| 7-Münster, DE | 8-Aabenraa, DK | 9-Borby | 10-Eksjö | 11-Stenberga | 12-Stenberga - Reunion Day! |
| 13-Brevik | 14-Brevik | 15-Ljungskile | 16-Ljungskile | 17-Gothenburg | 18-Gothenburg |
| 19-Gothenburg | 20-Stena (Kiel)-Home |
Sunday, July 19th
Gothenburg – Kiel
map link (not at all accurate, but Google won’t let me choose the ferry route)
It was the home stretch. Today would be our last day in Sweden, with the next two days dedicated to getting home. We slept in and finally got up to cool temperatures and an overcast sky – just my kind of weather. Julie mentioned that the IKEA we saw from the train was one of the more technically advanced IKEAs and on the original site of the 7th ever IKEA in the world. We had no other plans until we had to leave for the ferry later that day, so we took the forest trail at the foot of their driveway and made our way to see an IKEA in its native land.
To be honest, I didn’t notice any difference to the one near our town, but it was more about the novelty of going to IKEA in Sweden. And we bought a few things anyway.
The walk to IKEA
Lunch!
The successful return
After returning with our Blue Bag of goodies we relaxed with Dan and Julie, chatting about just about anything that came to mind. Meanwhile, my nephew Matt and his girlfriend Lucia had arrived the night before and would be taking the same ferry as us later today. Another surprise family reunion extension!
Although we left Dan and Julie’s a little early for the 5:45 pm departure, it turned out not to be necessary. The drive to the ferry dock was super easy and fast, and they boarded us as soon as we arrived. It was a large ferry with multiple vehicle decks and multiple passenger decks. Our booking included the vehicle and a cabin for the overnight journey. I was super excited about this!
Leaving the vehicle deck
We parked the van and dragged some overnight bags to the upper decks to find our cabin. There were a LOT of cabins. I admit that it was incredibly easy to get lost at first, but after a couple of trips through the corridors, I finally figured out what to look for. And funny enough: with almost two hundred cabins on board, Matt and Lucia’s cabin was just four doors away from ours. How convenient!
We were on Deck 9; sadly, there was no Holodeck
Our route
The cabins were small but well appointed. Ours was an interior cabin, which was fine by me: the night would be dark and quiet. There were technically three beds in the space: two fold-out beds from the walls at standard height, and one bed that became an upper bunk bed when folded down. We opted for the bunk bed configuration for the two of us, as it gave us more floor space to move around and pile up our stuff. Not that we had a lot of stuff. The cabin had thoughtful hooks, a full-length mirror, and a full-service bathroom with shower. It was perfect.
Looking for our cabin – all of the corridors looked like this
There’s someone in the cabin with me!
We all went up on deck to watch our departure from Gothenburg, but it was hard to keep track of who was where. It was a big boat! I went to one of the restaurants on board only to find out that the first seating was already full, but I could make our dinner reservations for 8pm. I did, and informed everyone else where to be at that time.
The bar on the deck of the ship
Helicopter landing pad (not needed for this voyage)
The ship had various lounges, a shop, a bar, and a couple of restaurants, all distributed over five levels. The water was calm, the wind fresh, and the view gradually becoming “just water” all around.
Dinner was good, with some nice menu choices. The bonus was that our waiter pulled some strings to add chocolate sauce to my ice cream dessert – thank you, kind sir!
Dinner with a view
After dinner we tried to watch some of the World Cup but none of us were really invested in the event itself, and it was a rather boring game on the big screens.
Not really watching The Game
Going back to the cabin, we made an early night of it. The sleeping conditions were perfect: almost completely dark, a gentle, even rumbling of the ship’s engines, and a very subtle rocking motion. I slept like a baby.