Gustav Vasa‘s home town

Average speed on our leg to Kalmar: 5 knots. During the first part of the ride, wind and clouds made me put a pair of panty hose under my pants. Thanks to us singing „Liebe, liebe Sonne“, the sun eventually came out and brought us summery temperatures =oD

When we sailed between mainland and the island Öland, the sea was so calm that we felt like on an advertisement trip for the Mediterranean Sea. The only thing that we were missing was the cocktail in our hands ;oP We could easily do things under deck without getting sick.

After docking on the not so easy swimming finger piers, we explored Kalmar’s city.

The girls always use the sailing time well for resting. Once, we are on land, they are of course excited and happy to run around. Unfortunately, by the water tower Erna didn‘t watch where she was going and hit a handrail so hard that she was nose bleeding *poor girl* Soon afterwards, she was frolicsomely hopping through the streets as a „wild seahorse“ again *puh*

We got back just before the clouds decided to pour out buckets of water instead of a couple of rain drops, like earlier.

In the morning, we had to move our boat to a commercial harbour to have our engine oil exchanged as part of the regular maintenance. So half of a day was already gone when we went to Kalmar‘s castle.

At the end of the 12th century, a defense tower was first built on a small island to protect the nearby mainland from attacks. King Magnus erected an entire fortress by adding towers and a ring wall. In the 16th century, Gustav Vasa transformed the fortress into a renaissance palace. The castle still looks largely the same as it did back then.

It was fascinating for our girls to see the rooms, furniture, and clothes of real majesties.

We were again very happy with the Swedish creativity to make kids being interested in history. Swedish kids could also listen to a story in different castle chambers *nice*

Our girls collected stamps from different activity stops, spread over the outer grounds. They walked on stilts, skied, threw crowns (rings) on hooks, or letters (rods) through holes.

In the end, they gained a necklace with a silver key. Unfortunately, Erna lost her necklace, not long after receiving it =o(

When we walked through Kalmar‘s Old Town, something hard suddenly landed in front of us. We first thought, it was a tennis ball that had been thrown over the fence but it was a big green apple that a tree decided to give to us =oD We happily shared this nicely fruity sour treat *yummy*

We came across a very nice park with many chairs and small tables. A group of people played different violines. Magda and Erna sat on a bench right in their circle, hummed along, and clapped their hands in every break *cute* I was busy picking sour red currents and sweet red goose berries *delicious*