Sweden to Morocco

Time to hit the road again and enjoy another adventure with our Land Rover. Our goal was to drive to Morocco and to see the Atlas Mountains and the Sahara desert beyond the mountains. We drove quickly to the Mediterranean through Denmark, Germany, Austria, Lichtenstein, Switzerland and Italy.

The Alfred Nobel House in San Remo, Italy.

The Casino in Monaco.

With the Lenander family in Le Predet, France.

Sunflowers in Provence, the Roman amphitheater in Arles, the Roman aqueduct in Pont du Gard.

We visited our Dutch travel friends Marcel and Nelly at their guest house outside Foix, France.

We touched the clouds in beautiful Andorra.

Spain was a delight. We focused on the high plateau, and the weather was perfect. Our first stop was Soria, where we stumbled upon a bull run. Very exciting!

Segovia is a gem, with its 2000 years old Roman aqueduct, its fairytale castle and its cathedral and narrow streets.

We did a lot of wild-camping in the beautiful countryside. People are very friendly. And we could follow in the footsteps of Don Quijote.

Back in 2008, we named our Land Rover “Alhambra”. It means “the red house” in Arabic, and we thought it was an appropriate name for our red mobile home. Now we had the chance to visit the real Alhambra – the Moorish fort/castle complex in Granada, Spain. It is touristic, but definitely worth a visit.

We visited our Dutch travel friends Ilco and Anna, with kids Bloem, Chaia and Dunya in their home outside Montefrio. Ilco is a photographer and peace activist. Anna writes children books. What a wonderful family! Read more on http://www.ilcovanderlinde.nl/

Continuing south towards Morocco, we visited the British colony of Gibraltar, an odd place with a lot of charm (and monkeys). To get into Gibraltar, we had to drive across the airfield. And then we got a special permission to drive all the way to the top of “The Rock”. Wow!

Our final stop on the European continent was on the beach outside Tarifa. We could see Africa on the other side of the Gibraltar strait. There was an air of adventure.

May 2011

We are not used to having a garden. And when we moved in it was covered by deep snow. But now we discover new flowers every day. Wonderful!

April 2011

We discovered that we have a beautiful magnolia tree in front of our house. Amazing tree!

We enjoyed the lovely spring weather. Ola and Temba took up skateboarding again. And Atlas got inspired and also wanted to try skateboarding.

And Easter was so warm that the Easter chocolate eggs melted and we went for a swim in the lake instead.

19 March 2011

Finally! It is springtime!

February 2011

We are getting to know our new neighbourhood. Being close to the see is really nice.

Nina, Temba and Disa went for a week’s skiing in Austria.

December 2010 – January 2011

We had a lot of snow in Malmö this winter. The children really enjoyed it!

In January we moved into our house. It is on Beleshögsvägen, in the western part of Malmö, close to the beach. Temba and Disa moved to a new school. Very exciting times for all of us!

Books, blogs and article

In the latest issue #8 of Vagabond (Swedish travel magazine) there is an article about our journey from Sweden to Cambodia. Click here to read the article on Vagabond.se (Swedish only).

Signed copies of our book “Kapstaden till Nordkap på 333 dagar” can be bought directly on our web site www.kaptillkap.se.

We aim to publish a book about our journey from Sweden to Cambodia, but it will take a few more months.

We continue to update our family blog www.ringdahlfamily.blogspot.com.

If you are interested specifically in our journey from Sweden to Cambodia, please use the blog archive and browse through the posts from April 2008 to July 2009.

Temba is also writing a blog (in Swedish). Read about his impressions on www.tembaringdahl.blogspot.com.

September 2010

Atlas turned 3 years and was delighted by the Spiderman cake.

September has been a lot about football. Temba is practicing twice a week, and now Disa has also started playing.

Ola took Nina to her first live football game ever, Malmö against Helsingborg. It was a great show, with every seat sold out, and MFF won 2-0.

August 2010 – Sweden

We returned to Sweden and visited Vadstena and Gränna.

A camp site by Lake Vättern offered pony riding and the kids loved it. And what a sunset!

After a few days in Småland we continued to Skåne and Österlen. The Svanström family arranged a barbecue in their lovely garden by the sea. This was followed by some sightseeing in Kivik and lovely days on the beach Sandhammaren.

And then it was time for the annual summer meeting of the Swedish Land Rover Club, this year at the island Ivön in northeast Skåne. We went together with the Tegenrot family and had a great time. Ola gave a photo show and presentation to around 100 people who were interested to hear more about our long trips with kids.