We started our trip on Tuesday, June 27, by spending the night at Debbie and Ola’s AirBNB, which is a little 1-room apartment at the back of their garage extension. Debbie wasn’t home but we had a nice couple of hours chatting with Ola. This meant we were already down south for the start of our trip: at the southernmost tip of Sweden: Smygehuk. I’ve actually been there once before, but it was before we moved here, when we were on an apartment-hunting trip.
This was the third attempt on Anders’ part to do this trip. He was stymied several years ago in planning to bicycle it because Tetra Pak wouldn’t allow him to be gone so long, and though he started planning this for his 60th birthday, we couldn’t do it then because his birthday is in early May and the boat to Treriksröset doesn’t start running until June.
From Smygehuk, it is a straight line of 1572 kilometers to the northernmost tip, give or take. We didn’t go straight, obviously. It was a sunny windy morning. We had breakfast in a little café in the harbor and then we started our trip north. Past Malmö, Lund, and Flyinge. Anders had the entire trip mapped out with the help of a roadtrip planner app that Russell had recommended, and he knew exactly how far we had to drive for each stop at a supercharger to get us to our destination each day. We planned to drive only about 5-ish hours per day and see some sights along the way.
The first evening we arrived in Vadstena, after eating lunch on the road. Anders had booked a room at Birgittasystrarnas Gästhem, the hostel provided by the St. Birgitta nunnery. We walked along the pretty waterfront of Lake Vättern, and over to Vadstena Castle. It was too late in the day for tours, but we were able to walk across the bridge and into the courtyard and out the other side, right smack into the middle of a veteran car rally with tons of cool old cars and lots of people out enjoying the weather.
We walked back to the cloister grounds and explored a bit around the buildings: the cloister (there are only 7 nuns left in the order!), the church, the cemetery and grounds. Then we went back to the guesthouse to our room. It was clean and serviceable as well as large, but a little too religious for us: a cross over the bed, and religious art everywhere. The nuns did have a sign posted that guests were welcome to schedule a quiet talk with a nun if desired!
The next morning we headed north again. We found a good roadside diner serving breakfast and made it to Falun, where we stopped in the early afternoon to visit the Falun Copper Mine, the first world heritage site on our route. The gift shop was lovely, the visitor center full of interesting information and we took a tour of the mine, hosted by our excellent guide Mika. Fascinating tour! We decided not to bother with the museum, as it was already getting late, but found a couple of tiny little shops and had ice cream in the evening sun as well. Because Falun is a world heritage site (the ENTIRE CITY), you are not allowed to remove ANYTHING, not even rocks, and we found out the the little bottles of copper flakes for sale in the gift shop were not even from Falun, haha!
We drove a little further to our destination for the evening: Trollnäs Guesthouse on Svärdsjö (Sword Lake). It is a lovely spot! They didn’t serve dinner and the only restaurant in town apart from a pizzeria was full, so we headed to the ICA grocery store and put together a delicious picnic: roast beef sandwiches, pasta salad, shrimp salad, and watermelon. Perfect!
Anders finally ready to start from the southern tip of Sweden
Smygehuk compass
Tesla charging in the sun
Vadstena castle
Vadstena castle entrance
Vadstena church
St. Birgitta Cloister doorway
St. Birgitta Guesthouse sign
Globe on the ceiling of the visitor center at Falu Copper Mine
Map of Falun in the visitor center
Kårebocken, the goat that is credited with discovering the mine. There was mining going on in the area as far back as 800 BC.
Looking over Falu Copper Mine
Falu Copper Mine museum
Building where the mine tour started. We walked down 67 meters of steps. Thankfully there was an actual elevator back up!
Ready for the mine tour!
Mineshaft building
Royal signatures in the mine
Torchlight. When our guide turned these off, it was PITCH black.
The bucket lift that was used to carry everything up and down the mineshaft. NINE men would stand on the edge of the bucket and hold on to the rope simultaneously.
The first of 3 moose that I didn’t buy (Jade, 800kr)
Anders at the edge of Sword Lake
Looking across Sword Lake
A delicious picnic at Trollnäs Guesthouse
Up next: Sundborn and Carl & Karin Larsson’s home, Mackmyra whiskey village, and Höga Kusten
Mood: happy
Music: Mitski—First Love/Late Spring