Sweden – Trackchasing Country #15

written by Randy Lewis

Trackchasing Country #15

I’m sending this post to both my “finance/travel” and my “racing/travel” groups. I thought everyone could enjoy and relate to this adventure. You might want to begin with the fully captioned photo albums and YouTube videos. Each offers a separate travel and racing view. Also, I very much appreciate the folks who take the time to send notes and comments. Thanks.

Photo albums

The first part of my trip to Sweden was all about ice racing and logistics

The last half of my trip….all about touring Stockholm

YouTube videos

My first ever ice trackchasing trip to Sweden!

Wanna go to Sweden? Take a laid-back tour with me!

And now for the story. These trips are 100% about the story.

Editor’s note: The COVID-19 pandemic is generally considered to have begun in the United States on March 11, 2020. I came back to Los Angeles from Stockholm, Sweden on the evening of March 11, 2020. I returned to find my flight was the last plane allowed into LAX before coronavirus international travel lockdowns were put in place. The following describes how “Sweden went down” as they prepared to fight the virus using the herd immunity approach.

Why would I choose Sweden during the winter for a weeklong trackchasing trip? There are three easy answers to that question that come to mind.

One of my goals for the 2020 trackchasing season is to make, “big” trips. Why am I putting a focus on big trips this year? I have already seen racing at almost all permanent oval and road course racetracks in North America. In my opinion, the very best racing comes from these kinds of tracks. That means that the remaining tracks left for me to see in North America won’t be presenting the best racing.

Carol and I travel the world, and our visit to Sweden, although all too brief, was outstanding. Thanks to Par-Olof and his friends for thinking of us.

This would not be my first trip to Sweden. All the way back in 2008 Carol and I went to both Sweden and Denmark to see some racing and tour this beautiful albeit expensive part of the world.

During that trip a decade ago to Sweden we left Copenhagen, Denmark headed for Malmo, Sweden. What I remember most about that adventure was that we paid $55 to drive across the Oresund Bridge which connects Malmo and Copenhagen.

At the time the Oresund Bridge was the longest combined road and rail bridge in Europe. We saw some less than super exciting SCCA type racing on a flat road course in Sweden. We were only in Sweden for a matter of hours. After the race, we took that same bridge back to Denmark. Later in the day, we crossed another toll bridge. We ended up spending some $150 U.S. crossing those three bridges!

Fast forward to 2020. Spending a week in Sweden would definitely qualify as a big trip. I had already been trackchasing during the first couple of months of 2020 in France, Italy, Algeria and Mexico as well as Canada. I was off to a pretty quick start with the big trip idea!

Secondly, I enjoy expanding my reach in some of the major categories of the trackchasing hobby. Ice racing is one of those major categories. I established a goal of adding another country, state or province to my list of where I have seen racing on ice by the end of 2020. I already met that goal when Carol and I saw ice racing up in the French and Italian Alps…in both France and Italy during January.

As you will come to find out I was able to add Sweden (above) to my ice trackchasing list. Here’s the complete list which now includes Sweden. This comes to 23 countries, states and provinces where I have ventured out in the middle of the winter for a little bit of ice racing fun. I think the next leading trackchaser is this important category totals about six or seven.

Alaska

Alberta, Canada

Andorra

Belarus (above) British Columbia, Canada

Soon I was having a great time with these two Russian lassies. Finland (above) France

Iowa

Italy

Maine

Manitoba, Canada

Massachusetts

Michigan

Minnesota

New Hampshire

New York

Ontario, Canada

Quebec, Canada

Racing…Russian style. Russia (above) Saskatchewan, Canada Sweden

Vermont

Wisconsin

Thirdly I wanted to give Sweden just a little bit more attention than I was able to give it during my first trackchasing trip to the country. Would you like to read about that trip back in 2008? If so here’s a link to that story.

Sweden and the “First Visit – 2008”

Readers should know that a “trackchasing” trip to a foreign country for me is really like a touring trip would be for anyone else. Normally, the trip will last 5-10 days with one afternoon devoted to racing. The rest of the trip is reserved for seeing the sights, eating the food and observing the culture.

For this trip, I was initially shooting for an ice race in Austria. However, that plan got tied up in trackchasing logistical rules minutia. That situation made Austria less of a target. I switched to Sweden. I needed to check several sources of information about Swedish ice racing before I hit the jackpot.

I made contact with a man named Simon Tiger. Over the course of the past few months, he and I had messaged back-and-forth more than 50 times. Without him, my Swedish ice racing trip would have been much more challenging. In case this isn’t crystal clear my trips would be much less robust without the help of local people like Simon Tiger.

I find it amazing that I always seem to end up finding a local person and sometimes more than one who can educate me about the local racing culture in their country. Often times I will maintain a friendship with these people for years. I’ve probably been able to make those friendships in 30-40 countries. This allows me to stay in touch with them normally via social media. I even have one friend who I’ve trackchased with all over Europe. He calls me each Christmas to wish me a happy holiday. Boris is originally from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

I picked this weekend to come to Sweden for one special reason. The Sweden ice racing schedule called for racing on both Saturday and Sunday at two different ice racing venues. I had monitored the Swedish weather closely over the past six weeks. It looked as if the temperatures were going to be ideal for ice racing. It seemed as if there would be enough cold-weather to create good ice but not so cold as to make ice trackchasing viewing uncomfortable.

This was why I was a little surprised when Simon messaged me saying that one of the two ice racing opportunities had canceled. They actually canceled about two weeks ahead of their race date. At the end that didn’t matter. I was able to keep the trip to Sweden and see an ice race that met all of the objectives listed above.

Now…without further ado….let’s go to Sweden!

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Yesterday, Carol and I landed in the Tijuana, Mexico airport after spending a quick four days down in Yucatan, Mexico. That was a fun trip. We were able to use the new “tunnel” that connects the U.S. and Tijuana, Mexico. Mexico is actually a safe enough place to visit in most of the country’s locations.

Now it was time for me to head to Stockholm, Sweden. We’ve been using the budget long-haul airline carrier, Norwegian Airlines for our past several trips to Europe.

I always fly coach on these long trips unless I am upgraded for free. I would say that I have been upgraded when flying standby more than 50% of the time over the past decade. That probably includes 60-80 international trips.

For this trip, I was paying cash….like most people do. I prefer coach class on these trips at $445 per person, which is what I paid for this round-trip ticket to Stockholm. What would business class cost on a trip like this? I’m guessing $2,000-3,000 per person. I would much rather sit in a coach seat for 10 hours and have that $2,500 in my back pocket when I land than pay for business class. Many of my friends feel differently about this choice. Of course, most folks don’t make 6-8 or more of these trips each year.

My main credit card is the Chase Sapphire Reserve Visa card. It comes with a special feature. That benefit is something called Priority Pass. Being a member of PP allows me to use airline clubs and airport restaurants, some 1,400 in total all over the world. Not only do I get to USE these places but there is no charge for me to use them. That’s a pretty good deal.

Today I began my trip at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) with a stop at the Korean Airlines Lounge located in the international terminal. This is one of the most upscale lounges I visit anywhere in the world. All food and drink are complimentary. Priority Pass makes traveling so much more relaxing.

My Norwegian flight would take me from LAX to London’s Gatwick airport before connecting to a flight departing for Stockholm’s Arlanda airport.

I had about a four-hour layover in Gatwick. That was perfect. First, I headed to the “No1 Lounge” in the Gatwick’s south terminal. There I flashed my electronic Priority Pass card and enjoyed a continental breakfast in a most upscale and relaxing atmosphere. I can’t tell you what a value these lounges are especially after a long overnight flight.

After spending a couple of hours in this lounge I sauntered over to the Grain Store Café and Bar, another Priority Pass option at Gatwick. There I dined on one of their gourmet burgers and fries.

Next up was the relatively quick three-hour, twenty-minute flight from London to Stockholm. When I landed at 8:20 p.m. I had been traveling for nearly 24 hours. Arlanda airport is connected to a fairly large shopping mall.

I would be needing a rental car but I would not be needing a rental car tonight. That being the case I had reserved a room at the Comfort Hotel at the Arlanda airport. This was one of my better logistical ideas for this trip. The hotel might have been an eight-minute walk, mostly indoors from the airport itself. The Comfort Hotel would match most Marriott hotels in quality. Additionally, bypassing the rental car counter tonight would save me a day’s rental car expense. My travel plan up to this point was working perfectly. God natt från Stockholm.

Friday, March 6, 2020

As you will come to find out I was in Sweden, mainly Stockholm, for eight days. The first couple of days of the trip would be used to see an ice race in the northern part of the country. The remainder of this visit would have me exploring every corner and crevice of Stockholm, Sweden. I invite you to ride along as my sidekick on this trip.

Today’s hotel buffet breakfast was over the top. If I ever come back to Stockholm and need a hotel near the airport I will once again stay at the Comfort Hotel.

The next item on today’s agenda was to pick up my rental car. I had made a reservation for a manual transmission economy-sized rental car with Hertz. In the U.S. I only rent full-sized cars.

However, internationally, I will reserve an economy rental car for two reasons. First, in most foreign countries there is very little size difference between the smallest rental cars and the biggest. Secondly, it is very common for rental car companies to upgrade me by a class or more at no extra charge.

I had spent a lot of time in advance of the trip trying to confirm I could get a rental car with all-weather (snow) tires or maybe snow chains. I wasn’t able to confirm either. I just hoped here in early March in Sweden that I wouldn’t need those options. During my trip, the further north I went, there was plenty of snow on the ground but it never snowed where I was.

Hertz gave me a good-sized Toyota Yaris hybrid automobile with an automatic transmission at no extra charge. That would work just fine. I am very comfortable driving a manual transmission but an automatic is much more convenient. I was renting my car for five full days.

I do a lot of driving with my trackchasing/travel hobby. Gas station convenience stores are a frequent stop for me on these trips. They supply bathrooms (called “toilets” in Europe) and snack time food and drink. Today I picked up a Pepsi Max Rasberry flavored diet drink and a cream puff. I am a conflicted although very happy consumer of food and drink.

Off I went on the 369-mile one-way drive to the small town of Asele, Sweden. Asele was where the ice racing would take place. Asele was a small town of just 1,798 residents in the province of Lapland.

This seven-hour drive was done in the daylight for about half of the drive and in the dark for the last half of the drive. I had plenty of time to get there so I just enjoyed the scenery.

For the first 15 years of my life, I lived in a yellow house. I am still partial to yellow houses. So are people in Sweden! I couldn’t believe how many yellow houses there were here. I’m going to guess that about one out of three homes was painted in one form of yellow or another. You’ll see a lot of those yellow houses in my SmugMug photo album.

My trusty Waze GPS system was getting me everywhere I needed to go in Sweden. Of course, it was powered by my iPhone 11 and my AT&T cellular system. Our AT&T plan allows me to use my phone pretty much as I do at home in more than 100 countries. I remember the days when my phone couldn’t work in virtually any way on these foreign trips. Having a fully working cellphone makes the trip about a MILLION times easier.

Tonight I found my hotel, the Asele Wardshus with no problem whatsoever despite arriving in the dark. This was a small place with less than twenty rooms. I booked it online with Expedia for less than $100 U.S. It was dinner time and I asked the hotel owner for a local restaurant recommendation.

He came up with a local Ma and Pa pub and pizza establishment in town. I had a pepperoni pizza along with a Norrlands Guld beer. I was told this was a local Swedish beer. The beer was better than the pizza. I gotta tell you it is beyond cool to walk into a little tavern in a small town in a foreign country on a snowy winter evening. I don’t do that in the U.S. Maybe that’s why I so much appreciated the opportunity here in Asele, Sweden.

When it was time to pay the bill I had a little bit of a problem. European retail establishments often require a pin code in order to use a credit card. I didn’t have a pin for my credit card. No problem. I simply reached into my pocket to pay with some of the Swedish kroner that Carol had given me as I left for this trip.

Permit me to divert the conversation for a paragraph or two. Some might be asking themselves why I hadn’t brought Carol along on my trip to Sweden. Don’t most couples travel together on major trips like this? Yes, I would think that most couples do travel together on trips like this….if they take a couple of vacations like this a year.

I travel overnight on trips like this and all over the United States some 175-200 nights each year. Carol will travel with me overnight about 80 nights a year. So…Carol doesn’t come along on each trip but she does travel more than just about anybody we both know. In January she and I spent a couple of weeks in France and Italy. Just one day before I left for Sweden Carol and I returned from several days in the Mexican state of Yucatan. I hope that answers any questions folks might have about, “Where was Carol”?

Carol always saves a “local stash” of currencies from countries we have visited in the past. I don’t know where she keeps these currencies. I don’t know how much we have tied up in these monies. I suspect it might be quite a lot. When I asked her in advance of leaving on this trip if she had any kroner she told me she did. Then in just a few minutes, about $110 worth of Swedish kroner was placed on my desk in a plastic sandwich bag. I know…it’s sounds sort of mafia-like doesn’t it.

However, tonight when I went to pay the proprietor with the Carol-supplied kroner he looked at the bills as if they were monopoly money. He went on to tell me in broken English that a few years ago this Swedish currency had been replaced with a new paper kroner. He couldn’t accept what I was offering.

My bill was 155 kroner for the beer and pizza. That’s a little bit less than $20 U.S. I had already struck out with my credit cards and what I thought were Swedish kroner. What could I do now?

The restaurant owner suggested I use an ATM that was conveniently located outside. However, I really didn’t want to incur a five-dollar charge to use a foreign ATM. I told him I could pay him in euros or U.S. dollars. Then I remembered that both my euros and dollars were back in my hotel room. I really didn’t want to return to my hotel for the currency tonight and then drive back to the restaurant to pay the bill.

He simply looked at me and said again in broken English, “tomorrow, tomorrow”. That would work for me. I hoped in the meantime that I could exchange some euros or dollars for Swedish kroner to pay my bill.

Saturday, March 7, 2020

Today’s ice racing location in Asele, Sweden was a seven-hour drive north of Stockholm, the capital city of the country. I had pulled in late last night to the Asele Wardshus hotel in Asele. My plan for finding the ice track this morning was to follow the signs or ask local people about the exact location of the ice racing course. I was more than pleased to see a poster advertising the ice racing in the window of my hotel.

Racing was scheduled to begin this morning at 10 a.m. When I entered the parking lot at the hotel last night it was snowing. The hotel’s parking area was full of cars some with attached trailers. This morning when I sauntered over toward the breakfast room at 8:30 a.m. the parking lot was virtually empty. I guessed all of those cars that I saw last night were racers and they were now at the ice track.

Including breakfast in the hotel room rate has always been a European thing. Many American hotels have joined in with this idea. This morning‘s breakfast was excellent. The staff at the Asele Wardshus Hotel could not have been any better.

Today was race day! I had a few minutes before the ice races were to begin. I needed to track down a currency exchange. The hotel provider couldn’t help me. He didn’t have enough cash on hand. However, he recommended I head down to the gas station which also featured a post office. He figured I could exchange some money there. He was right.

The man managing the gas station, which was located right across the street from the pub, told me that he could exchange some money but his exchange rate wasn’t the best. No problem. I had a financial obligation to the pizza owner. If I needed to eat a little bit of a discount with the currency exchange it was on me. Soon I was walking out of the station with about 300 Swedish kroner.

The pub had not yet opened on this Saturday morning. The doors were locked. All I could do was make a mental note that I would return when the races were over and pay my debt.

I tried to follow the signs directing me to the ice track. Of course, they were written in Swedish as you might imagine. It was interesting to see so many local townspeople out and about on a cold, crisp late winter morning. The temperature was 8 degrees Fahrenheit. Folks used what looked like a combination walker/ski to get around.

I was more than pleased to have found the race parking area. There I encountered two young women selling tickets to the event. For 100 Swedish krone or about $12 U.S. I gained admission to the races. I would have full paddock access. I was also given a racing program that listed each race driver by name and car number.

The weather today was perfect for ice racing. Of course, ice racing is almost always done on frozen bodies of water. It takes several days/weeks to form enough ice for ice racing. Today it was cold with temperatures at about 15-20°F. However there was absolutely no wind, the skies were blue and the sun was shining. This was good ice racing weather for spectators.

There were some 20-25 cars in the paddock. This represented four classes of passenger style cars and one group of cross karts. American fans might know cross karts are something similar to a dune buggy.

Again, as you might imagine all of the signs and commentary from the track announcer were done in Swedish. I could make a little sense of some of the signs and some of the scheduling paperwork simply because of my experience of being at so many tracks. With regard to the announcer, I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.

Nevertheless, when he took a breath I walked up and introduced myself. I told him I had come all the way from California to see Swedish ice racing. Then I handed him my card and wished him a great day. As I walked away I could hear him chattering into the microphone and mentioning a Californian a few times to the crowd!

You probably know that all true ice racing is done on a flat track. Why would that be? Water seeks its own level. Occasionally plowed snow will be used to both create safety barriers as well as minorly banked turns.

From the hand-drawn map of the track that I found in the paddock area today’s track looked somewhat like an oval. The configuration came with a large chicane and then turns on the backstretch. The cars raced clockwise. By definition, they were racing on a road course configuration. I’m guessing the track’s distance might have been nearly a mile in length.

Most of the spectating crowd lined up along the front straight. However, there was a good distance, probably 400-500 meters, from the spectators to where the cars actually left the starting line. The racers began from a standing start at the drop of the green flag.

I’m going to recommend, as I always do, that you take a look at my photo album and YouTube video. If you do you’ll get a better sense of what today’s racing machines looked like and how they performed on the ice. I always do my best to offer those two options for the folks who follow my hobby. It takes a bit more time to manage the photos and video but if you find what I share entertaining and informative then it’s worth it. Maybe after seeing how they do things in a faraway place like Sweden you might decide to come over here to see for yourself.

After I had watched a few races I went about with the task of finding Mr. Simon Tiger. He and I had messaged each other at the track so we both know that each of us was in the ice house.

Finding Simon could have been tough. This was a huge lake. Spectators and racing people were spread all over the frozen lake. Luckily for both of us, we were each standing within 10 feet of one another while watching the last race!

I asked a gentleman wearing a “Tiger X” T-shirt if he was Simon. No, he told me he wasn’t but the tall young gentleman standing just seven feet away from me was! It’s a small world.

From there Simon and I spent the better part of a half-hour chatting about Swedish Ice Racing. I’m 6‘3“ tall. I’m going to guess that Simon was an inch or two taller than me. Today I was the “little guy” despite topping out at 97.5% on the scale of tallness. Simon was watching the races today with his sister and her kids. I would come to learn that the Tiger family racing team is a real family unit.

Simon does not ice race. He does race in the rally car championships all over Sweden during the summertime. As a matter of fact, this past summer he was the Sweden national champion with the two-wheel-drive cars. That’s impressive.

He began to tell me about the racing venues that are used for rallycross in the warmer months. Today’s ice racing was already six hours north of Stockholm. Simon told me that several of the rallycross races were another six hours north of where we were today. Folks, that’s getting all most all the way up to Antarctica!

I had not planned my summer trackchasing schedule just yet. Some people don’t realize, except for foreign country travel, that I rarely plan an outing more than 5-7 days in advance of a trip. After talking to Simon today it wouldn’t be a shocking outcome to see me return to Sweden this summer.

As Simon and I talked I learned that the Tiger family had been in the racing business for a long time. Simon’s dad was the patriarch of the Tiger racing dynasty.

Simon showed me some photos of the car he built over the winter. He estimated that it took him 2000 hours to build the car from scratch. He’s a welder and a fabricator and can pretty much do it all.

He told me that racing was expensive in Sweden. The engine in his car cost about $30,000 U.S. Tires were about $350 U.S. apiece. Simon told me that he had several sponsors who contributed and really helped the race team. They don’t race for much prize money in Sweden so sponsors are absolutely required.

From there Simon showed me the Tiger family’s rallycross racing team transporter. This was a double-decker bus. Don’t miss the photos on this one.

Simon says that the sleeping quarters for the race team are on the top level of the bus. Get ready for this one. They have 16 beds on the top level! It’s a little tight, sort of like being on a submarine, but a 16-bed capacity is bigger than a lot of hotels you might find In Sweden.

They haul their race car in a separate enclosed trailer behind the bus. The travel distance from track to track makes the race teams cover a lot of kilometers. I know that the Tiger X racing team has a blast going from race to race with their family and friends. Racing, especially for the racers and their crews, is truly a family experience.

I bid Simon farewell with the hopes that we will certainly be able to stay in touch and I might be able to see him race this summer. Then I went about my business of taking more photographs of the race cars parked in the paddock.

When it was time to leave the ice I made a direct beeline to the pub and pizza parlor. There I paid my debt of 155 Swedish kroner for my beer and pizza from last night. I absolutely hate owing people money unless I’m getting a low-interest home or car loan.  The pub proprietor did not act surprised that I had come back with the money. I guess he knew I was good for it. I asked if I could take his picture for my website and he agreed!

Later in the trip, I would spend some time in Stockholm checking out a bank where I could exchange my “old” kronor for current ones. Alas, that would all have to be done online. Nine months later I still did not have my money.

From there I went about making my way back to Stockholm, a seven-hour one-way drive. Due to the nine-hour time zone change from back home, I have not slept well over the past couple of nights. When that happens in a foreign country I simply try to take catnaps during the day if needed. I took those naps today. I would need to get a reasonable amount of rest because I was expecting to be touring Stockholm and the surrounding area for the next three days.

Today had been a good day on the trackchasing ice. Of course, the highlight was meeting Simon Tiger and his sister. I enjoyed talking to the track announcer and having him mention the fact that I was attending the races today. It was also fun to get up close and personal with so many other cars and drivers in the paddock. The downside of the actual racing was the cars were simply too far from where the spectators were viewing them.

I took my time on the drive back to Stockholm. When I needed to stop and take a short nap I did. Then for the last hour or so I was able to listen to the UCLA – USC basketball game over SiriusXM satellite radio. Despite being in such a faraway location I still had the tech capabilities to listen to my hometown basketball game.

Of course, I needed to stop for petrol from time to time. Gasoline was selling for 14.93 kronor per liter. That translated into about $6.80 U.S. per gallon. Yep. Scandinavian countries are expensive! In past trips to this part of the world, we have paid more than $10 U.S. per gallon for fuel. I figured I was getting about 43 MPG.

Believe it or not, while I was in Sweden, I received a note saying my Tesla Model X back home was due for an over the air technology update. I simply clicked a button using my iPhone and my car got its update while I was inside a Swedish restaurant. Ain’t that something?

Sunday, March 8, 2020

Now with the racing finished I would have three full days to tour Stockholm. I thought that was just the right amount of time to see what I wanted to see in this city of 975,000.

Stockholm is the capital city of Sweden and its most populous urban area. The city stretches across 14 islands. Stockholm is situated on Sweden’s east coast. Over 30% of the city area is made up of waterways and another 30% is made up of parks and green spaces.

During December and January Stockholm gets only six hours of daylight. In June and July, they have 18 hours of daylight each day. Luckily, for me, during my early March visit, they have 12 hours of daylight.

So….without further ado let’s go explore Stockholm, Sweden. This is the way I do these tours. The reader may do it differently. Nevertheless, if you’ve never been to Stockholm you can be exposed to what the city has to offer. If you have been to Stockholm you can compare your experiences to mine.

I began by selecting a hotel near a train station. I would stay for the next three nights in the Jarfalla section of Stockholm at the Welcome Hotel. I still had my rental car. I didn’t know if my touring would be limited to the city or if I might like to take a road trip outside of Stockholm. As it turned out my touring would be confined to the city.

My hotel was a 5-minute walk from the Barkarby train station. I love riding trains and subways. From the Barkarby station I could get anywhere I wanted in Stockholm.

The Stockholm Metro system opened in 1950. The system has 100 stations. About have are above ground and half underground. The system gets more than one million riders every day.

I have ridden subways all over the world. It always takes a little “getting used to” but soon becomes nearly as comfortable as a well-worn pair of shoes. I am the type of traveler who will stop and ask anyone for directions or to take a picture of me or whatever. I’ve met some nice people with this approach.

By the way, as I share my story I want you to know that everything I mention, and a whole lot more, is documented photographically with my SmugMug photo album linked elsewhere in this post. My photo albums are always captioned as well. If I were you rather than listen to me ramble on about this trip I would check out the photos. But…that’s just me.

The Stockholm City station was my main getting off point once I rode into the downtown section of Stockholm. The “train” rides above ground out in the suburbs and then more underground the closer to the city it gets.

I would be walking today. The temperature would be in the 45-60 degree range during most of my touring. That’s good walking weather.

The architecture of Stockholm is worth the trip. Today my first stop on my self-guided walking tour was City Hall. It stands on the eastern tip of Kungsholmen island. Frankly, as I walked all over Stockholm I didn’t even know I was moving from one island to another. It took twelve years from 1911 to 1932 to build City Hall and today it is one of the landmarks of Stockholm.

I’m sure you’ve seen those “Lime” branded scooters littered/available to anyone in large cities. These are very popular in Stockholm. The city is home to a young population and they love their scooters.

My next stop was the “old town” section of Stockholm. As you probably knew Gamla stan is the Swedish term for old town. The island of Stadsholmen is home to almost all of Gamla stan or old town.

Old town goes all the way back to the 1300s. There are small narrow cobblestone streets with funky little stores and lots of small cafes. I always enjoy the old town sections aka medinas of the foreign cities I visit especially in the mid-east.

Today I at lunch I used the café not only for nourishment but as a power source for my iPhone. My iPhone was my camera, my step counter and my GPS system. Having a charged iPhone was critical to my success.

During my walk today I came upon the Royal Swedish Opera building. I was fully expecting to catch a performance here in the next day or two. It didn’t matter if I saw an opera or a ballet or whatever. I was just in it for the experience.

Our son J.J. had lived in Stockholm for nearly two years earlier in his business career. He told me the one attraction I didn’t want to miss was the Vasa Museum. This is a maritime museum.

The museum is located on the island of Djurgarden. The museum displays the only almost fully intact 17th-century ship that has ever been salvaged, the 64-gun warship Vasa that sank on her maiden voyage in 1628. The Vasa Museum opened in 1990 and I am told it is the most visited museum in all of Sweden. I thought this was a fantastic stop. Please…don’t miss the photos.

Of course, upon leaving the Vasa I had to purchase some postcards and….stamps. Postcards are usually pretty easy to find, although they are a dying form of communication. Stamps can be harder to find and are usually expensive. When Carol comes along on these trips her #1 objective is to send postcards back to the kids in our extended family. However, when a child graduates from college their postcard receiving days are over….unless they make a specific request and then they are back on the post list in perpetuity.

The good thing about a self-guided walking tour is…..wait for it….it’s self-guided! If I want to go left I go left. If I want to visit something for 15 minutes I do. To have a productive tour it takes a little pre-planning so you get the chance to experience the attractions you value the most.

Carol and I have taken fully guided tours in both China and Russia. Those trips were fantastic. We met and made friends with folks we stayed in touch with and visited multiple times for years. However, we and I are/am not guided tour devotees.

Today I walked 9.2 miles seeing what struck my fancy. In most places, especially in Europe where I have trackchased in 41 countries and visited a few more, just being “lost” is much of the fun. We have discovered and enjoyed so many things off the beaten path while we were lost. Being lost is much more entertaining than making sure I’ve seen every location on a country’s top ten list.

During my walk today I stopped whenever and wherever I wanted to eat. Most of this was casual dining and relatively inexpensive.

I had already purchased a ticket for tonight’s opera at the Royal Swedish Opera house. What a beautiful facility. Of course, the opera was sung in Swedish as you would expect. I had a great seat in the first ten rows of a theatre that seats 1,200.

To be clear I am not an opera or ballet and classical concert fan. However, when I travel I make an extra effort to see “shows” at the biggest and best venue that I can. We’ve been to the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow and to some of the tiniest theatres in some of the poorest countries all over the world. Tonight the performance was sold out shoulder to shoulder with no masks worn. The coronavirus was not yet known but it would be very soon.

On the subway/train ride back to the hotel I looked back on my day. I hadn’t seen or heard a single American. That is not unusual. It is normal. For some reason, Americans just don’t really travel internationally all that much. Once Carol and I traded our Maui timeshare for a week in a small seaside village in Spain. We didn’t hear or see an American during the entire time we were there.

Tuesday, March 10, 2020

Today was going to be my last full day in Sweden. After an excellent hotel breakfast, I was at the train station ready to go back to Stockholm. The plan was to hit up some of the lesser sights of the city.

I began with a tour of St. James’s Church. This church is often mistakenly called St. Jacob’s Church. Why? In the Swedish language both James and Jacob are covered by the same word. The beautiful place of worship was built in the 1500s and is the most centrally located in all of Stockholm.

From there I hopped on a Stockholm sightseeing boat. This is one of my favorite ways to see the sights. Stockholm is sometimes called the “Venice of Scandinavia” because the city is located on so many islands. O.K. this is not Venice, which is one of the coolest places I have ever visited. However, the scenic cruise around Stockholm was very much worth the trip even with the weather being mid-March crisp. I would say the cruise and its sights were a trip highlight.

I am a huge sports fan. What do you think is the most popular sport in all of Sweden? Did you say “football”? If you did you would be correct. If you were thinking “American football” you would be incorrect. Swedish football is what we lovingly call soccer.

Well, I wasn’t seeing the #1 most popular sport in Sweden but my plan was to see the close runner-up as the most popular sport in Sweden. Again, any guesses? No, not handball. Ice hockey! Yep. I was headed to a hockey match tonight.

It always takes a little doing to get schedules and tickets for events like this. I often use the hotel’s concierge staff to help me. Today I found out I could simply buy my ticket at the door.

Yesterday, I had walked for 9.2 miles. Today I would end up walking another 6.5 miles. Mind you this walking was done in cool and breezy conditions. However, lest we forget the impetus for this trip was ice racing! How quickly we forget what brought me to Sweden in the first place.

I’ve seen “sport” in some of the biggest and best venues all over the world. I’ve seen cricket at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (seating capacity of more than 100,000) in Australia. I’ve seen soccer in Panama at the Estadio Rommel Fernandez multi-purpose stadium. The situation was so chaotic outside the stadium that our driver stayed with us the entire time. I’ve seen rugby at the Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb, Croatia.

Tonight I was going to add another foreign sporting experience for the first time ever in Sweden. I had some directions to a major sporting complex in Stockholm. The area was home to several different stadia. I was looking forward to sitting in a massive 20,000 indoor venue packed to the rafters with rabid Swedish ice hockey fans.

When I arrived in the area the first stadium I saw was the Globe. I knew it was the Globe because from the outside the building looked just like a globe. This was going to be a great place to watch a hockey match. The record crowd at the Globe was more than 17,000 for a Metallica concert. Sadly, the hockey tonight was not going to be played at the Globe.

The match I was going to see between Djurgarden and Rogle was being played just across the way at the Hovet indoor stadium. The Hovet venue was older and smaller than the Globe. The Hovet was originally built as an outdoor stadium in 1955 with a roof added in 1963. The Hovet’s capacity for ice hockey was about 8,000. O.K., this wasn’t the Globe which I didn’t even know existed until I arrived here today but it WAS the Hovet and I was going to see a hockey game in Sweden. That was good enough for me.

I didn’t have a ticket for tonight’s match. No problem. I rarely show up to any sporting venue with a ticket purchased in advance. I have two important theories about getting my tickets to sporting events.

First, I don’t pay retail. I prefer to buy my tickets from “promotional wholesalers”. You may refer to these folks at ticket scalpers. Ticket scalpers are my friends. They are “my” people. I buy most of my tickets to all kinds of events in this manner. This is also a great way to expand my cultural horizons if you are following me.

Secondly, I would rather go to a sports event or a theatrical production one time with a great seat than two or three times with a bad seat for the same total amount of money. I want a good seat…one way or the other.

I arrived at the stadium about two hours before the match. If you’re not early you’re late right? The ticket office wasn’t open yet and there were no scalpers in sight.

However, there was a sports bar/restaurant open near Hovet Stadium. I was the first person in there for dinner. I grabbed a spot over in the far corner and dined on a generous serving of fettuccini alfredo. For nearly the next two hours I watch the place fill up with hockey fans. I nursed a few Pepsi Max drinks waiting for game time. I marveled at how similar this sports bar was to what I might see back home. That’s one of the major items I get from foreign travel. People behave pretty much the same no matter where they live despite what you might read about their governments.

When it was nearly game time I went to find a ticket. There were no scalpers. There were no season ticket holders who had “an extra”. So I did what I hate to do. I bought a ticket at the ticket office. This was not a simple procedure. The ticket office was not attached to the stadium itself. I had to walk a block or two toward a shopping mall where the ticket office was located.

I paid 320 kronor for my ticket or a bit more than $30 U.S. This was the most expensive ticket in the entire arena. My seat was great. I was in row 5 center ice right behind the penalty box.

Actually, my seat was SO close to the ice I had a hard time getting a good panoramic view of the action. Soon I moved back a few rows where I had an excellent location to watch the game.

I am not a big hockey fan. The most fun for me tonight was simply to watch the fans. When the period breaks came I checked out all of the souvenirs and concessions. I would have to say every time I have ever seen a foreign sporting event it has been a major trip highlight. Tonight in Stockholm, Sweden was no exception.

On the way home I stopped at a place advertising “7 st chili cheese tops”. Think breaded and fried jalapeno and cheese peppers. I am lucky in life with regards to food. I can eat anything and the spicier the better. At my current age, I eat the same junk and comfort food that I have since I was 20 years old and have excellent blood work in every category. Just lucky I guess.

When the hockey match was finished and the last of my chili cheese jalapeno peppers had been washed down by a Pepsi Max it was time to begin heading toward our modest seaside cottage in the sleepy little Spanish village of San Clemente.

There would be a few transportation stops along the way. First, I rode the train back where my car was parked at the Welcome Hotel. I wasn’t staying the Welcome Hotel this evening.

I had found a very unique lodging location for this evening. Tonight’s “hotel” was called the “Jumbo Stay”. The Jumbo Stay was a retired Boeing 747 airplane that had been turned into a hotel. Do not miss the pictures on this one!

I had never slept overnight on an airplane that wasn’t flying. You might want to check out the details. Here’s a link that will help with that Jumbo Stay. What a great and unusual way to end a trip that had often been both great and unusual.

The Jumbo Stay airliner/hotel was located near the airport and just across the street from the Hertz rental car location. I returned my car this evening. However, that did not go as well as I might have liked.

The Budget rental car location was right next door to Hertz. The entrance was a bit confusing. I mistakenly drove my car into the Budget entrance rather than the entry point for Hertz. Then I dropped my Hertz keys into Budget’s huge all-steel dropbox. Soon I recognized my error. Feeling sheepish I had to go into the Hertz office and confess my sins. The Hertz guy was nice enough but I know what he had to be thinking.

Wednesday, March 11, 2020

When I checked out of the Jumbo Stay 747 airliner hotel in the darkness of a late winter early morning in Stockholm I had no idea what the future was going to hold. That’s not unusual. I never know what the future will hold! However, I wasn’t thinking Coronavirus.

Up until this point in 2020 (71 days), I had trackchased in France, Italy, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Algeria, Florida, Minnesota, Saskatchewan and Mexico. This had been a “normal” start to every one of the 19 years I have been retired. I had traveled overnight for 43 nights in the first 71 days of the year. Yep. Just another typical year for me.

However, when I flew from Stockholm to London and then onto Los Angeles I learned things had changed. My flight left Stockholm at 7:10 a.m. I touched down at LAX at 5 p.m.

While I was waiting to depart the airport terminal at LAX I heard a woman talking on her cell phone. From the gist of her conversation I would learn that our flight was the last flight being allowed, without restrictions, to land in Los Angeles from Europe. Why? There was something about a “virus”. Things were going to change for folks.

I will tell you that I never traveled away from home for another night from March 11 until June 5. That’s 85 days. I would probably have to go back to my days in Marine Corps boot camp to match that record!

Did I mind staying at home for 85 days when I was used to traveling as much as I do? Not really. Here’s the reason why. I don’t just travel for the sake of travel. I travel from point A to see what is happening over in point B. It’s just that during the coronavirus lockdown nothing was happening in point B. Nope. Nothing was happening in point B or point A for that matter.

Then things began to open up just a little bit for some folks. Racing was starting up again albeit with some limitations. Airline travel had dipped to just 5% of passengers compared to a year ago. That meant I could fly standby very easily. So I changed from a stay at home trackchaser/retiree to a person who went to the airport….during the virus.

As a matter of fact, for the next 24 straight weekends, I flew somewhere in the United States to see races. From June 5 until November 15 I traveled all over the U.S. from Washington to Maine to South Carolina to Arizona. During this more than five-month period, I traveled overnight another 71 nights.

Everyone assesses risk differently. I figured airplanes were safe. I washed my hands (my iPhone has a special 20-second hand-washing timer!), social distanced and wore my mask. I suspect that most people of my age and demographic thought I was nuts.

Then with COVID-19 cases and deaths beginning to spike again, I reassessed my risk tolerance. Had I just been “lucky” not to have contracted the virus during those 24 weeks of flying?

With the coronavirus on the upswing and most importantly the COVID-19 vaccine on the near-term horizon I decided to stop flying until I can get the vaccine. Would that mean an end to trackchasing for the time being? Almost.

When week #25 rolled around I had a perfect opportunity to fly to Georgia and then Arizona….but I didn’t. I will admit that I drove my EECU sponsored 2020 Tesla Model X to Arizona for one last day of desert off-road racing.

I’m going to do my best to not travel until the vaccine comes. Will I make it? Does every alcoholic and junkie “make it?” Not always. We’ll see.

Good afternoon from Sweden, a country I have enjoyed very much.

Randy Lewis

San Clemente, California

P.S. I might add one additional note about Sweden and the coronavirus. Sweden is one of the few countries in the world that has adopted the “herd immunity” approach to battling COVID-19. Loosely defined that pretty much says Sweden won’t shut anything down or require their citizens to practice what others consider responsible COVID protections. They will expect their death rate to be greater in the beginning but later on when other countries are experiencing second and third waves Sweden will not to a similar degree.

How’s that going so far? Here’s an update effective November 26, 2020

Sweden population – 10.1 million – 6,681 COVID deaths

Other Scandinavian countries.

Denmark population – 5.8 million – 1,323 COVID deaths

Finland population – 5.5 million – 616 COVID deaths

Norway population – 5.4 million – 194 COVID deaths

Total

Sweden population – 10.1 million – 6,681 COVID deaths

Other Scandinavian countries x Sweden – 16.7 population million – 2,133 COVID deaths

Source: worldometers.info; John Hopkins University

Well….I guess I can congratulate Sweden on achieving their first herd immunity objective. They HAVE killed quite a bit more people than their Scandinavian country neighbors up to this point. Now we will wait to see if Denmark, Finland and Norway can pass up Sweden in COVID deaths as subsequent waves come about. Will that happen? I’m pretty sure Sweden has a losing proposition here.