Friday prevening traffic on the fringes of Stockholm is pretty much the same as near any big city. It builds up as you skirt the main roads, minor roads starting to choke with rat run seekers. Single lane roads, jammed bumper to bumper as people head home.
Of course, eventually, the traffic dwindles away to virtually nothing as you head further away from the city.
Of course, the original plan had been to leave just after lunch which, perhaps would have avoided the traffic and saved us about half an hour travelling time. Well laid plans, and all that though. We didn’t start our journey until 3pm.
Our journey, by the way, was to a small place just north of Nora. An isolated AirBnB property, nestling near a big lake. A place to get away to when you feel you haven’t had a holiday for yonks.
I guess we had a sort of holiday back in October when we first arrived in Sweden. There was the short stay down south, near the beach where we learned quite a bit about the Swedish way of life. But, since then, it’s been work, work, work. Well, for Mirinda anyway.
And so, we (Mirinda) decided we needed ten days away which includes Easter. And, because we’ve not explored a lot of Sweden, we decided to head left and up.
Obviously, there was the customary stop at services in order to give the driver and the dogs a bit of a leg stretch.
As we stood (not) admiring the view, Mirinda said it was a shame there weren’t the Aire de Repose spots like throughout France. We have used them a lot on our trips to various departments. I agreed, saying I’d seen no sign of them here.
Hopping back in the car and rejoining the E20 we drove about five miles and found one. A lovely spot with picnic tables, trees and even a toilet. It would have been perfect. Maybe next time. At least we could, maybe, stop there on the way back.
After a brief stop at a Hemköp for essential supplies, we drove the final few miles in the rapidly increasing dark. Yes, no street lights and very few cars.
One reason for heading this way was for the diminishing light pollution. We want to see stars. We want silence. Just for a change, we want to experience peace, quiet and proper night sky.
