Road Trip Sweden

My friend Alaina's brother came to visit this month and they planned a trip to Sweden and invited me along.  It was mostly to the same area I visited a couple of years ago, but I loved it there and was super excited to go back!

 Varberg Fortress.  This was build in 1287-1300, wow, so old!  It was hard to get any really great pictures of the entire fortification.  But, we enjoyed walking around it.

 This statue was quite life-like looking until you got around 15 feet away.  Not even sure why it was there or what it's story was.

 It's a hobbit hole!

 Riding the ferry to Marstrand.  Very crowded.

 The view from Carlsten Fortress is so amazing!  I never imagined that there were a series of archipelago's like this in Sweden.  So picturesque!  The fortress dates back to 1658 and was a very important location because of the ice-free port.  It was used mainly as a prison and actually remained in military use until the 1990's! 

 The fortress is not a ruin, but also not furnished.  You can tell there are a lot of areas that are unsafe and they continue to fix things up to make it so that you can walk through the halls and corridors. Seriously, such an awesome place!  There are all kinds of winding stairs, narrow hallways, windowless rooms, etc. 

  Some of the history here is pretty dark, it was a prison!  We read about 3 prisoners that were kept in solitary confinement for 5 years!  They only had 1 visitor, once a year from a priest.  Two of the men died before their time was up and the 3rd went insane.  Apparently he clawed his fingers bloody on the window frame and then drew on the walls with the blood and you can still see it.  We were pretty creeped out being in that particular room!  It's so sad, the things people have done to other people through the ages. 

 This was a secret passageway under the grounds all the way to the opposite tower.  It was so fun to walk through, we went twice! 

 Arrow slits to shoot right down on anyone coming up the stairs.

 We came across this baby bird in one of the rooms.  It really startled us.  We hope it made it's way back to it's mommy.

 The fortress had all kinds of awesome, old doors.

 Drawbridge!

 After touring the fortress, we decided to walk down to the sea.  Wow, what a beautiful walk.  We didn't do this last time I was there and I'm so glad we got to do it this time.  It was so amazing! 

 I could have explored this area all day!

 We decided to end the day by visiting Bohus Fortress, built in 1308.  We spent a lot of time here when I came a couple of years ago and to this day, it remains one of my most favorite spots in Europe.  I love ruins and this one was just so picturesque.  I didn't think I would get the chance to visit here again, so  you can imagine my disappointment when we got there and they were closed!!!!  They were doing a summer play and closed early.  We had checked the closing time and everything, so it was pretty disappointing.  We walked around the outside for a little while.  It's very beautiful driving into the area and seeing it sitting there on the hill.  But, as they say, the beauty lies within.  Maybe someday I'll get to go there again.  Who knows.

 So, we headed out for one more stop along the way home.  We stopped by Tjolöholm castle.  It's really just a large country manor house, built in 1898, but very beautiful nonetheless.  I could totally live here! =)

 It was such a fun trip!  I was so glad Alaina invited me!