Skåne is the southernmost region of Sweden. A gorgeous area of fields, coastlines, cozy towns, art, history, a super cute + unique dialect; and, of course, Lund + Malmö. A couple of summers ago, Lina + I visited the eastern side of Skåne known as Österlen. It was gorgeous, inspiring, and artsy. And a super popular place to summer. A lot of people also visit Malmö in the summer (because it’s awesome!), but I feel like the western side of Skåne just north of the city is often overlooked. Luckily, Lina’s aunt lives in that area, and we hadn’t seen her + her husband in a few years (thanks, pandemic), so we decided to close out our road trip with a short visit and give the west coast a little well-deserved love.
And, yes, this is the last post in my Summer 2022 series. The roadtrip is coming to an end.
Now, to pick up where we left off… It was time to leave Copenhagen, but it was also time to do just a couple of more days of exploring + soaking up that carefree, summer vibe. So, we hopped on the train in Copenhagen, rode across the Oresund bridge, and found ourselves back in Malmö. But, we were just hopping off the train + taking a bus to our sweet little car, who’d been resting all week back at the cottage parking lot, and then heading north, out of the city.
Luna, the car, was just fine when we arrived! So we started her up and headed to the tiny town of Limhamn – where Lina’s late grandmother is from. We wanted to drive by the house where she lived, so Lina navigated, I drove, and we found our way to this little coastal town about 15 minutes from Malmö. We said our hellos (to the house) and then made our way to the highway.
The drive was short – only about an hour or so – but it rained and misted most of the way, making it not super fun to drive in. Still, it wasn’t that bad. I can’t complain really.
Soon, we arrived at a well-known little harbor town called Höganäs. The town is well-known because of the ceramics – named after the town – that is popular across Sweden. But, there are also tons of other potters and artists in the area. It may not be at the level of Österlen yet… but it’s getting there.
We had a destination in Högänas… Salthallarna, a collective of shops, restaurants, a brewery, and artists/potters. We had our sights set on picking up some exclusive, gorgeous pottery from Bad Ass Ceramics. Lina discovered this potter years ago and we’ve talked about visiting her workshop for years. And, now we were finally here!
We grabbed some lunch at the local brewery and Mexican food truck, and then we walked up to Bad Ass Ceramics shop/workshop to pick out something special to take home. We chose a beautiful black serving bowl and two black mugs. The thing we love about Bad Ass is that it’s rugged, gritty, muted, and tough looking. As the potter says, it’s not perfect. Which means it has tons of unique character. LOVE. IT.
Then, we were off to Lina’s aunt’s home, which was just a 15 min drive. We spent 2 nights there, catching up over a pizza dinner, breakfasts, and chit chats in the living room or patio, had dinner all together at the harbor with Lina’s cousin and her fam driving up from Malmö, and took a walk to the beach nearby. It was a perfect little visit that was slow and cozy. A great way to wind down after all of the hustle + bustle + inspiration of the past week’s visits to Malmö + Copenhagen.
So, here I am again… talking about the balance of it all. After 2.5 weeks-ish of a summer roadtrip, we’ve had a slow, simple week in the archipelago, a week of inspiration + urban energy from visits to Lund, Malmö, and Copenhagen; and, now, we are finishing off with a cozy, slow weekend on the western coast of Skåne. Seriously. The perfect balance of big city, small town, and nature. Through it all, though, my goal is to keep the pace slow, spontaneous, and simple. Even in the urban spaces. And I feel like that is exactly how we traveled this summer.
I am so grateful for the people we’ve met up with – from strangers to friends to family, the places we’ve seen, the energy we’ve felt, and the inspiration that has filled our souls.
And, just like that… the Summer 2022 road trip was over. We drove the 4 hours to our east coast city home, unloaded the car, and started two days of laundry. However, now that we were home, we still had 2 more weeks of vacation to whatever we wanted to with…
xoxo. liz.
That beach with the white sand and blue blue water is gorgeous!
It is such a calm, little beach!