Sisters in Scandi-Hoovia :: Day 3

Full day today in southern Sweden. As the little mermaid sang, we were down by the sea! Oh, she said under the sea, didn't she? Whoops.

We went south from Karlshamn two hours to the historic town of Simrishman. A local woman named Vivian served as our guide as we walked through the cobblestone streets and admired the preserved architecture of their row houses and special Simrishman Doors. I think I will have a whole scrapbook page of doors. 

A few pix from our walk...

Hand-knit covering over pipe. Now that's different!

Can't get away from lutefisk... aka herring! Even on the cobblestones!

Lots of pretty stuff. will definitely have to share a lot more pix when we get back.

After the tour, we headed down the coast and had lunch in Kaseberga.

It looks like we had mashed potatoes with a side of mashed potatoes. But somewhere in there we had cod (very good), mashed peas (uhm, ok) and the staple lingonberries (yum).

Had some harbor time and then it was walking up the big hill you see in this photo...

What was at the top? A thousand-year-old surprise! Well, they think it's been around that long.

It's called Ale's Stones and is basically a Viking Stone Henge. After all this time, you think they'd have built a raised platform overlooking it so you could see that is is in the shape of a viking ship. Just can't get that in one photo no matter what tricks I used.

Pretty amazing to stand where real vikings one stood. And just an hour down the coastline is where our great-great-great grandparents on our mom's side got married almost 200 years ago. Pretty cool, eh?

Our last activity of the day was touring one of the best-preserved castles in southern Sweden. There are some 200 around.

Right away I had some concerns about Glimmingehus. I mean who puts ice cream on the same level of unhealthiness as smoking?

Then there was The Giant. It's legend that you must say hello to this guy any time you pass him in the anteroom outside the guardroom. If you fail to greet him, bad luck will befall you.

Now you know how that turned out!

So much for "southern hospitality!"

Got back in time for dinner. Went to a restaurant where the menus were all in Swedish and I couldn't work my translation app so we did some guessing. We all survived so far!

Time for bed as it's almost 11 p.m. here and the sun just set. Off to Denmark tomorrow for some fun on the water.

We'll be in touch.