Who doesn’t like IKEA and Swedish meatballs?? Were we going there just because we loved both of them equally? Maybe… well at least it started from there.
Sweden always intrigued me because of its fantastic modern and simple design sense. But, I wanted to explore more than just Stockholm, so spent quite some time reading about South Sweden. What caught my attention was Skåne County. I couldn’t stop researching this area of Sweden. The more I read, the more I want to be there. If you like small old villages & towns, farm stands, beautiful scenic drives and gorgeous small resorts next to sea….think no more. It’s away from the main tourist trap cities and gives you a sense of calm and for me… Happiness!
We took the local train from Copenhagen to Lund, which took us around forty-five minutes. Rented a car from Lund train station, and did a round two day trip around Skane. BTW, It took us a while to figure where to get a rental car from at the train station. It’s relatively easy… you have to go down to the garage level on the main train station entrance, and there is a vending machine which dispenses the keys once all the information is entered. Bingo!
Glimmingehus, a beautiful manor house
Lund is a beautiful university town, but I planned to see it the next day on our way back from Skåne. We took a loop starting from Lund and covering a couple of places in Skåne county and back to Lund. We drove to Kivik first to see this cute little town next to the sea, which is famous for apples. It was quite disappointing as Kivik Cider( Apple farmhouse) factory was closed as it was Mid Summer Eve. Next up was Simrishamn, which is a beautiful small coastal town. We spent some time walking around and taking some pictures of this cute town. I really wanted to go to Nordic Sea Winery next but, I called to check if they were open on Midsummer eve and to my disappointment they weren’t open either. We decided to head out to Glimmingehus, a beautiful manor house. It’s a must-visit place! The drive to this place was beautiful and striking as the house itself. Wild red poppies were growing everywhere in summer with greens and yellow fields. It couldn’t have made me more happy to see my kids run around, jumping and having fun in the fields! I could have just stayed here in some red-roofed house and be satisfied with our vacation in Sweden. We spent a reasonable amount of time here getting to know about the history of this house and the kids saw the tower from inside. Again, this area is not infested with tourism, and you can enjoy it with few locals around.
Ales Stenar
Next, We drove to Ales Stenar. It’s a mystical monument made out of 59 stone boulders, dated back to early Iron Ages, which are placed in the form of a long ship. Some think it’s an astronomical clock while others think it’s a burial ground. It has a magnificent view of the Baltic Sea on one side, and Österlen’s hilly landscape on the other side! We parked our car and hiked up the hill which was covered with red poppies. A lot of locals were enjoying this warm summer day, women and girls had their head covered with flower headbands. It was just beautiful to watch as they were all singing songs and celebrating the midsummer celebration with food and wine. On the way to Ales Stenar, we saw lots of small celebrations for Midsummer Eve, everyone was going around in a circle singing song, Little frogs Little frogs…
Ale Stenar is perched on top of Kåseberga Harbor, which a lovely place to take a break and enjoy local herring at the smokehouses. It’s a beautiful place to spend some time. We all enjoyed this small harbor and hike, and it made my travels so much richer with an experience like this. That time, I wish I belonged to this region and lived here and rejoiced all these celebrations.
We were planning to eat at this wonderful farmhouse called Olof Victor’s Farm Shop, So had to drive out after our small hike to Ale Stenar. It was open till 3 pm because of midsummer, and I had heard so much about this place that I didn’t want to miss eating here. It was a super cute, rustic old farmhouse place with indoor and outdoor courtyard seating with fantastic simple food! They have a café, and a bakery and a small shop which sells jams, jellies, juices, and other dry goods like oats and trail mixes and homemade ice creams.
We enjoyed their shrimp and salmon open sandwiches so much so that we ordered them again while kids ate chicken sandwiches. We ordered coffee with some sweet treats next, which was one of the best cups of coffee I have had. It was worth waiting for as we had our lunch around 2:30 pm. I picked up some strawberry & blueberry syrup, and kids got homemade ice creams. We were all happy with full bellies! It’s a must-stop place if you are driving in Skåne county.
Skåne Countryside
We had enough energy to head out to next place called Ystad! It’s a lovely lovely little town with cobblestone streets next to the Baltic sea. We visited Santa Maria Church and Greyfriars Abbey. Again, because for the midsummer celebration most of the town was quit. I wish we had just a couple more days to explore this area. After, Ystad we finally headed to Mossbylund, our small gorgeous resort next to the Baltic Sea.
Ystad
I was wonderstruck by the vintage modern mix style, spa resort which was converted from a farmhouse. It couldn’t have been more stylish and Swedish trendy. We had got the suit facing the sea. The beach was two minutes walk, and the kids really enjoyed the hot Swedish summer day at the beach. The food menu looked quite good at the resort, but kids wanted to eat pizza! We went for a long sunset walk around 10:30 pm, around the property which had lovely crop fields behind. WOuld have liked to spend a couple days here to enjoy some please and quite. Wished we had an unlimited budget and vacations…
Mossbylund Spa Resort
The next day, we all woke up late, enjoyed the lovely breakfast at the resort. The kids and my hubby went for a long walk along the beach while I enjoyed my solitude, sitting out our suite. It had rained in the night, so the weather was quite pleasant.
Our drive to Lund was beautiful, and we did stop along the way to take some pictures, but we were now getting late to see the city and Lunds Domkyrka, the magnificent twin-towered Romanesque cathedral with an unusual astronomical clock. We made it there with some time to spare to see the clock which does resemble the clock in Prague. We would have definitely stayed at least a day to enjoy Lund if we had more time. But I don’t regret spending more time in the Swedish countryside.
Lund
The fast train from Lund to Stockholm was convenient and relaxing. We all caught up on our sleep. I like train rides more than planes for long-distance as it makes you slow down and enjoy the countryside, and it was quite reasonable.
Our hip and modern hotel in Stockholm was loved by all. Downtown Camper by Scandic was a terrific hotel with the best breakfast buffet we have ever had. The hotel was very reasonable prices, and the breakfast was included in the price. Kids had ping pong tables on our floor. Downstairs, there are free, guided walks, cycle tours, and movie nights. What more do you need in a hotel?? And, the only downside was that my kids just want to spend all their time in the hotel…
Fotografiska
We reached all refreshed in the evening, and we still had good four to five hours of daylight to explore Stockholm. Walking to Gamla Stan during the midsummer weekend was good as it wasn’t crowded at all and we got a chance to get the feel of the old town. After having our dinner at a much-hyped restaurant called Hairy Pig, which was ridiculously expensive for the food they served ( but good food), we headed to Fotografiska after that. Fotografiska is the photography museum and a must-visit place in Stockholm. It’s right next to the water, and the site is open till 1 pm in the night. Their restaurant and cafe are fantastic too. The late-night dinner reservations are with entrance to the museum. We couldn’t go to the restaurant because of mid-summer weekend, and by now I was getting tired of the places shut down because of it. We enjoyed wine and beer and lovely views of the city from their cafe. They had several compelling exhibitions going on, and all of them had a significant impact on our kids and us. The exhibitions were not for small kids as they were quite graphic and our kids said they didn’t know the world had so many problems and pain. It was about Syria, Africa, and drug addiction in America. But the exhibits are revolving so look before you head there with young kids.
I really wish we had dinner at the cafe instead of Hairy Pig, which was a nice place but having had amazing sausages in Prague, which were so reasonable it was difficult to cough out so much for these ones. But then again, we were in the Nordic country which is much more expensive than Prague!
After the museum, we walked back to our hotel at around 11 pm. We walked everywhere this time, not one single cab/taxi. We must have taken the metro once a while. It was one of the best feelings to enjoy the city on foot although sometimes it would be really tiring. But, getting over jetlag was easy as we crashed every single night and woke up only in the mornings.
It was my birthday the next day, and I was quite excited to celebrate it in the Swedish Archipelago called Grinda! I spent a reasonable amount of time researching on which archipelago to visit, which was not to close to Stockholm and not too touristy. It was perfect, and it made me very happy to spend my birthday with my family here. We spent some time near the harbor and then went for a hike around the island. Later, we enjoyed our delicious lunch with beautiful views of the sea at Grinda Wardshus restaurant terrace, which was included in the tour price. Food was great, and so were my two glasses of chilled white wine on a warm summer day. It was a great cruise. We had booked our tour from Stromma website and there are many tours you can choose from.
We rested for a couple hours at our hotel and then headed out for a walk while kids choose to play ping pong at the hotel. We enjoyed Fika at this lovely place at Carlos Eko and headed back. My day couldn’t have gone better.. I like to travel during my summer birthday and have been doing that for the last 5 years. It’s a gift of travel to myself. Dinner was at Eataly, La pasta & La pizza, and I was meeting my lovely friend from San Diego. They were vacationing in Stockholm too. It was a perfect end to my birthday.
The next day was pretty packed as it was the first day after the midsummer weekend and all the attractions were finally open. We took the 9:10 am English guided tour of the Vasa museum. It’s a free guided tour which is included the ticket purchase. I would strongly suggest you take this free tour instead of booking expensive ones through other websites. It gives you a pretty good history behind this beautiful boat, and then you are free to experience the rest of the museum on your own. We headed back to our hotel after seeing the museum. The kids had ordered food in, and my hubby and I went to Bar Central to have Czech food there. We thought they have an unfiltered beer which says on their website, but it wasn’t the one we were expecting. A little disappointed but food was reasonably good, and we again got to see a part of the city we would have never gone to. Had a quick coffee at Green Rabbit and headed back to our hotel. Green Rabbit is an excellent place for Fika! We needed to pick kids quickly and headed out for our next activity. Like I said, it was a packed day, but kids got to relax and did not complain about the next activity.
We had an old town walking tour, which was short but gave an excellent idea about old Stockholm. We booked this tour through GetyourGuide, and it was a reasonably priced and perfect tour. After the tour, we went for a Fika at the lovely place called Under Kastanjen in Old Town. The coffee and cake were amazing, and it’s a quiet little place under a huge tree. Kids had ice cream, and we strolled in the old town for quite some time. Subsequent enjoying Old Town, We headed to the beer garden, Mase Backeterrassen in Södermalm. It’s a lovely spot overlooking Stockholm. We had kids, so choose to head out of there after admiring the beautiful views. But, it’s a bustling place in summer as locals gather to enjoy beer and drinks.
Finally meatballs!!! Dinner reservations were made at Meatballs for People, a must-visit in Stockholm if you love or even like meatballs. No Ikea meatballs for us after these. It’s a very Swedish hip joint with the best meatballs!! I would travel back to Sweden just for them. We enjoyed our meatballs & beer, and kids enjoyed their meatballs and spaghetti. This day / Swedish trip couldn’t have ended more perfect. Our walk to the hotel was almost fifty minutes’ walk from here, but no one complained.
We had a couple hours to explore City Hall the next day and so glad we did it. The City hall tower is beautiful to climb/take a lift up the tower and see stunning views of Stockholm and Södermalm. And one of the must-visit places. The tower tickets can be sold out soon so just make sure you get to purchase them early morning from the City Hall and can select a time for later that day.
Sweden was more charming then I thought it would be and would definitely want to go back there someday…
One Foot Out the Door 