We had quite a long drive from Katrineholm to Vastra Karstrop (near Aneby) as the plan was to detour through Vadstena and Granna on the edge of Lake Vattern. So to knock off a few hours driving to get to that area we headed down some A-roads and the motorway for the first couple of hours. This journey was perfectly pleasant still with the motorways being clear- minus lots of double length trucks, and a bit blustery at times. Just as we were pulling off the motorway though I did manage to get a glimpse of a couple of moose just running from the forest. I had been keenly looking out for them as there were signs warning about them everywhere, I hadn’t expected the one place to briefly glimpse them would be from the motorway.
Once off the motorway we travelled on some lovely A roads through lots of fields and farm land. The downside of this was that it was windier than on the motorway! It wasn’t long until we reached Vadstena though. We parked up and a lovely lady gave us a parking pass needed to park in the town as I think she could see we were struggling trying to use Google translate to work out the parking signs. With that sorted we wandered through the park area, passed Vadstenna castle- surrounded by its own moat and sitting on the edge of the incredibly massive Lake Vattern. It just looked like a sea to us. We found a nice bench by the shore to admire the lake and the castle and have our cold bacon sandwiches for lunch. From here we travelled through more fields, eventually finding the coastline of Lake Vattern again just before heading into the cute town of Granna with lots of sweet shops and holiday homes. We didn’t stay long though as we were keen to get to our accommodation.
The last 45 minutes of our journey were fantastic as we found some incredible country lanes that took us through the South Swedish Highlands to our small farmstay. We were greeted by the owner who was a very friendly old lady. She showed us around and then went and freshly collected some eggs for us. It was a small annexe building all made from wood but with a proper farmhouse feel. After settling in we wandered around the farm, seeing the cows and baby calves which were adorable.
In the evening we got to use the swim spa- where you are able to fully swim against jets- a lot harder than it sounds, before relaxing for a while in the hot bubbly jacuzzi. Bliss. We could have spent a lot more time here but unfortunately, we had to leave early the following morning to be able to make our appointment at a motorcycle garage in Montreas at 10 am. Our bike was in desperate need of the brakes to be sorted!
Thanks
Alex
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