08.02 A warm night has turned into a warm morning, a morning that will turn into a day, a day when we will head out and travel. We are in Sundsvall and the temperature inside Christer´s apartment is just below +30 C. The same temperature has been predicted for today.

09.10 We’ve had breakfast and will soon set off. Christer will this time be with me from the start. This time we´ll start the trip by going by car. One can wonder why and where we are going this time. The original plan was that this summer would be spent in southern Africa from the 20th of June. But these plans have changed since Christer has been at the hospital during two occasions during the spring and early summer. He didn’t feel fit for such a long journey. The trip to Africa has been shortened and postponed to later this summer. This gave us both time and money to do something else. We decided to visit two European countries, the Netherlands (Holland) and Belgium. This is where we are heading.

Peter starting up a new travel journal on his car in Sundsvall.

10.04 We’ve filled up with petrol at Statoil in the central parts of Sundsvall and we also bought ourselves something to drink. We have plans to go by car to Västerås.

12.16 We’ve stopped at Hagsta Krog a restaurant and halting place along the E4 highway north of Gävle. Here we will stretch our legs and perhaps get something to eat.

14.08 We’ve just made a new stop. We are now in Heby. We will have a lunch here. We just sat down at Pizzeria Verona for this trip´s first restaurant meal. We will not have pizza though. We’ve ordered Döner kebab with fries/rice.

15.39 We have checked in to room 345 at Quality Hotel in Västerås. Although it is a hotel we are staying at a hostel. How can this be? Well, some of the rooms has the standard and service of a hostel and works as Västerås youth hostel, strange but true! An announcement on the TV screen has greeted me welcome. Now we will get things in order before we visit the city.

17.23 We just sat down on a bench. We are walking along the stream Svartån. The stream (like ourselves) is heading for the centre of Västerås.

Quality Hotel, Västerås.

Christer showing where we are.

Västerås Cathedral.

18.04 We are looking at Västerås cathedral. Outside of it is a statue of Johannes Rudbeckius. He has also given name to the Rudbeckian gymnasium. That is the school we are resting in front of. We will soon head on.

19.29 We´ve seen enough of the central parts of Västerås. Among other things we´ve seen the castle. It served as a royal castle between around 1523 and 1638. We are on our way home and have just bought some breakfast for tomorrow.

Västerås City Hall

Västerås castle

Svartån

20.44 Well here we are, back in the room. We met a man on our way home. He was ever so exalted because he had just seen a beaver. We walked through a part of the city which is called Vallby, went to a supermarket and bought a little more to munch on. We are watching the final in the soccer Confederation Cup in South Africa. United States is in the lead with 1-0 against Brazil.

21.04 United States is leading with 2-0 and Christer is having a shower. There is nothing in common between these two events.

22.23 It is over. Brazil took control of the game and has won it 3-2. We are about to fill up with fluids and to prepare for sleep. Tomorrow awaits two countries. One will be a return for me and a new country for Christer.

Summer paradise along the Svartån stream in Västerås.

Monday 29th of June

06.44 The news is pouring out from the TV. We are packing our things preparing for the short trip by car to the airport. From there we will head to the continent.

07.40 My car is parked on the long term parking lot at Västerås airport and we are preparing ourselves and our backpacks for the trip.

08.05 I am sitting by some stairs next to the gate. Some of the other passengers on our flight were asked to pass through security.

08.24 We are once again in some airplane seats on an aeroplane from Ryanair. Today we will fly to Düsseldorf, but when you go with Ryanair it´s just a part of the truth. We are flying to the airport Weeze which is in fact far north of Düsseldorf. But we will not settle with that. We have plans to go further today.

GERMANY

10.44 We’ve just landed at Weeze Airport. Here we will see what we will do on our first visit to Weeze. We might have some coffee and perhaps go to the "WC". My backpack was the first to arrive at the luggage carrousel.

11.04 What a wonderful start. We haven´t found any ATM accepting our VISA cards. To make it even better the café only accepts cash payment. It is good that I happen to carry some bills. We will at least get something to eat.

Peter is having a sandwich at Weeze Airport.

11.22 We had some sandwiches with some strange yellow stuff instead of margarine. Christer has just made a new attack towards the ATM´s. If that doesn’t work I will try to buy some stuff with my VISA card. I will buy it for more than it costs and we can use the change I get.

11.38 It was just fine to buy with the card, but only for the correct and right amount, no change given back. I’ve also tried and failed to get some money from the ATM. There is nothing wrong with it. A lady in front of me got her money. Our transport will leave in 50 minutes from now. We haven’t paid for it. Do they accept cards?

11.57 We’ve been at the office of our transport company, Taxi Hottgenroth. They take care of the traffic of shuttle minibuses to surrounding places. We can’t pay the trip with a card or at the office. We can jump off in the Dutch city of Nijmegen and withdraw money though. This can be done if the bus stops there and no one among the other passengers object to this. We’ve also spoken to a lady at the information desk. She has informed us that the VISA cards sometimes don’t work here.

12.21 We are seated on the minibus. We’ve been accepted to travel for free to Nijmegen. There I will get out getting some money. If we both get out we might stand the risk that they will leave without us. A taxi driver here at the airport has offered us some black exchange, 15 Swedish kronor for 1 euro?! The normal rate is around 11 for 1.

13.01 We are getting closer to Nijmegen. Will we really stop there? Do they have an ATM? Will it have money for me?

NETHERLANDS

13.21 Well here I am, back in the Netherlands. I ran into the railway station here in Nijmegen and withdrew 150 euro. We’ve reached the province of Gelderland but we are still heading on.

13.53 Our transport carried on and stopped by Stadium Gelredome in Arnhem. It is the home ground for the soccer team Vitesse, was used during the European Championships of 2000 and has been visited by artists as; U2, Janet Jackson, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi and many more. Well, time to walk towards the centre of the city. The sun keeps shining and Christer has reached a new country.

Peter is resting on a bench in the outskirts of Arnhem.

Nederrijn (Lower Rhine) passing through Arnhem.

14.29 We had no problems walking on the bridge across the Rhine. It didn’t go quite as smooth for the allied troups during World War II. The bridge is nowadays named after the commander of the troups; John D Frost. We are sitting on a square in front of a church. The square is called Kerkplein (Church Square) and the church is called Grote Kerk aka Sint-Eusebius-church.

15.19 Christer has also withdrawn some money and we have reached the railway station of Arnhem. It is colourful to say the least, painted in orange and green. We’ve bought and validated a ticket each. The ticket is for today’s final destination, Utrecht.

15.31 Our double decked train has come to a slow start. I am a bit peckish. It is raining in the world outside.

We are walking through Arnhem.

Christer and a euro-coin.

16.40 After a stroll through Utrecht we´ve finally reached Hostel Strowis. (http://www.strowis.nl) We are having some coffee while we wait to be registered. We’ve also got a paper with the hostel rules. Strowis can be found at Boothstraat 8 and used to be a holdout for squatters. They later created this oasis for backpackers like us. It will cost you 15 euro if you are willing to share a room with 13 others, which is cheap to be here in this country.

Where is my bicycle...?

Our dormatory at Hostel Strowis.

18.06 Showered, fresh but still hungry. We are about to get out in the city. Christer´s shoes are breaking up. The young lady in the reception wrote down the code to the front door on two cards. Hey where are they?

19.26 We got our cards before we popped out. The young lady claimed that we had forgotten them on the table. I don’t think so. The table was empty as we left for the room. We’ve walked around in Utrecht and taken come photos. We’ve also looked for places to dine at. It is really expensive to eat here so we can’t just sit down and order anywhere. We are now seated at La Grotta. It is a pizzeria down by a canal. It is at Oudegracht 50. Oudegracht by the way means “the old canal".

Utrecht

Christer having dinner at Pizzeria La Grotta.

20.26 It was filling, it was delicious. We’ve bought some breakfast and returned to the room. We are as mentioned before staying in a dormitory. Some things must be done before we can go to sleep. We need to put name tags on our food before we put it in the common refrigerator.

21.14 It is still light outside. We went out again and sat down outside of the pub Delphi’s. We’ve ordered a Jupiler each. Jupiler for you who don’t know is a Belgian beer. We are enjoying life and reading the crime novels we brought with us. The ones at the table next to us are enjoying as well. They are some ladies in their 70´s. They are like us having some beer. Can that be seen at home in Sweden? If possible I would like to know where.

22.56 We are back in our room. The dusk is here and tomorrow awaits a new day and a new city.

Nice atmosphere along the canals in Utrecht.