Did you know that there is a road that is actually called and is signposted “Utflyktsvägen” (the excursion route in Swedish)? At least we didn’t. until yesterday that is.
After spending the night yesterday at Arkösunds Camping,we wanted to explore Arkösund. Said and done so we took The Pearl the 5 minutes drive down to the small harbor. Unfortunately, the day did not offer much for swimming weather, which downright meant that there was not much to do in Arkösund. In addition, it was the Swedish national day (the 6th of June), which meant that the small exhibition about wildlife in the archipelago was closed. However, we took a walk among the rocks, and certainly the archipelago is beautiful. It’s hard to say otherwise.
When we had looked at the archipelago views for a while, and in all honesty it started to get pretty cold, we jumped into The Pearl again. On the way to Arkösund we had seen a sign for an Ice Cream factory, and of course we did not want to miss that. At Sänkdalen farm they produce their own ice cream, which quite honestly tasted heavenly. Noomie thought the chocolate ice cream was the best, I myself highly recommend the peanut and caramel. The small farm shop really consists only of a two square meter room, where you go in, choose ice cream you want and Swish the payment (Swish is an app for making payments using your phone number). So easy, and well worth a short detour.
During the ice cream break, we tried googleing a little bit to see where we would go next. It was decided that we would go to Oxelösund, which was not so far to drive from where we were. The road there also looked cozy (the trip is the goal when you go by RV, you know 😉 ), with quite a lot of small back roads. We set the GPS, and at the first left turn we saw the sign for “Utflyktsvägen”. Of course, it was a given choice to go by that route, and try to find out what it got its name from. (“Utflyktsvägen” means “the road of excursions” in Swedish).
Utflyktsvägen – Favourite places from Bråviken to Stockholm’s southern archipelago
Pretty soon it was time to stop to make lunch, and right where we stopped we saw the sign for a coffee roastery. If there is one thing you do not have any further discussions about, or compromise with in our family, it is the importance of good coffee. So when we had eaten we went down to the port of Kvarsebo, where we quickly found Qvarsebo Kaffe. Here, of course, we both had a cup of coffee. Noomie got a chocolate ball and elderflower juice, Linnéa ate some licorice cake, and I ate the best macaroon I can remember. For real, Qvarsebo Kaffe is worth its own excursion, the ideal Swedish fika! (Fika is an honorable Swedish tradition, where we eat cake or other sweets and drink coffee with our friends and family. We celebrate this great tradition every day, and it is a great excuse for taking a break and eating some good stuff). The place doesn’t look so much to the outside world, but certainly appearances can be deceiving.
At Qvarsebo Kaffe we found a brochure explaining what Utflyktsvägen is all about. Apparently, a joint effort has been made on tourism along the entire route from Bråviken to Stockholm’s southern archipelago. When we ourselves went along the road, we found that there was hardly 200 meters between each farm shop, attraction or other destination. Given, we could not stop at all, but experienced it as a very cozy road to drive, and made to be explored by RV. Furthermore, we followed Utflyktsvägen towards Oxelösund, with a small detour to Jula in Nyköping to buy some stuff for the garage in the RV.
We stayed for the night at Strandstuvikens Camping (review comeing soon in the campsites section), where I to my own surprise discovered at the gates that I had been before. Me and my fishing buddy Viktor lived in one of the cabins here when we participated in the Swedish Pike Fishing Championship Final.. Strange that I had zero recognition until we stood right at the gates, but it says a lot about my “amazing” sense of direction. All and all, this became a day in the celebration of Fika. But on the other hand, is there something more Swedish than just having a Fika, and thus a better activity on June 6th (the Swedish National Day)?
