From Söderköping, it was only a 45 minute drive to Linköping, Sweden’s fifth largest city, to do Vallaskogen Parkrun. As we approached the old town near the Parkrun, the car park we’d planned to use had signs saying ‘no motorhomes’. Therefore, we went back around the forest to one that had a motorhome sign. This was some distance away from the start and when we got there we were met with a festival field full of tents and a car park that was rammed.
John decided to go back and look for a spot near the original one because we were now running out of time and I was getting anxious about missing the briefing, knowing the route wasn’t straightforward. The road leading to the no motorhomes car park had parking spaces with signs which didn’t explicitly state that we couldn’t park. He pulled up and paid for a couple of hours at the machine then we walked to the parkrun start.
The volunteers and other 33 runners made us feel very welcome. The course was a lovely undulating route through Valla forest. We both did ok considering we hadn’t run in over 8 weeks. There was such a small number of runners and volunteers, that I was on my own in the forest most of the time. Thankfully, the course was well marked with permanent wooden posts, supplemented with yellow signs at key turning points.
After water and biscuits, supplied by the Parkrun organisers (and much appreciated), we wandered around the old town before heading back to Molly Moho.
Gamla Linköping has been well preserved and is now a living museum. Along the cobblestone alleys there are lots of pretty wooden houses with backyards and gardens, as well as craft and artisan workshops, cafes and restaurants.
On our return to Molly, we found a little yellow plastic present on the windscreen, a £32 parking ticket. ☹️ We had obviously parked in the wrong place! Our visit to Parkrun was an expensive one! Oh well… at least we enjoyed our visit.
We left Linköping and drove through beautiful countryside to Gamleby where we’d been told there was a good troll sculpture trail. Almost as soon as we’d parked up it started raining. We had some food and a cup of tea but it was still chucking it down when we’d finished. We watched lots of families running back to their cars… some looking miserable, others laughing… all rather wet!
We decided to carry on driving south to the coast while the weather is poor. I spent most of the journey looking at options of where to visit and where to stay. These kept changing either because prices were too high or because places were full with it being high season and a Saturday. Eventually, I found a lovely farm in the middle of nowhere. It was relatively cheap considering it had showers, toilets and other amenities, and there was plenty of room for us. Perfect!
Ramblings 
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