We went to rent a car at Europecar, and the process was very straightforward. I had requested for a SUV with automatic transmission, but was given a Seat Arona! Once again, I had trouble starting the car, and after 10 mins googling around, I realised I had to use the physical key inside the remote control to get it started. I had to familiarise myself with all the controls in this new car, with an increasingly impatient family waiting at the garage lobby.
Finally we got going, and the first stop was the Viking Fort at Trelleborg. It was a 1 hour drive that took us past sprawling fields and lakes. It was a very easy drive along well-maintained highways. The only challenge I faced were the cross winds on very open crossings and the centrifugal force when overtaking heavy vehicles. We reached the Viking Fort only to see that it was closed for the winter, although Google maps indicated it was open! I heard that these places hardly get visitors and are therefore expensive to maintain during the winter months. Disappointed, we thought we should make the most of it by at least visiting the southern coast nearby. Google maps again led us astray into a port, where only trucks and ferry cars were allowed. My daughter turned increasingly annoyed at me for taking us on a wild goose chase, so I did a u-turn, parked at some nearby residential area and googled fresh to take us to a better spot. It happened to be Maxi-A, a big supermarket at the southern edge overlooking the south coast. We did some shopping there, grabbed a cup of coffee and touched the cold southern waters.
Afterwards, we decided to go to Ales Stenar, the Stonehenge of Sweden, since it is open all year round. This took us on a beautiful coastal drive along the southern coast for a hour and a half, dotted by small townships and villages. The houses were all uniform in their construction. The driving was a bit annoying at times due to the constant speed changes as we go through these populated areas, but apart from that it was beautiful. In between, we suddenly spotted a sign that said southern most point of Sweden, so we did a quick photostop there.
We reached Ales Stenar early afternoon amid light rain and bustling winds. We had to do a small trek to reached the shores were the stones lay in magnificent oval formation. We were awestruck by the stones as well as the background and the surrounding landscape. We went all the way to the tip of the cliff overlooking the Baltic Sea to enjoy a 360 view. Unfortunately there was no vegetarian food there with the restaurants selling only fish products.
We returned back to the car and decided to drive down to Landskrona, where my wife's aunt had lived for about 25 years. This was a 1.5 hour drive through light rain, fog and night, with a lot of cross wind. I had run out of phone battery as well, so had to rely on step by step instructions from my daughter. It required a lot of concentration but the road conditions were extremely good, so it wasn't too stressful. Only regret is that it would have been a much more beautiful drive in the daylight.
Upon reaching Landskrona, we went to the aunt's old house and drove by her workplace, and she reminiscenced how things have changed dramatically around the town. We located a restaurant to have a late lunch, but the wait time was high, so we decided to skip that and head to Max Burgers. It was a good choice and it had an amazing vegetarian menu, with plenty of options for veg burgers, sides and drinks. We took a lot of time to order and enjoy the food. We ordered a bit more that we could chew though, maybe overwhelmed by our hunger at first. The burgers were hugh, the patty was delicious and the large cheese fries tub were so large we couldn't finish.
Once we had finished dinner, sharing plenty of laughs along the way about our trip today, we did the short 30 min drive back to Malmo to refuel, return the car and crash in the hotel. It was a wonderful day driving around Skane, and was left wondering how much more beautiful it would be in the summer with longer days to explore the region.
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