travelogue: 24 hours in öland

before heading home after our easter stay in karlskrona, we drove two hours north and stayed in öland, sweden's second largest island.  we only had 24 hours but we made the most of it, discovering much of this long and narrow island.

we began our stay at hotel skanson.  i loved our hotel room, that wallpaper is of the 6 km-long ölandsbron - the bridge - you take from the mainland.  and the swedes have the best mattresses, they are super thin yet the most comfortable - we always sleep so well.  

we meandered around stora alvaret, a giant limestone plateau with unique biodiversity designated as a unesco world heritage.   stora alvaret takes up almost a quarter of the island - found nowhere else in the world of this size.  it is treeless land consisting of limestone only covered with a thin layer of soil.  it's surprising anything grows here but it does, special species unique to the area.  in the summer, this area explodes with colour; the photos i saw were amazing.  but on this day, there was no colour, just the blue sky, biting cold winds, and rock piles to lead the way.

the wind was so cold!

i loved the windmills dotted around the island, only about 300 windmills remain of the original 2000. it seemed one would pop up around every corner.  this row of preserved windmills are located in lerkaka.  

i was so happy that karin and kenneth told us about paradisverkstaden.  it is a family run shop, they design and manufacture everything.  such beautiful pottery, i came home with a little something but would have liked them all.  actually, i would have liked to move in, the shop is bright and open with the sea in view.  total bliss.

borgholm castle was closed for the season - as most things were - but we were still awed by the sheer size of this 800 year old castle; a proper castle.  upon arriving we were greeted by the friendliest cat who never left our side.  we fantasized about taking him home with us, we didn't.  it was the perfect place for an easter egg hunt... i had kai clamouring along the castle wall to find his tin egg filled with chocolates.    

he was so close here...

the beige sand dunes and gorgeous sea were a favourite.  in the dunes, kai frolicked, we fika-ed. such a beautiful environment, it reminded me of our time by at the beach in faro while vacationing in gotland (take a peek here).  boda beach is very popular in the summer but on this day we had it all to ourselves.  

happy-go-lucky boy

lastly, we hiked through trollskogen nature reserve, found at the very northern tip of the island.  many of trees in the forest are old, about 100-200 years old.  there was one that is estimated to be over 900 years old!  we also found a shipwreck, pretty cool.

it is called troll forest because of the large number of trees in this part of the island whose stems and boughs are unusually twisted.  there is a tale that says one night the trolls arrived here and they twirled these trees for fun but they soon grew tired and went back to the mountains hence why only a small portion of the area has twisted trees.

900+ year old tree. amazing, right?

what a sweet little getaway we had; time with friends, time with my boys, and time to relax and explore.  perfect reasons to travel.