One Sunday in June, while staying on Swedish soil, not knowing where to go and wanting to explore a new neighborhood of Gothenburg, we headed south.
Trying to find a new and interesting place on the smartphone, suddenly a city name popped up on the screen: Ullared, and beside it the word “outlet”. In short, the magic word!
We key it the name in the GPS and head to the Halland County, south-east of Gothenburg.
Along the way, streets in the woods and with many curves, we enjoyed the beautiful landscapes.
At one point, following an interesting indication that intrigues us, we ended up to Grimeton radio station, a UNESCO site since 2004.
We saw the towering antennas away and, won by curiosity, we approached and visited this site which was built in 1920 for wireless radios connection with US.
The surroundings of this radio station are beautiful meadows with horses everywhere; a peaceful site.
After the stop at the museum and visitor center, with Swedish coffee included, we took the car and headed for the final destination of our trip.
Ullared, for the Swedes, is synonymous of low cost.
And not only for the Swedes, since the gigantic parking outside the mall was almost half full of Norwegian cars.
The attraction of this town, which has just under 800 inhabitants, is Gekås, the largest shopping center.
Not resisting the lure of shopping, we allowed ourselves to buy something: it was June, just before the Midsummer [the summer festival that is a real tradition for Swedes] and all the equipment for the BBQ was on display.
We then bought brushes to clean the cooking plates and a beautiful set of forks and tongs for meat.
Besides Gekås, in the same shopping area, there are plenty of other shops, bars, restaurants and attractions for tourists.
Now, every time I chat with Swedish friends and tell them about the trip to Ullared, I almost sound unbelivable. They feel really strange that Italian tourists went shopping right there.
