South Sweden Tour - Day 10

After a delicious breakfast with scrambled eggs, we set off together because we wanted to visit Kalmar Castle.

We enter the entrance of Kalmar Castle through a beautiful park.

The castle is one of the best-preserved Renaissance castles in Northern Europe. Due to its location on the former border with Denmark, the castle played an important role in Swedish history. The castle is situated on a small peninsula on the Baltic Sea coast and is separated from the mainland by a moat. The castle dates back to a defense tower built in 1180 under the reign of Knut Eriksson to protect against pirates and other enemies threatening the city from the sea.

From the castle, one can also see the old water tower. At 65 meters above sea level and 15 stories high, the old water tower is one of the prominent landmarks of Kalmar. The tower was built to improve the city's firefighting capacity and went into operation in 1900. In 1972, the new water tower in Berga was completed, and the old tower was decommissioned. In the 1980s, it was converted into 11 apartments.

After touring the castle with its wonderful interiors and walking through the ongoing exhibit in the castle 'Egyptian Mummies – Journey into Immortality', we headed back to Ölandsbron to admire it from below.

The Öland Bridge (Swedish Ölandsbron) is a bridge that connects Kalmar on the Swedish mainland with Färjestaden on the island of Öland to the east. The road bridge is only open to motor vehicles. Pedestrians can use public buses or the ferry, and there is a special bike bus for cyclists.

It is 6072 m long and 13 m wide. The first shovel broke ground on December 30, 1967.

The bridge was inaugurated on September 30, 1972, and remains the longest bridge in Sweden to this day. The Öresund Bridge, which connects Sweden with Denmark, is longer in total length but does not have a longer Swedish section. Previously, the Öland Bridge was also the longest bridge in Europe.

In the late afternoon, we returned to the square, as Midsummer was to be celebrated there in the evening.