By Craig Mortimer-Zhika, website manager

The Royals have enjoyed their first day in Sweden on the pre-season tour, and we have a special diary from inside the camp with an insight into the workings of our preparations for the coming season.

Morning
The Royals were up bright and early, with a 6:45am departure from the stadium for those boarding the coach to Heathrow. Roughly half the squad took this method of transport, with the remainder going direct to Terminal 3. A couple of last-minute shirts and balls were signed before the coach set off and as you can imagine, banter was fairly light before 7am, although James Harper seemed in typically ebullient mood.

Check-in at the airport was very smooth and easy, aided in no small part by Graham at Scandinavian Airlines, whose wife Lynne works at Madejski Stadium. Kitman Selby Armstrong, on his first overseas pre-season tour with the Club, quickly got his 12 huge Puma bags of kit through with ease and it was all a breeze.

The wait for the flight seemed to pass nice and quickly, with some taking the option to go for the English breakfast in Wetherspoon's, and others nipped to Starbucks while Liam Rosenior got his reading matter in Waterstone's.

The flight left on time at 9:20am, and it was smooth sailing as almost everyone caught up on their sleep whilst in the air; Michael Duberry quickly going out like a light despite his iPod headphones.

Touchdown was just before midday local time, and upon arrival in the baggage hall a couple of familiar faces Fredrik and Johan from Sports International were there to greet Steve Coppell & co. The two gents have looked after us on every Swedish tour in recent years, and it was nice to say hello. Johan's new barnet makes him an absolute dead ringer for John Halls.

As the team boarded their bus, Johan [Hallsy] went separately with Selby in a van with all his ample bags of kit.

Afternoon
The 40-minute bus ride gave everybody chance to catch up with our Swedish hosts, including the familiar bus driver from previous tours. Fredrik's English is superb, as seems to be the norm out here, but when Wally Downes started grilling him on the credit crunch, using the tongue-in-cheek opening gambit 'global financial meltdown' it seemed the language barrier had been raised ever so slightly.

Boss Coppell was interested in whether the new Batman film would be on in the cinema in our town of choice, while the age-old question of ABBA's popularity and Agnetha Faltskog's unwillingness to participate in a reunion rearded its ugly head at one point.

Fredrik was looking after Norwich City last week, and there was interest in how our Championship rivals performed in their friendly games out here.

Checking into the hotel was a breeze, and Marcus Hahnemann & Michael Duberry each got lucky and have single rooms. The remaining room pairings see Lita in with Rosenior, Murty with Harper, Hunt with Doyle, Cisse with Kebe, Henry with Pearce, Matejovsky with Convey, Long with Shorey, Ingimarsson with Sonko and Karacan with Andersen.

Lunch was served almost immediately upon arrival, and after tucking in the players were told to walk up to the training ground for a 4:30pm start.

The training ground is no more than a ten-minute walk from the hotel, and it's a sign of the players' familiarity with the place from years gone by that they were able to recall the directions in an instant....although our press team did find their memories a little more shaky!

Kunle Odetoyinbo, also on his first pre-season with the Club, led the warm-up before the players underwent four games of eight minutes. With an uneven number of players, kitman Armstrong was called in to even up the sides, and he's got some ability and started like a house on fire....but it's fair to say the flame was burned out by the end.

Fit-again Marek Matejovsky was going pretty much felt pelt, and his quality was clear to see, especially when he laid in Jimmy Kebe with a lovely first time pass, allowing the Malian to turn home nicely. Marek did go to ground after a full-on challenge with James Harper, but after getting up gingerly he was fine to carry on.

There was some controversy when physio Jon Fearn awarded a hotly-contested penalty, and Steve Coppell's ability to run the line was bravely questioned once or twice by the centre halves.

After 32 minutes, the game ended in a 3-3 draw to be decided by sudden death penalties, and after Hahnemann and Andersen had each made saves it was left to Kebe to turn home the winner from 12 yards.

A rigorous warm-down ensued, and the session ended with Johan promising Leroy Lita he'd shave his hair off if we win all three games out here.

At the end of the session Coppell gave an interview to Reading World about the imminent siging of Noel Hunt, and it was back to the hotel at roughly 6:10pm.

Evening
After a long day of travelling then training, the evening meal was gratefully received indeed. Andersen, Hahnemann and Pearce pondered a game of tennis, while a game of round-robin table tennis in the hotel had Leroy Lita in stitches.

News filtered through the camp that Hunt had put pen to paper on a deal back home, and most took an early night to begin the trip with a good night's sleep.

A full picture gallery from day one is online now.
Reading World has a full interview with Steve, and an exclusive video diary too.