| After travelling to Copenhagen or Malmö on your own, your Guide picks you up in a van to begin the tour. There will be a maximum of 5 tour members. The first day will be spent crossing the southernmost province - Skåne. Sights may include a pristine national park, 1000-year-old churches, thatched-roof houses, and the Baltic Sea. We arrive near the resort town of Kivik. Activities on Thursday and Friday will include meeting local musicians and folkdancers, visiting museums, and sampling local traditional cuisine. Saturday is the National Fiddle Festival (riksspelmansstämma), with musicians from all over Sweden participating. There will be concerts, jamming, workshops, and dancing. Traditional folkcostume will be worn by many participants. Sunday we travel north to Småland. The change from farm country to rocky forest land will be quite evident. During the next few days we will visit local musicians and dancers, world-famous glassworks, the Emigrant Museum with extensive collections concerning Swedish emigration to America, unique churches with spectacular artwork, the special candycane factories in Gränna, Europe's most massive (and oldest) tree, and much more. Thursday we move to the island of Öland. After touring famous Kalmar Castle, we will move into a cottage on a working dairy farm. From there we will tour the island, enjoying the hundreds of windmills, the "blue fire" wildflowers, and other unique aspects of Öland. We will celebrate Midsummer with local musicians and dancers - experiencing both public and private traditions connected with the holiday. Sunday we head to the West Coast, and have a chance to explore nature and the maritime cities close to Denmark. Our last days together will be spent touring the countryside and cities, visiting local musicians and craftspeople, seeing the fantastic cathedral in Lund, and perhaps visiting a zoo of exclusively Swedish animals. We could also visit a recreated Viking village. Wednesday you will be dropped off at your point of continuation, for travel further on your own, or for the trip home. |
