Sweden, 1985 #2of2

The town cemetery in Oskarshamn is like a flower garden, and they were steam cleaning sidewalks in the downtown area early in the morning. The countryside is so rocky they must drill holes in the boulders for the electric and telephone poles. We stopped at a large store, two floors, something like a K-Mart, only better (we saw one like it in Denmark). We didn't make a note of the store name, but by hindsight we think it must have been an Ikea store.

At the Stockholm RR Station we received good driving directions, but bad information, as that campsite was closed for the season. We easily found the one we stayed at a few years ago, and since they have a sauna, that was just fine with me.

Stockholm is a lovely city, rather majestic as a matter of fact. The architecture is not nearly as breathtaking as Paris or Vienna, but certainly better than Helsinki, Oslo, and Copenhagen. The buildings may not be as interesting as some in London, but many are neat, clean, and very nice.

One day Emmy spent the day in the camper, planning to wash her hair and rest her body. I had a dental problem and found a Dentist who took care of the repair, as I continued to walk around the city. (That’s right, no need to sit and wait while they worked.) There’s a set price for the patch, modified by a percentage that is based on the patient’s home country’s Government controlled medical system. For a USA citizen, that meant 100%, or $60, three times the cost in California.

As we left Poland a few days earlier, we had a problem with money exchange, so I found the Polish Consulate in Stockholm, and met with Mr. Polak (his name, really). He didn’t take care of the matter, but we did get even, after a fashion, when we sailed on a Polish ship from Rotterdam, to Montreal, later that same year.

I conducted a sidewalk survey, trying to determine where to take Emmy for lunch the next day. I asked ladies in the post office, in the dental office, and on the street, “Given a choice, where would you eat lunch.” The sidewalk votes were almost a tie, 9 to 8 in favor of the Opera dining room. Emmy looked at both — the Opera was fancy and had a large Smorgasbord, but it was also much more expensive, so she decided on the Grand Hotel. While we were eating lunch a well dressed gentleman told us a joke — “In America you have Johnny Cash, Bob Hope, and President Reagan, in Sweden we have no cash, no hope, and Parliament.”

We rode the subway away from the city, to the end of the line, looking at the towns and the scenery. The further we went, the poorer things looked. But it’s all relative of course, as the poorest places still looked very nice. Sweden's socilists government may be expensive, but it works!