A Trip Down the Coast

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It’s murder I tell ya! - We drove from Varberg down the west coast of Sweden toward the bottom of the country. Our objective was to go to Ystad to follow in the footsteps of Kurt Wallander, the fictional Swedish detective. Many books, films and TV series are set there. We’ve watched all the British shows so we had to do it. Along the way, we saw the southernmost point in Sweden (kind of like the landmark in Key West), a statue inspired by Uma Thurman’s grandmother in her youth (fun fact of the day), and bright yellow rapeseed fields. At one point, we made the new Nav system barf and she went all “HAL” on us. We had to pull over to reset. We pressed on to a site called Ales Stenar, a megalithic “Ship of Stones” on a cliff above the sea. Think mini-Stonehenge. Pretty impressive though no one knows their real history or purpose. After that, we made our way back to Ystad to have our “Fika”, the Swedish version of English tea time only with coffee, at one of Wallander’s favorite cafes. They sold us an expensive cake special with his name on it and police-blue icing. When we walked in, the owner said, “Ahh, Wallander…” with the inflection of, “Sigh, tourists…” Then we went for pizza at another famous restaurant and sampled the Swedish version – they don’t slice it into pieces or pick it up. Brian’s comment: “Eating pizza with a knife and fork is just wrong!” By then, our hosts at Red Bird Farm B&B were calling and wondering where we were, so we headed to our farm for the night. Very nice couple and quaint cabin to rest in. We’re very glad all the murders here are fictional. More to come tomorrow as we explore and head back to take the Volvo baby back home. Brian will be sad. He loves her already!

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