Day Thirty Five Tuesday 23rd August

This is my second try at my blog today. I stupidly updated the app I use for documents this morning, and it has decided that the document of my whole blog so far, plus today's, stored on my iPad, is invalid. Gone completely! Hmm. When it works, it's great, but...

So, here goes again....this morning. would you believe, in the middle of nowhere, we heard voices at 7.30! A peak over the blinds and through the trees revealed a huge articulated lorry stopped in the road. G trekked through the wood to see whether we were somehow in his way, but no. The driver was Dutch, delivering a house, as you do in these parts, but couldn't take his lorry the whole way. This was the last straight stretch of road before his destination, so he was uncoupling the back half, and would come back for it once the other half load was delivered. All this he duly did! He said that he often drives in England, delivering flowers. We have been taken with the willingness of people to chat in English. The younger ones often speak with an American accent, either from travelling or from watching American films.  I am feeling ashamed that I was so critical of the author of Living Danishly. Although we are getting much better at interpreting the written word in Swedish, the spoken word is another matter. The pronunciation doesn't appear to bear any resemblance to its written counterpart.

Today was set aside for Uppsala, and it was a lovely surprise for me. Very definitely a university city, with even more bicycles than Oxford or Cambridge., and  a great feel to it, made even better, as always, by the gorgeous sunshine. We enjoyed the impressive Cathedral, and then contented ourselves with wandering through the streets soaking up the atmosphere. G's attention was caught by 'The English Shop' where we were able to buy a tube of Colman's mustard to pep up the rather tasteless beef slices we have been buying for lunchtime sandwiches ( because they are marginally tastier than the tasteless ham we have found - it is all wafer thin)
Tonight's site needed to be within striking distance of where we are leaving the Camper tomorrow for the duration of our Gota Canal Cruise. We first drove to Sigtuna, where there were places for Campervans in the harbour, but as expected there was no electric hookup. The town was pretty and very  smart, and we drove past the old part, with its ancient ruined church tower, and onwards to our other possibility.

We certainly manage to ring the changes. Here we are at a very attractive golf course at Upplands Visby, between Stockholm and Arlanda airport. The surroundings are very pleasant, and wooded again. There are 10 designated spaces for campervans, and all the facilities, including a nice looking restaurant. It was not a usual day here - there was a big John  Deere event with all sorts of John Deere vehicles on show and whizzing around the place,and the car parks have all been overflowing. A party in a marquee has now finished, and all is very quiet, although there are still some cars around. It seems we will be the only Campervan here tonight. And It is nice to have a break from the midges! I expect they'll be back as soon as we hit water again.