| 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 |
Thursday, July 9th
Borby
map link
It was a good night’s sleep, mostly due to the cool temperatures and the eye mask. The sun comes up early this time of year at this latitude! We clumsily packed up our tent and had the brilliant idea of not deflating the air mattress. Instead, we rigged up some straps inside the van to suspend the mattress from the van’s ceiling. Ah, we can be clever when we need to be.
Continuing through Denmark was uneventful. The roads were good, the weather was good, the scenery was good. In fact, the scenery was more interesting than I expected. I assumed that it would be flat and stretch off to the horizon, but instead there were rolling hills and copses of trees to provide some variation.
At one rest stop Dan wanted to try to connect his phone to the van’s system, and I parked but left the diesel motor running. As we sat there, I felt very guilty about the engine noise, as the family that was sitting at a nearby picnic bench few cars away kept looking over at us. I finally told Dan that he can sort it out later and cut the engine. When I got out to get something from the back, one of the people from the picnic bench walked over. It turned out they were eyeing the van itself, as he was originally from Switzerland and he and his family were discussing our Basel plates.
Our not-so-subtle rental van
Dan had been putting his non-driving time to good use: he had researched a Viking burial mound in the area, as well as some ancient standing stones. Time to be a tourist!
The Viking Museum Ladby is in Denmark, and a short detour from the main road. We enjoyed the museum there with its nice presentation of what is inside the burial mound itself, as well as the culture and lives of the people who lived in the area at the time. For instance, imagine if this was your life:
“The skeleton belongs to a woman who was around 30 years old when she died in the first half of the 10th century. Her bones and teeth show that she had a hard life. She wore a single amber bead on a string around her neck. This was the only grave good found by archaeologists. She was buried in a simple coffin at Skellerup on eastern Funen, but it is difficult to say whether she was enslaved or simply a very poor farm woman.
Her bones show signs of heavy physical strain and inflammation in the body. She was about 164 cm tall. Her skeleton shows that at least four times during childhood she either suffered severe malnutrition or serious illness that temporarily stopped her growth. She also walked with a limp. Her right leg is shorter than the left, likely because she once broke her right thigh bone, which healed incorrectly. Her right collarbone was also broken, and she had lost one tooth before she died. It is not possible to say whether these injuries happened at the same time or what caused them.”
Part of a 7 meter long embroidery that tells the story of the Ladby ship, created in 2011
Freya, Goddess of War, and her cats; no idea why there’s the back of a car in there!
Replica of the burial ship
Sacrificed horses, tossed in willy-nilly
From the museum building we walked to the external re-creation of pit houses, and then beyond them to the shore. There, a grassy mound rose from the surrounding landscape. We walked passed it to the dock where a replica of the Ladbydragen sat in calm waters. It was a good replica, but I admit that the critters in the water beneath held my eye more than the ship itself.
The fields were in full bloom
The burial mound
Ship replica
More jellyfish
Crabs!
Then we went into the burial mound itself. The ship has been preserved at the site where it was discovered, so I knew that what I saw here was exactly how it had been for the last 1,000 years. And suddenly the diorama of the ship replica inside the museum made a lot more sense – but in a senseless sort of way. The chief was accompanied into the afterlife with his four dogs and eleven horses, all sacrificed for the journey. The skeletons of some of the animals were still visible in the ship.
The full ship: almost 22 meters long and 3 meters wide
Leaving the museum behind, we headed back to the main road. But first: lunch! We had the fixings (in our VAN), of course, and found a quiet church to park near and enjoy the quiet countryside. A sign near the gate indicated that the church dated from as far back as 1665, but the doors were locked so I couldn’t get in to appreciate the interior.
Thatched roof building
I love the massive stone used as a building material
There are two toll bridges that have to be crossed today, one in Denmark and one that would get us to Sweden. The first one was New Little Belt Bridge (Den Nye Lillebæltsbro), completed in 1970 and links the mainland to the Denmark’s third largest island.
Post-bridge church
The second bridge was much more impressive (and expensive!), the Great Belt (Storebælt). It first opened for rail in 1997 and then road in 1998 and at 18 kilometers long, it is one of the longest suspension spans in the world. And while I love ferries, I admit that not having to adhere to a schedule (and vehicle size and related cost) was rather nice. Unfortunately, I was driving which meant that I had to rely on Dan for photos, and a dirty windscreen.
Reaching the Swedish mainland was a non-event, with the road continuing on as it had before. My Trusty Navigator Dan shortly advised us of the next turn off and then we were in the Swedish countryside. It was surprisingly beautiful, and full of Volvos. I sometimes miss our Volvo so it was nice to see so many of them on the road. Many of the cars we saw were electric, meshing in well with the vast array of solar panels and wind farms we’d seen so far on this trip already. This, I hope, is the future of the automotive industry and electric power.
Again there were rolling hills and often cropland stretching off to the next hill or tree-filled ravine. The architecture surprised me: I grew up with the idea of “the little red house” being the iconic building standard of Sweden. But here? Bricks. Lots and lots of brick buildings. Some of them with tile roofs, but a surprising number of thatched roofs as well.
Our next stop was to see the standing stones. We took some quiet country roads, heading southeast towards the coast. Along the way I stopped to see what I could find out about some amazing looking buildings we saw near Ystad. It turned out the Big House was part of one of the original “castles” of Sweden, first founded in the 14th century. Of course, what I saw now had been much more recently built (1700s). And of course: bricks!
We reached the coast and crawled the van through the small village of Kåseberga, already full of tourists, to the coastal parking lot. But the parking lot was full. Harumph. Fine – we’d skip the standing stones and find somewhere to camp for the night.
The app we were using (park4night) had been pretty good in finding us a nice campground, but tonight it wasn’t up to snuff. The best we could do was a “farm yard stay” with minimal amenities. Well – we’d give a shot and see what it was like!
The farm was just outside town of Borrby. The camping area was primarily set up for self-contained RVs and camper vans, offering no public showers or kitchen amenities. I’m guessing this is probably why we were the only ones in the field: anyone who is that serious in traveling in this region probably reserved a spot long ago along the coast. But the check-in was very friendly, there was a small toilet we could use, and the restaurant on-site had good food. We were set!
So much room for activities!
Dinner
When they’re not actively farming, I have the impression that there are a lot of weddings here. The restaurant was much bigger than expected, and there were some nice design touches that lent a stylish air to the place. As we were having dinner we discussed the day and the full parking lot at Kåseberga. It was annoying that we had found something extracurricular that we wanted to do, but weren’t able to do it. But then a light bulb went on: we have the Hondas! And this is the reason we brought the Hondas: to buzz around and explore. We made a plan: unpack the bikes and in the morning ride back to Kåseberga.
Ready for the next day
Our first Swedish sunset
