We may be a bit comfortable, but when we go on hiking trips, we like to stop in places where you can both hike and eat well. Dry food is not really our thing. Before the Walpurgis weekend, we had actually planned to go north, but since we are so tired of the cold, we realised that it was not the time to go north. We went east instead towards the Småland Bauerskogen.
We stayed at the Bauer Farm caravan park, which you can read more about here. It is right next to the farm where you can eat all the meals of the day if you want. We chose an experience menu one of the evenings, more about this below.
Bauergården is an inn right by Lake Bunn outside Gränna. The farm is suitable for those who want a few active days in nature. There are several hiking trails that start from the immediate area and we saw that very many guests brought their bikes because there are also lots of cycle paths here. If you want to take it a little easier, you can rent a canoe and paddle out on the lake or sauna and swim down at the lake cottage.
We started our journey with the first rosé of the year at sunset looking out over the lake. Of course, we had a small wood store that obscured the view somewhat but what does it matter, it was spring in sight.
The day after the May Day celebrations, we woke up and decided to take a walk around Lake Bunn, which we had found on AllTrails. The trip was about 12 kilometres long and was perhaps a little too much on gravel road but it was still a beautiful trip with parts that went through the forest and long parts where you had the lake right next to you.
A little more forest was found in the shorter five kilometre loop called the Fabrikören. This loop can also be combined with Esther's two and a half kilometre walk. Named after John Bauer's wife, the walk is as much up and down as their relationship is said to have been before they both tragically died in a boating accident in 1918.
As everyone knows, a day out in the open creates a voracious appetite and we had therefore booked into their restaurant and chosen an experience menu. These menus actually need to be booked a few days in advance, which we had missed, but luckily it was possible to squeeze us in anyway. They have three different menus, the Farmer's Menu, the Thread Roll Menu and the sustainable three-course meal, all with local ingredients as far as possible. We thought the Thread Roll Menu sounded the best so we chose that and as we sat down to eat we noticed a small train on a railway track next to us. Dinner began with a story about the journey of the Gripenbergsbanan which was supposed to take passengers and goods between Jönköping and Gripenberg, but unfortunately went bankrupt before the line was completed.
Our "journey" started with boarding and a plank of Småland delicacies served with beer from Röttle brewery brewed on locally grown hops, which was a little extra fun because we were going to Röttle village the next day. You can read about our visit here. Dinner then continued with lamb from the nearby Lupiner farm and with this we were served wine from Vistakulle. We could have chosen an Italian wine, which might have had a little higher quality, but it's still fun to try Swedish wines and it actually tasted quite ok. The evening ended with the sweetness of punch when we were served a punch and honey parfait with berries and almond crusts. As a drink we could choose between punch from Vistakulle or their Vista Härads Apel which can best be described as a Swedish equivalent to Calvados.
It was really an exciting menu and a nice way to have dinner. When we booked the menu we didn't really understand what "experience menu" meant but it was really fun to hear the history of the railway and life around Bunn in the late 1800s. I also hope that our table neighbours can forgive us for driving the train around, around, around all evening. 🙂
