Åhus - ABSOLUT!

Åhus by river Helge.

ÅHUS is a town in south of Kristianstad with roughly 10000 inhabitants. Its beaches has a reputation since 19th century and it has long been known for its eel-parties which is consumed together with a considerable amount of schnapps (Wikipedia). Which schnapps? A silly question since the local producer offer a world class product, the ABSOLUT vodka. The factory is situated by the river, right on the above picture, and in the middle of Åhus. Having walked past several times we cannot stop admiring the tidiness around the factory. During the summer season the population triples in Åhus can't wait to see that. The town is also well known for its OTTO Ice cream. They produce their own waffles in the kiosk fresh for the ice-cream. You can choose between several flavors and have one-three ice-cream balls, but believe us - it is enough with one unless you are a heavy consumer. Last time the line outside was huge and did not seem to shorten at any time. This time we where luckier and had zabayone flavor both of us.

Mrs T overwhelmed by OTTO.

The Absolut Factory in Åhus.

Åhus harbour.

The harbour in Åhus is sizable. Absolut ships out 100 million litres schnapps every year. In addition the harbour services the Swedish Farmer's Supply and Crop Marketing Association and several other companies in the area. Today was Saturday and we wanted to visit the local market place to get the flavor of locally produced goods. We spoke to Grönalunds Bi & Musteri, Heikki Bagare and Prästgårdens Primörer.  Grönalund specializes in high class apple juices that we tasted and Prästgården sold Ramslök, a kind of an onion to be found only locally. One plant now grow in our garden, too. Heikki originates from Järvenpää in Finland but has lived in Skåne for some time and opened his bakery a few years ago. His produce of bread and hard breads made of sourdough is a health bomb that people queue up for. We did, too. Quality highly appreciated. And by now we took note of the fact that nearly everyone where having OTTO, too.

Mrs. T talking to Malena and Heikki.

Just south of the town centre there is a biosphere reserve, part of Vattenriket, called Äspet. We enjoyed a walk along the paths on the coast where birdlife is very rich and where the sun lured the nature to produce the smell and feeling of summer into our nostrils. 

Pathway along the coast.

OpenSkies at Äspet.

Bird watching tower at Äspet.

Mrs T under OpenSkies.

The whole afternoon was well spent in Åhus and Äspet but since we still have not learned to bring along our own "fika" (that's coffée and something to go with it) we wanted to return home because our RAMSLÖK and our stomachs needed caring for. Also the paint that we had bought for our garden furniture at Sture Persson AB reminded us of our duties. A truly professional service at Sture Persson's by the way. They knew what we did not know. On the road home some more colorful pictures of rapeseed fields along the route.

Crop getting ready for harvesting.

We are pleased for being able to share Åhus with you. What's up next? Just stay on-line and you will find out! Take care!