Wandering around in the rain on the Haga pedestrian street. We spent most of the day dripping wet. The Swedish horse is reminiscent of Linda’s mom, Rose. She was very proud of her Swedish heritage & gave each of her daughters one. Looked just like this, just a bit smaller.

One of the stops on our walkabout Gothenburg was Feskekörka, an indoor fish market & restaurant. The building actually looks like a church, hence the name fish church.

Oh yummy!! The handmade chocolates, pastries, ice creams & breads were outrageously delicious!! Get new clothes…eat less…get new clothes…eat less?? Hmmm

We walked around a lake in Växjö (not pronounced vax joe, it’s something like vik ra) that had many fun statues. We’ve been mangling all the foreign words we’ve tried to pronounce. It’s wonderful so many folks speak English!!

Took a train to Kosta to visit the Kosta Glassworks. They have been designing & making hand blown creations since 1742. We watched this vase be shaped from a piece of molten glass, in about 15 minutes.

There were 100s of items displayed in the glass museum. There was a lot of stemware, bowls, plates & then more fanciful creations.

Kalmar Castle was built in 1180. Over several hundred years it evolved into a formidable fortress, protecting Swedens southern border. When the Swedes conquered the lands to the south in 1658, the borders moved & Kalmar Fortress was no longer needed for protection.

Guided tours are included in the admission fee for Kalmar Castle. We joined a tour of the Royal Apartments. This is the Gray Hall where feasts were rumored to last 7 hours! Many of the rooms had original 16th century decor.

Kalmar hosts a week of judged dog agility competitions. The event is called Guldagility (agility is golden). 1500 dogs, 10 nations, 3 skill levels & 5 sizes (xs-xl). The handlers & their dogs were amazing. They all seemed to have a great time. From beginners running circles around their handlers to ones like above who barked his way around the course with his tail wagging like crazy.

Sunshine! This is the 3 3/4 mile bridge from Kalmar to the island and province of Öland. We took a pedestrian/bicycle ferry over to the island for a brief visit. It’s a vacation destination with beaches, biking & summer cottages.

More rain, a good day to tour the IKEA museum in Älmhult. This is the building that housed their first store in 1958. It was refurbished & turned into a museum in 2008. Their mission is to design products that offer good function, form & quality while keeping low prices. Commendable.

Every town seems to have a beautiful church! This church & cemetery in Älmhult was just outside our hotel window. Enjoyed our week in Sweden, on to Denmark.