Island hopping across Sweden

Our first stop in Sweden was Karlshamn, for no other reason than it was half way to our final stop in Kalmar.

Karlshamn is a pretty little town overlooked by a massive biofuel refinery, which somewhat spoils the view! Despite the rain, we had our customary daily ice cream before having a quick look around the town. We were treated to more cobbled streets, this time lined with various European flags.

After another couple of hours drive north, we pitched our tent at First Camp Stensö Kalmar. This is a large campsite on the small island of Stensö, just outside the city. We finally made use of the air fryer and enjoyed a tasty meal of jacket potatoes and roasted vegetables.

The next day we headed over the bridge to the island of Öland and the town of Borgholm. There are over 500 old windmills on the island which H enjoyed counting as we drove along. Borgholm felt a bit like an American town, due to its gridded road system. We found a good playground and an ice cream shop before heading up to the ruined Slott (castle) at the top of the hill where we had our picnic. The original castle was built in the 12th century and over the years it became one of Sweden’s most important fortresses. It is certainly very big!

We headed back over the bridge to Kalmar, stopping at the tiny island of Valvsholmen on the way to check out a recommended restaurant which unfortunately was shut on Mondays. We instead headed to see Kalmar Slott and, after sheltering from the rain in a nearby supermarket, we walked around this remarkably well preserved castle which is also around 800 years old. It oversaw the formation of the Kalmar Union in 1397, which brought Sweden, Denmark and Norway under common rule until 1523. It also served as a strategic part of Sweden’s defence against the Danes, due to the close proximity of the border between the two countries, that is until the border was moved to its current position in 1658.

We headed back to the campsite, where I went for a run around Stensö while dinner was cooked, and James went for a walk after dinner to enjoy the sunset over the water.

The next day we packed up quickly and drove north to Oskarshamn to get the ferry to Gotland. We made the crossing with about 10 minutes to spare before check in closed! The ferry crossing took three hours. There was a children’s play area and a TV area showing cartoons, which H enjoyed. We sat next to a German family with two young boys, who ended up staying on the same campsite.

When we arrived in Visby, our satnav unfortunately directed us through the old town, which had very narrow cobbled streets so we had to quickly turn around and escape before the car got stuck!

Our campsite, when we eventually arrived, couldn’t have had a nicer view out over the sea. We pitched our tent, had some dinner, then headed to the beach to check out the local playground and outdoor gym. The sunset that evening was stunning, with the sun setting directly in front of our pitch.

The next day, we headed into Visby old town to check out the many towers, old city walls and ruined churches that are dotted around the city. It’s a very pretty city and definitely worth a visit. We had a tasty lunch at Mirells (banh mi and pancakes) whilst attempting (somewhat unsuccessfully on mine and H’s part) to play chess. After an obligatory ice cream, we continued south to the headland at Högklint, which had great views back towards Visby. Finally we continued south to Tofta, which had a lovely sandy beach where we enjoyed paddling in the waves, and skimming and throwing stones into the sea.

Fårö way rauk show

The next day we headed north to Fårö, a little island at the top of Gotland. The north of Gotland was very rural and felt quite different to where we were in Visby. We had to get a car ferry for five minutes across the small strait to Fårö. The reason for heading up here was to see the various rocks (or rauken) and sea stacks at Digerhuvud and Langhammersgauben. We had great fun scrambling up the rock outcrops and trying to take photos whilst dodging the random photo shoot happening around us and the iridescent green beetles that seemed to be very attracted to the smell of our sun cream!

We drove to the south side of the island to check out the Sudersand beach, which is apparently one of the top five beaches in Sweden. However the sea was full of seaweed and personally I preferred the beach at Tofta. We had an ice cream at a very chilled cafe, Fårö Strandcafé, which was serving very tasty looking pizzas, however we’d already had a packed lunch so weren’t able to try them out.

Fårö was about an hour’s drive from Visby but definitely worth the trip, it was a lovely place to visit.

We drove back south, crossing over on the ferry again, and arrived back in Visby in time for dinner. We decided to walk into town and ate at a tasty Italian restaurant, Isola Bella, as we fancied pizza after seeing the ones at the cafe on Fårö. As we left the restaurant, we randomly ended up joining a procession with some people promoting Kings Lynn. It turned out that this weekend is the annual Hanseatic festival, with representatives from around 75 different cities descending on Visby to celebrate the 45th International Hanseatic Day. Many people were dressed up in period dress from their city and apparently some Dutch people had spent 24 days sailing in a square-sailed boat to get to the festival! It was funny to see places we’d already visited represented (such as Hamburg and Kalmar), as well as places we’re heading to, like Bergen.

For our last morning on Visby, we packed up camp and headed back into the town to see some more of the Hanseatic festivities. There were many market stalls giving out free treats, period performances of music and dance, and even an inflatable model of the Gotland ferry for H to play on!

We thoroughly enjoyed our time on Gotland, and would recommend it to anyone looking for pretty beaches, good weather, tasty food, and some history thrown in as well for good measure. We are really pleased we made the trip out here.