The next morning, we started the driving portion of our trip. The car rental agency was running behind. So, we left a good hour behind our planned schedule.
Our first stop was Söderköping. It is a town along the Göta Kanal. The canal is a piece of a 340-mile-long waterway which links lakes and rivers. It provides a route from Gothenburg on Sweden’s west coast to Söderköping on the east side and the Baltic Sea.
The idea of the canal goes back to 1516, but it wasn’t until the 19th century when construction began. the canal opened in 1832. At that time, it was an important transportation route for both goods and passengers.
Then a night in Kalmar. We managed to have a great timing as the Kalmar Ironman competition had taken place the day before. There were still some competitors there, but the vast majority had left.
In the morning, we went to tour the Kalmar Castle. It was a nice day to be walking around the grounds.
We continued our drive south along the Swedish coast. We got a glimpse of the coast when we went to the Priests Bath (Prästens Badkar). It’s a sand volcano. These are created when water under great pressure is pushed up thorough a bed of sand. This is the only sand volcano known to exist above water. Called the Priest’s bathtub as legend has it that a tall priest took his bath there. Doesn’t look that comfortable to me.
We arrived at our home for the night at the Stationen in Ystad. This medieval town has a number of half-timbered houses and cobblestone streets. It was also the setting for the filming of the Wallander Series. This included the station where we stayed. It was used as the police headquarters in the 2nd season of the show.
We back tracked a little the next morning to check out the Swedish “Stonehenge” or Ales Stenar (“Ale’s Stones”). It’s a megalithic monument in the shape of a ship. The monument is 67m long and has 59 boulders. The stones weigh up to 5 tonnes each. It is speculated that the monument was created about 1,400 years ago.
It is also apparently a great spot for paragliders. There were several out that morning taking advantage of the wind curretns.
Then we decided to head into Malmö, Sweden. We had a nice lunch and walked around a bit. Found Malmö’s castle and were very underwhelmed after having seen the one at Kalmar. We also got a glimpse of the Twisted Torso. It’s a residential building that is a recognizable architectural feature of Malmö.
Then it was time to head over the Øresund bridge into Denmark. It’s the 2nd longest bridge in Europe. The bridge portion is about 5 miles long and then you drop down into a 2.5-mile-long tunnel. The Copenhagen airport is nearby and having a bridge span the entire strait would have created a huge issue with air traffic. They began construction in 1995 and officially opened in 2000.
We had initially planned to spend a night in Copenhagen, but I was able to get in contact with my “little sis”. Susanne had been an exchange student that lived with my family when I was in high school. She invited us down to visit her home on the island of Thurø. We had a great evening as she showed us the little island where she lives. And got to enjoy some great Danish food. We even got to meet some of the kids the next morning as she runs a home daycare.
