Gotland (and the city of Visby)

We arrived pretty late into Visby, but of course the sun was just setting.  It was 11:15 at night.  Thankfully, they get the concept of having good curtains to block the light out.  We got all checked in and settled for the night.  For the next few days, we did sight-seeing and of course eating and drinking.  We had Spanish tapas one night, made by an actual chef from Spain and served with a fantastic Spanish red.  For lunch another day, we had fresh shrimp and herring (OK, I had the fresh shrimp and Lynn had the herring) at a small fish restaurant right off the main square in Visby.  One night we even hit a pub run by a British guy.  Lynn didn't believe me at first when I said he was from Britain.  I was proved right a few minutes later when I asked where he was from.

So, I did get a pint of Guinness.  That was later followed by the locally made (as in, right down the street made) Sleepy Bulldog Pale Ale and the Summer Pale Ale.  Both were fantastic.  We were serenaded by the local band singing American songs that we sang along with.

The following day, we headed from Visby up to Faro Island for the day.  Faro is just a 7-minute ferry ride from the main island.  We ate at Farosunds Fastning, which is just outside of Farosunds.  Farosunds is where you catch the ferry to go across to Faro.  It is a hotel/restaurant that is owned by Pontus Frithiof.  The food was very good.  It was the first day for them to be open for their season, so we were glad of that.

How can you say no to the view?  We opted to sit outside since it was such a perfect day outside.  The colorful pigs were an added bonus.  I opted for the summer salad with turkey confit and a mustard dressing. Lynn had the glazed pork loin on a piece of toast that was topped with horseradish.  She said it reminded her  of BBQ pork.

The salad was excellent.  The turkey was tender and flavorful and the dressing was fantastic.  I am not a huge dressing person, in fact I tend not to get any for the most part.  Yes, I do eat dry salads.  They were a bit heavy handed on the dressing, but thankfully, the salad wasn't tossed in it, they only dotted it around the sides.  It was a perfect meal for a beautiful day that was bordering on being to warm.  Add a nice glass of South African Rose, and it was a perfect meal.

Sadly, that was one of our last meals here in Sweden.  Next up, Denmark!

Nynashamn (on the way to Visby)

We set off for the port at Nynashamn (which is a copy and paste job every time you want to write it).  We were going to catch the 8pm ferry to the island of Gotland, 3 hours off the coast of Sweden in the Baltic Sea.  Lynn had just arrived from NYC.  She had gone over there to have her farewell party from her 35-year career on Wall Street.  She was hungry, as was I.  We didn't know what to expect on the ferry ride over and we had some time to kill before we got on board.  We ended up eating at Freja, a restaurant on the water that was built in an old boat that had seating on the inside as well as on deck.

We ended up inside and placed our orders at the bar.  I opted for a local Swedish beer.  The Mariestads was the one I chose that night.  The Smaland was from another night where the food wasn't that memorable, but the beer was.  Both beers had a good flavor to them and didn't taste like lightly-flavored water (I admit that I am a total beer snob).

The middle picture is our dinner from Freja.  We both got the same thing- fish on a plank served with a white wine sauce and mashed potatoes.  Just as a side note, when crayfish come into season, the Swedes go nuts for them.  I mean nuts.  The one that I had was fantastic- a nice, sweet flavor and tender too.  The sauce had Swedish shrimp in them.  They are just tiny and get overcooked in a nano-second.  The ones that we had were a bit tough.  The fish was fantastic and the mashed potatoes had little crispy bits.  It was a nice meal, and we were able to kick back and enjoy the ferry ride.

Lund

Here we are in the motherland.  My great-great-grandparents came over from Sweden and my grandfather was 100% Swedish.

My mom and I arrived in Lund in the middle of the afternoon.  It just so happened to be a national holiday.  After arriving, we sat around our room with Lynn and had wine, crackers and local cheese.  Just as a side note, when we were driving over, we had to take the ferry from Germany to Denmark and then drive around Copenhagen to get to Sweden.  On the ferry going over, we noticed a lot of people had loaded (and I do mean loaded) up their cars with beer, wine and liquor.  My mom and I couldn't help but wonder why.  There were people walking around the ferry with cases of 40 cans of beer.  Backseats of cars were full up tot he top with beer and wine.  It was insane.  We were to learn why at dinner.

After our light snack, we headed into Lund to walk around and grab a bite to eat.  Lund is a beautiful little town to just wander through.  For dinner, we headed to Staket (pronounced Stake-it).  After heading down to the basement where they were seating people, we sat down and started to peruse the menu.  A few things came to mind- first off, instead of having just a meat dish and then having to order a side separately, you got a meat, starch and veggie in one go.  There is also more of a global aspect to their food.  At least here in Sweden, you can get a ligon berry hollandaise with your parsnip cheesecake.  For as much as I like Italian food, you just can't get something like that in Italy.

We ordered a bottle of wine and that's when it started to sink in why people were bringing so much booze back.  It's expensive.  Very expensive.  For a bottle of wine that you would pay $20 for, you were paying $40 or more.  So, when you come to Sweden, keep that one in mind.  If you have to have your Jack Daniels everyday, maybe get some at duty free on the way over.  You'll thank me later.

But, back to the food.  I opted for the fried pike perch with vegetables, ligon berry hollandaise and parsnip cheesecake.

The only way to describe it- fantastic.  Now, I have never had ligon berries.  I had no idea what to expect.  But that night, I fell in love with a berry.  They have a taste almost like cranberries- sweet and tart at the same time.  They go really well with fish and meat (beef, veal, pork and reindeer- more on that later).  The only thing on the plate that I wasn't a fan of was the cheesecake, and normally, I love parsnips.  But this, the texture was just weird.  It also didn't have much of a taste that I could discern.  The fish was moist and the vegetables were tender but not mush.  There were also potatoes hidden under there that were roasted perfectly.  

Lynn and my mom had the fondue.  The fondue was only served to two or more people in the basement during dinner.  They got beef for their meat and a bouillebase to cook their meat in.  It came with fried potatoes (not french fries) and several different dipping sauces.

Just so you know, I may have stolen some of their potatoes for my hollandaise, it was that good.