My last real visit to Sweden was more than 20 years ago and it was really time for a trip. In addition we were reading children’s books where the families go to Sweden in their summer holidays. And of course there where the many omnipresent books of Astrid Lindgren. And then we also bought a new Ikea kitchen. So we decided to have a kind of Swedish summer this year.
A good way to go to Sweden from northern Germany is to take a ferry boat. After a nice stop at Karls Erlebnis-Dorf Warnsdorf we embarked the TT-Line ship Peter Pan at Lübeck-Travemünde, Germany and had a relaxed night on board. We decided to have breakfast at a bakery not too far away from the ferry port and made our first stop at the Smålandet Markaryds älgsafari – going by car through the forest and watching these huge animals was a unique experience.
Our away home was located in the forest near Fåglfors south of Vimmerby. It was a little bit to hot in these summer but the house had its own guardian: Maurice, the nice tomcat of the landlord. Fåglfors was a good starting point for our trips; we started with the Filmbyn Småland at Mariannelund where you can learn more about the films shot in this region.
From there we went to Bullerbyn and Katthult where we enjoyed the landscape and learned more about the stories of Astrid Lindgren. The best place for that is of course the Astrid Lindgrens värld – for every story there is an area that depicts the main places covered in the books. Half of the time these areas are stages where scenes are played, the other half of the time you can explore them on your own and meet your favorite characters.
Then we took Rälsbus from Hultsfred to Västervik and visited the nice Naturum & Västerviks Museum. Even only sitting at the nice harbor what have been worth the trip. Next day we went deep down into the cold mine Kleva Gruva and continued to the wooden city Eksjö and its nice city center. Then we turned towards the island Öland and made a stop at the castle of Kalmar where they organise summer games for the kids and followed the long bridge to the island. We stopped at the Ölands Museum Himmelsberga for some food and to learn something about the rural life at this place.
Then we had to stop a bit as I needed some time to bring our car to a repair workshop: for the first time in my life I had a crack in the windscreen which widened during the last days. This doesn’t seem to be unusual as many people use chains on their tires in winter times and cut small stones out of the road surface. But in the afternoon we managed to go to the nice Målilla Älgpark where you can see elk swim.
On our way back we made a stop at the Ikea museum in Älmhult which was much better and more child-friendly than expected. We spent the last hours in Sweden at the wonderful Söderasen national park where we walked on a wooden path through the forest. A wonderful trip and next year we absolutely need to look at other parts of Scandinavia.
Småland / Skåne
Älmhult, Bullerbyn, Fågelfors, Gibberyd, Himmelsberga, Holsbybrunn, Högsby, Hultsfed, Kalmar, Karlskrona, Klippan, Ljungbyhed, Målilla, Mariannelund, Markaryd, Misterhult, Skäralid, Trelleborg, Västervik, Vellinge, Vimmerby
Sweden
Loading map...
