Wow – what a day we had !  Stunning scenery and great food.  Trams, boats and hiking. Finding an Instagram restaurant I came here to try and liking it very much. 

We began, as usual with breakfast.  Fruit and a berry smoothie. Granola, yogurt and tea  
  Cheese roll.  It was a huge breakfast but not as bad as it looks because the crockery is actually very small. 
We then hopped on a tram to Saltholmen, gateway to Sodra Skargarden or the Southern Archipelago.  We caught the wrong boat, numerous times, but it didn’t actually matter.

  
I loved this watery landscape and the painted houses.
 
  
    
    
 We were trying to get to Branno but ended up in Styrso for a while.  It was very beautiful.

  
 We enjoyed a potter about while we waited for another boat,and eventually we made it to Branno but the wrong side of the island from where we wanted to be.    We arrived in Husvik but needed to be in Rodsten.  So,we walked across the island as it was only about 1 and a half miles from one port to the other.

Lots more pretty houses.
    
    

The weather turned rather wet so we decided to sit it out in the only cafe/restaurant/hotel on the island which is open all year round.

Branno’s Vardshus was very old fashioned and quaint.

  
  I think these tiled wood burning stoves are very attractive and they are also very effective at retaining and distributing heat. Fortified by a small cake and strong coffee, we continued walking and came to the one and only shop on the island. They do sell a wide range of crisbreads in Sweden, some of which are huge!  

As well as the restaurant and shop there was a museum which was closed, much to the relief of my children.

  
Some of the mailboxes were well decorated.

  
I should liven up my own at home.
   We were walking to a bicycle hire place beside the ferry port.  But when we got there it was unmanned and you had to text a number from a Swedish SIM card only.  All the bikes were there but chained up and we couldn’t get the code to release them.  I was so disappointed as I had been looking forward to cycling around this beautiful car free island.  So instead we hiked around it and what a pleasant surprise it was.  The centre of Branno had a huge lake and the landscape was filled with heather.  Purple everywhere, as far as the eye could see.  Annoyingly the spectacular photos I took will not load so I can’t share them but it was amazing.  We also walked through woodland and kept coming out to enjoy another lovely sea view.

It began raining quite heavily so we passed some time by hopping on and off boats.  The ticket we bought gives unlimited travel for 24 hours so we felt free to ge where we pleased.  We had long since given up any hope of understanding the bewildering time table so when a boat came we took it.  They were comfortable and there were spectacular views all the time.       Then the sun came out and it was just gorgeous.

I really loved this watery landscape with its smooth rocks, cute houses and little boats.  Most of the islands have no cars and there were few boats on the water so it was incredibly peaceful.  I would like to come here again.

We surprised ourselves by ending up back at Saltholmen where we caught a tram back to the city centre.  My mission was to find a vegan restaurant called Open New Doors and we found it 😍👍👏💃The trams are much easier to navigate then the boats!

 This place only opened a few weeks ago.  One of my favourite Instagram accounts is @loveliveraw and this is the third restaurant Erika has opened in just a year.  I find her very inspirational.The menu was very simple and luckily the waitress translated it for us.  Curious mix of languages on it!

  I love flavoured water and this was no exception. I had the salad which was very good; pear and walnut with a tahini dressing.
Harvey and Lara had the Mexican Stew, which was a mildly spiced bean stew, with a large salad, excellent guacamole, sweet corn and tortilla chips.  They both really enjoyed it.    

We could see our hotel from our table.  The location of OND was fabulous as it was on one of the bridges over the canal and with so much glass you had an amazing view.  We justified dessert because…… Well, because.  Yum !  A vegan chocolate tart which was chocolatey, creamy and coconutty.  Congratulations Erika, your IG account is great and so is the actual restaurant.
 So another day, very happily spent in Sweden.  Lots of walking done, too many sweet treats ( we had tea and cake on a boat too !!!) and lots of highly nutritious plant foods too.