Drive to Kiruna - 1 - Karlskrona (27-Dec)

 On the 27th we were out of our apartment early and starting phase two of our holiday - a drive from Malmo to Kiruna - essentially from the further south point in Sweden to the furthest north:

Since the drive was over 20 hours without stopping, we decided to break it into several parts - a drive from Malmo to Karlskrona:

Then the next day, a drive from Karlskrona to Gävle:

The Gävle to Luleå (8 1/2 hrs)

and finally Luleå to Kiruna.

The drive to Karlskrona was pretty straight forward and we arrived just after lunch. We decided to check out the Marinmuseum (Maritime Museum) before heading to our accommodation.  Admission was free and the museum has lots of cool displays including a hall of figureheads and the Neptun Submarine which can be walked through:

The entrance

Alana and Kris fish watching in the shipwreck tunnel

Some of the figureheads

Tomas trying out the balance board

HSwMS Neptun was the 2nd of the  Näcken-class submarines and launched in 1980. She was decommissioned in 1998 and donated to the museum in 2008.

Inside Neptun

After checking into our hotel - På Hörnet - we went for a walk around Karlskrona to check out the town and the naval base. Unfortunately it got dark very quick, so our view was limited.

The statue of Rosenbom outside the Admiralty Church.

The sign reads:

I humbly beg you

Although the voice is probably dull

Come put a penny down

But hats off to me

~ * ~

Lucky is the one who allows himself

Care for the poor

You can lift the hat to make a donation.

The statue is based on Old Man Rosenbom (Mats Hindiksson Rosenbom) who was one of the first settlers in Karlskrona. The story is that Rosenbom was out begging when a sculptor hit him and threw him out into the snow. Later he went looking to apologise, but Rosenbom hid by the church and froze to death. As an apology the sculptor created the poorhouse.

Central Karlskrona

 After our walk we stopped for a pizza for dinner and an early night as we had a big drive the next day.

We had booked a single large room for our accommodation, but unfortunately the hotel had an urgent request for a large room and we were split into two. Cameron, Tomas and I took one room and Alana and Kris took the other.

The boys watched Clone Wars and were asleep by 11:00, however Tom woke at 2am, stood up out of bed, said "Yes, we have two of them." walked over and turned the TV on then got back into bed and continued sleeping.  It took Cameron and I a little to get back to sleep after that.