South Sweden

big house with a moat on a tiny lane in south Sweden

Viking era ship grave early in the morning

This is the biggest ship grave in Sweden, like Stonehenge but with smaller stones and ship-shaped

Malcolm at Ales Stenar

Me at Ystad

pretty purple fields, Skane

Malcolm has a strange sandwich with pink stuff on it

lunch spot at a little harbour with a building dated 1851

Ystad

South Sweden sunset

Ystad

Skane

We did a huge drive yesterday from Stockholm to a place near Kristianstad called Ahus.  This is in the southern part of Sweden called Skane.

This part of Sweden is very different (although we did camp in a pine forest) but mostly it is open countryside with farms and small villages, also it is beside the coast so there are lots of little harbours.

We have been visiting some more Viking ship grave mound remains, the largest are like the stone circles you see in the UK, France, etc.  But these are later, although they did use stones from existing sites apparently. It was very early this morning when we visited the first couple of sites so no other people around.  The huge one called Ales Stenar did have a few other people there but the setting was amazing - on a headland with huge sea views.  Beneath the cliff was a harbour where we got the usual coffee and Swedi-Danish.

Then on to Ystad, a pretty little medieval town with a market square, church, monastery, quaint buildings and for literary readers -Ystad is the setting for Wallander, if you have read the books or seen the t.v. programmes (as I have).

We camped at a quiet place along the coast as we needed to use a washing machine and dryer.  So we chilled out a bit, reading, then went to the nearby supermarket to get some fresh food.  Also a walk along the beach - that is twice in 2 days, we are definitely out of the mountains!