What to do with a week-long school holiday without traveling far or spending a lot? For us. that means going to Sweden. With lovely autumn views, hares, pheasants, and foxes running around, castles and cozy meals, it makes for a perfect fall getaway.

Kalmar Castle

Touring Kalmar Castle offered a really fun time – there was a lot to see inside. Also, from the ramparts, you can learn about the Grimskar Redoubt – a small island where, in the 1500s, a “grima” – a crying severed head, was displayed on a post, indicating dangerous, shallow waters. What a name, wonder whose head it was. That is one little fact I won’t soon forget.

Kalmar Town

The town of Kalmar is just big enough that you feel like you have a good selection of restaurants and shops, but very walkable and cute, also.

I had exquisite scenery for all my morning runs – it was easy to get to quiet natural areas around Kalmar.

The cemeteries in Kalmar are also very lovely – right near the castle they offer a quiet walk in nature. There are actually two separate cemeteries right near each other, Södra kyrkogården and Gamla kyrkogården.

Øland

One place I need to spend a bunch more time is Øland – an island just off the coast of Kalmar and replete with things to explore – runestones, castles, lighthouses, stone circles, natural landscapes. We saw only a tiny portion of the island, hardly scratching the surface.

Kanaberg

We wanted to do a little hiking – we didn’t exactly find a great hiking trail, per se, but we did love traipsing around in Kanaberg, where enormous boulders and caves led to quite a fun morning.

Driving Around: Påryd

We wanted to get more into the countryside, and so we rented a car for a couple days and took some scenic drives. We ended up at picturesque Påryds Lantcafe for lunch, and all our photos look like a magazine spread. During this drive we saw a pheasant and a fox, and walking around saw tons of dragonflies, a (dead) snake, all sorts of things.