more on Sweden: road trips

Gads, I'm really tired. It's only 7:25 as I start this, and I am forcing myself to stay up another couple of hours to try to get back on a normal body clock. We've just had a bunch of sushi we picked up over at Katachi; we would have gone to Yoshi's but feared we might suddenly nod off into our food at the bar. Since we got in the door at about 2:00 today we've accomplished laundry and groceries, unpacking, checking mail and messages. That's pretty good.

But back to the traveloguesque stuff....



The days we were out in the country with Conrad's cousins we drove around a good deal, taking in some of the countryside, the less-visited places. The trips ranged from the nearby (the bandy arena - top, Conrad posing with Kersti - in Edsbyn, or the weekend house at the lake - above) to things a little farther afield. The trip to the Järvzoo was one of the jaunts, but I think it merits its own blog entry, as does the trip into Dalarna. The other two trips were more typical of what Conrad and I do: decide on a destination or two and improvise from there.



Full day one the two of us headed up to Hudiksvall where we had lunch in a restaurant in one of the old canal houses shown behind me. The red colour, incidentally, is pretty typical of Swedish homes. My lunch of halstrad laxtartar (essentially salmon cakes) was traditional fare in a pleasant setting. We also visited the Hälsingland Museum in the town and considered it time well spent. En route home we dawdled and drove out to see what the Gulf of Bothnia might look like at Mössön. Just because. Pretty little drive:



In the end, I am sorry we didn't drive to see more because so many of the small towns offer some interesting things: lovely old buildings, clean streets and squares, a nice cafe or two, some postcards, whatever. We use guidebooks as a jumping off point and then see what our time constraints are and what catches our fancy. For all that we plan things out far far in advance of our departure, we actually like playing things by ear as well!