2026 Scandinavian Tour - October - Day 12 - Drive to Vadstena.

 September 14, 2026

Staying in a castle, convent, manor house, whatever you want to call it, was really a unique experience.  I’d definitely come back and even spend more time here.

I woke up around 3:30 AM and then my head cold took over a bit.  I really need something that can dry my head up at night so I can breathe better.  We shall see what I do tonight.

Today, we got up and were out the door by 9 AM.  Our plan took us to a National Park named Store Mosse.  It was a bit different from our national park.  It was a place to observe wildlife in a bog like area.  We walked to the visitor center where before you could enter you had to take your shoes off and put on slippers.  They did not want you walking on their wood floors.  But the idea of sharing someone’s slippers after they’ve been hiking all day in their boots…well not appealing.  We decided quickly that this was a place to go for walks and would need a lot of time which we did not have.  We are making our way towards Stockholm.

After leaving the national park, we drove to a little village named Granna.  It is a quaint village known for a type of candy that is made there.  It is called Polkagris and is like candy cane in the US.  Anyway, we bought a bunch to bring home to the grandkids.  While there, we went to a bakery to have a quick sandwich and a few pastries.  It was all yummy.  While walking back to our car, we ran into 2 sister missinoaries who were on their preparation day.  One of the girls grandmother was from Sweden.  And apparently her great uncle lived in Sweden still and they were walking around Granna with him and his wife.  It was fun to meet them.  Both girls were from the US. 

Our next stop on our journey was at a castle relic named Brahehus.  It was kind of just off the motorway and overlooked a lovely valley leading down to Lake Vattern.  Beautiful view it was there.  You’ll see in the pictures below.  The castle was small and the top floors and roof were gone.  But I’m sure it was impressive in its day.

We next headed to the city where we were going to stay the night, Vadstena.  In the heart of this city is a huge castle with a mote and everything.  We arrived at 3:30 PM and they closed the castle at 4 PM.  But they were very kind and said that we could take our time and could leave whenever we’d like…which we did.  Any more, I don’t know what to say about old castles.  You try to imagine life back in the 15 century living in such conditions.  I’m sure those who lived in such a building were spoiled in comparison to the peasants that lived outside.  You can tell that they were set up for very large feasts and hosting lots of people.  It was a very nice tour.

Finally, we arrived at our BnB…a farm house in the middle of farm country.  Our 3+ hours of driving today pretty much took us through farm land and lake country.  All very green, lots of trees and lots of water all around us.  Our home here is very nice.  I think we will be comfortable tonight.  Well, Denise and I will be.    Our traveling partners (Ilene) keeps losing things.  I keep teasing them that this is ok as they probably need to donate to charity shops to avoid having their suitcases and backpacks explode.  It’s fun to tease them and I hope Ilene does find her coat and battery pack to keep her phone charged.

For dinner, we went into town and found a pub like place.  Denise and I shared a Schnitzel plate.  It was really yummy.  We also got what he called a salted cucumber plate.  That turned out to be very small pickles that you dipped in an amazing soft cheese and honey.  It was so good.  

Well another day in the books and hoping to get a better nights rest.  Here are some pictures:

Entrance to our house in Vadstena.  Nice little country home.

Just up the road from our country house is this church.  People much come from all the farms to attend.

That’s looking up at the home we’re in.

A nice sunset in Vadstena.

This is a little plaza we we found a place open for dinner.  It’s Monday and everything seems so shut.

Another shot of the square in Vadstena.

A very full boot (trunk).

This is castle in Vadstena.  Pretty impressive.

The lake that comes up near the Vadstena Castle.

I love a good mote.  This one is cool.

This is the inner courtyard of the Vadstena Castle.

Another nice shot of the inner courtyard of the Vadstena Castle.

Denise and Ilene preaching to the peasants.

These were the pews in the chapel in the Vadstena Castle.

The organ in the Vadstena Castle chapel.

King and queen.

Me having a nice discussion with one of the castle’s occupants.

This is Braheus Castle.

All the pictures above are at Brahehus Castle.

The store in Granna where the polkagris candy was made and purchased.

Braheus Castle.

Trolls are everywhere.  This one is found in the visitor center at Store Mosse National Park.

The above pictures are in the National Park.

These are the slippers we put on to walk on their wood floors.

A map of the national park.

I meant to add these two photos of Kim and Ilene.  Great photos.

2026 Scandinavian Tour - October - Day 11 - Welcome to Sweden (Bosjokloster)

 September 13, 2026

Our cruise in Scandinavia has come to an end.  It has been a wonderful cruise hearing so many languages.  The cruise director welcomed the theater crowd in 5 languages each night.  He was amazing.  I’m amazed how many languages many of these people on the ship can speak.  I guess you have to as so many languages are spoken all around us.  English is always the common denominator.

We were up at the buffet eating at 7:30 AM.  We checked out of the room by 8 AM and were off the ship by 8:15.  It was an easy exit, no one in line to get off.  But at the bus stop, there was a pretty good line.  Fortunately the public buses take a lot of people and we easily got on the first bus.  After a 10 minute ride to the metro, we caught the M4 metro to Osterplot station.  From there we then caught a Swedish train to Malmo C, the central train station in Malmo Sweden.  The journey from the Osterplot station was about 50 minutes.  Once we arrived, we easily found the Sixt car rental office and acquired a car.  With all our gear, the is a bit tight.  However, we did it and off we went. 

Our first stop of the day was at an old viking fort in Trelleborg.  We found it easily and it was in the middle of the city.  It has one quarter of the existing fort.  There are only 6 of these in all of Sweden.  Vikings are a part of all of these countries history.  

We then left the fort and drove to a beautiful Lutheran church where Denise’s ancestors were once buried.  That was our first church stop.  Unfortunately, the Pastor was too busy with members of her congregation that she would not take time to retrieve her books that would possibly have names of Denise’s ancestors.  Bummer.  Anyway, after taking some pictures, off we went to another church out in the middle of no where.  At this church there was a beautiful graveyard.  So well taken care of.  The church was closed.  But we were able to walk around looking at headstones.  But none matched Denise’s records.  Most of the headstones had dates newer than the dates Denise was looking for.  So maybe their plots do not have headstones.  It was a nice stop nonetheless.

Next, we needed to find some lunch.  So we started driving to our BnB and when we came to the first significantly sized village, we found a place and stopped.  It was a small pub that was run by a guy from Lebanon.  We all oredered Gyros and frys.  They were amazingly tasty.

After lunch we headed to the BnB in Bosjokloster.  The info I read when I booked indicated that it was a castle.  It was an hour or so drive from where we got lunch.  But upon arrival we were astonished.  It is an old fort, castle-like, structure which we have the north corner of.  Denise is finally staying in an old castle.  Even the beds seem olden.  The bathrooms seem to have been built into closets.  As a matter of fact, I’ll be showering in the morning in the laundry room.  Pictures will show more than words.  People pay money to come on the park like grounds that sit on a lake region.  It is quite pretty.  

After settling in and getting some wash going, we set out to walk the grounds.  There is an exhibition of Ukranian quilts.  And Ilene and Denise enjoying quilting, it was fascinating to them.  From there we walked the grounds seeing the most amazing flowers with big bumble bees flying all around.  We walked into a forest like area where we came upon a zip-line among the trees that both Denise and Ilene rode.  That was pretty funny as it was a bit tough to get off the darn thing!  But they did it.   The grounds are really pretty.  An amazing first night in Sweden.

Some pictures:

I’m sitting in the church here at the castle/convent where we are staying for the night.  

This is a picture of the courtyard in the Bosjokloster castle.  Our windows look out over this.

Us walking in the park that is part of the grounds at Bosjokloster.

A happy zip liner.  I’m going to post a video of this down below.

The servant taking the princess back to the point where she can dismount her thrill ride.  Pretty fun.

This is where you are able to mount the seat on the zip line.

Such beautiful flowers all over the grounds here.  These are just a few.

They will actually give you oars and life vests so you can take boats out on the lake.  We did not do that.  But the sign nearby said that we could.

Nice view of the castle, which in times later, became a convent for nuns.

This is the kitchen in our flat here.  Really quite big.

This is one of the beautiful quilts made by Ukranian folks that live in this region.

Our living room area.  You can actually start a fire if you chose to do so.

Our lunch…a Gyro and fties.

The group at the restaurant at lunch time.

This is a shot of the church where we stopped to look for Denise’s ancestors.  It is a lovely cemetery.

Another shot of that same church and cemetery.

This is one of the streets we drove through on our journey.  It was a cute little street.

This was the Lutheran church, the first church that we stopped at looking for Denise’s ancestors.

This is the outside of that old Lutheran church.

A picture of Denise and I on the outside of the viking fort.

They had some authentic viking gear.  I’m always amazed how heavy it is.

Our train ride to Malmo.

Another shot of the courtyard….

A pretty view across the lake here in Bosjokloster.

Another view of the castle/convent.

Zip lining….

Kids having fun….