Småland and Jönköping
Well, you would not believe how long its taken me to get the correct characters for these regional and county/town names! But finally, thanks to adding about five different keyboard input options to my Chromebook I’m finally sorted. Phew!
Anyway, here we are in Jönköping, the largest town in the region of Småland, with a population in the order of 90,000. The town is situated on the southern end of Lake Vättern. It is a huge lake, the second largest in Sweden and occupying an area of 1,882 square kilometres.
So what can you do in the Jönköping area?
First, let’s set the location of our Airbnb. It’s just off the E4 motorway, junction 98b exit, following signs for Centrum you come to a roundabout with the first exit being Tullportgatan. We’re staying on Slottsgatan, the first road off Tullportgatan. It’s a very convenient location, there is a large car park at Tullportgatan and a choice of late opening grocery shops in the area. Also, at most the central area is no more than a 15 minute walk from our apartment. (email me if you’d like our Airbnb details; we;d certainly recommend it) We’d say the area is safe too, we were out walking after 11 pm on a Saturday night and didn’t encounter anything that made us concerned.
Oh, a little fact… Agnetha Fältskog of Abba was born here in in 1950. Robert is checking her address in Stockholm in case we might pop in for a cuppa!
The area tourist board has a really good site, to which I’d like to add some recommendations.
Jönköping
- The Match Museum – yes, believed to be the world’s only one.
- The Jonkoping Lan ‘County’ Museum – some indepth insight to the history of the area
- Looking to hire bikes and do some mountain bike trails? Try Cycling Jönköping
- Fancy getting out on the water – try Fortuna Marin. They are easy to find down near the pier
- Fancy an evening stroll? The area around the pier has a number of bars and restaurants, there are also several both sides of the narrow canal that divides both parts of the town
- Need to find your nearest supermarket – use this link – there are plenty of them
Huskvarna
Situated less than ten minutes drive from Jönköping is the town of Huskvarna. Without doubt the museum of Husqvarna, a Swedish company that was established in the town 300 years ago is a must-see. The company is probably known on an international basis for its chainsaws and sewing machines, but the company has manufactured stoves, ovens, kitchen equipment, guns, cycles and motorbikes. Some of the kitchen appliances might only be remembered by those in the Nordic area however. Do not miss going to this museum, it is crammed full of interesting exhibits. This is not a museum with lots of wordy information boards and not very many exhibits, there is plenty to see – racks and racks of different bicycles for example, likewise chainsaws.
