Labradane trip summary

[Labradane]

We are back from our OSD trip to Sweden.  Below is a (belated) trip report.  I have tried to be as complete as possible on details that will help others.  If I think of anything else, I will add it later.  The bottom line is that we had a really great time and would recommend it to everyone.

Summary: We spent a little over a week there.  We stayed in Sweden, performing a counterclockwise loop around the southern part of the country (starting and ending in G’burg).  We spent time in Gothenburg, Malmo, Vaxjo, and Stockholm.  We also stopped in other towns, but these four were the highlights.  We had planned to make it to Kalmar and Oland too, but (unfortunately) missed these.  I think the highlight for both of us was Stockholm.

Gathering Advance Info: This forum and the trip reports from other OSDers were very useful.  Some travel websites were good, particularly Frommer’s.  Also, London newspaper websites have lots of good articles about Sweden.  We bought an Insight Guide on Sweden (which was merely average) and a Rough Guide (which was very good).  Neither of the books are too great for restaurants though, probably because they’re so quickly outdated.  For restaurants, try Zagat’s website (which we forgot to do).

Travel and Time Change: We took a night flight from the East Coast and arrived in G’burg early on the day before our pickup.  I definitely recommend arriving a day early.  We had promised ourselves repeatedly that we would stay awake on that first day to acclimate to the time change.  We made the big mistake, however, of not toughing it out during that day, and instead fell asleep for a few hours in the afternoon.  This mistake scrambled our sleep schedule for the next few days and made it hard to function.  Take sleeping pills, take No-Doz, meditate heavily … just do whatever you can to force your body onto Sweden time as rapidly as possible.  One nice touch was the Volvo person ready and waiting at the airport to take us to our hotel.

FDC Pickup: Volvo picked us up at the hotel promptly at 10:15 in the morning, and took us to the factory delivery center, but we ended up just sitting around waiting for a few hours.  FDC seemed to have scheduled many pick-ups that day, and we did not get called until after lunch.  (PS – The meatballs were surprisingly good.)  The drawback of this was that we did not really get out of there until 3 or 4 in the afternoon.  The benefit was that Hans (see below) spent some extra time with us because we were the last ones in line for the day.  We took advantage of the FDC hospitality, and used the time to make toll-free calls to family and friends on Volvo’s phone, and checked e-mail on their computer.  Moral: If you want to get on the road quickly, call and request an early morning pickup time.  If you don’t get an early morning time, that’s not so bad.  Also, do not skip the factory tour.  It was great, and gave us both a lot more pride in our car.  We both rate the factory tour as among one of the top three highlights of the trip.

Hans: He really is “all that and a bag of chips.”  A really nice guy and very funny.  Very patient and thorough in explaining all the features of the car and answering all our (dumb) questions.  Be sure to ask lots of questions because he’s got all the answers.  We told him he’s a celebrity on this site, and he laughed about it.  He said someone else had mentioned the site a few days earlier.  (Of course, maybe he secretly visits here all the time&#33  We had a very interesting discussion with him about the comparative tax rates in the US and Sweden, and how the many social benefits that Swedes get more than offset the higher tax rate there.  (Disclaimer: I am not trying to start a discussion about tax rates or social welfare here, and I will discourage any efforts to wade into that swamp.  There are many pros and cons, and whether a particular person thinks a particular tax system is “fair” or not often depends largely on her income level and on how she feels about progressive rate policies and their effects.  Free to be you and me ….)

Cell Phone: We had planned on getting the free cell phone that Volvo offers so we did not have to pay exorbitant hotel calling rates to check in with family and friends.  We failed, however, to read the paperwork closely.  To get the free cell phone, you have to request it in advance and have it mailed to you BEFORE you go over to Sweden.  Don’t forget to do this!  We managed to keep rates low by using prepaid calling cards, but it was a pain.  Further recommendation: If you are planning to use a calling card from over there, make sure you ask the calling card people in advance for the toll-free number you will need to dial from Sweden, so you don’t have to figure it our from over there.  (You might be getting the sense now that we were a little less organized in our planning than we should have been ….  You would be correct in that assessement.)

Driving in Sweden: If you are going off the beaten path at all (and we recommend it), invest in a detailed book map that shows all the roads.  It is much better than the fold-out maps available at the FDC or in most stores.  We picked one up at a bookstore in G’burg for about $20, and it was invaluable.  

Language: Almost everyone speaks English, so don’t worry.  We repeatedly tried to speak Swedish to be polite, but could never get anyone to understand even part of what we were trying to say.  At least we gave them a good laugh with our mangled pronunciation.  We picked up a $5 Swedish-English dictionary at the bookstore, and it was useful for translating signs and menus.  [If anyone going over there wants the book-map and the dictionary, I’m happy to snail-mail them both to you for $15.  I’ll even pay for postage.  Just let me know.]

Lodging: We picked some hotels off the internet, and they all were OK.  The Scandic and Elite chains seem to have very nice hotels in most cities.  Also, try the www.countrysidehotels.com website.  It’s got a lot of great inns and B&Bs, and they have a lot more character than the hotels.  There also are a lot of smaller places not listed on these websites that we saw in these towns.  I am not sure how to find out about them – maybe at particular town websites.  We found www.tripadvisor.com useful for picking hotels.  Also, check out the travel sections of the London newspaper websites.  There are many archived articles about weekend getaway trips to Sweden that have good info about things to do and places to stay.

Gothenburg: Great town.  I wish we had spent more time there, and not just at the beginning and end of our trip when we were exhausted.  Be sure to wander some of the streets further away from the downtown area (especially south and southeast), because there is a lot of real city and real people over there to see.  For good food, try “Pasta Plus” near the soccer fields.  We ate at Pasta Plus and liked it a lot.  We also ate at the super-fancy restaurant in the Elite hotel in G’burg, and although it was good, it was expensive and not our style, and thus a little disappointing.

Malmo: Another great city.  We did not go over to Copenhagen, but did not miss it.  Lots of interesting back streets outside the tourist area to explore.  The Rough Guide came in very handy here.  This was our first night after picking up the car at the FDC, and we found it hard to let the car out of our sight.  Fortunately, the hotel had indoor parking, so our paranoia was minimized.  We also stayed a night at a converted manor house B&B outside of Malmo, which was pretty incredible.

Vaxjo and surrounding areas: This was the low point of the trip.  The countryside was beautiful and the people were very nice, but there just wasn’t much to see or do.  Also, it was a Sunday, so most everything was closed.  We tried to go to the glass blowing places to see crystal being made, but many were closed or only had limited operations.  We decided to change plans and push immediately for Stockholm.  The full-day drive from Vaxjo to Stockholm was long, but ultimately a good move for us.

Stockholm: Everyone told us in advance what a great city it is, and they were 100% right.  It was truly incredible.  If we had the trip to do over again, I might choose just to spend the entire time in Stockholm.  Lots to see and do.  Great streets to walk.  We happened to pick up a freebie “What to do in Stockholm” book at the NK department store, and it was much better than any of the other guidebooks we had.  It had up-to-date info about festivals, museums, and restaurants.  Sounds silly, but I’d recommend a special trip to the department store (near the train station) just to get one.  The outdoor Skansen museum and zoo was particularly great – a top three highlight of the trip.  The Vasa ship museum and the medieval museum also were good.  We also tried to visit a museum downtown near the water that is a converted turn-of-the-century manor house of an eccentric heiress who stipulated in her will that nothing ever be changed or moved (cannot remember the name).  The timing worked out that we could not attend the tour in English, but it sounded fascinating and is something I’d recommend that others try.  There also are planty of other museums we missed.  We spent our first night at the Hotel Birger Jarl, which was nice and clean, but sort of disappointing because it felt like an expensive IKEA store.  The next morning, we wandered around town checking out replacement hotels.  We ended up getting a really incredible reduced rate on a suite at the Hotel Diplomat (because the room was empty anyway and because they were doing renovations on the outside of the building).  The room and the view were absolutely incredible and we were getting an amazing bargain, so the Diplomat immediately became one of the highlights of the trip for us.  Even if you do not get the discount, I’d highly recommend the Diplomat (although I think it’s normally pretty pricey).  Excellent restaurants.  We liked Annakhan on Riddargatan the most (excellent “nouveau Indian”).  We also managed to find a great Middle Eastern place called “Lebanon” that’s about two blocks from the Diplomat, near the opera house.

That's all for now.  Pictures later.  Thanks again to everyone here for their help and suggestions.

[coastal]

Excellent report Labradane... really makes me wish we took part in OSD    

[Anne]

Hi and thanks to all OSDers. Yes, this is my first post - I lurked the last three months to gather all research we needed to make our OSD decision. I really appreciate all the advice! My husband & I have an FDC delivery date of Nov. 26th for our S60R (manual 6-speed, of course, in titanium and Atacama leather). So if anyone else is picking up around then, please email to say hi. Can't wait!

Labradane, I'd love to take your map and dictionary materials off your hands, and would be happy to send you a check for $20 to cover the mailing. Email me off-line. We'll be in Stockhom for two days, so we'll also take your advice to stop in the NK department store for the 'what to do' brochure.

I haven't figured out how to enable a signature for this first posting, but to fill in a bit of info: We're from CT, and yes, I've picked up some helpful details for our local area not already suggested on this board (having to do with dealerships, that is). If anyone local is considering the decision, send an email for our experience and what'd we'd do differently in the buying process.

[Labradane]

Anne, I wish I could send you the book-map and the dictionary, but someone else already jumped on them a few weeks ago.  Sorry!  

Have a great time over there anyway.  If there is anything I can do to help, do not hesitate to ask.