Volvo and Ikea

What are the two most famous Swedish things that you can think of?? I can think of three - Abba, Volvo and Ikea.

There was nothing that I could do about meeting Abba, but we did manage the other two today.

Our knowledgeable contact at the Tourist Information Centre made it clear that she wasn't really a fan of the Volvo Museum and the surrounding industrial area, but we caught the bus there anyway.

With the benefit of hindsight, I bow to her superior knowledge, and it was okay, but not exciting. 

The above photo is a copy of the Volvo used by Roger Moore in the 1960's series 'The Saint', and the one below is a Lego (from Denmark) copy of a Volvo using over 201,000 pieces.

Solid and sensible, sums up the place, and probably Volvo too (now Chinese owned).

Second item today, partly because the bus dropped us near there, was a trip to see some outdoor swimming pools that float in the river. Coincidentally they were officially opened by the King last week.

 In a natural phenomenon, one of the pools is ordinary water gathered from the top of the river as it leads to the sea. The other two pools are full of salt water which is collected from deeper depths, where the salty water resides.

Disappointingly, the two salty pools were closed today because they weren't salty enough!!

Disappointing also for me because I was hoping to sit on the edge and dangle my feet in it.

This is a picture of the not salty enough diving pool.

Finally, and we didn't ask for the opinion of the Tourist Information oracle, we caught the bus to the local Ikea. We had hoped to visit the factory, but that was a couple of hundred miles away.

As you can see from the car park, it was very quiet today, something that we have never found in our visits in England, however, reassuringly the meatballs, gravy and lingonberry sauce was identical.