VCOA Sweden Trip - June 2007

Red, water, Volvo, classic parts, moose, big lights, windmills – all just words, but significant ones that refresh our memories of the VCOA trip to Sweden. We’d like to tell you how.

Whether in the countryside, city or small town, red is the predominant color of the homes and buildings, although a creamy, buttery yellow came in as a close second.  What cheerful, warm colors, we thought, the Swedes used to brighten up their lives during those long, dark winters.   But according to our vivacious and knowledgeable guide in Stockholm, the red paint was used because it was the cheapest available.  The red pigment was apparently a by product of some of their mining activities. 

In Stockholm, we were surrounded by sparkling water and learned that the city is actually situated on twelve islands.  No matter what direction we headed from our hotel, we seemed to be constantly crossing bridges.  Having lived in Houston, TX for the past 20 years where “old” is from the 1960’s; we marveled at the ancient buildings and narrow cobblestone streets in Old Town dating back to the 1600’s.   On those hot, sunny days in Stockholm, we refreshed ourselves with delicious ice cream that seemed to be everyone’s favorite treat and were fascinated by our tours of the Vater museum and City Hall.

“Volvo” – now that’s an obvious association to Sweden.  Everywhere we looked there were Volvos of all kinds – some models that never made it to the States and Volvo taxicabs and limousines too numerous to count.  And how do the Volvo driving Swedes avoid collisions with the many moose that roam the woods and highways?  They have lights – and often lots of them.  Almost every Volvo had a pair of auxiliary driving lights 6-8” in diameter mounted on the bumper.  Some had four and the SUV’s and station wagons may have four more mounted on the roof rack!  Now that is a lot of light!

Driving through the countryside we saw the red houses and barns but also many power generating windmills.  The Swedes tried to conserve natural resources --- with gasoline at over $7/gal can you blame them?

Let’s not forget about Volvo car manufacturing – plant tours, car museum, test car driving, car show, great lunches, dinner and informational presentations.  They were great hosts and rolled out the red carpet for us. The overseas delivery of our new Volvo was the frosting on the cake.   Add to that the great hospitality and facility tours at GCP and VP classic car parts, we Volvo enthusiasts had a great Volvo experience.

Gary & Nancy Sievert
Clarkesville, GA