One of the best ways to experience the west coast of Sweden is to do some hiking. J finds a trail to a place that sounds interesting - King Tryggves grave on the island of Tryggo. The island is not connected to the mainland but I'm told you can walk across at low tide. High tide today isn't until 5pm so we should be fine. Turns out the information isn't quite correct and we need to wade across but the water isn't more than knee deep. The grave itself is a huge cairn of stones 20 metres across. The history of the site is not well understood. The cairn is considered to be from the Bronze age and Kung Tryggve died in 963, and though a stone coffin was found in the centre of the cairn ... read more

I DO remember the last time I was in Sweden, but as it was (I think) in 1978 I don't remember everything about it. It was our last family holiday and we spent 2 weeks camping in southern Sweden. Some of this holiday has become legend in Risby family history. The main thing I recall about the trip is that we had been told that bread was incredibly expensive to buy in Sweden. We therefore decided that we would take our own "crispbread" supplies with us from England, as well as most of our other food for cooking in the campsites (eating out was not thought to be an option if we could not afford bread!). To make our diet more interesting we purchased a wide variety of crispbreads so we would not become bored with ... read more

The most visited museum in Stockholm is not the Abba museum but the "Vasa" museum. The Vasa was a 17th century Swedish warship that sank on its maiden voyage just outside Stockholm, was raised in 1961 and is now brilliantly preserved in a special museum on Djurgarden. The ship is very very impressive. I had not expected it to be so intact, particularly as over 90% of what is on display is the original ship with only a few additions (rigging , masts etc) to improve the overall appearance. This incredible condition is due mainly to the water here which being cold and polluted did not support the oxygen that would normally have caused the wood to rot. The raising of the vessel and the subsequent preservation work are also impressive achievements and are featured in ... read more

JonKoping is about halfway between Kristianstad and Stockholm so makes a good place to stay on our trip north. It is perhaps best known in many countries as the birthplace of Agnetha from Abba, but we’re hoping it also has something interesting enough for a 2 night stay. Southern Sweden is home to most of the elk in the county and we find an “Alg” park not too far away. This park also has Red and Fallow deer but the standout sight are the Elks (or Moose). There are 4 male elks with huge antlers, 3 calves all born this year and 5 females. The elks have names and are tame enough to come close to the safari wagons for feeding. Eskjo is a nearby town with pretty old wooden houses, mainly painted red, which surprisingly ... read more

This is the beginning our 2ndEuropean road trip. From an initial concept of driving to Norway North Cape, we soon realise that we can't easily reach Norway and as we have only 3 weeks for our trip we quickly adjust our goal and decide that Stockholm will be our goal. I’ve been to Sweden before (but a long time ago), but not to Stockholm. J hasn’t been to Sweden at all. These days the only way to drive from the UK to Scandinavia is via a fairly limited number of north sea ferry routes, none of which are particularly convenient if Sweden if the destination. Spaces on the outbound ferries are in short supply in UK holiday season but we find a space on the Harwich-Hook of Holland crossing overnight on 13th August. It has been ... read more