Design prompt: Find problem with Region Halland (think of it as a state/province on the west coast of Sweden) "tourist route." Find an innovative way of increasing usage of coastal roads, bike routes, beaches, and businesses.
First step: Figure out the problem. So we thought, how else can we figure out what the problem is without actually trying out this Tourist Route? Haha, gotta love design. So, we pitched the idea to our client. Pay for a weekend tourist type trip and we'll attempt to solve his problem. He agreed and so a day later we picked up our transportation for the trip... the VW Transporter, aka the "international van of the year" (or so it says on the back window).
We left Saturday morning, the Halland Sommerdesignkontort Crew: Marc, Kevin, Blair, Karin, Emma, Helena, and myself. We drove the beast of a van through the twisting and turning roads of the Swedish country toward Halmstad, our starting point. We spent most of the time talking about where/what we wanted to see. It was decided that Tylosand would be a good place to start. To, uh, investigate how the beach treats tourists...
We arrived about and hour later and anxiously piled out of the Transporter toward the beach. It was one of those dime a dozen Swedish summer days where it is both warm AND sunny, so we basically had to wait in line to get down the stairs to the beach. It was a frenzy to get out there! But, it was worth it, because Tylosand seems to stretch for miles. It's coastline accented by the sand dunes that are perched just behind the fine sand and cold waters. We of course had to play a little frisbee here, to uh, thoroughly test the uses of this beach for tourists...
After getting the blood flowing a little and a little rays, we jammed back into the now hot van and pulled out of the parking lot. Eager to start our adventure out. This meant finding the "tourist route" sign. It proved to be a bit difficult (problem number one) but we found it after a bit of insider knowledge from the Swedes onboard. Without them we would have wasted a little more gas, which can be quite expensive over here!
Kickoff music pumping, excitement matching the volume level, it was a good start to the day! Our first 'Tourist Stop' was an old Windmill, that as a matter of fact was just re-opened the day we arrived. It was a quaint little place, with a cool little store and lots of great historical stuff. We stayed just long enough for me to draw a little picture of our van in the guestbook, and then we were off to our next destination.
That destination ended up being a great view and a rock beach that we found on our way to Falkenberg. It was really cool because it had a little outcropping of these huge rocks. It acted as quite the rock playground, and plenty of fun climbing, jumping, and sliding around ensued. It really is great to see people just let go and have fun, especially after being jammed in a hot van for most of the morning.
Rejuvenated, we got back to the road, yet an early morning had left us quite hungry at this point so, we set out looking for a place to eat. We found it about 15 minutes later at a small diner off the side of the road in a small village. Serving everything from Pizza to Chicken, it was the perfect place for 7 people who all wanted something different. After eating we got back in the car full, happy and content. And it got even better when we were driving through this small little town and found this great waterfall in the city center. Some sort of small waterplant, it was quite cool looking. It is things like this that you can never seem to find when you follow most "tourist roads" yet they were all over on this route.
After a few more small stops like this we made it to our halfway point at Varberg. I had just gone here a couple days before so it made it a heck of a lot easier getting around. The thing that didn't work out quite so well was finding a place to sleep. Somehow traveling in a car all day doesn't do wonders to your energy, cause walking around to every hostel and getting turned away because they were closed or full, wasn't too much fun at all! We finally found a place, set our stuff down and went back to a cool outdoor cafe to watch the Swedish World Cup 'football' game. They tied. And of course no one was happy about that, they take their soccer REALLY serious over here. It will be interesting to watch the game tomorrow at 9.
Sunday, we hit the road again. This time, we didn't stop at as many small places but I HAVE to mention one of the places we stopped. It was really cool. The Tjoloholm Castle, located just a little bit north of Gothenberg. I wasn't expecting much as we followed all the signs to get to this place. Each one taunting me and increasing me mental image of this place as a total tourist trap. I figured any second I would round the corner and see this commercialized castle sitting there with tour buses scattered all over the parking lot. Well, jokes on me, because we did round a corner and see a castle, yet it wasn't anything like what I had expected.
It's always hard for me to describe these kinds of places, yet I will do my best to tell how I experienced it. Stuck between two sleeping buddies and knees jammed up against the seat in front of me we cruised back and forth, up and down along this long narrow road trying to find our way to the castle that's name was on every other sign in sight. Just before I was about to give up and ask to turn around, we came around a long bend to a large field. Still surrounded by thick forest off to each side, my eyes focused on the field, which I slowly figured out was a massive front lawn. My eyes paned upward and followed the line of manicurred trees on the side of the lawn toward a massive array of rocks, flowering trees and plants. And then, as if proud of it's beautiful and impressive introduction, stood a classically beautiful palace/castle. Effortlessly pulling off a combo of brick and stone with large windows to allow maximum sunlight and viewing of the beautiful scenery.
Of course, at this point I was pretty excited, I tend to get this way with this kind of stuff. I practically got out before the van was stopped, ran around back, grabbed the frisbee and ran out on to the main lawn. Sandels flung off and almost in a full sprint I ran toward that "perfect" throwing spot, even though you could of launched a good throw from anywhere. Marc and Kevin where close behind and we all spread out and began just throwing the disc. The longer the throw the better. A couple grass stains later, we decided to start toward the castle, following the girls lead. Who I can only imagine where reliving their all their childhood princess in a castle fantasies. Scaling the rock we sat for a split second in the front to take in the castle from a little closer. It didn't disappoint, yet it wasn't the same "castle" feeling as we had experienced in Ireland, this one felt more real to me and didn't evoke as many knights in shinning armor thoughts. Yet, don't let my description fool you, I was still an excited little kid at heart and was excited to see what the back had in store. We made our way to the back and were struck by the view. The castle overlooked a perfectly, and roped off, manicured lawn that lead straight into a dramatic and distinctly Swedish coastal view.
So, all in all, I would have missed out big time if I would of written off this road as just a "tourist trap." Well, let's just say it's a trap I would gladly set off again, except, next time I'd bring along a convertible sports car instead of the big ole' transporter.
Hope everyone is doing well back home! I'm sorry if I'm slow to get back to you, but I'll try as hard as possible to keep up with everybody. Look forward to seeing some of you later this summer!
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