Sweden 2024 – Part 1.
Let’s go!
Where are we going today? Sweden!
This is a very special trip. It is a trackchasing trip and as you will come to find out a touring trip. This journey is special from a trackchasing point of view.
I am known as the World’s #1 Trackchaser. I earned that title because I’ve seen auto racing in 87 different countries. That’s where the word “World’s” from World’s #1 Trackchaser comes in.
I also measure my trackchasing achievements by the number of different race tracks that I’ve seen while pursuing my hobby. Coming into the Sweden trip I have seen racing at 2,987 different tracks.
3,000!
If all goes well on my trip to Sweden, and also with my Norwegian trackchasing I will knock off track number 3,000 before I return home. That means I will have seen racing at 3,000 race tracks in all 50 states in America as well as in 87 overall countries.
Will this make it more convenient for you?
A couple of years ago I combined the travel and racing parts of my newsletter. Some people signed up for the travel experiences and some for the racing experiences. Of course, others are interested in the finance news and still others like it all. For those folks who are interested in only travel or only racing I have listed the “at the track” experiences in BLUE font. If you want to jump around and read about what interests you the most, this might make it easier.
How much is 3,000 in the big picture?
Sometimes when I meet people and I’m explaining what happens with my trackchasing hobby it comes up that I’ve seen racing at nearly 3,000 tracks. To people who aren’t very much understanding of the hobby, 3,000 is just a number. I could have just as easily said 6,000 or 9,000 or whatever. Just about any number would have the same impact. In the past, after I had seen racing at more than 2,000 tracks people would ask me, “Did you do that in one year?” Oh my. Sometimes I tell Carol that if I told someone I had seen racing at 650 race tracks that would be much more of a “believable“ number than 3,000. She agrees.
I meet lots of people.
At virtually every track I visit I will meet a person or two and sometimes more for the very first time. These folks may be spectators, promoters, announcers, or race drivers. You can imagine the number of people I’ve met while I’ve been chasing.
Nicklas is the man for my trip to Sweden!
One of the people I met while doing research for a trip to Sweden a few years ago was a fellow by the name of Nicklas Âkerlund. Nicklas lives in Sweden. I contact people in all sorts of ways. Most of the time nowadays it’s via the Internet. I am always looking for local information.
Making contact and developing a relationship with a “local“ is important in my hobby. Someone on the ground is going to have a lot more knowledge about the racing scene than I’m going to have. Oftentimes I live thousands of miles away from where I might like to trackchase. The locals live across the street.
Sweden and I have a history.
I first went to Sweden with Carol back in 2009. We saw racing in Malmo, Sweden, which is just across the bridge from Copenhagen, Denmark. Later (2020), I would travel to Sweden to see an ice race (above) just to say that I had seen an ice race in Sweden. I do stuff like that.
When I think about it, a lot of my trackchasing is simply to say that I’ve done it. Isn’t that what a lot of collecting hobbies are all about? Maybe you collect coins comic books or dolls or classic cars. In the end isn’t collecting pretty much just to say or show you did it?
My first meeting with Nicklas Âkerlund.
On my third trip to Sweden (2022) I went to see RallyX racing. This is where Nicklas Âkerlund came into the picture. Nicklas came up with a racing itinerary that included five tracks for me to visit in just eight days.
Sometimes I never get to meet the people who help me out with my racing plans. However, two years ago, I met up with Nicklas and his lovely significant other Susanne. I am fond of saying that you never really have a friend unless you have played a round of golf with them or shared a meal with them. I haven’t played golf with Nicolas and Susanne, but I have enjoyed dinner with them. They are friends.
Nicolas and I stayed in contact on Facebook Messenger. I do that with lots of my friends. On any given day I will receive messages from more than a handful of people who live outside of the United States.
I was going to be eating a lot of Swedish meatballs!
For this year Nicklas came up with a Swedish trackchasing plan of mega proportions. He designed a trip where I could see racing at 17 different tracks in Sweden and Norway during a 27-day trip. I could select as many of those tracks as I wanted to see for as much time as I could spend on the road in Scandanavia. Some people might see a proposal of 17 tracks in 27 days and go for just a portion of that plan. I don’t roll that way. My plan was to see all 17 of those tracks and to be in Sweden for almost a month. Yes, it’s nice to be retired.
Lots of travel tips in this newsletter.
Auto racing may not be your thing. However, if you are a subscriber to my newsletter, I’m going to guess that you’re interested in travel. As I go through this trip, I’ll give you my travel plans and travel tips.
In all likelihood, you will agree that some of these ideas are the brightest travel plans you’ve ever heard of. On the other hand, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least for you to come away thinking that some of the things that I do when I’m traveling are just outlandishly crazy, dumb, and/or stupid. You would never have any interest in doing it the way I do it. The cool thing about that is you get to choose. You can pick up the good ideas and stay as far away from the bad ones as you want.
Trains, Planes and Automobiles…was a great movie.
When I travel, I use airplanes, stay in hotels and rent cars. There are no nonstop flights between Los Angeles and Stockholm, Sweden. I used Google Flights to find the most economical airfares. This itinerary would have me connecting in Frankfurt, Germany on my way to Stockholm.
I used Alaska Airlines’ frequent flyer miles to reduce my round-trip airfare expense to just $240. No doubt about it. I am a “deal” guy. I never want to buy cheap stuff cheap. I am all about buying good stuff cheap.
I never mind flying in coach. I’ve flown around the world in business and first class. It all depends on how the bill is being footed. By itself I don’t think flying up front is a good value if I have to pay the going rate. However, on those occasions when I am not paying full price you will find me relaxing in a layflat seat pretty near the cockpit.
You gotta spend money to make money, right?
I had used credit card arbitrage to get that deal with Alaska Airlines. Several months ago, Alaska Airlines was offering a special promotion. If I spent $3,000 in three months, I would get 64,000 frequent flyer miles. Carol did the same thing and got the same 64,000 miles. For this trip I would need 70,000 miles. By using the Alaska Airlines promotion, the European round-trip airfare was nearly free.
Really? They wanted me to get a second identical credit card?
The funny thing about the Alaska Airlines credit card promotion was that we already had the very same Alaska Airlines credit card. To show how much Alaska Airlines, in this case, wanted our business they offered a spending promotion for us to get a SECOND credit card identical to the first. That was 128,000 frequent flyer miles that nearly wiped out the expense of two round-trip tickets to Europe. Thank goodness for the people who don’t pay their credit card bills on time. Without them and the huge credit card interest bills these folks accrue simple folks like Carol and me could not jet off to Europe and nearly zero expense.
Autoeurope rocks.
I made my rental car reservation using autoeurope.com. I have used them many times in the past. Right now, in the United States rental cars are costing me about $100 or more per day.
With autoeurope.com, I was able to secure a 24-day reservation confirmation for just $1,465. That’s about $60-a-day. That’s an excellent deal!
I recommend if you’re traveling in Europe you check out autoeurope.com. I had reserved a full-size car with an automatic transmission. I would use my Chase Sapphire Reserve card as my primary auto insurance coverage. That saved me hundreds of dollars in rental car insurance with Hertz. I would never want to make any claims against my personal auto insurance when driving a rental car in or out of the U.S. Of course, my auto insurance doesn’t provide coverage in Europe anyway.
When in Europe it pays to be a “Globalist”.
On the hotel front, I would be “mixing and matching” a good deal. I just recently met my goal of achieving 60 qualifying nights with the Hyatt frequent stay program. This gives me the top-tier status of “Globalist”. I listen to hours and hours of “points and miles” podcasts. Virtually every one one of them will tell you that the most important hotel status level is Globalist at Hyatt. I would agree Globalist comes with a lot of perks.
Almost all of my trackchasing in Sweden, and Norway will take place north of Stockholm. For quite a bit of the trip, I will be in one hotel one night and then driving 200-300 miles to the next track the next day requiring a different hotel stay night after night.
I also plan to stay at Hyatt-affiliateded hotels. There are three of those in Stockholm. I will use those hotels for six or seven nights. The rest of the time I’ll be using Expedia.com and travel sites like that to come up with local properties. The quality and amenities from those hotels will likely be all over the board.
There you go. I’ve covered how I handled airfare, hotels and rental cars. Pretty simple. It helps that I’ve done this dozens of times. I’ve seen racing at more than 500 tracks outside the U.S. That translates into well over 200 international trips. Of course, we have vacationed outside the U.S. without chasing racetracks dozens of times as well.
That’s the preamble. Are you ready to begin?
Now let’s get started with the trip. I hope you can imagine in your mind’s eye what the travel experience in Sweden and Norway is like.
By the way, I have just returned on July 1 from a 20-day trip. This included a 27-person family reunion that was held on Little Green Lake in Wisconsin. Everyone had a fantastic time at the reunion. Our daughter Kristy and our niece Sarah were the drivers and planners and doers behind that trip. You couldn’t imagine the fun and enjoyment everyone had with the family reunion.
I returned to California on July 1. I had all day on July 2 to relax from the 20-day trip just completed and do final prep for the 27-day trip that would begin on July 3. Don’t worry I’ll be back on July 29 and won’t leave again until July 31. Yes, I am addicted to travel.
Day 1
Peta’s Pit Talk from Australia was in the house.
I think I lead a pretty wild and adventuresome lifestyle. On my departure day to Sweden, we had guests from Australia visiting. A couple of years ago I was interviewed at the Lisborne Speedway in New South Wales by Peta Souwer of “Peta’s Pit Talk”.
Peta and I had stayed in touch over Facebook Messenger. Now she and her partner, Matty Gamble were going to be touring the United States. They were headed to the worldwide roller derby convention in Las Vegas. They had just enough time to stop at our place, take a look at the ocean, and then join us for lunch in San Clemente at South Of Nick’s. We had a wonderful time catching up. Yes, I like to try to put 10 pounds of potatoes in a 5-pound sack.
Once we wrapped up with lunch, I was off to LAX to begin my adventure.
Surprise. Big bad surprise.
I was traveling with one “big” travel bag, also known as the “blue bag” and my smaller “Costco” carry-on rolling bag. I would fly on Condor Airlines from Los Angeles to Frankfurt. With a four-hour layover in Frankfurt, I would connect to Lufthansa to get me from Frankfurt to Stockholm, Sweden.
If I could meet the baggage weight limits of the airlines, there would be no charge for my checked bag or carry-on bag. The big bag could weigh as much as 50 pounds. The little bag, as my carry-on, was limited to 18 pounds. We weighed everything at home. Carol and I thought that we were right at the limits!
Oh no. This was going to be troublesome.
When I got to the airport, I weighed the big bag at a nearby hotel. It came in at 59.8 pounds. I was nearly 10 pounds over! Because I don’t think that human beings should be charged any amount whatsoever for checking bags or carrying bags on an airline I had to get creative. I had a couple of sweatshirts with me. I jammed the sleeves of each of those sweatshirts with about 5 pounds of “stuff”. Now my bag met the 50-pound limit. At the same time my sweatshirts looked like I was carrying a mummy on the trip.
You will come to find out if you haven’t already, that I will go to the ends of the earth to avoid some common small expenses. At the other end of the spectrum, I will blow money like a drunken sailor on things important to me.
I oftentimes get the worst airline seatmates.
I garnered an exit road seat on the Condor Airlines plane with nothing in front of me for about 6 feet. That was all fine except the guy sitting next to me was a squirmer and generally just downright obnoxious.
I try to stick with one plan when I’m out in public. I don’t want to invade anyone else’s personal space. I don’t want them to even notice me. I just wish everyone in the world could behave in that fashion. The guy sitting next to me constantly nudged me when I wasn’t nudging him. He made generally inappropriate comments at the wrong time. He was an obnoxious fellow traveler. Using my Bose headphones, I did my best to ignore him.
Day 2
Welcome to Germany!
When I landed in Frankfurt, I had a four-hour layover. This gave me plenty of time to clear German border control, retrieve my checked bag, and then check in with Lufthansa. That all went smoothly.
I had enough time to spend a couple of hours in the Frankfurt Priority Pass airport lounge. I have a Priority Pass membership with my Chase Sapphire Reserve card. Being able to use an airport lounge is so much better than being out in the general public. They also had some pretty good food in the lounge.
My flight from Frankfurt to Stockholm was uneventful. Since this was my fourth trip to Sweden, I had a little experience with Stockholm’s Arlanda airport. That was helpful.
I landed at 9:30 p.m. local time. My car reservation was with Hertz. I knew they closed their operation for the day at midnight.
Having “status” is most helpful.
About a month ago I did a “status match” with Hertz. What’s a status match? That simply means that if I hold a high-level frequent stay or frequent renter or frequent flyer ranking with one particular vendor, I can use that ranking to have another vendor that I don’t use very much give me their top status. That’s a status match.
That being the case I used my “executive elite” status with National Car Rental to get a status match with Hertz. Hertz let me become a “President’s Circle“ member which is their highest ranking at Hertz.
The magic words, “You’re getting an upgrade”.
When I checked in at the counter with Hertz in Stockholm, I reminded everyone that I was a “President Circle“ member. Of course, I nicely reminded them. This yielded an upgrade to a Peugeot 308 model rental car. The Peugeot 308 is essentially a station wagon. It looks to me like it’s going to be an excellent rental car. Of course, it has an automatic transmission. It’s large and rides smoothly.
It was late. I had flown for nearly 15 hours. Did I want to drive for another six hours after I landed?
It was now past 10 p.m. Tomorrow, I plan to see a worldwide RallyX racing event in Höljes, Sweden. Höljes was going to be a 6-hour drive from Stockholm. When I first planned this trip, I figured I would simply start driving once I picked up my rental car in Stockholm to Höljes. They were racing during the day. I had planned to arrive at 1 p.m. I had 15 hours to make the 6-hour drive. I would stop somewhere along the highway to catnap.
Driving through then night after you’ve just landed in Europe in not for you?
I know that some of you reading this like to plan every detail of your trip weeks or months in advance. I do some of that, but I also have a lot of flying by the seat of my pants. That was flying by the seat of my pants.
If this isn’t flying by the seat of your pants I don’t know what is.
While I was sitting in my rental car at 10 p.m. in the rental car parking lot I was continuing to get mentally and physically organized. On a second’s leadtime I decided that I had time to get a hotel in Stockholm. With this plan, I wouldn’t have to drive overnight. I wouldn’t have to sleep in the car on the way to tomorrow’s RallyX racing. Would you have made this “adjustment”?
5,000 points or $75?
I used my Hyatt app. Soon I was making a reservation at the Story Hotel Signalfabriken, a Hyatt-affiliated hotel. This hotel was in Stockholm. The hotel was kind of modern and funky. I could use either Hyatt points or cash to make a reservation.
The app that Hyatt provides is outstanding. It is one of the best that I use for any purpose.
At 10 p.m. I learned that I could rent this Hyatt hotel for $75 or use 5,000 Hyatt points to make the reservation. This is where my hobby of credit card arbitrage came in.
If I can get a good value with Hyatt points, I go with points. If I can’t, I go with dollars. Right now, I am getting nearly three cents per point in value when I make a redemption. That’s against my “corporate” rate with Hyatt.
What does that mean.? This hotel would cost me 5,000 points. If I multiplied 5,000 by $0.03 cents that comes out to $150. That means that 5,000 points could wipe out $150 in expenses if I used points.
However, this hotel was only going to cost me $75. That meant I would only be getting 1.5 cents in value for each of my points. I didn’t want to use 5,000 points to replace $75. I would pay cash. And yes, seventy-five bucks for a Hyatt hotel in Europe especially a Scandinavian country like Sweden was absolutely rock-bottom pricing.
When I pay cash I get 10.5 points Hyatt points added to my Hyatt balance. That meant I would earn about 750 points. At three cents per point that gave me an additional savings of about $22. This benefit meant I was only paying about $53 ($75-22) for a Hyatt stay in Stockholm. That was a smoking hot deal. But wait. There’s more.
There’s more? How could there be more?
If you’ve been reading what I write for very long you might know that I am a “calculator”. I like to calculate things and operate on the margins. If I can get a small advantage here and a small advantage there in the end it adds up to a larger advantage. It doesn’t matter if my calculation yields a $22 return or a $22,000 return. I go after both opportunities with the same fervor.
For every ten stays at a Hyatt, they give me 10,000 bonus points. At three cents a point that’s $300. That means that every single night I’m staying at a Hyatt they are giving me $30 to spend on future stays. That means I wasn’t paying $53 for a night at the Story Hotel Signalfabriken but just $23 ($53-30). Plus, I was getting free breakfast for two people if I had two people, a room upgrade to a suite if available, and a welcome gift. Sound confusing? I can do these calculations in a heartbeat.
Soon I was checking into the Hyatt hotel in Stockholm. I needed to be on the road by 0730. Sleeping for just seven or eight hours in an upscale hotel was better than sleeping in the Hertz Peugeot 308 rental car.
Day 3
You say tomato; I say tomato. Wait. When written that sounds the same but you know what I mean.
Today marks my first trackchasing attempt of the trip. It’s going to take me nearly 6 hours to drive nearly 300 miles to reach the track. Of course, in Sweden and most of Europe they don’t use miles but kilometers. Temperatures are not measured in Fahrenheit but in Celsius.
Sweden is part of the European Union. Although they have applied for NATO acceptance they are not yet members of NATO. They will be soon. Sweden does not use the euro but their Swedish currency, the krona. Right now, ten krona will buy $0.95 U.S. dollars. To figure out the price of something, I simply divide by 10 to get roughly the U.S. equivalent.
Carol gives me just enough money to exist.
Before I left on this trip, Carol gave me a supply of euros and krona (both Swedish and Norwegian) that she had stored somewhere in the house from our previous trips. I think she gave me over $1,000 in these currencies.
Here’s the problem. I don’t know where she stores these funds. I don’t know how much money from all of our foreign trips she has stashed away. Wouldn’t it be something if she had one million dollars packed away in foreign currencies.? That would be great, but if I didn’t know where she kept the money, it wouldn’t be so great, would it?
Speaking of Carol…where’s Carol?
Speaking of Carol, I could never get her to come on a foreign trip with me for 27 days. Nevertheless, she is going to be with me for about half of the trip, the second half of the trip. Here’s the importance of her being in Sweden for the last half of the trip. She will get a chance to see me and be with me for my 3,000th career trackchasing track. However, that’s a ways down the line. I’ve got some work to do before that happens.
And you think what YOU pay for gasoline is a lot?
I expect to drive somewhere around 5,000 miles for the entire trip. Gasoline, a.k.a. petrol in Europe is priced at around 18.5 Swedish krona per liter. That comes out to about $6.95 a gallon using U.S. numbers.
Americans are fond of complaining about gasoline prices. Because I travel to 10 or 12 different countries or more every year, I see that gasoline prices in the United States are rarely more expensive than in any country I visit. Yes, European gas prices are high. These petrol prices include taxes for healthcare and education among other things. However, I don’t benefit from their healthcare advantages and I’m not planning to go to college in Sweden. I simply pay $6.95 a gallon for about 5,000 miles of driving on vacation. As I mentioned, I’m not complaining. I’m simply sharing the numbers with you.
No rest areas.
Quite a bit of today’s driving was on two-lane roads with speed limits of 60 miles per hour in the more populated areas. Sometimes the speed limit was only 80 km/h even in the wide open spaces. Rest areas are almost nonexistent. There are small areas to pull over and park with absolutely no services. Gas station convenience stores serve as the rest areas in Sweden. At least they don’t charge people to pay to use the gas station convenience stores, which is common in Europe.
Google Maps.
I’m using Google Maps as my GPS for this trip. I find this works well. My GPS gives me a little beep when I’m approaching a speed camera. Speed cameras are everywhere in Sweden and Norway.
It does seem like I get one ticket from the speed cameras on just about every European trip I make. I just built it into the expected cost of my adventures.
AT&T.
My AT&T international calling plan powers my GPS. Using this program effectively allows me to use my phone exactly as I would be able to use it with all services included if I were home.
The price has just increased from $10 to $12 per day for this international phone service. However, after 10 days in one calendar month, there is no additional charge. Since my trip runs from July 3-July 29 I will have my phone for 27 different days at a price of $120. I consider this to be one of the most valuable benefits of my entire journey. I wouldn’t consider trying to operate with any less logistical capability at what I think is a most reasonable expense.
Now…let’s trackchase!
The first track on my agenda is the Höljes Motorstadien in Höljes, Sweden. Höljes is one of the most famous race facilities in Sweden. RallyX racing takes place on mixed-surface tracks. Höljes Motorstadien’s track surface is 60% asphalt and 40% dirt. The track’s distance is 1.19 km or 0.73 miles. Of course, all RallyX is contested on road course configurations.
A NASCAR race can be four hours long. Most RallyX races are four laps long. Only five cars start in the heat races and six cars in the final. The races start from a standing start, which is exactly how it was done at my boyhood track, the Peoria Speedway in Illinois.
Do you know what a “joker lap” is?
RallyX tracks also have what is called a “joker lap”. Each driver must use their joker lap one and only one time in their four-lap race. Normally the space allocated for the joker lap will take the driver just a little bit longer than if he or she were to stay on the main track. There’s a lot of strategy that goes into when a driver is going to take their lap.
My race ticket costs how much?
Today’s admission price including access to the paddock was roughly $110 U.S. I probably won’t pay more than $100 to see a single auto race a single time in five years. I was a little surprised at that amount. I wasn’t so surprised that I was going to turn around and drive back to San Clemente. It was what it was. I did enjoy touring the paddock and seeing the huge former commercial buses that have been turned into race team haulers.
My entire Scandanavian trackchasing trip had been planned by a friend of mine, Nicklas Åkerlund. Nicklas is a huge RallyX fan. He also understands what I’m trying to do with my trackchasing hobby. He married up those two ideas to come up with a 17-track trip in 27 days. Now all I have to do is execute what we had each discussed in hundreds and hundreds of FB messages.
Just like texting but it’s not texting.
Nicklas and I communicate via Facebook Messenger. Facebook Messenger is just like texting. Most Europeans use WhatsApp, which is another commonly used method of electronic communication.
Nicklas and I soon found each other at the track today. We hope to meet at two other tracks on the overall itinerary as well. It was good to see him since my last visit to Sweden in 2022 when Nicklas and his significant other Susanne joined up with me.
Visiting the paddock is a lot like visiting the locker room at your favorite baseball or basketball game.
We decided we would begin our day with a visit to the paddock. In oval racing, the paddock is called the pit area. In road course racing the pit area is called paddock. I don’t know the history of that one.
I paid $20 extra to have access to the paddock. I thought that was well worth it. In the paddock, we could get up close and personal with the cars, the haulers, the race drivers, and the general ambiance of auto racing. If you’ve never been in the paddock or the pit area I highly recommend it.
My first Swedish meatballs of the trip.
Soon it was time for lunch. All of the menu items were listed in Swedish as you might expect. I could figure out they were offering hamburgers, but Nicklas recommended the Swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes. I’ve eaten just about everything at racetracks, including fried pickles, walking tacos, fried Oreos, and much more. I can’t recall ever having Swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes. This choice was very tasty.
At that point, Nicholas’ brother Dennis came by and introduced himself. Nicolas told me that he is 46 years old, a young looking 46 years old I might add, and Dennis is about 10 years younger. We sat in the sun and enjoyed each other’s company. After a great Swedish meatball lunch, we took a very complete walk through the paddock area taking photos whenever we wanted.
Fortunately, the weather had cleared up nicely. Although it was windy, the temperatures reached about 65° under blue skies with white puffy clouds. It had rained almost up to the track. When I would leave later this afternoon, it started raining within 15 km of the track. We were lucky with the weather.
For an American racing fan, RallyX aka rally cross is a different animal. I have come to enjoy it. They run the races one after another with not a lot of downtime. On these road courses, all of the action can be seen from one vantage point. RallyX is different, but I like it.
When the finals were finished, I had a chance to meet Mr. and Mrs. Åkerlund, Nicklas’ parents. They are big RallyX fans as well. Mr. Åkerlund used to race RallyX cross back in the 80s.
The next event on the schedule was rally sprint racing. This is done with historic rally cars. Rally racing, as opposed to RallyX racing, is a timed event. Commonly, a rally race involves drivers going from one town to the next on public roads. If you check YouTube, you can see some very spectacular rally racing crashes where the spectators are standing just a couple of meters off of the highway as the drivers speed past. That’s crazy.
However, since rally sprint racing doesn’t count in trackchasing and I was a good distance to drive to this evening’s hotel in Norway I elected to depart the Höljes Motorstadien. The racing portion of my trip was off to a good start. I was fortunate that Nicklas and I could join up at the first track of the trip. Meeting his family was an extra cherry on top of the sundae.
There’s a lot planned for this trip.
I’m going to be in Sweden and Norway for four weekends covering a total of 27 days. For some of the that time, I’ll be in Stockholm. Carol and I will also take a short cruise over to Estonia. The rest of the time I will be driving along the sometimes narrow and winding highways of both Sweden and Norway.
When I am in Stockholm, I will utilize their Hyatt hotel options. For the rest of the trip, I will find the most unusual and eclectic hotels that I can afford.
Yes. It’s a castle in Norway.
This evening, I was staying in Norway. I had made a reservation at the Kongsvinger Castle Hotel & Resort in Kongsvinger, Norway. I made that reservation a couple of weeks ago. I would have to be reminded of exactly why I chose this particular accommodation when I arrived.
Google Maps took me right to the base of the castle hotel. However, since there were no signs and no signs with the hotel’s name anywhere that I could see, understanding that I had reached my destination, wasn’t clear to me. Welcome to Europe!
I walked up a steep cobblestone pathway to the grounds of the castle. Some of the castle was under renovation. I tried all of the doors to the buildings that I could see. They were all locked. That was strange. The parking lot had about 15 cars in it so the people had to be somewhere, right?
I ended up walking back down to the parking lot, lugging my luggage. I ran into a family that had parked right next to my car. I engaged them in conversation. They were going to an outdoor play that was on for this evening. They were nice enough to make a phone call to the hotel. One of the doors that I had tried in the reception building had a “secret” entrance. With none of this explained in English, I never would have known that. Now I trudged up the cobblestones again and was able to check in.
Cutlets and strawberry cream cheese.
The reception area was right next to the hotel restaurant. Dinner was shutting down in 30 minutes. That being the case, I sat down in a very ornate dining room, wearing my racing clothes, and enjoyed dinner of veal cutlets and dessert of strawberry cream cheese. Everything was delightful and presented in an upscale fashion.
Now I was off to my hotel room. The room was small but modern as you might find in an updated Norwegian castle! I was reminded that I had ordered a room with one single bed. I’m a big guy. This was a small single bed, but I made it work. After my first full day in Europe, my trip was off to a successful beginning.
Day 4
I had better get used to buffet breakfasts.
After a surprisingly good night’s sleep, I was back in the hotel restaurant for breakfast. Breakfast is almost always included in European hotel stays. It can range from the lavish and luxurious to the basic. Today’s breakfast fell somewhere in the middle. it was nice to have fresh baked bread and strawberry jam. When breakfast was finished, I gathered my things, hopped in the Hertz Racing Rental Car Peugeot 308, and headed to today’s trackchasing location in Rudskogen, Norway.
Yes, I forgot this stuff.
I do my best to bring all the supplies I need to make a trip successful. However, I had made three significant errors on this trip and I’m only on day two.
When I cleared airport security at LAX I had mistakenly jammed a full can of Gillette shaving cream into my UCLA sweatshirt to cut down on the weight of my checked bag. Of course, you can’t go through security with a full can of shaving cream, whether it’s stuffed in your sweatshirt or not. The shaving cream was confiscated.
Where’s my Reader Rest?
When I learned that my checked bag was 10 pounds overweight I put on a few different T-shirts to get myself through security. That got my bag checked to Germany. In doing the shirt switcheroo I somehow knocked off my “Reader Rest“ magnet. My Reader Rest is attached to my shirt everywhere I go. It NEVER falls off.
A Reader Rest is used to keep a second pair of glasses at the ready on my person. That’s one of the most useful products that I own. I learned about it on Shark Tank. In mixing and matching all the shirts I must have knocked the magnet off and from that point, it was nowhere to be found. Major bummer.
No belt? This was bad.
My final snafu was to leave my only belt at home. I brought a couple of long pairs of pants, which I never wear in the United States, just in case the weather got cold. Those pants require a belt. With no belt, I could walk about five steps before the pants started to slink off my body and make me look as if I had just left the hood. At 10 steps my pants were around my knees, not a pretty sight. When I talked with Carol last night on the phone, we made arrangements for her to bring replacements for all of the things I was missing. Oh my.
Today it’s Norway.
Today I would be trackchasing in Norway. I had only done that one other time back in 2011. I remember having a pizza and soda in Oslo and the price was $44. That was nearly fifteen years ago. Norway is expensive.
My Swedish buddy Nicklas Åkerlund had given me a wide selection of trackchasing opportunities in Sweden and Norway. With that information, it was my responsibility to decide which tracks I wanted to go to and exactly how much time I was willing to put into this particular trip.
Today’s track location was in Rudskogen, Norway I would be seeing racing at my second track in Norway and my 2,989th lifetime track all around the world. The racing would take place at the Rudskogen Motorsenter.
Driving in Norway is quite a bit different than driving in Sweden. I would not have guessed that. The roads in Norway are much more winding and narrow. Driving times in Norway are longer.
This racetrack was different in so many ways.
The footprint of the Rudskogen Motorsenter was most unusual. I followed my GPS directions. When I found the track, I followed the track’s signs.
First, fans had to drive to a ticket booth, then get out of their car to buy their ticket, get back in their car, and park. I’m pretty sure my race ticket today was about $50 U.S. I think the woman was supposed to charge me for parking but that sort of got lost in the confusion. I don’t think she realized when I showed up as a single customer that I also had a car. It wasn’t like I was holding back information. I simply walked up to the ticket booth and told her I wanted a ticket.
I joined a long slow line of cars trying to park. The line was so slow I pulled out of line and found a place to park on my own. It was then that I noticed that every car that was already parked had a parking ticket placed on the dash. I don’t have any idea how much the parking charge was. If I had to guess I would say $10 or $15 U.S. There was no way they would see my “omission” in a sea of hundreds of cars, right?
I like walking but four miles from the parking lot to the track and back?
I always laugh that every track I visit has something that I’ve never seen before despite having done this nearly 3,000 times. The walk from where I parked to the racetrack had to be the longest ever. In spots just walking over the uneven terrain was a challenge. I’m guessing it was about 2 miles each way. Oh my.
What is drifting?
Most of the racing activity at the motorsenter today was focused on something called “drifting”. Do you know what drifting is as it relates to motorsports? With drifting, drivers try to slide their cars to the point of losing control, while smoking the tires and creating a large amount of tire and engine noise. It’s kind of the opposite of what climate people would be encouraging.
The drifting program drew a large crowd to a very professional-looking auto racing road course. There must’ve been 30-40 drifters on the track at one time. They all maintained a short distance from one to the next “doing their thing”. I’ve seen drifting in the past, but never at this level.
I came for the race, the one and only race.
I was pretty amazed that Nicklas was able to discover the one and one actual “race” on the agenda today. The race is what I needed to see to count the track with my trackchasing hobby. The extreme sports car event was supposed to start at 2 p.m. and run for 30 minutes.
With the unexpected long walk, I didn’t get to the paddock area until about 1 p.m. I had plenty of time to explore all the cars in the paddock and take the drifting action in from an elevated position.
Precisely at 2 p.m. or 1400 as they like to say in Sweden, about 25 or 30 road racing cars took to the track. These were high-level Porsches and Corvettes and models Like that.
I must say the racing was a little bit lackluster. Compared to the drifting competitors the noise coming from the sports cars almost made me feel, but not quite, that these were electric sports cars.
Saw the race, got rained on but walked away satisfied.
Although the schedule said the race would last for 30 minutes, the drivers saw the checkered flag after just 20 minutes. It was almost as if the trackchasing gods were saying you were lucky enough to get one race don’t push it. Then it started to rain lightly but steadily when this only race was finished.
I had a two-mile walk back to the car. Just walking from where I parked to the racetrack and back allowed me to finish my 4 miles of walking for the day.
Note to self. Don’t buy petrol in Norway.
While on the road today, I saw gasoline priced in Norway at $8.60 a gallon. That seemed a bit steep. The petrol prices I had seen in Sweden were lower. Since I was staying in Sweden tonight, I figured I would wait until I crossed back into Sweden before getting gasoline.
Expensive gas but good gas mileage.
In Sweden, all gas stations across the country sell gas for very close to the same price. That price is 18.5 Swedish krona per liter. Let me translate that for you. The bottom line is that’s $6.91 U.S. per gallon. I filled up the Hertz Rental Car Racing Peugeot 308 and calculated my fuel mileage. It came in at 44.5 miles per gallon. I thought with a great automatic transmission.
Did $6.91 seem like a high petrol price? It’s not so bad when you consider I was getting excellent fuel economy. My wife’s Lexus RX350 SUV gets about 20 miles per gallon. That means if she were to pay just $3.45 a gallon she would be paying more per mile than I was with my Peugeot at $6.91 a gallon. By the way Carol CAN’T buy gas for $3.45/gallon because the price in California is nearly five bucks a gallon. With that being the case, she is paying MORE for gas per mile than motorists in Sweden! You can prove any point you want with numbers can’t you? Oh yeah, I don’t pay anything for fuel with my Tesla Model X…so there’s that.
I love dollar stores.
On the drive back to the hotel, after I entered Sweden, I came across a dollar store. I love dollar stores! I had to stop…and buy something.
I needed to replace the things I forgot to bring on the trip. I bought some shaving cream and a belt. At these types of rally cross races they usually don’t have grandstands. People bring their own lawn chairs or stand or sit on a blanket. I bought two lawn chairs. I’ll be able to use them at about 15 track locations. Then at the last track I’ll give them free of charge to some lucky race fan.
It was time to get checked into my pre-reserved hotel for the evening. I’ll be trackchasing in Sweden tomorrow afternoon, and after that, I will head back into Stockholm for three nights.
Day 5
I love crepes, whipped cream and strawberries.
Today I woke up in the Scandic Wynn Hotel in Karlstad, Sweden. Scandic Wynn hotels are located all over Sweden. Think Holiday Innish. After a better-than-average buffet breakfast which included Swedish pancakes, whipped cream and strawberries, I headed out toward Stockholm. My drive would only take an hour.
This was not a high-speed Swedish police chase but the result was the same.
As I was motoring along on the highway and trying to watch my speed, I noticed a Swedish police car following me. I checked my speed. I was going four kilometers below the limit.
In the blink of an eye, the police car that was following me started flashing their lights. That meant I needed to pull over. I did as instructed.
Soon a Swedish police officer approached my driver-side door. I lowered my window and he greeted me in Swedish. I replied in English and hoped that was going to get a sympathetic vote in my favor.
The officer spoke English well enough. I asked if I was speeding. He told me I wasn’t. Then why had he stopped me? He told me the stop was because I was driving a rental car and they wanted to “confirm ownership”.
Oh no. Not a breathalyzer test!
Before we went any further, I was being given a breathalyzer test. Oh my. I blew into the plastic tube as instructed. In a few seconds, the test came back, “negative”. Thank goodness for that. Negative was a good sign for this test.
The maximum alcohol limit in Sweden is 0.2%. In the U.S. it’s mainly 0.8%. Surprisingly, to me, a few European countries have ZERO tolerance for driving and drinking. Some of those countries are the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. Knowing the low limits of Sweden made me reluctant to even enjoy a glass of wine in the country.
Remember, I am a sales guy. I can relate to people.
The officer asked me what I was doing in Sweden. I told him about my trackchasing hobby. Then his partner came up and asked if I had been in Höljes this weekend. Höljes had been my first stop on my trip two days ago. Höljes is a very well-known motorstadion in Sweden. Now the officers were starting to warm up to me. Bonding is always important no matter the situation. We talked just a little bit about racing.
Yep. I got balls.
As they were preparing to say their goodbyes I went out on a limb. I asked them if I could take their picture for my website. The officer responded, “What website?”. This required a little more explanation. Soon I got their photo. How many people do you know that have the balls to ask a police officer for their photo after they’ve been stopped? Welcome to my world. The photo makes the story so much better.
Track #3 of the trip. Gelleråsen Arena.
Today’s trackchasing effort was a little bit different. I was coming to see an entirely Porsche racing competition. They were racing at the Gelleråsen Arena and Karlskoga, Sweden.
Windiest track ever.
The track was a traditional, flat asphalt road course. It was the weather that seemed nontraditional to me. It was windy. The forecast called for gusts up to 86 km/h. I think maybe they reached that number. Those are tornado speed winds!
A nice surprise was there was no admission price for today’s racing. That follows my first stop in Sweden and my second stop in Norway where the tickets sold for $110 U.S. and $50 respectively.
Porsches only, please.
Just ten Porsches were competing in the first of four races. I watched the racing from the safety fence and also from the grandstands. A hardy crowd of only about 15-20 people were in the stands. They were making their best impression to try to persuade their friends that they weren’t about ready to be blown from Sweden to Kansas.
I was born at night, but not last night. For the second race of the day, I elected to go into the café and have lunch. Lunch consisted of roast chicken, baked potatoes, and some kind of paprika sauce. It was a heck of a lot more comfortable watching the racing from the warmth of the restaurant.
After a short break, I watched race number three from inside my car. I didn’t stay for race number four. This was a workmen-like day of trackchasing. Today may have served up the windiest conditions that I can ever recall when watching a race.
I love adaptive speed control.
I was headed to Stockholm now. My Hertz Rental Car Racing Peugeot 308 has a very good adaptive speed control system. I try to set it at just a couple of kilometers per hour over the limit. However, the speed limit seems to change more often than it should. I am constantly fiddling with the speed control to match so many differing speed limits.
Ever been to a Max? Ever heard of a Max?
There is a hamburger fast food chain in Sweden called Max. They opened in 1969. I see them everywhere. Max has twinges of similarity with In-N-Out burgers, although they’re not as good in my opinion.
Raise your hand if you are comfortable using a foreign fast food kiosk to order your food. Raise your hand if you are comfortable using a kiosk at McDonald’s. I don’t see as many hands as I might have wanted to see. Today I ordered food in Sweden using the in-store kiosk at Max’s. I like to challenge myself with technology although it can be frustrating at times.
Time for touring, eating and just walking around trying to see new stuff.
From there, I made it over to where I would be staying for the next three nights. Where was that? The Hotel Reisen is in the old town section of Stockholm.
This hotel is a Hyatt-affiliated property. As a Globalist with the Hyatt frequent stay program, I used one of my guaranteed suite upgrade awards. I’ve had bigger and I’ve had better hotel suites. The Hotel Reisen is an older hotel. It must be nearly 100 years old. Nevertheless, I was quite pleased with my setup in Stockholm.
$120 per day to park? Not happening.
There was one thing that was less pleasing to me. They wanted to charge me $120 U.S. per day to park my rental car. I planned to park the car for three days and not touch it. There was no way that I was going to pay $360 for that privilege.
I’m pretty good at seeking out alternatives. I love doing that to avoid the uncomfortable feeling that paying $360 for three days of parking might bring my way.
Here was an idea…a very good idea.
Luckily, I had a couple of very cooperative hotel desk clerks helping me. We soon came up with the idea that I would use the “EasyPark” parking system. They helped me find a place within about a 15-minute drive of the hotel.
Rather than pay $360 to park. I would park my car in the EasyPark outdoor lot. From there I would take two Uber rides, one taking me from the parking area to the hotel and the other taking me from the hotel back to the parking lot when it was time to leave. The cost to do all of that (parking and Uber) was just $70. It pays to be creative in situations like this. How much does it pay? $290.
Walking the streets of Stockholm.
I spent the late evening in Stockholm just walking the streets. The scooter traffic is heavy. The sun doesn’t set until a little past 10 p.m. The sun rises on these mornings at about 3:45 a.m.
I might add that 10 p.m. in the light doesn’t seem like 10 p.m. in the dark. At 10 o’clock, I wandered into a Yelp-recommended Italian restaurant. They had already closed the kitchen. The best they could do for me was make a pizza. I could work with that.
The architecture in the old town section of Stockholm is beautiful during the day and the night. I took a lot of pictures.
Day 6
I would always rather spend someone else’s money.
Today was truly going to be a laid-back day. Because of my Globalist status with Hyatt breakfast was on the house. That saved me $32.
I don’t think I would pay that price if Carol was with me or if I were by myself. Nevertheless, it’s easy to do things when someone else is paying the bill, isn’t it?
Just kicking back, planning, and getting used to the nine-hour time zone charge.
I spent most of the day in my room making plans for the rest of the trip. When it came for dinner, I once again consulted Yelp. Whenever I’m in a city I’m not familiar with or just want to try something new, I check Yelp. Yelp isn’t used as much in most foreign countries, but it does help as a guide. Soon I came up with a highly recommended Indian food restaurant.
Walking to the restaurant would help me get in my steps for the day. This would be just my second meal of the day. It does seem as if restaurant food in Sweden is a little bit more expensive than what I might find in the United States, but not outrageous. I’m told by locals that Swedish people don’t tip but if they think that the service is really good, they might tip 10%. Tonight’s Indian food was excellent.
Tesla taxis.
Sweden has one of the five coldest climates in the world. Despite that I saw dozens of Tesla taxis roaming the streets. I guess Tesla works well enough in cold climates.
I never quite expected this.
I was back in my room by nearly 10 p.m. as the sun was thinking about setting. I had encountered one experience, which I didn’t expect at least to this degree. What was that?
I have now been on the ground in Europe for five days. I had rented hotel rooms, bought all of my meals in restaurants, and bought little items here and there including race tickets. I’ve probably made 25 individual purchases. I have yet to spend a single Swedish krona. I’ve paid for everything with my phone or AppleWatch tap-to-pay feature. At this rate, my cash will last forever!
Day 7
Today is reserved for touring Stockholm. This is my fourth trip to Sweden. I have seen some of Stockholm’s highlights in the past including these spots.
City Hall – Stockholm
Gamla stan (old town) – Stockholm
Hovet Stadium (ice hockey – Djurgarden vs. Rogle) – Stockholm
Jumbo Stay (overnight stay aboard a retired Boeing 747 airplane) – Stockholm
Oresund Bridge (longest road and rail bridge in Europe, $55 U.S. to cross one-way – Malmo
Royal Swedish Opera – Stockholm
St. James’s Church – Stockholm
Stockholm Metro – Stockholm
Stockholm winter sightseeing cruise – Stockholm
Vasa Museum – Stockholm
You might want to try this.
In Japan, I discovered a company called “Get Your Guide”.
Get Your Guide is a travel company. I’ve used their travel services several times and highly recommend them.
You can access Get Your Guide via their app on your smartphone or with their website. GYG is super easy to use.
How to use Get Your Guide.
Let’s say you are in any halfway good-sized city anywhere in the world. When you use the GetYourGuide app, they will recommend all kinds of touring opportunities. You can get custom tours, individual tours, and group tours for more interesting opportunities than you can probably imagine. This is a great source for thinking out of the box to explore opportunities you may never have considered or even knew existed.
Today I used GYG for a couple of more normal experiences. With all of my world travels. I’ve always enjoyed the Hop-on Hop-off tour buses. These buses are a cheap way to get an overview of the area I am visiting. When I use the Hop-on Hop-off tour buses if I see something I like I can make plans to go back to that spot and spend some more time with it.
Once you select the tour you want to use you can make a reservation and pay for it on your phone. From what I’ve seen GYG prices are actually at a small discount to the normal price. Once you’ve paid GYG sends you a voucher. This is usually in the form of a QR code to be used at the point of the tour. They will also provide directions for the meeting point and give you text reminders when your tour is upcoming. Like I say I highly recommend Get Your Guide.
Today’s weather was “Southern California beautiful”. That means temperatures in the 70s with lots of sunshine.
Nothing over the top but a nice way to get an overview.
Hop-on Hop-off tour buses are always double-decker buses. Like most tourists, I am an upper-deck traveler. Give me the top of the bus, please.
Today I was getting a nice suntan and enjoying the sites of Stockholm when the tour operator decided to close the canopy on the top deck. Now we were in the shade. Were they expecting rain? Nope.
Touring tip. Never let electricity fall on your heads.
The driver told us that we would be driving under some of the electrical wires that power the city’s public transportation. The canopy was being closed because they didn’t want the electricity to “fall on our heads”. Amazing. I didn’t want the electricity to fall on my head either.
How about we take a boat ride?
I wouldn’t say that the Hop-on Hop-off tour in Stockholm was earth-shatteringly interesting. I did get a better explanation of what some of the unique architecture represented. It was good to hear about Stockholm’s many interesting museums of which I have already visited some of them. For the afternoon, I used to Get Your Guide to take me on a boat ride. When Carol and I travel, we are always up for a boat ride. When she joins me and Sweden later in the trip, we are going to take a big boat ride. More on that later.
I took this same boat tour, called “Stockholm: City Archipelago Sightseeing Cruise”, just a couple of years ago. The price for the cruise was 35 bucks. The cruise gave me something to do. I enjoyed an afternoon out on the water in sunny but windy conditions.
Technology is there to make your life easier.
If I were in the United States and wanted to find a good place to eat, I would almost assuredly use Yelp. You would never find me selecting a restaurant with a rating of less than 4.0. I always read a few reviews. Once I’ve decided on a restaurant I use Google Maps to get me there. Technology is meant to make your life easier and more productive, right?
One of the more popular menu items in Swedish restaurants is their meatballs. They serve Swedish meatballs with mashed potatoes. I searched for a meatball restaurant.
The boat dock return location was about a mile from the restaurant I had chosen. That was great news for me. It is walks like these that allow me to meet my goal of walking four miles every day easily.
Meatballs. Can I have more meatballs, please?
My Swedish meatball entrée was delicious. Swedish meatballs in Sweden appear to be just a little bit smaller than what I am used to but no less tasty with pureed mashed potatoes and gravy. Each serving is accompanied by lingleberries and cucumbers. I would end up eating lots of Swedish meatballs on this trip. Ironically, I can’t ever recall ordering meatballs in a restaurant in the U.S.
When I left the restaurant, I was in the old town section of Stockholm. This area included cobblestone streets and little shops selling all manner of items that a tourist might enjoy.
I stopped at a place selling ice cream and soda. I picked up a small cup that included two scoops of ice cream and a bottle of Coke Zero. I truly was getting into the habit of having dessert after each meal of the day!
Price? $20 U.S. What the heck? I’m on vacation but this is a 27-day vacation. At this rate, two scoops of ice cream and a bottle of Coke Zero might put me out of business.
These are Randy’s Rules. I live by them.
I never go anywhere without a complete understanding of Randy‘s Rules to Fight Inflation and get a good deal. Paying 20 bucks for ice cream and a soda had me implementing rule number five.
Randy’s 5 rules to fight inflation…or get the best deal.
- Find a substitute for the inflated product or service
- Use less of the inflated product or service
- Stop/postpone using the inflated product or service
- Get the product or service for free (ex. using frequent flyer/hotel stay points) or at a steep discount (ex. McDonald’s app)
- When the first four steps don’t work re-invest the savings of steps 1-4 that DID work with other products/services when you must pay the price of an inflated in price product or service
So what? Maybe I am too analytical.
Today had been a laidback day. This marked my third day at the Hotel Reisen in the old town, of Stockholm. The Hotel Reisen is affiliated with Hyatt. That meant I got some benefits from the Hyatt frequent stay program. The hotel upgraded me to a very nice suite. They included their well-above-average breakfast buffet at no charge.
For this stay, I decided to pay cash instead of using my Hyatt points. Why? Because using points did not provide a good value. Using cash was the better option. If I can get 2.5 cents per point or more for a stay, I go with points. If I can’t get that, I pay cash.
Here’s an example of what I’ve talking about. Let’s say I can pay the cash price of the hotel of $175. Or I can use 6,500 Hyatt points and use no cash. Some people might think using points is the only good option. Nothing beats “free”, right? Not so fast.
The value of each point when I could pay $175 or use 6,500 points is 2.69 cents per point (175/6500). After staying in Hyatt properties for nearly 100 nights in 2024, I paid with cash about half the time and used points about half the time. Currently, I have averaged 3.04 cents per point on my point redemptions.
Now this is the true definition of going down a rabbit hole.
If I decided to pay $175 for my room I would earn 10.5 points per dollar spent. That’s 1,837.5 points. At 3.04 cents per point that gives me a discount of $55.86 (1,837.5 x .0304). Hyatt gives me 1,000 points for every night I stay whether I pay cash or use points. That’s another $30.40 discount (1,000 x .0304). PLUS for the current three-month period I get DOUBLE the points for a cash stay (1,837.5 x .0304) or $55.86. That’s THREE discounts amounting to $142.12. Now let’s do the final match. I paid $175 for the hotel, but Hyatt gave me discounts of $142.12. That makes my net cost of the hotel, $33.88! Of course, that’s before they upgraded me to a suite, gave me free breakfast for a family of four, and a late checkout of 4 p.m. I admit I’m not the smartest guy you ever met….but I know the game of “points and miles”.
Randy Lewis
Meatball conniseour
P.S. I promise you the next edition of my Swedish adventure will detail my encounter with Bruce Springsteen. I promise.
I am working on my 2023/2024 annual update on my financial results. This is the most popular and most read post I generate. I know. It’s still nearly two months before the deadline of October 11. I promise you this. My update will include the biggest financial confession I have ever made.