Sweden..Not Just ABBA and Sensible Cars

We thought we'd give the two weeks in France a miss this year, unfortunately we can't agree on where to spend two weeks in August so it looks like it will be one week in Paris (yes, the one in France) and a week at home - where I can admire my garden for a change when it is in full bloom.

Anyway, looking around for an alternative for next year we currently have three choices: Croatia, Tunisia or Sweden - sounds like the sort of group Scotland would be drawn in should they ever qualify for a major tournament again. One of the sites suggested by the Independent newspaper was this one which is for a campsite/farm on one of the islands in the Stockholm Archipelago.

It's great: cabins, motor homes, packed lunches, canoes, kayaks, beaches etc. But it's so much more than that, you can spend your holiday repairing old cars, you can cuddle a horse (that's what it says) and if you live in a flat in a town without a garden you can hire a rabbit or a dog for week so you can experience pet ownership.

The owners of the site also organise a river excursion to a 'Viking Experience' evening, I'd like to go just for that and finally get to walk up to a Viking and say "Hail Ragnar's beard," something I've wanted to do since seeing Kirk Douglas say it to Ernest Borgnine in the film The Vikings.

Looking at various Swedish sites it seems that they really are a back to nature lot, whilst many holiday homes may have fires, kitchens, barbecue areas etc they don't all have toilets, running water or showers. Having discussed this with Janis and Nathalie we've concluded that, whilst the scenery and the beaches might be great, the thought of making your way in the middle of the night to the 'outhouse', as they are so quaintly described, and bumping into an elk is not something you want to consider part of the holiday experience.

So that leaves those plucky North Africans and the stubborn Balkan's - as Terry from The Likely Lads would have put it.