FF2: Filling in the Suburbs

[krigl]

Today we're mooching around Skelleftea before heading southwards through thickening mist towards Umea.


We're delivering to an out-of-town site near Skelleftea.


Nicely made roadworks.




A skatepark, cool.


Twin chimneys in the distance. That's probably it.


Yep, Boliden needs this yellow monster.


The creator put a lot of effort into the area, nice job!


It was even a teeny bit challenging to get through here without scraping anything.


Well, now they have one more yellow thing to add to their collection.


Back towards Skelleftea. The next place on the road down the Baltic coast of Sweden is Umea, from whence a ferry leaves to Vaasa in Finland. I made the opposite journey when touring Finland a couple of months ago. There are plenty of jobs which go that way, so just need to choose one tomorrow.


Typical, drives slowly because there's a police car in front. Meanwhile, the police car's stuck behind a combine harvester...


Let's get some kip and see what jobs are on offer tomorrow morning, just like a real trucker.


Yawwwwwn.... it's early.


Some of the traffic lights are in night-time mode.


So am I. Need. Coffee.




Europcar, motorcycle parts, I think. No oxtails in brine for us today, then. Or lambs' stomachs. Shame.


Leaving Skelleftea.


Visibility is poor. It's that time of day when there is little light to see, but it's not dark enough for your headlights to be effective. And with us being northern Sweden, this time of day is going to last a while.


A place called Rune Alv.


A rushing river.


Getting misty now as we pass a rest stop by a lake.


Maybe we should take a rest? Nah, want to make it to the ferry on time.


Grey...




Umea, Holmsund and Vaasa shall wait till next time.
Anni

[krigl]

Oof, it's proving harder than I thought to keep going with this tour, especially with Starfield being added to the chorus of voices clamouring for my time. I have several space haulers, and have been going through the motions of space trucking, with plenty of resource/factory base building and so on. Playing it rather like No Man's Sky. Due to the hefty XP you get for crafting, I'm level 30 right now and have only completed the first two missions and a couple of side jobs scanning planets and delivering stuff. Level 30 for scanning and crafting. Lol. Anyway, back to make an attempt at continuing the Sweden ProMods tour - this set sees us travelling south from Skelletea through thick mist to Umea, Holmsund and over the Gulf of Bothnia to Vaasa - a reverse version of a journey taken from Finland a few months ago. And then back to take a look at Umea.




Twas a misty moisty morning, and cloudy was the weather...




Umea just about visible here.


Driving coastwards to Holmsund.


...blah blah and how do you do and how do you do and how do you do again.




Holmsund.




A brief glimpse of sunny Finland.


Trailer dropped off, we head back, taking the correct route through the mind-bogglingly complex port facilities first time this time.


Back in Holmsund. Wow, is that Finland just over there? Didn't realise it was so close. No, don't be stupid, Krigl. Er, tedy Anni.


Let's check out Umea, then.




Some charming corners to be found.






Well rested - XP bonus 10%.


Nice new Wielton trailer.








Picking up some... dammit, it was 6 weeks ago, how am I supposed to remember.


Quite a big place, Umea.


'I wonder what this place makes?', I say with the most neutral and innocent intonation possible.


Getting out of town. Next time - Torsmyran and Ornskoldsvik.
Cheers!
Anni

[krigl]

Alright then, back with a second set as I've missed so many days.


Leaving Umea with a trailer full of raw doughnuts for Ornskoldsvik.




South, south, south.




Passing Torsmyran rest stop. No time for a break, I have to deliver these batteries in a hurry.


Shame, those ToiTois look inviting.




A pleasant bit of green.


And a nice little point of interest to liven up the route.


Can't believe crumb rubber is so heavy. I guess it's densely packed in, or something.


Okay, we must be approaching Ornskoldsvik.




Quite a nice area, this.


Hoping the empty pallets are well-lashed together as we quickly swerve to avoid.




Sent the drone up to get a few panoramas of this detailed city.










Great stuff. Well, we're not stopping, actually, so on we go with our dried milk, destination Sundsvall further south.










Hmm, that guy is obviously not a Curtain Master. The trek to Sundsvall with 17 tons of Weetabix will continue next time.
Anni

[krigl]

Today in the ProMods' Sweden tour we're driving over the Hogokustenbron and through Harnosand to Sundsvall.


The Hogokusten Bridge towering above a picturesque lake.




Over we go!




And everything then grinds to a halt, as the AI fail to zip into one lane. Pretty realistic actually, people also have trouble with the concept of 'their lane, then our lane, their lane then our lane, the guy in front to my left, then me, then the woman behind to my left...'


The Curtain Master enters Harnosand.


Another hold-up.


Eventually we clawed our way out of there.


And then we arrived at Sundsvall, which has two points of distinction in-game: first, it's quite large and well-developed, and second, the 'upper route', or 'ProMods route' from Sweden into Norway goes from here (the lower route or routes are in the DLC area).


So, we'll briefly return to Sundsvall in a couple of sets in order to head off in the direction of Norway.


But let's check the city out a bit now before we continue south.




We've got a delivery to make, anyhow.




Job done.




New Viking paintjob to take us down to Stockholm.










It's been nice, but that's enough taking in the sights - there's work to do.








Farewell to Sundsvall for now. The next set will see us reaching Gavle via Soderhamn.
Anni

[krigl]

This time - southwards once more to Gavle via Soderhamn.


Double trouble... again.


A fair bit of countryside on the way to Soderhamn.








Can you give me a hand with this?




Hurrying past a rest stop.




Calm and still.


Soderhamn is also basically a rest stop.


Off to use the loo and get a burger.


Saab Viggen, nice.






Making good progress to Gavle now - the final ProMods town before we reach the area of the Scandinavia DLC.




The only turn-off to Gavle. Right. Here we go again.




Another queue into Gavle.


Made it.




Gavle.




New cargo, for the port of Mariehamn on the Aland Islands - a very nice ProMods addition to Sweden.


Next time - the last stretch from Gavle to the port at Kapellskar.
Cheers! Anni

[krigl]

This set will see us driving from Gavle in ProMods’ Sweden into the DLC region past Stockholm to Kapellskar and over to ProMods’ Mariehamn.


Gavle is behind us now, as is the majority of ProMods’ Sweden now.




A nice, sunny day to enjoy some colourful south Swedish countryside.






Uppsala is apparently somewhere nearby, but actually the Scandic Victoria Tower is a Stockholm hotel, and the tallest hotel in Scandinavia (117m). It’s pretty ugly, I’d say.


Maybe it looks better in reality, with reflective surfaces and so on.


That’s a glimpse of Stockholm.


But we’ve already toured Stockholm a while ago, so we take the tunnel out of town to Kapellskar.


If my memory serves me correctly the port was created at the same time as the Baltic Sea DLC by SCS to provide a route from Sweden to Finland and Estonia.


They evidently used the same assets as with the rest of the older DLC so that it didn’t stick out like a sore thumb… and because making new Scandinavian assets at that time just for this area was probably too expensive and time-consuming, given that they didn’t even do lower Finland properly.


Well, Kapellskar reached.




Onto the ferry, wondering what Mariehamn will be like.


And the ferry’s doors opened, everyone else drove off, and it was dark.


Well, it seems nice, but hard to say. Dammit.


A lighthouse glimmers across the water.


Delivering the wood processing machine, or whatever it is.


Parking up next to a Lambo. That’s a lot of money concentrated into a couple of parking spaces.


A new dawn, and Mariehamn awaits.


It’s a very nice little town, and one of the highlights of PM Sweden.








Off to pick up some fishing boats.


We’re going to take the boats up the length of the island after checking out Mariehamn a bit more next time.
Anni

[krigl]

Today - mainly ProMods' Fasta Aland... I think that is what the big one of the Aland Islands is called.


Arriving at Mariehamn's wharf to pick up a couple of Happy Fisher boats. Haven't hauled those in a while. Time to fish out my sou'wester and pipe.


Notice the flag? It's like the Swedish one, but with red. The only official language on Aland is Swedish, yet it is actually (an autonomous) part of Finland! The Wikipedia article about the island(s) is really interesting. For example, a sea battle was fought here in the Baltic Sea as part of the Crimean War, and its coat of arms has a deer on it, but no deer live on the island - the arms were actually designed for a different place, and given to Aland by mistake! Well, no biggie, some coats of arms have griffins or dragons on, and they don't hang out in the local area either. It's a Magic Deer, maybe.


So, yeah, I said in my last post that ProMods' rendition of the island is one of the best parts of ProMods' Sweden before reading the Wiki, as I thought with the name Aland that the island is part of Sweden. It probably feels more like Sweden when you're there, if most people are speaking Swedish and so on. But technically it should be a highlight of ProMods' Finland, I guess.


Well, I've now toured both of them, driving from southern Finland all the way up the Baltic coast - specifically, the Gulf of Bothnia - and then 'over the top' of the sea, and back down the Swedish Baltic coast. Quite a drive.


So, this is the penultimate set of the tour, and those fishing boats need delivery to a new fishing centre being built in the north of the island. At least, that's what I'm going to assume it is.


Lovely parks here in Mariehamn.


They also have a marina and a church with twin spires.


Having a beer outside the marina clubhouse. SCS have obviously never heard of the English phrase 'Two's company, three's a crowd'.


Happy Fisher! Cue joyous tooting on the horn.


A spread of lovely flowers as we leave the town behind us.


Aland is quite small in game, and we will soon be at the next village/town.


And here we are, Godby.


Goodbye, Godby and may God be with you.


More country views. Just out of shot, a farmer is tilling his fields, a cloud of mewling seagulls following the tractor.


The third and final place is Geta, which is a bit bigger than Godby and has this fine historic edifice.






Passing through wetlands as we approach our destination.


It's a very new settlement - no paved roads as yet.




Here we are. The factory buildings are already up.


And this is where the wharf will be, I suppose.


Well, I'll leave you guys to work out how to get the boats off the trailer and into the water. It's time to skip back to Sundsvall for the last journey of Part 3 of this grand tour.


Sundsvall. We're taking bananas from here west inland to Ostersund in the next set.


Sundsvall is large, and we haven't seen all of it yet, so we'll check that out before we depart. The bananas are still a bit green anyway.


Crossing that bridge.


And down the other side. More in the next, final set.
Anni

[krigl]

Today - Last set from the tour of ProMods' Sweden.


Checking out Sundsvall before we head westwards to Norway.




Not sure what this sign means, we've just come from Sundsvall, and we're still in Sundsvall.






Alright, now we're on our way to Ostersund.






Not the best time to overtake that tractor, guys.


Tragedy just about averted.






The vegetation changes as we get further inland.


My turn to get impatient with a tractor.


Also cutting it a bit fine.


The village/town of Bracke.




Not much further now. We're going to end Part 3 the tour at Ostersund, and start Part 4 by touring that city and then heading over the border into Norway.






Turnoff for Ostersund.






Another jam. Come on, my turnoff is literally right there, just move forward a few metres!!


At last! Delivery at DSV. Part 4 of the Fennoscandia tour - central Norway - will take place in a month, or maybe two, as first I'd like to do Part 3 of the Texas tour in my MidAmerica thread - the heart of Texas this time.
Cheers!
Krigl

[krigl]

Back in here again to continue the ProMods Fennoscandia tour, starting off with a short tour of Ostersund, Sweden before heading east for Norway.


Checking out Ostersund's marina.


The journey to Norway was more involved than I'd expected, so this set is really the end of Part 3 rather than the start of Part 4. No Norway today - but instead a serious helping of high drama, SCS style.


I like hauling boats - maybe we'll come back for this. Let's have a look at the centre now - it's the last major city we're going to visit in Sweden until the SCS DLC comes out, probably.


Whoa! Swerving to avoid a sudden stationary line of cars with no apparent cause.


Okay, this is the cause. That impatient driver decided to overtake right there, and doesn't have the programming to reverse back behind the little lorry. And so they're basically stuck forever until I leave the area. Probably reloading might fix it, first time I've thought of that... might be worth a try. Everything would surely respawn. Can't believe I haven't thought of that before. On the other hand... why? It adds something extra to the game like the roadblocks. It provides obstacles.


Yep, the centre is quickly jamming up. Looks like I won't be returning to the marina then, too bad.


Still quiet here, but I know we're now locked into a desperate race against time.


You won't lull me into a false sense of security with your cute Michelin man.


Stopping here for a quick burger would be a fatal mistake.


Headed to the most distant jobsite from the town centre - Moelven, across the motorway from the main city area - in the hope that we could get out of town before everything ground to a halt. Will. We. Make. It???


Yes, but only just. The queue now extends out of Ostersund and onto the motorway, and soon the 'roundabout' here will also be blocked - possibly the first car is already halted there, unable to proceed further because it too wants to go into Ostersund. Oof. A very narrow escape.


Oh, did you want to overtake? Didn't think so.


Well, after that excitement I'm trying to return to the normal Zen-like contemplative state by viewing the calm and placid waters of this lake just west of Ostersund.


Typical Swedish scenery, soon to change as we head still further inland.


Yep, things are starting to get more rugged.


Passing through the small scenery town of Jarpen.




That was Jarpen, and we have one more marked settlement to go - Are, which doesn't have any jobsites, I think, but still seems to be on the in-game map for some reason. Maybe something is/was planned?


Approaching Are.


Well, this is cool.


Thought it was some kind of fire station for a moment, so had a closer look. Very nice.


A ski resort, I guess.


One last Swedish lake before the border.




Almost there.


And that's the Swedish side of the border. Now we're in 'no man's land'. The next set will take us to Trondheim through some very fine Norwegian scenery.
Cheers! Anni

[krigl]

Properly starting Part 4 of my ProMods Fennoscandia tour today - we cross the border into central Norway and drive to Trondheim through some fantastic scenery.


Currently we're in no-man's land between the Swedish and Norwegian border posts. Yesterday I had a bit of a shock: reading the comments to an SCS blog from a few days ago I spotted one guy claiming that Greece would be the next DLC. 'You bloody fool', I thought, everyone knows it's going to be Scandinavia - they posted a report not long ago with photos of SCS staff at the Nordkapp. That's why I'm doing this massive tour now and not in the next thread as previously planned...


Turn's out the joke's on me, and they really are doing Greece next, as most people probably already know. Well... what now? Well, I'm going to finish Fennoscandia and most of Texas and then tour Greece, I guess. SCS will already be pumping out screenshots of new scenery made by professional map designers working on it 9+ hours per day while I'm posting mostly 5-year-old PM scenery made with assets from Italy and France, but what can I do... What I like about PM scenery is it's clear it was made with love, care and attention to detail, and I know I'm going to find lots of cool stuff in PM Greece.


Well, talking of cool stuff, here's the start of ProMods' Norway.


It's said that you should start as you mean to go on, and PM comes out swinging right from the beginning. The route to Trondheim, and then down to Lillehammer (which I've already done) is clearly relatively old, but very well done. Of course, I know this is news to nobody. But I like to write something with my pics... : )


Love, care and attention to detail, like I said. Finland and Sweden, while also mainly quite old now, are generally fine, and sometimes very nice, but the rugged terrain of Norway and its fjords make it the part I've been looking forward to most. It's great to be here at last.


I've also decided to tack on northwest Russia to this Part 4 of the tour, not from any major desire to have anything to do with Russia right now, for obvious reasons, but because a. central Norway is relatively small compared to other regions, and so is NW Russia, so why not do them together; b. it will complete the Fennoscandia region, and I would like to enjoy the total PM experience in this area; and c. I don't expect PM will do anything with Russia in the next few years, and I'd like to get the region 'out of the way'. I know it's a cool PM region because I've seen screenshots but yeah, Russia... bleh. I'm just going to tell myself - it's not Russia. It's ProMods.


Anyway, right now the focus is on getting to Trondheim, then down southwards to Oslo, and finally westwards from Dombas to the coast and back up to Trondheim.


Windy roads, changes in elevation, plenty to see - the Ostersund - Trondheim route is a classic.






Trondheim and its fjord lie ahead.


Passing through Stjordal.




Trondheim fjord.




This structure looks like it carries water and boats. I think there's something like this in Copenhagen, maybe?




However, from above there are just roads which seem to lead nowhere. Unfinished perhaps? Well, I had no business going up there, and they look interesting from below.


Heading for the main part of Trondheim now.






In Norway you really feel like you're living in Vikingland. Just translated these words out of interest. 'Dal' is valley ('dale' is used in the north of England), 'heim' is home, and 'trond' is thunder. 'Thunder-home'... how cool does that sound? Very cool.




And of course, Thunderhome has an Ikea.


Our delivery point is just next door.


And that's it for now. Next time - from Trondheim down to Oppdal.
Cheers! Anni