witchfinder
Giga Poster
And yes, there were some coasters too, but I will be covering other aspects of the trip as well for those that are interested, as I have quite a few tips based on our experiences in the country.
Our trip to Sweden was originally planned for 2020 but something happened then that meant we couldn’t go - I can’t quite recall what it was now. Back then the plan was to fly to Stockholm, spend a few days there with some of my wife’s friends who had booked a large AirBnB, and visit Grona Lund. We’d then get the train to Norrkoping to visit Kolmarden and then travel over to Gothenburg to finish the trip with a visit to Liseberg before flying home. That was planned as a six day trip as I recall, but when re-booking everything for 2022 we decided to add a few extra days on to make more of a holiday out of it.
This was our first trip overseas since that thing that happened in 2020 so was in some ways quite daunting. Unlike most foreign trips we do, we decided to do the entire thing using public transport. One reason for that was I had been rolling over the original train bookings from 2020 every six months as it made sense to make use of them, and we also had some hotel credits from that doomed earlier trip.
So that’s the background, let’s get started on this report on a nine day trip that saw us pass through 5 different airports, 6 cities, 11 train stations, innumerable trams and ferries and of course, the 3 homes of Sweden’s must-ride coasters!
Days 1-4 – Birmingham, Stockholm, Ostersund and Stockholm again
No creds in this bit I’m afraid so if that’s all you’re interested in then skip to day 5.
Having got down to a hotel near Birmingham airport the previous night (by train of course) we checked out just after 6am to head to the airport, drop our bag off and get through security. We’d heard all the recent horror stories about how long that may take so got there nice and early, and although it was quite hellishly busy, the queues moved steadily and we got through security in about an hour. There wasn’t much time to hang about though as we boarded our Eurowings flight to Stockholm, happily finding that we’d managed to book seats that inadvertently socially-distanced us from all the other passengers!
The flight went without incident and was quite comfortable with quite a bit of legroom, so I’d recommend the airline if you get the chance to fly with them. We arrived at Arlanda airport, picked up our luggage and grabbed some lunch, then made our way to the pickup point for our hotel shuttle. We soon discovered that any problems that we’re having at UK airports were dwarfed by those at Arlanda, as we witnessed a queue for security that stretched the entire length of Terminal 5, though the SkyCity shopping area to the escalators for Terminal 4 and then doubled back on itself. The estimated wait time was 3-4 hours!
This was no issue for us right then, but we had a domestic flight booked for the following morning so were now thinking we’d need to be at the airport three hours before that flight rather than the usual one.
Anyway, we left the airport, caught the bus to our nearby hotel and checked in, then after a short rest we caught a bus to the nearby town of Sigtuna, which is billed as Sweden’s oldest town. We had a browse around, played a round of local attraction-themed crazy golf, checked out a supermarket (it’s always fun to browse for some unfamiliar snacks) and had some nice Thai food before catching the bus back to the hotel and chilling out for a couple of hours before getting an early night ready for the next day.
That day came way too soon as we got up at 5:30am for the second day in a row, grabbed breakfast and headed back to the airport to catch our flight. As expected, there were some crazy queues building up already for the security checks but they weren’t as bad as the previous day so we were through in about an hour and eventually caught our short flight north to Ostersund.
What a cute airport!
We caught the bus into town, left our luggage at the train station and wandered around for a while, eventually finding the local museum which killed a couple of hours until lunchtime. The exhibition about food was interesting!
After lunch (which was expensive even by Swedish standards - £22 for a steak sandwich and chips!) we stocked up on some food from the supermarket, retrieved our luggage and called a taxi to take us to our accommodation for the next two nights.
Hot tip No. 1 – don’t use taxis in Sweden. This 15 minute journey cost over £50! It was effectively £5 just to get in.
At this point I should probably explain that my wife Anna absolutely loves moose. On our last major overseas trip to Canada she was hoping to see lots of moose and all we saw were a load of bears and a snake eating a fish. We weren’t taking any chances this time and she had booked us into the Moose Garden, a moose sanctuary with on-site accommodation in the village of Orrviken.
When we arrived however, there was nobody to be seen. We tried calling the number on the door of their café – no answer. With the weather looking a bit iffy we decided to carry our bags up to the cabins we were supposed to be staying in and found them all unlocked so in the absence of anyone to tell us otherwise, we moved into one of them to shelter from the rain.
Long story short – we eventually got in touch with the owners who had gone out for the day, having got confused about what day we were arriving. Not a promising start but it all turned out OK in the end.
But what of the moose, you ask? Yes, they were there and we got a private tour of the sanctuary, being allowed to feed them and see the new moose calves that had been born just a few days earlier. The place was in a stunning location and as well as numerous moose encounters we also explored a nearby nature reserve.
Two days later we were dropped off at the train station by our hosts and set off on a seven hour train journey back to Stockholm. Our reason for choosing he train was that while the flight to Ostersund only cost £95 for us both, the return flights were almost double that. With no great urgency to get back to Stockholm, the train was a much cheaper at just £32 for both of us – imagine paying such a small amount for a trip like that in the UK! Swedish trains are also much smoother, more comfortable and less crowded and it was a very pleasant way to make our way back to the capital, with plenty of natural beauty to see from the windows.
Once we arrived in Stockholm we headed to our hotel for the next two nights and prepared for our first park trip of the holiday – Grona Lund!
Our trip to Sweden was originally planned for 2020 but something happened then that meant we couldn’t go - I can’t quite recall what it was now. Back then the plan was to fly to Stockholm, spend a few days there with some of my wife’s friends who had booked a large AirBnB, and visit Grona Lund. We’d then get the train to Norrkoping to visit Kolmarden and then travel over to Gothenburg to finish the trip with a visit to Liseberg before flying home. That was planned as a six day trip as I recall, but when re-booking everything for 2022 we decided to add a few extra days on to make more of a holiday out of it.
This was our first trip overseas since that thing that happened in 2020 so was in some ways quite daunting. Unlike most foreign trips we do, we decided to do the entire thing using public transport. One reason for that was I had been rolling over the original train bookings from 2020 every six months as it made sense to make use of them, and we also had some hotel credits from that doomed earlier trip.
So that’s the background, let’s get started on this report on a nine day trip that saw us pass through 5 different airports, 6 cities, 11 train stations, innumerable trams and ferries and of course, the 3 homes of Sweden’s must-ride coasters!
Days 1-4 – Birmingham, Stockholm, Ostersund and Stockholm again
No creds in this bit I’m afraid so if that’s all you’re interested in then skip to day 5.
Having got down to a hotel near Birmingham airport the previous night (by train of course) we checked out just after 6am to head to the airport, drop our bag off and get through security. We’d heard all the recent horror stories about how long that may take so got there nice and early, and although it was quite hellishly busy, the queues moved steadily and we got through security in about an hour. There wasn’t much time to hang about though as we boarded our Eurowings flight to Stockholm, happily finding that we’d managed to book seats that inadvertently socially-distanced us from all the other passengers!
The flight went without incident and was quite comfortable with quite a bit of legroom, so I’d recommend the airline if you get the chance to fly with them. We arrived at Arlanda airport, picked up our luggage and grabbed some lunch, then made our way to the pickup point for our hotel shuttle. We soon discovered that any problems that we’re having at UK airports were dwarfed by those at Arlanda, as we witnessed a queue for security that stretched the entire length of Terminal 5, though the SkyCity shopping area to the escalators for Terminal 4 and then doubled back on itself. The estimated wait time was 3-4 hours!
This was no issue for us right then, but we had a domestic flight booked for the following morning so were now thinking we’d need to be at the airport three hours before that flight rather than the usual one.
Anyway, we left the airport, caught the bus to our nearby hotel and checked in, then after a short rest we caught a bus to the nearby town of Sigtuna, which is billed as Sweden’s oldest town. We had a browse around, played a round of local attraction-themed crazy golf, checked out a supermarket (it’s always fun to browse for some unfamiliar snacks) and had some nice Thai food before catching the bus back to the hotel and chilling out for a couple of hours before getting an early night ready for the next day.
That day came way too soon as we got up at 5:30am for the second day in a row, grabbed breakfast and headed back to the airport to catch our flight. As expected, there were some crazy queues building up already for the security checks but they weren’t as bad as the previous day so we were through in about an hour and eventually caught our short flight north to Ostersund.
What a cute airport!
We caught the bus into town, left our luggage at the train station and wandered around for a while, eventually finding the local museum which killed a couple of hours until lunchtime. The exhibition about food was interesting!
After lunch (which was expensive even by Swedish standards - £22 for a steak sandwich and chips!) we stocked up on some food from the supermarket, retrieved our luggage and called a taxi to take us to our accommodation for the next two nights.
Hot tip No. 1 – don’t use taxis in Sweden. This 15 minute journey cost over £50! It was effectively £5 just to get in.
At this point I should probably explain that my wife Anna absolutely loves moose. On our last major overseas trip to Canada she was hoping to see lots of moose and all we saw were a load of bears and a snake eating a fish. We weren’t taking any chances this time and she had booked us into the Moose Garden, a moose sanctuary with on-site accommodation in the village of Orrviken.
When we arrived however, there was nobody to be seen. We tried calling the number on the door of their café – no answer. With the weather looking a bit iffy we decided to carry our bags up to the cabins we were supposed to be staying in and found them all unlocked so in the absence of anyone to tell us otherwise, we moved into one of them to shelter from the rain.
Long story short – we eventually got in touch with the owners who had gone out for the day, having got confused about what day we were arriving. Not a promising start but it all turned out OK in the end.
But what of the moose, you ask? Yes, they were there and we got a private tour of the sanctuary, being allowed to feed them and see the new moose calves that had been born just a few days earlier. The place was in a stunning location and as well as numerous moose encounters we also explored a nearby nature reserve.
Two days later we were dropped off at the train station by our hosts and set off on a seven hour train journey back to Stockholm. Our reason for choosing he train was that while the flight to Ostersund only cost £95 for us both, the return flights were almost double that. With no great urgency to get back to Stockholm, the train was a much cheaper at just £32 for both of us – imagine paying such a small amount for a trip like that in the UK! Swedish trains are also much smoother, more comfortable and less crowded and it was a very pleasant way to make our way back to the capital, with plenty of natural beauty to see from the windows.
Once we arrived in Stockholm we headed to our hotel for the next two nights and prepared for our first park trip of the holiday – Grona Lund!
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