Candy Canes, a Glass Museum, Fireside Beer and Arrival Kalmar

We have just over 200 miles to drive today and three stops.

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​Some origin stories for the candy cane suggest that Polkagris invented in Gränna inspired its creation.

"Polkagris is a Swedish stick candy that was invented in 1859 by Amalia Eriksson in the town of Gränna, Sweden.   It remains a well-known albeit old-fashioned candy in Sweden, often sold at fairs and Christmas markets. The traditional polkagris candy stick is white and red, and is peppermint-flavoured.
Genuine Polkagris has had a protected geographical indication since 21 July 2022 by the European Union, which must therefore be manufactured in Gränna to be called genuine Polkagris."

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"The Bergdala Glastekniska Museum shows the machines and the techniques that were introduced to revolutionize the manual glass industry from the 1820's into the 19060s.  The collection includes manual presses, pantographs, Guilloche machines and other industrial artifacts.  The techniques shown made mass-production possible from the 1840's and was the basis for the economic success of the Swedish glass industry for a century plus."

We strolled in from the rain and found a compact but very interesting glass museum.  This older gentleman told a very detailed explanation of all that is glass, and insisted that the best way to understand it all is through hands-on experience.  

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We then hit the island of Öland briefly to check out Fireside Brewery, before returning back to the mainland and Kalmar, for the evening.

Now in Kalmar for a couple evenings, we encounter another brewery.  The lodging hosts provided us their bicycles, but apparently they're both very tall.  Neither of us could reach the ground from the saddles.  We didn't have tools to lower the seats, so...(read on)

...so Tim rides the shorter bike, while Gerri jogs into town and now, here below, back home.