern has no fewer than 22,000 islands and small islands. With an area of ​​5,519.1 km², it is also the largest lake in the European Union and the third largest lake in Europe after Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega (both located in Russia).

Near the campsite -in Sjötorp- is the end (or the beginning ;o) of the Göta Canal, which we visited and saw a sailboat going through the three locks (unfortunately, videos cannot be inserted for that).

The Göta Canal is one of the most famous and most visited tourist attractions in Sweden and was named the Swedish construction project of the millennium. The Göta Canal stretches from Mem on the Baltic Sea to Sjötorp on Lake Vänern and is 190 km long with 58 locks. It runs across Sweden and, together with the Trollhätte Canal, has connected the North Sea with the Baltic Sea since 1832. The largest lock is in Berg, which consists of seven locks to raise boats by 18 m from Lake Roxen.

Yesterday we continued south towards the sea, specifically to the Kattegat. We stayed at a campsite in Skummeslövsstrand, where we took a long walk last night. With a length of 12 kilometers, it is the longest sandy beach in Sweden (connecting the holiday resorts of Skummeslövsstrand and Mellbystrand). Furthermore, the beach is one of the last in Sweden that is still accessible by car. Yesterday it was quite impressive, as there was a vintage car meeting. We also liked that the dunes are interspersed with heather, which is currently in bloom. Otherwise, it reminds us more of the German North Sea and is not exactly a fine sandy beach 😉

Today we made a trip to the nearby bay, where there was no sandy beach anymore, only stones and rocks. There you can find the nature reserve Hovs Hallar, which encompasses the steepest coastal section of the Bjäre Peninsula in northwestern Skåne.

The coast at Hovs Hallar is lined with rocky beaches and caves. Jagged cliffs and sun-drenched rocks give the landscape a wild and barren character. The meadows near the beach, which extend to the west of Hovs Hallar, have been grazed by animals for thousands of years (we encountered a group of young cows/oxen roaming freely). The coastal landscape was formed at the time when the magma found its way to the surface. Natural forces such as wind and water have given the cliffs and rocks their spectacular formations.

From there we drove to a beach where Triene could cool off in the water and we could sunbathe (it wasn't warm enough for us to go swimming 😚

Tomorrow afternoon (Thursday, August 13, 2020) we will take the ferry to Germany to visit our families and then continue (back) towards the French Atlantic coast...

If the weather had been warmer and drier in the past weeks, our Scandinavia trip (especially through Norway) would probably have lasted longer 🤔

As always, we have selected some pictures for you to go along with the description and we hope you enjoy browsing through them 😊

Warm regards to all of you from Thomas, Janina, and Triene 🤗

P.S.: Unfortunately, we did not see a moose 😕