Exploring Beautiful Sweden and Denmark

After setting up our storage unit in Colorado and establishing residency in South Dakota it was time to start our international travel. Our house still hadn’t closed by this point, but we were getting close. So there were a few worries following us, but we worked with our fantastic real estate team as we were travelling to wrap everything up.

Our first stop was Stockholm, Sweden as a jumping off point for a week at Silverskär, Åland which is an island in the Baltic between Sweden and Finland. After that relaxing week we traveled through Southern Sweden (Gothenburg, Lund, Malmo) and then on to Copenhagen, Denmark.

Wandering Stockholm

We have been to Stockholm a couple of times and visited many of the great sights. So this time we decided to visit some favorites and new-to-us areas of town. Gamla Stan (Old Town) was great for our first walk fresh off the plane. We also explored the eastern half of Djurgården (the park where royals kept their animals to hunt) and Södermalm (the newer and trendy part of town). The weather was warm and sunny so the Swedes were all out getting their vitamin D and fika. Sarah met us on Sunday night to catch the ferry to Åland.

Relaxing on Silverskär

Silverskär is an island on the north side of Åland. We fell in love with the place the first time our friend Maria invited us, and this was our third trip. It has a summer camp vibe with an excellent chef and many amazing activities. To get there we took the 5 hour ferry to Mariehamn, Åland.

This year we got to stay one night at the rustic fisherman’s camp, Klobben. Our favorite part was the evening sauna and jumping directly into the Baltic.

Other activities on Silverskär included champagne tasting (Veuve Clicquot), axe throwing, shotgun shooting, a boat tour of neighboring islands, more sauna, swimming, and eating delicious food.

We were very fortunate that we got to stay in the original farm house on Silverskär.

Gothenburg

Our next stop after Stockholm and Silverskär was Gothenburg, Sweden. (Sarah flew to Croatia to meet up with her boyfriend, Sam, and continued her travels with him.) We explored the town for almost a week, and there were many highlights.

The Volvo Museum had just opened in its new location and was very interesting. The red car pictured below was owned by a California man who put on 3.2 million miles over his lifetime. (You can look up Irv Gorden if you are interested in his story.) The blue SUV is made entirely of Lego’s. Dave stands in front of their oldest model, the ÖV4, with an open top that did not bode well for the harsh Swedish winters.

We also went on an amazing Airbnb sailing experience with the boat’s owner from Hönö Island to Rörö Island in the Gothenburg archipelago. It was our first experience sailing a large boat with a tiller. He grilled us an excellent fish for lunch and we explored Rörö Island. We had great wind and weather!

One interesting aspect to Gothenburg is that it is the port where many Swedes got on a boats and emigrated to the United States over the centuries. The monument pictured below is a tribute to those emigrants. Dave was wondering if his ancestors crossed this very pier on their way to a better life?

Expecting a Hero’s Welcome in Lund

Dave doesn’t know where his distant relatives live in Sweden these days, but he figured we should swing through Lund for a couple days since it shares at least part of our name. Spoiler alert…no welcoming committee was waiting.

It was an interesting stop in this little university town. They have a fascinating astronomical clock in the cathedral that was built in the 1400s. The campus has a beautiful library with wisteria and ivy vines.

Malmo

Malmo is a more modern city we visited as a day trip from Lund. One of the more unique experiences we had there was touring the Disgusting Food Museum. Here is one crazy example: mouse wine.

The displays were entertaining and the accompanying “smell jars” were awfully weird. The museum even had a tasting bar…yum/yuck? We tried black ants (lemon flavor), meal worms (sawdust), stink bugs (crunchy), cheese fermented in a goat stomach (soft texture – but we felt bad for the poor goat), salty licorice (terrible acid burn), and several other things. Dave tried the spice challenge! It started with a 2.5 million Scoville level chili sauce and ended with 9 million level pure chili extract. He said, “It was rough.” (Milk was provided afterwards.)

There is also a fascinating story we learned at the Malmo Museum about how Sweden, that was neutral in World War 2, managed to extract 1000s of prisoners from German concentration camps. It started as an effort to get Swedes out of Germany (with Nazi approval), but then they rescued as many people as they could along the way. Below is one of the buses they used to carry out this dangerous mission.

Enjoying Copenhagen

From Lund it was a quick hop over to Copenhagen. It is a wonderful city and we enjoyed wandering around and exploring different parts of town. We learned quickly to watch out for bikes. They seem to have priority in the city and we had several close calls as we crossed bike paths.

We have climbed many church towers, but always from the inside. At the Church of our Saviour we climbed the outside top spire! The windy day that made it even more challenging.

We went to Tivoli Gardens, a famous amusement park and music venue, for dinner one night. We didn’t try any rides, but many of them looked intense.

We took the train to the north of Copenhagen to visit Fredericksburg Castle, a royal residence in the 1600’s. Both the castle and grounds are impressive.

There is an area in Copenhagen called Christiana, it was an old army base that was taken over by free-thinkers in the 60s. Years ago it was the center of the hard drug culture in Copenhagen, but over the years they have cleaned it up and it is an interesting place to wander. People still live there, everything is collectively owned including the land and they establish their own rules independent from Danish law.

And we enjoyed exploring the variety of wonderful neighborhoods around Copenhagen.

And of course we had to go see the famous mermaid, who appears very sad. We investigated her back story and she has been vandalized multiple times (two decapitations, an arm sawed off, and painted several times) and is often where people go to get attention to their cause. We also read the Hans Christian Anderson story and it is much darker and sadder than the Disney version (spoiler alert: she doesn’t marry the prince and her ending is tragic).

Scandinavia was Amazing

We had a great time visiting Sweden and Denmark. Everyone was friendly and helpful. The three weeks went by quickly and there is so much more to see that we want to go back. When we were planning our fall destinations, we decided we needed one month to relax and recover from all of the downsizing craziness. So for our next stop we stayed one full month in San Sebastian, Spain. But before we go, here’s one last look from Copenhagen’s most famous canal, Nyhavn.