The perfect Swedish road trip, how it continued

After breakfast, everything is fine in Sweden, the coffee is great and the breakfast is healthy and good, we walk towards our four-wheeled friend. The first agenda item is the Fotografiska museum and since you're on a road trip, you certainly don't want to complicate things with Ubers or local taxis. Once we have disconnected the charging cable and taken our seats in the car, we learn why there were so many parking spaces available last night at this prime location. The ticket that is displayed behind the windshield initially causes outrage, because hey, didn't I just install a brand new parking app to pay properly? With Google Lens, which I have now been tipped off about by my daughter, we read the text on the sign next to the parking meter. You can park here every day, except on Monday evenings because then the parking lot cleaned. A typical case of ‘we could have known that’ and besides, we comfort ourselves with the idea that it hasn't been towed away like it once happened to us in le Marais in Paris.

Fotografiska, NK and a slightly too exuberant lunch

Fotografiska is an absolute must-visit if you're in Stockholm. The building alone, a bit factory-style located by the water, is a sight in itself, but the collections and the playful way everything is presented are also amazing. There is an exhibition by a photographer who has cut out his work as if you are walking in a kind of large diorama. Once you've crossed the entire building, you could enjoy a coffee with a cinnamon bun, after all, you are in Sweden, and also visit the museum shop. Here you will find beautiful photo books, photo prints of special works, postcards, and other creative goodies. The fact that we are in the car is deceptively dangerous because you would think we have room for many purchases, but in the end, we are still flying home.

Then the car takes us to the center of Stockholm where we briefly indulge in shopping. Of course, we go to that beautiful department store NK where the sale has also just started and to the concept store of Acne. With a moist corner of my mouth, I walk past the Chanel boutique where Matthieu Blazy's métiers d’art collection is displayed in the window. It is noticeable that almost everyone in Stockholm is attractive and well-dressed in that typical Stockholm style, not extremely flamboyant but classy and fashionable. We overindulge in our lunch order at a trendy sushi place but receive a doggy box from the waiter containing that spicy tuna roll. Stockholm is amazing, but our car and the Swedish countryside are calling, so we dive into the garage to take a little trip to a place a bit further away, called Sigtuna Baktlubb, which reminds me of that beautiful Knysna on the South African garden route. Water, nature, and two delightful eateries where you almost sit with your feet in the water.

Summering in Sweden

Summering in Sweden is a special sensation. It only gets dark around midnight and starts to get light again three hours later. As a result, we have completely lost track of time and sleep very little. It is now almost later than mealtime, so we share the tuna roll, order a strong Cola Zero with lots of ice, and crawl into our rooms early. Tomorrow awaits us the return trip to Gothenburg and we want to be fresh for that.

Safely devouring kilometers

We decide to drive straight to our last hotel. We have quite a few kilometers to cover from Stockholm to Gothenburg, but it doesn't feel like that at all in the EX40. As the kilometers of Swedish forest and dozens of lakes glide by, the car secretly keeps an eye on things. Pilot Assist smoothly takes over the straight stretches of highway by automatically adjusting distance and speed to the car in front of you, allowing us to enjoy the view and listen to the latest episodes of Op zoek naar Marlotte. If our concentration starts to wane after hours of driving, Driver Alert kindly nudges us before we even realize it. In an urban environment, you can rely on City Safety and lane assistance that intervene when a pedestrian or cyclist unexpectedly crosses.

On the way, we still find a nice anecdote about the daylight lamps of our Volvo EX40. As you probably know, everything at Volvo revolves around safety. I wrote about that earlier in this article (Why my next car could very well be a Volvo) after I visited their headquarters. Volvo calls the shape of their LED daytime running lights “Thor's Hammer.” The T-shaped light strips resemble Thor's hammer Mjölnir from Norse mythology. Not coincidentally, because Volvo chose this name because Sweden was the center of the Viking Age. Thor himself is known in Norse stories as the god of thunder, lightning, storm, and strength. And these lights are meant to arm and protect you, that's the idea. The Thor's Hammer headlights are also adaptive and work with pixel light technology that can “dim” up to five vehicles at a time per headlight so you never blind oncoming traffic, and the lights even turn in corners to illuminate the road ahead. Very practical for a nighttime drive through the Swedish forests. Although we don't really need this advantage now, because it is only dark between 01:00 and 03:00 at night and then we are in our soft beds.

Here we stay

Around cocktail time, we arrive at our last hotel, the Hjortviken Countryclub and you should save this NOW. The decor is SOHO-house inspired, the rooms may not be very large, but they are very cool, the mattress is so perfect that I inquire the next day where they purchased them, there are padel courts, an indoor pool surrounded by lounge beds, an outdoor pool with a huge bar, and many people standing at the bar enjoying drinks. Club Tropicana Vibes, but in a Swedish way. We order drinks, the best pimentos padron ever, charcuterie, cheeses, tilt our heads towards the sun, and decide to do nothing else this day than soak up this hotel. After a good night, we seem to be getting used to the Swedish light, we jump out of bed. We order a coffee and fill our plates with fruit, yogurt, eggs, and Swedish salmon and decide that we still have just enough time for a dip in a Swedish lake. We drive to the nearest lake where a pontoon has been set up with a triple diving board. When I stand on the highest one, which I think is about 4 meters high, my heart starts racing and I literally see my knees shaking. When I hear Daan shout “don't do it, May” (she is standing on the dock to photograph me), I listen to her and take the diving board from a step lower. Because wasn't safety above all the common thread of this trip?