When my mom first came to Sweden in July, I thought it would be nice to take her around a little bit, and show her more than Stockholm and the archipelago since she was here for three weeks.  I decided that we would head south and go explore new places that I had also never been, too.  We found cheap flights and started our journey in Stockholm in the morning and arrived in Varberg later that afternoon.  Varberg is located on the west coast about 70 kilometers south of Göteborg.  It is a small town located along the coast, making it a very popular summer resort especially for beach lovers.  Varberg, along with the municipality it sits in, is known for its "typical west coast" sandy beaches so I was very excited at the prospect of lying on the beach for the following week.  Unfortunately, weather did not permit and it was quite cold and nasty.  Instead of sun-filled days, we got cold weather accompanied with wind and some light showers, which meant beach time was out of the question.  I have to admit that this is a very stereotypical beach town, so if you are not spending your days at the many beaches it is actually quite boring.  After nearly two days in Varberg, we decided to move on to our next stop, Ystad!

Ystad is a small town in the province of Skåne, dating back to the 11th century and has now become a big tourist attraction.  It has a beautiful medieval church in the center and there are areas within the city where medieval architecture still remains today.  One of the things my mom and I enjoyed the most were the half timbered houses throughout the city center.  They looked like something out of a storybook fairytale and it was hard to believe that people actually lived in these fairy like cottages/houses.  They were so cute!

Ystad is also internationally known for being the setting for many of the mystery novels written by Henning Mankell, featuring the fictional Ystad police officer, Kurt Wallander.  There are daily Wallander tours in several different languages and in the evening they have free showings of the movies.  Besides having the option to join a tour and watch a free movie at night, you can also visit the small museums in town.  If either of those are not your thing, you can easily take the pågatåg (local train) and go to other small towns/cities along the coast.  However, if you are lucky enough to have great weather, which we were not here either, you can head over to the sea and enjoy time at the beach.  There is plenty to keep you entertained when the weather permits as well as many beach activities.  For those music lovers out there, there is also an annual jazz festival held in August.

Ystad, Sankta Maria kyrka (Santa Maria Church)

We spent our days exploring Ystad by checking out the local coffee shops and restaurants and just taking it easy.  It was a perfect place to spend a few days and thanks to the pågatåg, my mom and I spent an afternoon in the picturesque town of Simrishamn, about thirty minutes on the train.  We enjoyed a nice walk around the harbor and down to the beach and then ended our afternoon with an ice cream and a stop to see the medieval church, Saint Nicolai.  The remaining time we spent down south was spent shivering as we had packed for warmer weather, but nonetheless we still had a great time!
 

Talia Klundt is the Europe Editor for Wandering Educators

All photos courtesy and copyright Talia Klundt