Sweden
Swedish licence plates are long, white, and have the standard blue EU strip on the left side. Licence plates on taxis have a yellow background instead of white.
Swedish is a North Germanic language that is closely related to Danish and Norwegian. The Swedish alphabet contains the special letters Å, Ä and Ö.
NOTE: The special letters found in Swedish can also be found in some of the other Northern Germanic languages:
Danish uses Å, but not Ä or Ö.
Norwegian uses Å, but not Ä or Ö.
Icelandic uses Ö, but not Å or Ä.
Finnish uses Ä and Ö. Å is also used, but is treated as Swedish. Finnish words are typically longer and often use double vowels, which are very rare in Swedish.
On smaller roads, the outer road lines are white and dashed. They are distinctly shorter than the Norwegian dashed lines. In contrast to Norway and Finland, all road lines are white.
The outer road lines on highways look solid from a distance, but are typically divided into small sections with a unique pattern, which is different from the solid lines in Finland and Norway. Road lines in Denmark can have a similar pattern, however the individual sections should be rectangular.
Swedish bollards are black-and-white, typically with a grey reflector. Reflectors by intersections are commonly orange instead. They can be either wedge-shaped, round, or thin and curved.
Snow poles are typically orange, with a tall white reflector slightly above the middle of the pole. Some poles have a second, thinner reflector above the normal one.
NOTE: Finland and Norway both have similar orange snow poles. The reflector on Finnish poles is usually much thinner and very close to the top. Norwegian poles typically have either one or two slightly thinner reflectors, with one commonly being very close to the middle.
Swedish utility poles are usually wooden and can have a variety of poletops. There is commonly a small black metal cap on the very top, which is only found in Nordic countries.
NOTE: Norway and Finland also use primarily wooden poles.
Swedish pedestrian signs have four stripes. There is notably a version featuring a female silhouette.
NOTE: Finnish and Danish pedestrian signs have five stripes. Norwegian pedestrian signs usually have four stripes, but can also have five.
Most directional signs are blue with a white font and border. A thin arrow shows the direction.
Yellow signs with a black font and red border are also common. Places showcased on yellow signs are typically very small and thus hard to find on a map.
NOTE: Norwegian directional signs are yellow or white, and the white arrow on Finnish signs is filled in.
Swedish road signs have a red border and a yellow background.
NOTE: Finnish road signs have a thin yellow border outside the red one.
Sweden is the only country in Europe whose chevrons have yellow arrows on a blue background.
NOTE: While very rare, yellow on blue chevrons also exist in Luxembourg.
On smaller roads, it is common to see these blue signs with a large white M.
NOTE: Similar signs can be found in Norway, however the font is distinctly different. The middle point of the M extends to the bottom of the letter. There are no similar signs in Finland.
Signposts will often have striped markings. Blue and white, and red and yellow are the two most common, but you can also find other colours such as blue and red or white and red.
NOTE: Blue and white markings can be found in several other countries, such as Finland and Estonia, however the other colour schemes are essentially unique to Sweden.
On top of having red and yellow road signs and signpost markings, Sweden often has a lot of road infrastructure, such as road work signs and road blocks, painted red and yellow. You can even come across red and yellow chevrons.
Swedish street names most commonly use the suffixes “vägen” and “gatan”. They are often shortened into “v” and “g” respectively on street signs. Street names can also use “väg” or “gata” as a separate word in a street name. Additionally, the suffix “gränd” can be found near city centres.
NOTE: Norway uses veien or vei, gate or gaten, and gata attached to the rest of the street name, rather than as a separate word. Denmark uses vej and gade.
Houses in the Swedish countryside are most commonly wooden and often painted with a distinct dark red paint, which is almost exclusively found in Sweden, Norway and Finland.
Urban architecture is usually modern and made of concrete and bricks, while suburban buildings are commonly freestanding single family houses built of either wood or brick.
Sweden has a varied landscape, with a lot of boreal forests, small to medium-sized farmlands and many lakes. The northern and western parts of the country are quite mountainous, with long, narrow lakes and rivers, while the southern and eastern parts are generally flatter.
A white street view car with a long antenna is featured on a lot of Generation 3 coverage.
NOTE: A similar car is found on all road coverage in Iceland and is also somewhat common in Finland. While it exists in both Norway and Denmark, it is extremely rare in both.
The most common car brand in Sweden is Volvo, which makes up almost 30% of all passenger cars.
NOTE: Approximately 10% of all passenger cars in both Norway and Finland are Volvo.
The Swedish church flag has a red cross on a yellow background with a crown in the middle, and is often found near churches throughout the country.
Step 2 – Regional clues
Broad leafed trees, other than birches, only grow naturally in the southern half of the country, and become increasingly common the further south you get.
Ferns are mostly found in southern and central Sweden. It can occasionally be found further north in the east.
While it is possible to see forested mountains in several regions in the country, mountains with no trees at the top can only be found in the northwestern parts of the country.
This type of vegetation, consisting of thin, weak-looking boreal trees and somewhat sandy soil can be found in the far north of Sweden.
Beech forests, which can generally be recognised by the barren ground covered in brown leafs, are mainly found in the far south.
Rock walls are mainly found in the south, with the largest concentration being in several coastal areas, on Öland, and on the southern and northern tips of Gotland.
Beware that rock walls around churches and cemeteries are common further north.
It is very common to see exposed, often somewhat round, rocks on the Swedish west coast. They will often have lower vegetation, such as small bushes, growing on them.
NOTE: Exposed rocks around Stockholm are also fairly common, however these typically look sharper than rocks on the west coast, and commonly have thick moss growing on them.
In Skåne you will find the most open agricultural landscape in Sweden. It is the only region where, rather than a dense forest in the distance, you can get only a few small patches of trees strewn across the fields. On top of that, crops are often more diverse than the cereal crops, which are typical for the rest of Sweden.
The area surrounding lake Mälaren can often be recognized by the fairly flat ground with medium sized agricultural fields, forests beyond them, and small “islands” of bushes and trees in the middle of the fields.
The agricultural landscape of Västergötland and Östergötland is mostly flat, similarly to the landscape around lake Mälaren. The two most consistent differences is that this landscape is more open and has lots of wind turbines. While you can almost always see a forest in the distance, it will typically be much further away than around Mälaren.
On the west coast, and particularly in Halland, you will see a lot of flat agricultural fields with small, round, forested hills in the distance. Generally, the hills get larger and the fields get smaller further north. The area also has more precipitation than most of the country, and as such it typically looks very lush.
The landscape around the High Coast in Västernorrland can be recognised by the many forested, rocky mountains surrounding agricultural valleys. The valleys are rarely straight and the mountains are of varying heights and shapes.
If you see flat, medium-sized to small agricultural fields, and you suspect that you are in the northern half of the country, you are likely somewhat close to the coast between Umeå and Luleå.
Agricultural fields in and around Södermanland very often go through small valleys, with forests up on the sides of the valleys. The fields are typically medium to small sized.
White sand can often be seen next to roads on Gotland. It is typically more noticeable in the northern half of the island and on Fårö.
Red dirt roads are mainly found in two areas in Sweden: Dalarna and around the southern east coast.
NOTE: Forests in Dalarna mainly consist of pines, while forests in the south are more varied.
Dark grey dirt roads are very common in Jämtland. The dirt is often particularly dark in the Generation 3 fall coverage in the region.
Öland is an extremely flat island with a somewhat barren south half with many small bushes, while the north is typically slightly lusher with fewer, but larger bushes and some trees. The island also contains a very large number of small rock walls.
It is very common to see long, neat rows of moderately thin birches in urban areas along the north coast.
Grey metal roofs on residential buildings generally get more common the further north in the country you get. Note that metal roofs on barns and sheds can be found significantly further south.
Houses in Skåne commonly have either a white stone, or a red brick wall with a coloured wooden triangle beneath the roof on the sides. Similar houses with other materials (such as grey brick) for the walls can be found elsewhere in the southern half of the country.
Half-timbered houses can be found mainly in the southern half of Skåne, but also in the northern half and southern Halland. It can also be found in Visby on rare occasions.
A lot of single family houses in Skåne are built out of red brick. They typically look slightly older than red brick houses in other parts of the country.
NOTE: Red brick architecture is also very common in Denmark.
Corrugated square metal roof panels with moss growing on them are typically found in Skåne and Blekinge. It is mainly found on large barns, and the roofs will typically be very steep.
Grey diamond-tiled roofs are mainly found in Skåne, Blekinge, Öland, and occasionally on Gotland.
NOTE: Gotland and Öland are normally more easily recognised from landscape alone. Houses in western and southern Skåne typically use a lot of stone and bricks, while houses in northeastern Skåne and Blekinge are mostly made of red painted wood.
While houses in Sweden are mostly very colourful, on the west coast they are commonly much lighter. There are an especially large number of white and light yellow houses along the coast between Gothenburg and the Norwegian border.
Dense rows of very small red sheds are commonly found in coastal towns on the northern west coast.
Central Dalarna has a strong tradition of wooden craftsmanship, and as a result much of the architecture has a unique, picturesque look to it. Most commonly, you may find red timbered houses, portals made of logs, and so-called härbren which have a very distinct design.
NOTE: Similar buildings can be found elsewhere in the country, but it is by far most common in central Dalarna.
Hälsingland has many big, mostly red, farmhouses. They are characterised by many large windows, 2–3 floors, and the front facade being long and grand-looking. Barns can also be seen having an unusual amount of windows in the region.
Along the northern coast you will commonly encounter agricultural sheds which are either octagonal or rectangular, with the walls noticeably leaning outwards. They will typically be made out of red-painted logs.
Houses on Gotland are commonly made of limestone and often have a dirty-looking white facade. Churches on Gotland are very distinct looking, with either grey walls or white walls with grey corners, a large portal around the door and small windows typically divided in two by a pillar.
This type of uneven stone brick is typically found in houses and rock walls on Öland, and less commonly in rock walls on Gotland.