As you drive from Denmark into Sweden, the first thing you notice is the lower traffic density, which makes driving a lot more pleasant. The route from Helsingborg to Nybro was mostly uneventful with long roads, beautiful fields and the occasional road breaks.
Glasrikets Älgpark, Nybro (Moose Park)
This was very conveniently on our route and we decided to go have a look. Its a relatively small enclosure with around 5-6 moose of various ages and sexes. The best park is that you can get really close to them, feed them and even touch them. The tour guide was friendly and explained about moose behaviour and random facts. Moose parks are all over the place in Sweden and its not hard to find one. The details for this one is here.
James Bond Museum, Nybro
Passing through Nybro, looking out, we randomly saw a sign that read James Bond Museum. We decided to check it out. It turned out to be some sort of personal museum managed and run by a James Bond fan named Gunnar Shäfer who calls himself Gunnar Shäfer Bond. The man is a middle aged eccentric lunatic who goes around driving his BMW Z3 through the streets of Nybro and brandishing his toy pistol at unsuspecting strangers. The museum might be appreciated by a hardcore James Bond fan for the random collectables and memorabilia, but for an average curious tourist, it’s just a load of junk. The quality of the museum is evident from its website. As we were leaving, we learned that Mr Gunnar Shäfer has officially added James Bond to his name as seen in his driving license. He proudly offered to autograph one of the brochures for us which we complied reluctantly.
Norra Kvills National Park, Vimmerby
The town of Vimmerby is worth visiting. It’s a very cute little town and the home of children’s stories author Astrid Lindgren including the theme park Astrid Lindgren’s world. Vimmerby is also close to several sites of interest such as Virum Moose park, Kvill Oak, Norra Kvills national park etc. The Norra Kvills national park is a well-preserved pristine piece of primeval forest. The best feature of Norra Kvills is the large moss covered rocks.
Air-Force Museum, Linköping (Flygvapenmuseum)
The Air-Force museum is one of the biggest attractions in and around Linköping. It is worth a visit for any random tourist and an excellent location for aircraft enthusiasts such as myself. The museum is the home to numerous full-size military airplanes from various eras of Swedish aviation history. You can get up close of the famous aircrafts such as the Douglas DC-3, Mustang P-51, Gripen etc. The musuem also has several other collections of military interests such as weapons, ammunitions and historic relics. This museum can be thought of as the smaller brother of the big badass Imperial War Museum in London.
Tåkern Bird Park
The Naturum Tåkern is a protected bird park and an ideal location to observe birds. The visitor centre in itself is an intriguing piece of architectural work. The visitor centre has everything you need to know about birds. There are lots of educational material such as bird identification, sounds and behaviour. There are also models of all the 200 or so birds spotted at Tåkern lake over the years.
Ekopark Omberg
Omberg is located on the east coast of Sweden’s largest lake Vätten between Jönköping and Motala. Ekopark in Omberg is a forest covered hill managed by the Swedish forest authority Sveaskog. There are several view point across the cliffs providing a spectacular view of the coastline. This is a great location to hike, pick berries, enjoy nature and to relax. I am able to find an excellent cliff-side to camp.
Omberg was the last major stop, we drove past some beautiful lakes, farms and meadows all the way back to Uppsala.
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