Exploring Car-Free Käringön Island

The whole crew took a day trip to the island of Käringön. We left our island by short ferry, drove 25 minutes to Tuvesvik and then boarded a 40 minute ferry to this car-free island, way out in the archipelago off the Western coast of Sweden. We loved our time in Sweden and one of the reasons was that I didn't have to do any planning once we were there. We let the Swedes tell us what we should do and it was all great!

Jude has a thing for little kids and really enjoyed being with Hedda. They really bonded on this trip, starting with sitting together on the ferry out to the island. (Maybe Hedda took some warming up.)

Arriving at the island

People took a lot of pride in their gardens

So cute

Oliver brought his fishing pole with him of course. Jude had to get in on that. 

We walked along the cart paths on the island for a bit and then made our way to Petersons Krog for a delicious seafood lunch. 

The interior was really cozy, but my favorite part of all was this gem in the bathroom... 

We stayed on the island a while longer and discovered the cute playground near the church. We also passed the island tennis courts and mini golf. This would be a great place to spend a week with family or friends. Really laid back vibes. 

The sun came out just as we were boarding the ferry to leave.

We rode on the top deck in the sun, but Jude insisted on staying with Hedda. 

And feeding her peas :) 

Back home we grilled sausages, burgers, zucchini and mushrooms for dinner. And for dessert, the American summer favorite- S'mores. Most of the group had never had them before and it was fun watching everyone discover the deliciousness. 

Instant sugar high! 

It was our first clear night and I was excited for the 10pm sunset over the water. 

Midnight.
Pete got up around 3am and said that the sky still looked like this, but the light had just shifted 90 degrees to the east. 

Gone Fishing!

Our crew consisted of our friends from Stockholm, he who shall not be named and Malin, their kids Henry and Hedda, Carl (who we met over a decade ago in Stockholm), his partner Aboni and their daughter, Hannah, Oliver (who Pete met on his Sweden winter hunting trip in 2020), his partner Lowa, and their daughter, Wilda. Our house came with the option to rent a boat and Jude couldn't wait to try fishing again after his beginner's luck last summer in Connecticut. Fortunately, Oliver is a fishing enthusiast and was very patient with taking the kids out. 

A group of us took the boat around the island to Mollösund on the neighboring peninsula, while the rest of the crew drove there to meet us for lunch. 

The house from the water

Luck was not on our side in the morning. Maeve and Pete nearly had one, but it slipped off at the last minute.

Cute, colorful Mollösund.

A great lunch at Movitz Magasin

Maeve and Henry bonded really quickly 

Jude wanted to keep fishing so I joined the guys on the much more successful return trip.

Happy fishing kid

It was our turn to cook, but fresh fish can't wait! So we had mussels and grilled mackerel for dinner! 

Denmark to Sweden!

The first leg of our trip complete, it was time to move on to our second country of the trip: Sweden! 

But first, we had to get some fresh produce from this adorable stand, which was a chain in the area, selling only strawberries, snap peas, and potatoes. 

We took the Stena Line car ferry from Frederikshavn to Gothenberg. We arrived very early for check in and watched as over 100 cars/trucks disembarked from our boat. 

This was an intricate trip to plan, connecting travel to 3 countries, booking ferries, trains, flights, Airbnbs, and figuring out the best way to see the highlights in a certain amount of time (and always on a budget). It was some of my finest travel planning to date and I'm happy to report it all went off without a hitch! 

The ferry ride was around 3 1/2 hours. There was a kid area on board the boat with arcade games and a small climbing area, but our kids bored of that quickly. We sat outside of the duty free liquor store and were more entertained by the people leaving the shop with tolleys stacked high with cases of beer and wine. As we were disembarking, we saw all of those people waiting to leave the ship by foot. We think that the prices are so low compared to the cost of alcohol in Sweden that people take the ferry just to access the liquor store! 

Proof that the kids don't spend all of their time traveling on the ipads. 

Jude had a lot of questions about this boat and comparisons to the Titanic. I took him out to see the rescue boats to put his mind at ease. 

We went outside as the boat pulled into Gothenberg. We'd never been to the west coast of Sweden before and knew that our itinerary wasn't going to allow for time to explore this city, so we took in what we could see from the deck. 

We were one of the first cars onto the boat given that we arrived so early, so one would expect that would mean we would be one of the first boats off. Nope. We frustratingly sat through at least 45 minutes of waiting to disembark/traffic off the boat. We had one final ferry to catch before we arrived at our destination and just wanted to get there already! 

We had an hour drive to get to our final ferry, which takes just 3 minutes to cross over to the island of Lyr. We enjoyed the peaceful scenery while we waited for the boat which goes every 30 minutes. 

We were meeting our friends from Stockholm for four nights at a house they rented with two sets of their friends. We were a big group of 14 in a beautiful house overlooking the water. We took turns cooking meals and arrived to a delicious fish taco spread. We enjoyed meeting all of the new faces and catching up with our friends who we hadn't seen in 4 years! 

Our family stayed in the two bedroom boat house down on the water.