One of the best ways to experience the west coast of Sweden is to do some hiking. J finds a trail to a place that sounds interesting - King Tryggves grave on the island of Tryggo. The island is not connected to the mainland but Im told you can walk across at low tide. High tide today isnt until 5pm so we should be fine.
Turns out the information isnt quite correct and we need to wade across but the water isnt more than knee deep. The grave itself is a huge cairn of stones 20 metres across. The history of the site is not well understood. The cairn is considered to be from the Bronze age and Kung Tryggve died in 963, and though a stone coffin was found in the centre of the cairn during excavations in the 1920s, by then the site had been badly damaged by medieval robbers and there was no evidence of a Viking era burial. The cairn was rebuilt in the 1920s and is still impressive today. After wading back to the mainland we do a scenic 8km walk on Ramsviks island and see the swing road bridge over the Sote canal open
This is a popular area for Swedes to holiday in the Summer, but we also find an interesting historical site to visit. The Tanum Bronze Age rock carvings are a World Heritage site and are featured on the Swedish 50 krona banknote. There are several thousand carvings on over 600 panels. In the area we visit we see a dozen panels and the boat carving on the banknote, a wedding scene and spear man at 2.3m one of the largest known carvings.
A few km away on the coast at the town of Fjallbacka we walk up the hill behind the town. Ingrid Bergman spent many summer from 1958 on an island near here and she with a statue in the town. After she died in 1982 her ashes were scattered in the sea here.
