15 | June | 2022 | The Cannon Family's travel blog

Transitions are always a challenge. We were heading from the tip of the Swedish penninsula to Stockholm, a distance of more than 600km which translates into 7+ hours driving. That is no fun so we decided to split it up by stopping close to half way. We checked out of the very peaceful, very comfortable AirBnb (highly recommended BTW). And started the trek north toward Stockholm. We chose to stop in Kalmar as it was in about the right location and had some history we could explore: a castle!

Not only was this an unusual stop for us in that it was only one night, we were actually staying in a HOTEL! We decided years ago that we aren’t well suited to hotel living after spending a full week in a very small room where we barely had space to turn around without smacking into each other. So it’s been AirBnb’s since then – we did rent apartments way before AirBnB was a thing but it’s so much easier now.

We arrived at the “Castle Hotel” in Kalmar and were able to park the car even though the room wasn’t ready yet. We wandered into town to find some lunch and found a lovely bistro that did GF pizza – the toppings were better than the crust but Frank said the regular pizza was excellent. The main attraction for the day was a visit to Kalmar castle so we were off to get some historical learning.

I confess that no matter how much I think I know about European history, I am completely clueless about anything Nordic. It was fascinating trying to understand the interplay between Sweden, Denmark, and Norway in the context of the history of this particular castle. I really need to read up on thing like this before traveling…. bad tourist!

Nevertheless, we did learn quite a bit about the the area and the Vasa dynasty of Gustav I. And it was another beautiful day to be wandering around the castle grounds and in town. A few storm clouds were lurking in the area but they seemed hesitant to drop rain on us which worked in our favor. (They gave up their reticense a few hours later when we were having dinner but that was fine.)

After a lot more walking, our legs began to complain and it was time to head back to the hotel and check into our TINY room. We were far more tired than our activities would have suggested so we decided to grab a drink in the hotel – outside bar in the courtyard was lovely. And they had GF beer which I enjoyed immensely. In the process of discussing how far we might be able to walk to find dinner when we noticed a steady stream of people entering the hotel restaurant. Groups of 4 and 6 women at a time were heading in smack on the dot of 5 and it seemed very curious. We decided that the food couldn’t be that bad if there were so many local folks eating here so we snagged a table just as the skies opened up.

While we pondered the menu, we noticed that the vast majority of people around us were drinking prosecco and eating shrimp from a wooden box. Like everyone except us. We then found out that the hotel restaurant was famous for “Bubble Tuesday” where the special was prosecco and peel & eat shrimp with hummus and bread. And EVERYONE was there for that. I can’t remember hearing so many corks pop in the course of a single meal because of course no one wanted to stop at the one glass of bubbles that came with dinner. It wasn’t what we were looking for – can’t do prawns with their heads still on! – so I had the grilled char and Frank opted for the steak. A few glasses of wine and some dessert and we found the stamina to do a little more walking around town. The skies had cleared and it was another gorgeous evening.

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