Kalmar; Friday, 22 July, 2022

I was up relatively early for a quick breakfast before heading out of the room and into town to go exploring.

First stop of the morning was over to the Stortorget – the main square in the centre of town and a quick visit to the impressive Cathedral that sits on one side of the square. I spent a bit longer than I originally planned in the cathedral as when I went to leave a short, sharp and pretty heavy shower was passing through the city, so I had to wait it out for about 10 minutes in the shelter of the Cathedrals portico before heading on to my next stop.

My next site to visit was the Kalmar Läns Museum, the Kalmar County Museum. The museum is located in a former warehouse building over a number of floors. Along with an exhibition on the history of the region and an exhibition on the archaeological finds at Sandy Borg an Iron age settlement which appears to have been wiped out in a massacre and resulted in a number of interesting finds, the main exhibition in the museum is on the Swedish Flagship Kronan.

The ship had only been in service for 4 years when it was sunk during a fierce sea battle in the Strait of Kalmar. The ship sank to the bottom of the Baltic and remained there until it was rediscovered in 1980 by the same man who found the Vasa in Stockholm. Over the following 40+ years multiple trips to the site have recovered about 90% of the contents of the ship and the museum houses a large number of them including an impressive set of canons, clothes, ornaments, every day utensils as well as some of the architecture of the ship.

My next stop was round the corner at the Maritime Museum, but it turned out that this is the only place in the whole of Sweden that still insists on cash only – virtually everywhere else has gone totally cash free, so rather than finding a cash machine and taking out just 50Kr (about £4) and all the related fees I decided I’d skip that and instead had a quick bit to eat before heading off across the city.

I paid a quick visit to the Kalmar Konstmuseum to have a look round their galleries before walking the short distance over to the main site of the city, the Castle – Kalmar Slott.

The origins of the castle are in the 11th century when a fortified tower was built to help protect the harbour and over the following years the fortification was expanded and enhanced with battlements, moats, defensive towers and walls built. The castle played a key part in one of the most significant events in the history of Scandinavia when, in 1397, the Kalmar Union was formed bringing together Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland under the control of Queen Margaret I of Denmark.

During the 16th century the fortress was transformed from a fortification to a palace fitting of the Swedish monarchy and today much of what remains inside is from this period.

After spending several hours in the castle I headed back across town to the hotel to catch the tail end of Fika, which I had out on my deck before then heading straight back to the restaurant for an early dinner.

Dinner completed I headed back out into town for another wander, making sure I made it back to the castle in time for the floodlights to come on so I could take some evening photos. I was surprised to find out that whilst the castle itself is only open during the day, for an entrance fee, once the castle closes the ramparts and battlements remain open for you to wander around free of charge, so I spent quite a bit of time taking some dusk and night photos before finally heading back to the hotel to turn in.