Sweden Travel Diaries

An alternative location for a student studying abroad offers his parents an unexpected travel experience.

When our eldest son, Hudson, told us he was accepted only into his second choice, to study abroad as part of his final year of university, we were a bit disappointed. Spain was his first and it was on our travel bucket list. Second choice was the Karlstad University in Sweden.

Sweden? Not on our travel bucket list.

I didn’t know anything about Sweden. I knew about meatballs and Ikea and the chef from the Muppets. So basically, nothing. And even less about Denmark either, as we decided to embrace this opportunity to visit with our son and open our eyes to a region that, after some brief research, is riddled with a history as rich and layered as any other on the continent.

We started in Denmark, flying into Copenhagen, but immediately leaving as we wanted to save the urban experience to share with our son, who was meeting us there a few days after our arrival.

We headed to the Tappernøje, in the Region of Southern Denmark for a two-night stay, to roam and discover the countryside. We explored the red-barned dappled roads, ate delicious baked goods, and drank strong coffee in cafés or bookstores that lined the cobblestone streets. We chatted up some locals and ate early dinners next to a roaring fire in the hotel restaurant. Welcome to Denmark indeed.

Next up was meeting our son back in stunning Copenhagen, for two nights at the exceptional Hotel Kong Arthur bordering Peblinge Lake. We drank too many beers the first night and I woke up too early and watched the sunrise in Blågårds Plads, a public square attached to Blågårdsgade, in the Nørrebro district of the city.

We did a road trip to Helsingør for a quick tour of the castle where Shakespeare’s Hamlet was conceived and then stayed one night in cozy and artsy Gothenburg, Sweden. Then we made our way to Västerås, one of the oldest cities in Sweden and Northern Europe, and the halfway point between Karlstad and Stockholm.

Here is also where we were introduced to fika, the glorious Swedish cultural institution that is simply a coffee break in the middle of the day accompanied by either a sweet pastry or savoury open-faced sandwich. While our daily coffee runs back home are often fast and chaotic, this ritual provided an opportunity to slow down and enjoy the simplicity of a purposeful and tasty break.

Our last stop was Stockholm, a city both familiar and brand new, full of castles and high-end stores, and little neighbourhood nooks, that Steph and I visited both together and separately, each satisfying our own brand of wonder and wandering.

Our last night in Sweden was spent in the quaint luxury of the restaurant Bord, featuring only 20 other patrons, multiple chef-served courses, including giant langoustines caught that morning, paired with new and old wines that left us both stuffed and wanting more.

On our trip home to Toronto, we were bloated with food and drink and bursting with adoration for what started as a second choice but ended with listing the areas we were unable to visit with hopes of going back soon.

Out & About

1) Sunrise in Copenhagen – the perfect hangover cure.
2) A Copenhagen pub for all beer enthusiasts.
3) Frederiksborg Castle, Denmark.
4) Fresh fish staring at us at Torvehallerne Market, Copenhagen.
5) BEST HAPPY HOUR What’s your drink of choice? (Steph’s is the Negroni) at Hotel Kong Arthur, Copenhagen.
6) Just a sampling of the many mini sandwiches at the Torvehallerne Market, Copenhagen.
7) BEST BOUTIQUE HOTEL And juice bar at Ruth Hotel, Stockholm.
8) BEST FIKA At Le Nice, Karlstad.
9) Groovy décor, great service, and tasty tapas at Bee Restaurant, Gothenburg.
10) OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD MEAL Just one of our shared plates, morning-caught langoustines, at Bord.