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… perfect summer days with my friends Margurithe and Bengt in Sjöbo.

Sjöbo is a locality and the seat of Sjöbo Municipality in Skåne County, Sweden with around 7000 inhabit in the middle of our country, Scania. It takes me about 2 hours to get there by train and bus.

We had a fantastic summer for nearly 2 months now … something is seriously wrong!!!! But we are not complaining.

On Thursday they wanted to visit the supermarket to buy new potatoes and strawberries, so we drove to Kåseberga. A farmer has set up a little supermarket along the country road … and you just put the money in the tin box.

©http://sunshinestories.com

And I just have to say that the Swedish new potatoes are probably the best new potatoes in the world. Especially the ones that are grown here in Scania.

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Kåseberga is famous for it’s pan-fried herring and paragliders, a very small fishing village, of which 120 people live the year round and has 550-700,000 visitors visit the unique harbour each year. Beautiful spot. Most visitors come during the summer. But even during the rest of the year, many people find skydiving, birdwatchers, surfers, fishermen, watercolour painters, and hikers along the beautiful trails that go along the Baltic coast.

©Pierre Rosén

After the shopping did we drive over to Dag Hammarskjöld’s enchanting retreat, Backåkra. Then the former UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld died in a plane crash in 1961, he left Backåkra, his home in an old farm in Hagestads nature reserve as a memory of his life and work. In 2015 Backåkra is under renovation and not yet open again to the public. But it is a magnificent starting point for walks down to the seaside.

In April this year in a rare meeting outside New York, the UN Security Council was holding talks at Backåkra. The informal session, which is held annually, the annual brainstorming session which sees the gathering of 15 ambassadors and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is normally held in upstate New York.

We didn’t go inside “the farmhouse”.

Then it was time for lunch … on my lost account and I was able to pick venue … my favourite in that part of the world, Backagården (only in Swedish). The website is so beautiful.

A place for the soul … a popular and unique environment, an oasis where you can enjoy the coffee under the vineyards. Here you will also find the current flowers of the season and other beautiful things for your home and your garden. An oasis with figs, eucalyptus, olive trees and grapes.

They also have a store with art by local artists and home-made food products.

Here you can understand why Österlen is called Sweden’s Provence. 

Österlen is the southeastern part of the Swedish province of Scania. The name derives from its location ‘east of the route’ (ancient route from Ystad, heading north-east); ‘Öster om len’ (‘len’ is short for leden, i.e. route). The principal town of Österlen is Simrishamn. It is famous for beautiful nature, small towns, apple orchards, farmland and is a popular tourist attraction. “Visit Skåne/Visit Scania”

On our way back to Sjöbo we stopped in Ystad (Wallander’s hometown) … for shoe shopping (not me!!!!!), the sale is on and some Otto’s ice cream on the town square. Never heard about Otto’s ice cream but it’s supposed to be the best in Sweden. They make the wafers fresh … I had cranberry with ginger plus Pavlova flavours. Excellent.

A fantastic day … in the company of fantastic friends … and with some fantastic ice cream that was FREE for me and I didn’t have to queue for it neither

ThAaaAAaaAnk you, Margurithe and Bengt for the fantastic days we had together!!!!!

“Österlen – where heaven and sea meet”
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