Late evening Friday last week my friend Jens and I discussed weather and possible destinations for a weekend trip. In the end, after considering Västervik and Öland, we agreed to fly to Borgholm, a town on Öland island in Sweden.
We took my aircraft (Jens also has his own), and early Saturday morning we were airborne.
The weather in the northern Zealand in Denmark turned out to be worse than predicted:
We couldn’t cross over to Sweden via our intended route, and had to make changes (purple line on the photo below was our intended route, green line – our new route):
In Sweden, the weather was better – scattered clouds at lower altitude, and we flew over them:
By reaching Kalmar and Öland, it began raining, and we had to adjust our route once again. We had planned to fly a bit around and take some good pictures, but the rain was intensifying, and we made direct approach to Borglanda, a small airfield near the town of Borgholm and the ruins of its famous castle:
After landing, we remained sitting in our aircraft, because it was raining quite heavily – but it soon stopped.
There were a couple of Saab Safir that landed after us – they also came to Borglanda to spend a weekend on the island. We had a chat with the pilots and their spouses, then took the bikes, and headed for our villa in Borgholm:
Jens and I booked our accommodation the night before, very quickly, and didn’t really know what to expect. We had considered sharing a twin room, but we both sleep so light, and were a bit tired after a working week – so we opted to have separate rooms. Jens got a romantic blue one:
And I chose a stylish white, with plush red velvet couch and chairs:
We were the only guest on the property. The tourist season was over, and it was very nice to have the whole house for ourselves. We left our bags, and went to see the ruins of Borgholm Castle:
The name Borgholm was first mentioned in writing in 1285. There is an evidence, that the work on the fortress was ongoing already at that time. The inhabitants of Öland were in severe danger of pirates, and were subjected to repeated attacks. A strong castle was built in Borgholm in the second half of the 13th century, and rebuilt later several times. Today, it is only a ruin, but an impressive one.
We wandered around its chambers and hallways:
A modern throne where one could sit and imagine oneself being a King or a Queen during those terrible times:
After spending some hours in the Borgholm Castle, we got back to the town:
Borgholm’s church that looked almost like a town hall:
We visited Blårör – the largest burial mount on the island, dating back to the Bronze Age (3000 – 1200 BC). It was 40 m in diameter, and 3 metres high:
Charming houses of Borgholm:
A stroll in the marina:
We did 20 km biking and walking that day, and it felt like 50…
I felt tired and didn’t want to go out, but Jens insisted – and it was good, because we had a really nice dinner in one of the restaurants by the sea:
After the sunset:
Our first day on the island was coming to a beautiful end…
