Gothenburg 30th June 2009

Nav girl got us safely once again to another location without much bother. Today was HOT, although thankful for the sun it was a little too warm to walk around comfortably and get lost. Which is what we did. We discovered that Andy without a map is like Samson without flowing locks, almost useless! So it was down to me, yes that's right me; the woman who with questionable spacial and directional judgement at the best of times (with Sat nav) can still get lost. Well it was very she and her instincts that got us into the town centre. Well that is after I took refuge under shade a couple of times, while Andy played Ian Rankin. But once we reached town, hunger hit and despite seeing lots of restaurants, none were hitting the spot. Finally we found a suitable 'Ashleigh' type place, that says from the exterior, "Our clientel are classy and we reward people like you who pay a little bit more for your drinks with excellent service". Lies, lies, lies; the management was hanging around doing nothing, there were no menus outside to read, they had a one way in and around-the-houses entrance to the bar that did NO table service and frankly a bar tender whose skills left a snails-pace looking like a better alternative!

Now I am not normally one to complain but I felt cheated, like false advertising that building had promised me the experience I wanted, and here I was now forced to have a drink because I was too weak and hungry to move on, and still - lunchless!! Fortunately for the management the outside entertainment was good enough to curb the inner Gordan Ramsey dying to tell them about their establishment. Above us was a hotel swimming pool with a rather impressive design. A jutted out edge to the pool gave ever so slightly a display of the swimmers floating around in it. After noticing the crowd gathering, cameras in hand, trying to resist the temptation to follow their gaze, Andy and I had to look up. It turned out a rather large lady had taken spot just where everyone might be able to see her. I was more worried she may have sunk but most people just took photos and didn't spare her a thought, water magnifies you know!

Alas we left our expensive bar but didn't have to go far before finding a fab and cheap satisfying lunch. I let Andy face the window as he was enjoying a bit of window shopping as beautiful blonde Sweds walked by. I had secretly also been enjoying checking out the gorgeous Sweds but I gave up the seat nonetheless.

We had managed to get a map and we were now armed with the intel to finding the Viking ship that the little boy inside Andy so desperately wanted to see. Sadly we didn't make it to see the ship, we arrived to the museum as it was closing, having underestimated the time of day given the endless hours of sun!

We made it to the car and onto find our campsite for the night. We were spoilt for choice in Townsland. The first campsite we came to had the most amazing mini golf you have ever seen. It was awesome, but the persistent researcher in Andy meant we had to weigh up our decisions and drive to the next site to check it out. It turned out we weren't missing much and that was even despite the receptionist's rude nature. So we visited option 3. This sites mini golf paled in comparison to site 1 so our minds were made up, well actually the first site had me at mini golf fake mountains, but Andy's curiosity was now satisfied. We were almost turned away at our choice camp when the young girl said "I'll have to check if we have space". Surely looking out the window to an empty field, they had space.

After we set up camp I embarked on my first Tranja cooked dinner - Irish stew. Admittedly this dinner is normally quite fatty and is always a hearty feed however the addition of Swedish meat, took it to a whole new level. Bearing in mind I couldn't tell you what meat we were cooking as I'd not a clue what the Swedish label said, the formidable fat content sure made for tasty stew and although it remained on the pots and dishes for the rest of our meals my first Tranja cuisine was a great success.

We rested inside our tent hidden from the mosquitoes and planned our next big leg - North Germany.