Dalarna revisited

I find it odd seeing English language literature that calls Dalarna "Dalecarlia". I've only known it by its Swedish name. I'd say that, based on the day-trip this time, it's the Swedish equivalent of cottage country, or lake country, but I don't think that holds true. It's certainly an area that has captured its share of tourists, however.

It was a sunny Friday, and not quite as late a start for us. Nusnäs was the first stop, or so we thought. It's a small village near Mora on the lake called Siljan and the home of the Dalahästen production: painted wooden carved horses, typically red but now in a rainbow of other colours (and shapes: we saw pigs!). It's not a short drive, but the good weather and Kersti's company made for a pleasant one.



We stopped only in one workshop - how many times can you watch the same style of horse being carved and painted? - and looked around a bit, buying some pieces. Nice to see that despite the ubiquity of the horses in every souvenir shop in Sweden, these ones are handmade after the basic shape is cut with a buzz saw! Kersti's daughter, Leana, is not a fan of the horses, but I think they look handsome, frankly. Ah well, I suppose we get sick of stereotypical souvenirs from our own countries!



Horses seen, it was on east to Rättvik where we had lunch out on a patio overlooking the lake far down the hillside. The first shot in this entry shows Conrad and me posing with Siljan in the background. Lunch was a simple affair, then it was back on the road, backtracking slightly and heading a bit north to the village of Nittsjö. Go on, try pronouncing it, I dare you!



Nittsjö is home to a ceramics factory that produces a number of things, but it was Mia's description of the Christmas ornaments that drew us there. If we're being honest, they weren't ones we ended up liking a great deal, though we found a Santa we think will look nice. Some of their other ceramics, though, were handsome enough, so we bought three vases and a couple of mugs for Kersti. Postcards went into the box nearby, and we were off home with a stop at Dalhalla to see the amphitheater in the old quarry. On learning it cost money just to see it, we left.



One more stop on the way home: the remnants of an old village, now preserved in a derelict state (if that's not a contradiction) and open for viewing. By this point, I think I was just in a happy, mellow place; I cared little about the village construction, only that it was sunny and wildflowers grew all around. Like Laura Ingalls Wilder heaven, or something.



Another stop for an ice cream bar, and it was back to Långhed with us for the community dinner of pancakes! Tasty, as noted before!

So, those are the main Sweden activites, though at this moment I fear I may not have written up the Vasamuseet adequately. Ah well. It's late (!!!), and I'm also trying to back up things to an external drive. I think one more Sweden entry after this, just odds and sods, and then it's on to blogging from ALA in New Orleans. Otherwise, time for bed!

Dalarna: teaser

I really am crashing already. 8:37 PM as I type. I am such an amateur!

So, instead of a second full posting tonight (and likely the last of the Sweden stuff for now, though I reserve the right to change my mind and bore any readers with yet more photos at a future date), a teaser of what remains: the day-trip down into Dalarna with Kersti on our last full day with Conrad's cousins. I leave you with us and a mighty big Dalahäst!

Järvzoo

Yes, I know: how many more of these bloody posts will Peter do, for goodness sake? That's what you're thinking. And you're right, it wasn't that long of a trip. So only a few more to go. Bear with me. And enjoy the photo of the totally adorable 4-week old moose.

Back in 2002 we drove up to Järvsö with Kersti to visit the town's main attraction, the Järvzoo. I love that there is something of a pun in that name, all the more so in a way when you know that "järv" is the Swedish word for "wolverine". (No, Jeph, no Hugh Jackman sightings). It was a lovely day - sunny, in fact, though quite cold. I underdressed for the jaunt and found myself at the midpoint of the walk through the zoo having to take my thin gloves off my hands and put them on my feet for a bit more warmth. It didn't work, mind you, and I then had to take off my socks and shoes in the car and sit on my feet on the drive home in hopes that my enormous butt would warm my feet up. Don't I look cold in the little shelter at the rest area near the top?



The zoo, however, is a terrific attraction. Oh, I know, I admit that I love touristy things sometimes. But this is better than that. What they've gone and done just outside Järvsö is build a zoo that highlights only Nordic animals (so no giraffes struggling with the Swedish weather) and that houses them in large pens of somewhat natural habitat on the slopes of a mountain valley. As if that weren't enough, to view the animals, you walk a 3 km boardwalk up the valley and back down again, meandering some in places. It's a wide boardwalk, handsomely designed to allow for the occasional tree that bumps up against it. The result is that even if you see no animals, you've just had a pleasant walk in the woods.



Ah, but we did see animals, such as that sweet little moose. Ahhhh, so cute. And seemingly friendly. It shared space in a children's zoo area with a calf (baby cow, that is), and some kid goats. Apparently the little moose had been found abandoned in the wild at 2 weeks of age.

We did not see the wolves, the red fox, the lynx, wolverine, or hedgehog. They can be tough to spot in amongst the summer foliage. Moreover, it was a warm day, sunny, so some animals were doubtless taking cover. But there were a number of others.


A number of handsome owls including this Arctic owl and his mate.


This molting musk ox, along with her (also utterly) adorable (little bundle of fuzz) spawn.


Reindeer! You may be happy to know that we ate no reindeer on this trip, by the way!

All in all, an enjoyable day. I should add that it started with lunch at a place across the Ljusnan river from town, affording us views of the fine old church. The day ended at the community hall in Långhed with a meal and a World Cup match to watch. Good times.

one more post-vacation post for the night and then I turn into a pumpkin...

...and let's use it to post a few more food photos. It really wouldn't be a Conrad/Peter vacation without such photos. So:



Me with the salmon cakes mentioned in the previous post.



Conrad at the same Hudiksvall restaurant, enjoying fried herring with mashed potato. Conrad, I will add, loves the herring muchly, especially pickled. I think I should ask Yoshi to prepare it for Conrad's 50th birthday dinner!

Next up, my Toast Pelle Jansson appetizer at Prinsen in Stockholm:



Tasty. You'll notice a fish/fish egg theme in the food photos (though the red stuff on the toast plate was thin slices of raw beef). The Toast came with whitebait roe, and the salmon in the next photo also came with roe. Meanwhile, the sour cream-y sauce for the salmon cakes was dotted with more tiny eggs. Ahhhh, fish eggs. They make a fish egg paste and put it in toothpaste style tubes. It is frickin' good with boiled eggs, I swear. I had that for breakfast almost every day in Sweden!



One last shot before I work my way bedward, not the best shot, but oh well. Conrad, recall, likes his herring. This was his pickled herring appetizer at Prinsen: five types with accompaniments. The lemon herring was truly delightful!

Night!

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!

just before bedtime at Arlanda

I have so much more to write, and so many more photos to post, but not tonight. Tomorrow. When we get back to Chicago. While we do all the laundry. After we go for groceries. Frankly, I'm tired. We're staying out at the Radisson Sky City at Arlanda; it's a well-located hotel for the morning flight (in the airport itself), and it has air conditioning. Oh, laugh if you will - and we know that Chicago is having some heat now (and that New Orleans will be dreadfully hot and sticky next weekend) - but it's been warm here, and the first few nights we slept miserably without any AC to comfort us.



So, let's end, unsurprisingly, with some more food shots. Dinner tonight was at Restaurang Prinsen, a posh sort of tourist place. We sat inside rather than with the few smokers outside, and enjoyed a leisurely dinner with a bottle of an Alsatian white. No, sorry, no Swedish wines to bring home. Conrad's herring plate was an immense appetizer, leaving him unable to finish the Wallenbergare of fish he'd also ordered. Similarly, I helped him with the herring and enjoyed my Toast Pelle Jansson (fillet of beef in thin slices with whitebait roe). I couldn't finish my plaice, alas. I don't know why we decided we could fit in dessert at Mandus after that!

Conrad has crawled into bed, and I must head there as well. Much more to come, I promise (or is that threaten?). I haven't even covered Dalarna or the Järvzoo yet! And I am sure I've missed photos and tales of the food and of Conrad's very hospitable cousins. So, good night all from Stockholm-Arlanda, we'll see some of you soon! And I leave you with a photo of what accompanied our pickled herring feast one night at Kersti and Ivar's: Skål!

Målarting

Per, working on his blacksmithing projects.

As I understand it (and if Olov is looking at this blog entry at some point, he might want to correct me or elaborate on this), the village of Långhed has for four years now staged a set of annual courses called Målarting. It started in the 90s in the nearby village of Alfta, and moved a few years ago. A week or so before the Midsummer celebration, villagers and visitors alike take part in artistic courses. Given the surroundings and the weather, it's no surprise that these are worthwhile undertakings. The participants acquire new skills, stretch themselves creatively, and come together as a community.



Leana at the smithy.

Conrad's cousins are all quite involved in the courses. The younger cousins, Olov, Leana, and Per (and I really hope I am spelling those names correctly!) were all doing the blacksmith course along with Leana's boyfriend Stefan. I will digress here and state that Stefan and Leana are both accomplished motorcycle racers and won races earlier this week in Gävle while we were watching the soccer (sorry FXK: football) match. Olov's girlfriend Mia was taking the watercolour course in the meantime. Kersti and Ivar operate a sort of bed and breakfast, and three guests from Gävle were staying on to also take part in the Målarting, two in oil painting, one in woodworking.



Ivar, on the right, and another villager (whom we met, but whose name I cannot recall - sorry) with the charcoal mound. Is that even the right expression for it in English?

The participants get lunch provided (and this morning Kersti was down at the community hall making up coffee and sweets and lunches), and there are one or two dinners for them as well. Conrad and I spent the day yesterday with Kersti sightseeing down in Dalarna, but we were back in time for the dinner outside the smithy. Ivar was one of the men charged with making charcoal for the Midsummer celebrations (and in past years, this, too, has been a course), and the charcoal mound was outside the smithy as well. We feasted on pancakes in which pieces of pork and pork fat were cooked, then all was topped with lingon. Tasty, and absolutely healthy! It also gave us a chance to watch the blacksmithing class in action, admire their work, and ask questions. It's all quite impressive, and I think that taking the courses would be a terrific way to pass a long weekend in Sweden!



Conrad and his cousin Kersti after dinner outside the smithy.



With Mia, who was immensely fun and very knowledgeable about football and other things Swedish! Thank goodness the whole bunch of them had the patience to explain things to us in English!



Stefan at his anvil, with Olov in the background. We did not ask them to wear the Swedish colours deliberately, I swear!

sweden: flowers

Midsummer flower.

Jeph and Steven, this is a challenge geared mostly for you two since you both have such passionate interests in gardening: some photos of the wildflowers blooming in the countryside. We enjoyed marvellous weather in Sweden, and the roadsides and fields were full of many small flowers. These are the ones that people gather for the midsummer celebrations; in fact, this morning there was a big bunch of the small yellow ones shown in this entry gracing a vase on the dining table.



We took a lot of photos of the flowers (and I can almost hear Francis roll his eyes and say, "GAY!") while over here. Why not? I recognize some from northern BC as well, mind you, though we don't call them by the Swedish names, of course. I'm not adding in the Swedish names with the photos here either - I can't even recall them, just some of the translations.

So, some flower shots with a challenge to the gardeners reading this to provide the North American names!



From our little sidetrek down a road to a village called Mössön.



On our drive to Hudiksvall, the one cloudy half day we had!



I think these escaped from a garden nearby.



Butter flowers, as they call them in Sweden.

Midnight sun (well, almost)

A photo taken two nights ago in the garden at Kersti and Ivar's. Conrad is sitting with their youngest son, Olov. What's really cool is that the photo was taken without a flash at 12:12 AM. Just after midnight. It wasn't getting fully dark the past few nights in Långhed. The village is roughly as far north as Anchorage, from what we could figure out. It was an issue for sleeping, but Conrad had wisely brought along eye-masks, and with them, we slept well. The photo is a little blurry because they couldn't sit still enough for the long exposure!

From earlier that week in Stockholm:



I believe that it was around midnight or so, and there is still a pink glow visible from our hotel room window over in the western sky. Stockholm is a few degrees of latitutde south, and it seems that makes some real difference. It was light fairly early in the morning just the same!

Incidentally, I'm posting this all from the train south from Söderhamn to Stockholm. Free wireless in this car. I really can get into this whole Sweden thing!

Vi är Svenska fans allihopa

A short posting: though we have wireless Internet out here in the country thanks to Olov, it's slow getting Blogger to take photos. Just this one for now, though, with a nod to Francis who will be amused to know that Conrad was GLUED to the entire game!

stockholm: food

A few shots before I go to bed. The first was my dinner of pike-perch that I had at Den Glyldene Freden tonight.



Conrad's appetizer of pickled herring at the same restaurant.

Smoked turkey sandwich with Swedish mustard and the cold chocolate drink at the Chokladkoppen yesterday.



We obviously have more photos: come on, it's us, after all! Conrad is abed, however, and I must join him if we must be up very early to pack. Merde! I may not have Internet access for some days. How on earth will I survive?

stockholm: tourist attractions

We are doing our part for the Swedish economy.

Gads, I'm tired. Day 2 was harder than day one. To bed last night around 1 (and the same thing tonight). Awake around five. Back to deep deep sleep for a few hours again. Ugh. We have a train at 8:00 tomorrow morning. I should be glad that there are no connections on it en route to Bollnäs, and that the train station is across the street.

So, a photo of us being total tourists on day one, about to embark on the 50-minute water tour around the Djurgården. Lovely day to be on the water. We need friends here with a sailboat.



Speaking of boats, we visited the Vasamuseet today. The Vasa was a seventeenth century warship that sank in Stockholm harbour some, oh, five minutes after launch. It was salvaged in the mid-twentieth century and turned into quite an impressive museum. Better than the Nationalmuseum, I must admit.

What was sooooo not better was the bus ride there and back. Oh yes, people laught to think we're vacationing way up north in Scandinavia, but it's warm and sunny out, and the bus was a little greenhouse on wheels, filled to bursting with all the ripe aromas of Swedish humanity in summer!

We've done a bunch of walking today, taking in the National Library (no big deal, or not from what we saw) where we stopped for a truly awful couple of cups of coffee across the street. Don't be fooled by the photo - we took three sips and decided to leave.



Great shirt, though. Which reminds me: yes, we have H&M in Chicago, but the clothes there never fit. I bought two pairs of shorts and a shirt at a store today, though. We also took in a couple of food halls and choked at the ultra high prices in the NK department store.



Conrad outside the Vasamuseet.

A terrific day all around, though. I'll post a few food photos and get to bed. Points for correctly pronouncing the words in the last photo!

stockholm: people

Meet Lars. Well, meet Lars and what looks like a big jug of hooch but is a generations old jug filled with one of his recipes for punch. And not the fruity party kind either.

One terrific thing about the Internet is that you get to connect with people. So, there are friends of mine far away, whom I have met but do not see often: Greer and Jeph have recently commented on this blog. And there are those whom I've not met but now hear from regularly and happily: Steven, for example. And then there are those you make contact with and do meet. So it is with the Stockholm Dolphins swimmers.

Conrad and I like to eat, as you may be aware. A lot. And good food (but that's another blog entry). So when we travel, we try to get some swimming in. In advance of this trip we contacted the Dolphins. Could we swim with them while in Stockholm, and please forgive our lack of Swedish.

Mats responded.



Mats is sort of the coach/coordinator for the small Stockholm team. All told, there are fewer than 20 members, no women, one straight man. Lars and Mats have been married ten years, by the way.

Anyway, yes, we were welcome to swim. Did we also want to come for dinner with the team on Saturday night. We told Mats we'd be glad to, if we weren't meeting up with Conrad's cousin Kersti who was in town for a seminar. Kersti, however, was busy, and we'll see her later in the week anyway. Off to Gamla Stan it was last night, then, meeting some unknown gay men for dinner at a place called Mandus.



Not a very big group, but a pleasant one - utterly - and a good meal. Lars and Mats are next tome, then on the other side it's Cristen (I hope I have that right), Timo, and Kevin. Kevin was a swimmer visiting from Belgium; I was delighted to learn that though he lives there, he's reallyl from Victoria. We talked Canadian a bunch.



Also there was Fredrik. He got missed in the previous shot.

After dinner, we went to a bar called Torget, had a drink with them, then made it home by midnight. And let me tell you, we slept well last night: 9 hours!

Mats and Lars also invited us to come dine with them tonight at their home in the lovely suburb of Alvik. Why are Swedish suburbs so nice and non-suburban? It seemed like a handsome neighbourhood. We rode out there after swimming and enjoyed a dinner of chicken and broccoli pie, a spice cake and ice cream for dessert, and plenty of wine. Very good company, and we'd be glad to meet up again. Their three Airedales are magnificent, spirited dogs as well.



We stayed about 4 hours or so and had a terrific evening of food, drink, and conversation. Much nicer than finding any old restaurant in town, really. Any of the Dolphins we met are utterly welcome to come visit us in Chicago; we rather hope they might!