We recently returned from a Volvo Overseas Delivery (OSD) trip. We flew out on 15 Oct 2003 from San Jose and flew to Gothenburg, Sweden, via Copenhagen, Denmark. The entire trip was coordinated through the Volvo travel office.

We were picked up at the airport by Volvo and brought to our hotel, the Radisson SAS Scandinavia, in an XC-90. We had time in the afternoon and evening to tour and shop in the downtown of Gothenburg, the second largest city in Sweden after Stockholm. Volvo had provided us two, one day "Gothenburg Cards". These provide free bus service and entry into museums, but we ended up not using them.

We needed some Swedish Krona for spending money, and had been told to use an ATM for the best rate. I found an ATM that was on the PLUS system that my bank uses, and used it to make a withdrawal. I found out that "5.000" means 5000 Krona in Sweden, not 5 Krona. Apparently in Sweden a "." means a US ",". The ATM didn't even ask "are you sure?". Out popped ten, crisp, 500 Krona bills. Since I now had $640 worth of Swedish Krona, it was the last time I needed to withdraw cash for the trip.

We looked around for a place to eat. We decided our hotel dining room was too empty, and the menu didn't appeal to us. We looked around but ended up eating at the Hotel Eggers across the street from ours, by the central train station. We had a light meal of potato soup and Caesar salad. It was really nice, but there were people smoking in the restaurant which is a change from California. I had a draft Spendrups light beer. For some reason I don't like drinking beer in the US, but in Europe it tastes great.

The following morning Volvo took us to the Volvo World Headquarters, at the outskirts of Gothenburg, again in another XC-90. Although I saw lots of Volvo's, I didn't see many XC-90's on the roads. I asked about this. The driver said they were sending most overseas. I don't know if maybe the XC-90 is a little large for Swedes, or if they intentionally send them overseas. He then dropped us off at the Factory Delivery Center (FDC). This area is like a Volvo City. In fact, they have an area of shops and restaurants that is called Volvo City.

I tried to tip both drivers, but they wouldn't accept it.

We met other couples who were also picking up cars at the FDC. One couple was from the NATO office in Oslo, Norway (originally from Florida), and another was from Colorado (COMark on www.Swedespeed.com). Volvo gave a tour of the plant where they build XC-90's and other Volvo cars on a flexible production line. Taking pictures of the plant was forbidden. It was amazingly quiet and clean inside. I had been to other auto plants, and they had been somewhat dirty and so loud it was hard to talk. But not here. They said the machines are designed to be very quiet. Ear protection was not required. We did need to wear protective glasses while around the welding machines, but that was it. Women were everywhere. In fact, 30% of the plant workers are woman. The floor by the assembly line is overlaid with wood to make it softer to walk on. Almost all welds and part placement are done by computer. If a person needs to work on a lower portion the car, the car is rotated for the worker to easily reach it, rather then having the worker bend down and possibly make a mistake. Much of the work on the line seemed to be monitoring the machines as they function, and repairing them when they fail.

We picked up our XC-90 on 17 Oct 2003. Because of the time spent at the FDC, and the factory tour, we had to leave late in the day. We reviewed the map and directions we had received, and hurried to make it to our first stop on our tour. I didn't want to drive for the first time in Sweden at night.

Volvo had arranged a four day Castle and Manor Tour for us, where you are able to stay at some fabulous old manor homes. All dinners and breakfasts were included in the package. It turned out everything was provided, including detailed AAA like trip-tik directions, marked maps showing the journey, and suggested stops. The entire package was provided in a nice leather case (which my wife noted was not Coach).

The first night was at Thorskogs Slott (Castle) Manor.

The manor home has both an old and recent history. It was built in 1892 by a Swedish shipyard magnate. More recently, the 41st president of the United States, George Bush (the first one), and the Soviet Union general secretary of the Communist Party and President Mikhail Gorbachev signed agreements here. I should mention that the meals here, and at all of the castles/manors, were very good. They served roast reindeer for one course which I actually enjoyed. They had a wine sommelier who helped us choose appropriate wines for each course of dinner. After dinner drinks, coffee and tea were served in the wine cellar. There was a separate building where you could sit in an outdoor Jacuzzi and look at the stars. There were trails through the surrounding countryside to hike on. There were no televisions, no English newspapers, and few phones. It was a great place to get away from all real world distractions. The interior of the manor was amazing.

We eventually had to leave to continue on our journey. Below is a picture of our XC-90 on the morning of the third day of our trip, as we depart Thorskogs Slott Manor. We had yet to splash it with mud, frost, snow, or much road grime.

We drove towards the central portion of Sweden, half-way between Gothenburg and Stockholm, through rolling farm country. Almost all of the roads were two-lane highways. Each lane was approx 1 1/2 car-widths wide. When a fast car came up to us on the road they would pass us, and other cars, while staying in the same lane - our lane. It was assumed you would pull to the far right of the lane to allow them to pass. Sometimes this would be happening on both sides of the road at the same time. It didn't seem very safe, but on the entire trip I didn't see any accidents. The main road in this area, E20, would rarely become a four lane road. In parking lots I had noticed bumper stickers on some cars that said "Bygg ut E20 till Motorväg NU!". I originally thought this translated to "E20 Motorway - No!". Later, I was told it really means "Make the E20 a divided freeway NOW!". Looking on the map shows that there are no motorways/freeways for a hundred miles, so improving the E20 would make sense. California, with 35 million residents and a lot of freeways, is very different from Sweden, with 8.5 million residents.

We were next scheduled to stay at Bjertorp Slott, outside of the small city of Lidkoping. To us, the highlight of the trip would be the two days spent at Bjertorp Slott. Below we are arriving at Bjertorp Slott, not yet sure what to expect, but overwhelmed at the views.

The stone work at the entrance to the castle is quite nice. Bjertorp Slott seemed more like what I would picture a castle to be then the other manor homes we stayed at.

While at Bjertorp Slott we took a day trip to Lidkoping. Lidkoping is a small city on the side of Vanern, one of the largest lakes in Sweden. They have a nice walk along a river through town that empties into the lake.

Although it was Fall, they still had some nice flowers downtown. A farmers' market was just finishing up when we arrived at 2 pm. It turned out that most everything, stores, restaurants, etc., closes up at 2 pm on a Saturday. We did eventually find an open small Italian restaurant/pub that served excellent Greek Salad and Margerita Pizza. I had another light Spendrups. The nice thing about the light beer was that I didn't have to worry as much about driving later. The waitresses warned us about drinking and driving in Sweden. Apparently they are very strict about this. Just after we had commented on how, unlike San Francisco, we didn't see any vagrants, we saw one drunk person walking around the Lidkoping central square. Probably he was just trying to make us feel at home. The town was very beautiful to walk around.

Lots of Volvo's everywhere you looked. That took some getting used to.

This is an old lookout tower in the downtown of Lidkoping.

Late in the afternoon we left Lidkoping and drove to the Lacko Slott castle at the tip of a large peninsula on the lake. Because it was after tourist season, the castle was closed. But the whole area was available to us, and there was wildlife all around. Even though it was the start of moose hunting season we saw moose and deer here. Maybe since it was a park it was safer for the moose. They would run away as we approached. Walking around Lacko Slott and the smaller towns in the country was great.

The area around Bjertorp Slott is horse country. Someone in a restaurant said it is an area similar to Kentucky in the US, but not as many horses are raised now as in the past. There are still beautiful horses, such as the ones by a barn in the background of the picture below.

Bjertorp Slott was beautiful. The interior and grounds were amazing. We were the only guests on Sunday and, other then employees, had the castle mostly to ourselves. They really worked hard to make us comfortable.

There was a wolf (stuffed) in one of the rooms. There were stuffed animals and antlers throughout the manor, including a 7 foot tall bear by the main entrance. There were at least four floors open to the public in the manor.

It got a little frosty the last morning we were there.

Leaving Bjertorp Slott was hard to do, and not because it was cold, which it was. I tested out the front and rear defrosters on the car the morning we left. The seat warmers worked too.

As we traveled we would stop and see Viking ruin stones in nearby towns. This particular one was one of the more interesting ones we saw.

We also spent time visiting the beautiful city and college town of Orebro.

There are lots of castles in Swedish towns, including Orebro.

The final manor house we stayed at was Sundbyholms Slott. We stayed in a separate building that had a Jacuzzi and sauna. Note the black XC-90 next to our silver one. We weren't the only OSDrs at Sundbyholms Slott that day.

The next morning we awoke to find there was snow!

Our XC-90 was christened in the snow that morning. Luckily is was not very deep, as I hadn't driven in snow in a long time. I guess because we live in a warm climate we found it really nice.

We then went in to the city of Stockholm, the largest in Sweden. Our hotel, Scandia Nordic Light, was very comfortable and had cool northern-lights like lighting in the rooms. There was also an "ice bar" across the street. The "ice bar" is made completely in ice, with ice tables and walls. You are loaned a parka to wear while you are at the bar. We had drinks by the aquarium in the lobby instead.

We spent two days touring Stockholm. While there we went to several museums and historic sites, including the Vasa Swedish sailing ship that had been raised from the sea floor, the Royal Castle, and walked through the older parts of the city. Volvo had provided us with two, two-day "Stockholm Cards". These are passes that provide free service on all rapid transit such as the T-bahn rapid transit, buses, entry to museums, and even entry into and guided tours of the Swedish Royal Palace. Such a deal.

We found that Stockholm is actually a collection of islands, and you can ride ferries or take bridges between them. Here we are leaving the island of Djurgarden, where the Vasa and Nordic museums are located, going to the oldest part of Stockholm on the island of Gamla Stan. The Swedish Royal Palace is a rather long, large building above the white colored ship, in the middle of the picture in the distance.

The Gamla Stan island has many winding cobble-stone streets with coffee and pastry shops, small stores and restaurants. Although it is geared to tourists, I was surprised how many old buildings contained business offices. I noticed when I looked in the windows that most of the office computers used flat panel displays, probably because of the tight space.

The Swedish Royal Palace was very interesting. It is still in active use by the royal family. The government hosts foreign dignitaries and has Nobel and state dinners there. They had just reopened a tour of the visiting dignitaries wing, where the King of Jordan stayed two weeks earlier. The bedroom had a very nice bed, and it was nice to imagine being the King of Jordan and sleeping there a few nights earlier. They then showed where the Nobel prize dinner will be held. Finally, we viewed the armory and royal jewels, which are kept several floors below ground in a well guarded vault. Be prepared for a lot of stairs.

Stockholm has a very nice shopping district, which is why I didn't need to exchange any Krona back to USD. My wife, who has British ancestry, spent time in the Debenhams department store. I felt the nicest stores were the small children's clothing and toy stores, but also the large NK department store. NK is a sort of Macy's, Nordstroms, IKEA, Ethan Allen, Starbucks, Safeway, and Sushi bar all rolled into one. Kind of hard to describe.

Unfortunately we then had to leave to go back to the real world. We previously had dropped off our XC-90 at a local Volvo dealership for shipment home to the US. To get to the airport was either a 45 minute taxi ride, or a 20 minute ride on an express train which left from the station right behind the hotel. European trains always seem so clean and fast. We then flew home from Stockholm to San Jose, CA, via Chicago, on 23 Oct 2003. We had a great time. I wonder if I can figure out how to justify getting another OSD Volvo soon.

While on our trip we used a couple guide books. One we ended up using a lot was "The Rough Guide To Sweden", published June 2003. It was organized such that it provided quick access to information. The author also had an informed opinion on almost everything, which we found helpful. Although we didn't always agree with his comments. After the first couple days the other guide books ended up in the hands of the last person who made a grab for one.