Sweden – Northtrotter

TOP

Times visited: 7 (1 day in 2006, 6 days in 2015, 2×1 day in 2017, 4 days in 2018, 1 day in 2019 and 3 days in 2024)
Cities visited: Stockholm, Malmö, Lund, Helsingborg, Gällivare, Visby, Kalmar, Färjestaden, Borgholm and Gothenburg
Villages visited: Slagnäs, Byxelkrok, Sandvik, Mörbylånga, Grönhögen, Ottenby, Gettlinge, Hulterstad, Bäckviken, Tuna by, Norreborg, Kyrkbacken and Vrångö village
Islands visited: Gotland, Öland, Ven and Vrångö
UNESCO sites visited: 2/15

Sweden is a country that I really love and often return to. My first visit was in 2006, on a day trip to Helsingborg with my family. Many years past before I returned, but I finally did in 2015 during my two-month spring journey through northern Europe. I travelled from the Lofoten Islands in Norway to the Båtsuoj Samecenter located deep in the wilderness of Norbottens län in the north of Sweden, taking two days with stopovers in Narvik and Gällivare. There, I learned about the Sami way of life, went ice fishing (but didn’t catch anything), snowmobiled to the top of two mountains, fed pet reindeer and slept in a traditional Sami hut.
Afterwards, I headed to Stockholm for a day of sightseeing in the rain and then caught a ferry to the island of Gotland, where I discovered one of my favourite towns on the planet, medieval Visby!
I moved to Copenhagen for two years in 2016, bringing me much closer to my Swedish neighbours. This meant that I had plenty of opportunities to take trips to Sweden, located just across a bridge from the city. During those two years, I explored quite a bit if southern Sweden on day trips to the cities of Malmö and Lund and on a weekend roadtrip through the beautiful and diverse island of Öland.
In the spring of 2019, I returned to explore the tiny island of Ven, located between Denmark and mainland Sweden, and a perfect mix of the two.
In late June 2024, it was finally time to return to Sweden. I caught the ferry to Gothenburg from Frederikshavn in Denmark, and spent a long weekend exploring the city and hiking on the car-free island of Vrångö with my little dog.