Swedish Adventure 2016 - Part 5 - Off to Stockholm

25, 26 April
Well, now - this is our last evening in Ulla's lovely little house, and we spend some time over cups of tea discussing Larsson, world politics, other guests, my guests back home in Dorset, her life, our life, and life in general including British tea (cups of).   The following morning after our eggy breakfast, we are off to drive across to Stockholm, leave the car at the airport, and take the train into the city and our hotel.

It's very rainy in the morning, and we don't want to go but we have to, having hired the car for 5 days only.  We take mostly major roads, and when coffee calls we slip off into a small town (Heby) and look for somewhere to park.  What joy then, with the heavens pouring water like a waterfall down on the inhabitants, I spot two things at the same time.  A parking space on a side road, and right opposite, the word Konditori ..... and as you know, we understand what that means.  We have coffee and cake and get back on the road, and it seems in no time at all we are dropping the car off.  It's been fun, not least of which because we now know that all IKEA products are names of Swedish towns and villages - or that is how it seems to us.  We certainly drove through several small towns that were definitely the names of IKEA furniture!

Church steeple seen from the car, pouring with rain, windows covered in raindrops... but got it.  It's black - an oddity for us but just an example really of the strangeness of countries that are not your own.  See, just a few more trees, too!!!

Catching the bus back to the airport, we decide to go for the Stockholm Express, a non-stop train taking us straight to Stockholm's central station.  Bit of a shock at the price when we pay for the tickets on board, but if you decide to take this train, please note that tickets are cheaper in advance, and you get a great reduction if you are travelling as a pair.  Station to hotel is as it says on the website - 7 minutes walk.  Not a cheap option, but a great one because of it's position.  Frey's Hotel.  The rooms are small, the bathrooms lovely, the breakfast choices are huge (I mean you could eat yourself silly if you had a mind to and the cost is included).

We have a wander around the station (We like stations!) plenty of shops, plenty of life and we know we have 3 nights and 2 whole days in Stockholm, so after breakfast tomorrow we are gong to have to do some walking and looking!  But we do get a 72 hour Stockholm Pass from the info office in the station, and that allows us unlimited travel on the entire Stockholm transport system - trains, trams buses, and boats.  A good bargain - they come in 24 and 48 hour versions too.

Swedish Adventure 2016 - Part 4

25 April
Today is full of sunshine!  If it lasts the whole day what a treat that will be. (It did).  Ulla, our host, who arrived last night with another cat in tow, feeds us well for breakfast, and tells us about a nice drive to a lake - and so we go exploring.  The lake is called Siljan, up north-west of Borlange and, after consulting the map, it looks as though we have plenty of time to drive round the whole lake, which we do, taking our time, enjoying the drive and views.

I love maps.   Sat-nav is a great tool but a map will tell you lots more.  We get to the head of the lake and then start on our homeward journey, where we are going to a place where there is a great view.  But look!  What is that on the map?  An island on the lake with, guess what? a bridge to get there!  Mr Mac loves driving bridges - long bridges.  The sign for the island comes up and here we go, over the bridge to Solleron Island. It's obviously a holiday place, a huge camp site hidden in the trees is the first thing we see.  Driving on round we pass tiny houses, with gardens bursting with flower and growth at this time of the year.  I am so enchanted, I forget that I have my camera in my bag....... Duh. We spend about 30 minutes driving around this lovely island, and then we are off across the bridge and on to our next stop.

Siljanas is the place that Ulla told us not to miss, and once off the island we head for that.  We know we have to climb upwards on a twisty road,  and when we get to the top, we have a view of the church and lake.  In the viewing area, there is a sign that says "No camping, no picnicing", so I guess this is a very popular spot in the summer but today - it's just us! 

Just outside a holiday camp down the road we spot three little boys, smiling and waving at us.  We do the same.  They are not Swedes;  their middle-eastern looks make us think they are probably Syrians, as we have heard that holiday camps in Sweden are being used as temporary homes for refugees.  As we drive down through the village, we spot a woman, again of middle-eastern appearance, who smiles as we smile, walking up the hill back to her temporary home.  How extraordinary to see them, so far from home, in such a strange (for them) environment.  How cold and different it's going to be in winter.  This is what war does to the world and it's always been that way, but at least for these refugees they have a roof over their heads and a place away from the noise, terror and death that has overtaken their country. 

Swedish Adventure 2016 - Part 3

 24 April 2016
Apparently I slept though the longest loudest thunderstorm last night, and torrential rain, too!  It's all this fresh air.  And today, we are visiting Carl Larsson-Garden. That's not garden as we know it.  It means the Carl Larsson Estate. The painting below is not in the Sundborn House, but it was painted there.  This is Larson's oldest daughter painting her own room in her father's style.  It's called "Suzanne and Another" because of the workman outside.  If you are observant, you will wonder why it isn't called Suzanne and Two Others (look at the shoes at the other window), but there you are!  This was a room of her own at Sundborn, added on especially for her.

It's in private hands and a few years ago it went for nearly half a million pounds at auction, so I am unlikely ever to see it in the life.  I love it though.

I bought two huge books about Larsson and his painting whilst here... and found out some interesting facts too.  But the one that struck me most was about German Soldiers in WW1.  When going off to war, they carried their Army instruction book so that they got things right.  They carried a bible, so that God was with them.  And many of them also took one of Larsson's books - "Home" - which is a book of paintings of this house and his family...... because home is was what they were fighting for.  Odd but true fact, this little book sold over half a million in Germany when first published.  A hell of a lot of books back then.

When we arrive at the village, we can't see the house, but we find a car park.  In it there is a coach and one car (ours), so it seems a quiet morning and we may get time to look at everything a bit longer.  Only a couple of signs to follow and eventually we find another car park (8 cars this time), and walk round the fence and in through the gate.  I'm here!  OH!  It's 10.00 am and the next tour is 11.00.  So I settle in for a look at everything in the shop, buy our tickets, and generally get excited.

Eventually our guide tells us it's time.  She's dressed in an overall like the girl in the painting above, but hers is grey and white stripe.  We walk round the side and in through that porch on the left and we're in!

No pictures can be taken inside the house, but that's OK, my brain is taking a dozen a second and we have a guide book in English to help us out as this particular tour is in Swedish.  She knows we are English so every so often she tells us something if we look puzzled and answers any questions we have.

 Here is the same door we entered by, but painted by himself.  We found out that the Larssons were forever changing the layout of the house by adding rooms on in an ad hoc fashion.  He started with a small studio here, but eventually added a much bigger one, with huge windows for lots more light.  Here it is below.  You can see a couple of paintings on the door there - he painted on all the doors, and lots of other bits of the house too.


After the house, we came out into the garden and although it was a damp grey day, we had a good look round.  Here's a little bridge over a cutting which allowed boats right up into the garden (presumably to be put away in winter?  Or perhaps to load a picnic?)

This is a wonderful little building that you might think was a folly.  But no - it was built simply to hide the well and the pump for safety.  This way it could be locked and the children would have no accidents falling down the well.

As you can see from the pictures, a little too early for much to be in flower, but they liked big colour;  the garden had peonies, iris, Siberian poppies amongst other plantings, and certainly this is still replicated now.  We see everything growing well, so it will be ablaze in another 3 - 6 weeks. Again the apple trees and the lilac.   We have a lovely lunch in the restaurant on site, and then back to the gift shop (well, I may never get there again!). In the village there is an old building which has recently opened with an exhibition about Larsson, including the fact that his father didn't like him as much as his brother,  Strindberg seemed to detest him because of all those "sunny pictures", and he was prone to depression in later life.  A good exhibition, in an interesting building.  All in all a lovely day so back to the little red house loaded with three very large books about him and his paintings, some postcards and bookmarks and in my head, lots of memories.

Swedish Adventure 2016 - Part 2

23 May 2016
We travel onwards south west, cross country, away from the traffic, away from everywhere!  More trees!  Getting used to them now.  Driving on roads where the only traffic we come across are trucks loaded with logs, and it was then that we decide the world will never be short of matches, or IKEA short of pine for furniture!!  We stop to stretch our legs at a small town on the mouth of a river, we glimpse lakes between the trees, camping grounds on the lake shores, and people in the camping grounds.  Lake swimming is B I G here.  It's been sunny all morning, but it gets overcast as we get to Nor Amsberg, a small traditional village near the city of Berlange where we are staying bed and breakfast at quite the most eccentric house I think I have ever been inside.  Nothing matches anything at all!  There is a two person sauna inside the bathroom!  The wall in our bedroom is dark red, the same as the outside of the house itself. The bed is wide and comfortable.  In the garden are two caravans, a little wooden house that will sleep three, and apple and lilac trees.  Lilac was everywhere in gardens in this area, like the apples.  I think they are both loved because they bring Spring in with a shout after Winter.  Lilac used to be everywhere in my own town when I was small - sadly it seems to have gone out of fashion these days, but I think I will invest in one or two - I have the room in my own garden.  Back to the house.  We have a bedroom with one double bed and two singles, but of course, only us in it.  The one next door has one double and four singles.  Swedes seem to like collective living on holidays, and this house is often full of winter cross country skiers.  It's not for us reserved Brits, but obviously they love it because looking at houses for holidays on the internet there is a lot of it about.  And often with only one or two bathrooms between a lot of bedrooms!  The house is warm, clean and cosy, and we meet a friend of the host, a Finn who lives in one of the caravans when he is visiting.  He was there for a few days with his lady friend, prior to a week's holiday in Finland.

And here is the house.

 All the houses bar one in this village ( and that looked really out of place, the colour of vanilla ice cream), plus the church and bell tower were painted this red.  It's actually red oxide and has to be applied quickly or it dries into the wood before you even remove the paintbrush.  There's the ubiquitous apple tree behind the hedge.... there was actually more than one in the garden.  On the right is the separate bell tower and below is the church.

The owner of the little house has an apartment in Stockholm.  We are staying at her summer house, which has been loved since her child was small. In the room she uses for herself (a large sitting room), I glimpse one of those beautiful floor to ceiling stoves - all white tiles.  I'll bet that is lovely when the logs are in and alight in the winter.   She comes up in the winter when she has bookings, and then sometime in Spring comes and stays for most of the good months, bringing her two cats and settling in for a quiet time with long evenings.  Even at this level - about a third of the way up the country, you might wake at 1 or 2 am and find a gray light in the sky, never dark with stars whilst we were there, so at high Summer it must be odd.

And here, in the same village, I spot this delicious little summer house, right bang in the middle of the front lawn. Cute, eh?  Love this style of fencing which we saw all over this area -made of silver birch - the width of the pole the entire trunk of the tree as they grow so tall and spindly in amongst the pines.

The next morning, after a hearty breakfast .... well I had a boiled egg and toast and John had ham and toast - but that was such a small taste of what we were offered and could actually have eaten;  we set off for Carl Larsson's House.

Swedish Adenture 2016 - Part 1

22 April 2016
 Gavle.  North of Stockholm.  Journey of mostly motorway and so many, many trees!  mostly pines and silver birches, but mile after mile after mile of trees.  So different from the UK, you just knew you were in a different country!  We stayed just one night in a little apartment which we could have joyfully lived in. Picture below on the right is a small hall and you can just see the kitchen beyond. All that timber is the original walls, with dried moss still intact, stuffing the cracks between logs. (Not the 18th century moss I don't suppose, but you know what I mean!!)

Hallway

Kitchen

Bread oven in chimney breast

Corner of living room - lots of pre-loved stuff here and it was charming.

Bedroom

Replacement bridge - so near the house

Apple tree in full bloom, right outside

Gavle was almost totally destroyed by fire in the mid 18th Century, and only the destruction of a bridge across the river saved some of the houses, one of which we stayed in. This part of the building was divided into several different living accommodations, and ours came with a little sitting out area to catch the afternoon sun.  Smart and tidy from the street, you enter through a high gate, and here you are in the higgledy-piggledy yard and garden, right above the river.   There are just a few of the old houses on this side of the river, and you can see from the position of the bridge how lucky it was  that the old bridge was cut down to save the fire "jumping" across.   It was indeed a lovely spot  and if we had not had to move on with our itinerary, we'd have liked several days here.  At this time of year, (end of May) all the apple trees are in blossom, and everyone seems to have at least one somewhere in their garden!

In the morning we decide to deviate a bit from our route and continue northwards heading for a small town called Soderhamn, picked entirely at random on the map.  A good decision, a sunny morning, and a yearning for a cup of coffee take us to a little shopping street opposite a park and when you spot locals having a coffee outside in the sun, usually that's the place you want to be too!    And the final good decision is going in.  It's a Konditori, which is the Swedish version of Patisserie..... sort of.  On our travels we discover that like the Brits, there is a stock selection of buns and cakes.  We have doughnuts, chelsea buns, eccles cakes, custard slices, danish.  They have doughnuts, buns which are light and fluffy, chewy biscuits (which must be where America gets cookies) and other cakes which appear in every Konditori we saw, including something for parties or similar called a "Princess" which is a green dome with sponge and cream of some kind inside.  Fascinating!  Anyway, the coffee is delicious, and so is the selected sweetmeat - so delicious in fact that we say same again and have another coffee and select another bun!!  Every Konditori also seems to serve lunchtime rolls, packed with fillings.  But after the double bun session we decide that there is absolutely no need for lunch now.  Just before we leave we spot a wonderful little building up on the hill.

It's Oskarsborg, a tower built in 1895 on the top of a hill close to the town centre.Wikipedia 
We didn't want to visit that day, but at least we know what it is now, and we'll give it a go if we are in the area again (because we need to go to that particular Konditori again, of course!!).  And off we go, cross country, heading for a large town called Borlange, chosen because it's in the area where we will visit Carl Larsson's summer house at Sundborn.

Something Mis ing - Matthew Dicks

Anyone remember "Memoirs of an invisible friend" by the same author?  Dicks is his real name, but that book was published under Green in the UK for some reason or another.  Great cover, eh?   Have a look on Amazon where there are loads of second hand copies from America, but no UK publication that I can find.  Pursue it!  Read it!  This is why:

Martin (a criminal with OCD tendencies and a savant-like genius for bringing order to his crime scenes) is unlike any hero I've ever come across.  A man alone, literally.  Well, you can't do what he does in the way he does it and talk to anyone about it, even if you are a genius.  I took this gentle man to my heart within pages.  A burglar who steals more toilet rolls and sugar than he does valuables; but when he does steal valuables he is very very thorough indeed and makes a good living selling things that the owners will never miss - or not for years, even if they are valuable.  Thorough?  a burglar who takes pics of the house before he does the stealing so that he can put everything  back in its place before he leaves the house.  A burglar who has a spread sheet for each of his 'clients' so that he knows when they are on holiday, when they go out for meals etc.  He never burgles a house with a dog (self explanatory really) or children.  The day he is surprised by a talking parrot nearly gives him a heart attack - and is a gem in the telling - especially as this African Grey has a huge vocabulary, and Martin, after the initial shock, realises that anything he says in his own voice to the bird is likely to be repeated by it and then the owners will wonder why this has happened..... so he starts in a whisper, and then finds that he likes the company!

He has a couple of friends, but he'd be a difficult man to love, frankly.  His life starts to change one day when, surprised by the early arrival home of a 'client', he has to hide in a wardrobe, and he overhears a conversation that takes him down a different route altogether.  A route that is helped a lot by his computer, a spreadsheet and a little sprinkle of genius. 

Mrs Mac suggests - what to read in JUNE

A classic.  A book you would recommend to anyone - that's my theme for JUNE.

So the book I am recommending is an old classic from my childhood -

                  Wind In The Willows - Kenneth Graham

Just wanted to add, that I got this book (and still have it) when I was eight, a present from my big sister.  I loved it then, I loved it now, but recently I find that Graham was a rather sad man - use the internet to find out why.  It makes the book rather poignant.