After all the fun of Stockholm we came down with a bump. We took Connie to a garage to investigate the unusual noise she has been making. Note to self; Sweden is expensive and their garage services more so.....However after three days she’s fixed and we’re back on the road. And on a more positive note we found a campsite near the garage that had a good train connection into Stockholm, so we enjoyed another day exploring the old historical centre, and a further day relaxing in the sun on a beach a 5 min walk through the woods, on the edge of the lake.

We decided it’s time to move on and as autumn is showing her colours we thought moving south was best. So we booked a ferry crossing from Trelleborg on the south coast to Sassnitz on the north German coast. We’ve found it easy to make travel arrangements without too much notice, which is good for us as we don’t do too much advance planning..

We stopped in Lund on our way to Trelleborg, a lovely old university town that was in the throws of Freshers’ week. The highlight was that C got a haircut. He’d been holding out as paying £35 when it’s £9 at home was too painful. The barber was Turkish and for £15 C got a good cut including eyebrows, ear hair trim and, rather scarily, a nostril hair waxing! Terrifying but worth every Sek.

We spent our last night in Sweden free camping on the beach just outside Trelleborg. A beautiful spot with a splendid sunset to finish our time in this lovely country.

Our ferry was at 07:15 and so we were up early. The 4 hour crossing was good and we treated ourselves to some duty free wine. There were no controls as we entered Germany and we made our way to a campsite in Binz, only 20 minutes from the ferry, on the island of Rügen.

The Third Reich had decided Binz was the best place for their esteemed workers to holiday and built apartments to house 20,000 families on the beach edge. The beach here is fantastic, 6 km long white sand and shallow water. The apartments were never completed due to WW2 starting and were derelict until refurbishment started a few years ago. We walked along the beach from our campsite to the town and sections were naturist, not a pretty sight.

We met an Australian couple and an English couple at the campsite. Met the Aussies in the bar, no surprise, and the Brits in the laundry room when the washer broke down, perhaps no surprise there either. The Aussies were touring in a friends camper. The English couple are working in Germany and spend their spare time touring in their camper. We got some good tips from them all.

We did the tourist thing in Binz, took a boat cruise along the coast and then a steam train trip back. The steam train has a scheduled timetable and folks use it to commute to work, way to go! We met up with the Brits, Graham and Valerie on the boat and spent the day and evening with them, nice people, great time. Yes, we ate out - and they were able to translate the menu for us. We’re beginning to realise that English isn’t widely spoken and there are few English tourists, so menus, leaflets etc tend to only be in German. Luckily C has downloaded a translation App on his phone, so we can take photos of the text and it’s translated into English, with varying degrees of accuracy (or sense). Eg. A menu had a dish with gherkins in it, which wa

Germany is sooooo much cheaper than Scandinavia. Fuel is on a par with Sweden but the staples; beer, wine, crisps, chocolate, even bread, is about half the price.

Cx. Vx