After a memorable dinner and a comatose-like sleep in Falkenberg, we hopped in the car and hit the road to Gotland. The road trip was only one part of the journey because Gotland is an island off Sweden's west coast, which made driving the entire way a bit risky.
In the southern part of Sweden it's not terribly far from east to west, so we took our time as we headed out, stopping off in the pretty town of Halmstad. Halmstad is a medieval, walled city. It has a seriously old castle and a possibly older church, St. Nicholai.
Halmstad does naturally what Crocker Park can only contrive, with beautiful existing structures that are filled with shops, restaurants, homes, businesses and history that make the town charming and interesting.This link gives you more pictures of Halmstad, so have a look.
http://www.worldtravelimages.net/Halmstad_City.html
After Halmstad we headed for our day's destination - a tiny town in the middle of nowhere called Broakulla, aka "Dracula" to us crazy kids in the Volvo. We booked a room at a bed and breakfast called The Dutch Dreamcatcher. It was nice enough, mostly because we had the place to ourselves. Our room was not ensuite and there was a private kitchen area just outside our door. Great for a family, and fine for just us. But otherwise much too close for comfort. Speaking of comfort, I barely slept at the DDc. The mattresses in Sweden are very thin, dense and firm - not uncomfortable really, but our hosts had odd scratchy sheets that about drove me nuts. (Too late you say? Ha! You have no idea.)
Finding a place for dinner that night was not easy. But we had the GPS and it led us to a tiny Italian restaurant in the town of Lindas. The restaurant was on the main floor of an apartment building in this goofy rundown suburban neighborhood. No other commerce nearby and we're the only ones there, except for some old local guy watching TV. Don't ask me. I can't tell you. But I can tell you that the spaghetti bolognese was not half bad.
The next morning we had our breakfast of cold meat, cheese, bread, yogurt and cereal and were on our way. Passed a sign for the town of Pukeberg as we headed for Oskarshamn and the ferry to Gotland. Gosh, we sure wanted to pay a visit to the people of Pukeberg but had to keep going.
We arrived in Oskarshamn in plenty of time. We had booked the ferry in advance. Big, comfortable reclining seats for us and a place for the car below. This ferry is a huge ship making the 2 and-a-half hour trip to Gotland Island very enjoyable, indeed.
I'll tell you all about Gotland and Visby and Faro very soon. It gets better and better.
Cheers for now.
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