I realized that I didn’t add any of the pictures to my post the other day when I wrote about the rock art. These stone carvings were phenomenal! they have been there for 3500 years and tell some kind of story. There is no way to confirm what that story is. The archeologists have ideas of what the drawings mean but they don’t know for sure and some of the drawings make no sense to anyone. I appreciated that the archeologists painted the carvings because it made them so much easier to see. It also preserves them because people aren’t tempted to walk on them to get a better look. One of my favourite carvings was the blue whale. there was another that looked like a giant sea turtle. Then there were the obligatory human figures with spears and lots of boats.

The most wonderful thing of this trip has been my reunions with my old friends. I can not express how wonderful the women I met 33 years ago were to my 18 year old self. Imagine never having been anywhere other than where family live. Then you get on a plane and end up in somewhere where you know no one and can’t speak the language. the only way I survived my year in Sweden was through the generosity of spirit of my friends. Elizabeth, Ann, Hillevy, Monica, Ditte, and my other classmates were wonderful. They did all the important things. They sat with me when I felt alone. They included me when activities were happening and made sure that I understood what was going on. They challenged me to learn and rise to occasions. These wonderful women were supportive when they didn’t have to and they were compassionate when they could. I was so lucky. The biggest blessing I had was the acceptance and support of Ann and Elizabeth. They were relentless in helping me learn to speak Swedish and they were supportive through true friendship. It was wonderful being back here again and relearning to speak Swedish. I loved that both Ann and Elizabeth fell so easily back into correcting my grammar and vocabulary. I realized after a few days that I was thinking in Swedish again and not translating from English. My experience affirms how strong their support was in that formative year.

My year in Sweden was so influential on my development as a person. I have constantly referenced my Swedish experiences over the years and the proof is that Dale actually knew some Swedish words before we got here. He was so supportive during this holiday as he listened to me get my language back and was so patient as he listened to what was going on despite understanding very little. I have been so blessed in the people who have chosen to care about me.

Elizabeth invited my classmates to a garden party on Sunday and we had a great day together. Ditte was sick and couldn’t come and I was sad to miss her. It was great to see Hillevi and Monica again. The reality of how small this world is was affirmed when Hillevi and I realized that we had both studied the work of Max van Mannen, a phenomenologist form Edmonton who is known worldwide. I studied with Prof. van Mannen and attended his lectures and struggled to understand what he meant. I was in awe of Hillevi for understanding what he was talking about in her second language. She is truly gifted.

Saturday was a full day of time travel. We started off at Marstrand, and took a ferry to the Carlsten Fortress on the Atlantic coast of Sweden. The fortress was the backdrop for an international yacht race. We watched to boats do tight manoeuvers while we climbed up to the castle. We spent the next two and a half hours climbing every tower Dale could find. The views from the towers were spectacular. There was even a secret passage! The castle was known as the most secure prison in Sweden. There were experiments done on some of the inmates as they were serving their time. For example, one prisoner was only spoken with once per year. He was so distressed; he drew wall pictures of a man on a horse that he believed would rescue him – in his own blood. Four inmates charged with the same theft. One of them was allowed to throw a dice to decide which of them was to be executed. The remaining inmates were to “run the gauntlet” nine times. All of the people in the village would have to hit the men running down the avenue and if they didn’t hit hard enough, they might have to join the inmates in their run. It was not a death sentence exactly, but people often didn’t survive the gauntlet. Another inmate spent so much time looking out the window that he wore the stone away with his fingers. The most famous inmate was Lasse-Maja. He had once been an inmate at the Ӧrrebro castle prison we visited last week and was transferred to Carlsten prison. He was known for dressing in drag and committing his crimes. He escaped several times by dressing as a woman and convincing a guard that he did not belong in the prison. The entire fortress was interesting and it was only due to hunger that we shut down our tour. We had lunch sitting on the Quay next to the coach of the Swedish National Hockey Team.

We then made our way through the crowds to the ferry and took off for Tanum, a world heritage site. We didn’t get to enter the museum after getting there at 6:05 and because it closed at 6:00pm. But, we were lucky that all the rock carving sites we wanted to see were actually outside and we could still see them. They were fabulous. The archeologists painted the rock carvings either red or white so we could see them clearly. A couple of sites were left unpainted so we could experience what it looked like to figure out what the figures looked like when they were found. We went to several sites to see the different carvings. The rock carvings were far inland but were likely on islands or near the shore when they were carved 3500 years ago. We weren’t always sure what the pictures meant but they were fascinating.

We came home at 10 pm after a wonderful day. We crashed shortly thereafter completely satisfied after a great day with good friends.

On Friday we struck out to see some of the country side with Elizabeth. We first went to an open air museum in Lӧdӧse. This museum showed the archeology and history of the area near the Gӧte river. Lӧdӧse was an important medieval town in Sweden. The displays were very interesting.

We then came back to Trollhӓtten in time for lunch by the canal. We then got to witness the waterfall that occurs every day in July. The town harnesses the water and diverts it into power plants. The waterfall is beautiful as they open the gates from the river in three different places. And then it simply stops. It sounds pretty artificial to have a waterfall start and stop, but the movement of the water was beautiful and it was clear how powerful the water was. We went on a bit of a hike around the waterfalls and up a huge hill on the other side of the river so we could overlook the town, river and canals.

We headed back to Elizabeth’s and picked up Jan and Erik and then headed off fishing. It was a great evening. We headed off to a lake about an hour away. We were able to fish, have a fire, and roast some sausages for supper. Erik caught two trout and Elizabeth caught one. It was wonderfully relaxing. Imagine being in the forest until after 10:30 at night and still having full light.

It has been several days since I added to my blog. We arrived at my friend Elizabeth’s place on July 5. We drove for just over two hours, stopping only for a bit of Fika (coffee and pastry) on the way. Elizabeth welcomed us warmly and it was wonderful to see her for the first time in 33 years. We settled into our space here and took a tour of her yard. It is a beautiful place in a village called Valandra. It is on the outskirts of Trollhӓtten, the town where Elizabeth works. Her husband, Jan was at work in Gӧteborg when we arrived so Elizabeth took us into Trollhӓtten for a bit of a tour of the locks. The locks at Trollhӓtten are part of the Gӧte Canal system.

There is a 45 meter drop in elevation between the nearby Lake Vӓtten and Gӧteborg so the canals make it possible for the rivers to be used for transporting goods and people. We had a great walk around the locks and then returned for an evening of getting reacquainted. Elizabeth and Jan have three children. We initially met Erik (15) who is still at home, and then we met Johanna (21) who returned from Olso the next day. Johanna, like many youth in Sweden had a difficult time finding work in her home area and went to Oslo for work. Oslo is booming and has lots of job opportunities. The main employer in Trollhӓtten was the SAAB factory that recently put 3500 people out of work when it went bankrupt. Jan worked for SAAB for many years as an engineer before moving into the more private sector in Gӧteborg. He is hoping for the SAAB factory to have a refitting and a reopening so he can return to working in Trollhӓtten.

We had a great evening of getting reacquainted and called it an early night. Ready for more sightseeing the next day.

Our drive today took us through beautiful forests, lakes and pastoral scenes. The beautiful red houses were everywhere. There were several small villages where all the houses were red. We learned that the red colour came from the slag from producing silver at the mind in Falun, a town in the area.

We arrived in Örebro around 1 pm and we found our hotel without a hitch, it was across the street from the Castle! We delayed gratification for our trip through the castle until after we had lunch at a quaint restaurant across the canal from the castle. The food was good (Salmon meal #4) and the beer delightful after the long drive. We checked out the castle only to learn that you could only get in on a tour and the next (and only) English tour was at 4:30 pm. So we walked down to the Wadköping open-air museum (http://www.orebro.se/5998.html). It was a delightful park – the Swedish equivalent of Fort Edmonton Park!

July 3, Orebro
There was a huge amount of art in the city – we loved these guys in the moat!

We watched a wood carver work for a while and delighted in his skill with a lathe and chisel. We got back to the castle in time and had a great interpretive tour of the castle. This castle was famous for being part of the shift in power from one Swedish royal dynasty to another. There was a whole lot of jockeying for power around the time that Napoleon I was in power – the Swedes lost Finland to the Russians around that time and blamed their king for the loss. They deposed him and invited (a loose description of events) a French general to be adopted as King Carl XIII’s son and heir. The general Bernadotte promised (8 million Kronor from Napoleon and the return of Finland or, we also heard that he had a plan to annex Norway). Neither promise was kept but the French general became King Carl XIV. The deal was put into effect at Örebro in 1810. Thus began the reign of the current royal family. I probably got lots of that wrong – but it is a fun story.

After the castle visit, we wandered the old town and happened upon the 35th anniversary tour of band ToTo in the Church square. We heard a little of the blaring tunes before they took a break. Good and loud music. We weren’t sure why people were buying tickets – we heard it all from the street. Then off to find a restaurant that proved more difficult than usual due to the concert. We finally settled into a place and had genuine Swedish Mexican food.

We are off again tomorrow to Western Sweden. We will be reuniting with my high school friend Elizabeth. I am soooo excited!

We left Stockholm today and headed north. GPS is a wonderful invention and sure beats me trying to figure out which way we are going and how that relates to a map. All went well until we hit construction on a major interchange and ended up making the same mistake twice and nearly headed back downtown. Once we cleared the city, driving was delightful. We had two parts to our agenda today. The first was to see the home of Carl Larsson, a famous Swedish painter whose work I have loved for a long time. He was an eccentric character who made a fabulous life of painting daily life.

July 2, 2013

Larsson’s home reminded me of Frank Lloyd Wright. The difference was that Carl Larsson http://www.clg.se/encarl.aspx appears to have adored his wife Karin http://www.clg.se/enkarin.aspx and children. His home is filled with paintings of his wife and children. He broke all kind of etiquette by having his children eat meals with their parents/guests and he decorated the walls with their portraits. We saw portraits of all eight of his kids in the house; on doors, walls and in frames. As much as I loved Carl Larsson’s work, I gained a new favourite. Karin Larsson was an artist in her own right and gave up painting when she started having children. However, she turned her talents toward needlework and weaving and created beautiful and innovative designs, many of them in the art deco style. The only souvenir at this house that we bought was a reproduction of one of her weavings!

We continued our travels north after a short ice cream break. Ice cream appears to be the Swedish national food. It is everywhere we go and people eat huge quantities. The man who was a little in front of us in line ordered two scoops of different kinds of hard ice cream in a waffle cone and then had the woman top it off with soft serve ice cream. The next two people ordered the same. I had one scoop of chocolate in my cone and it was delicious!
We arrived at our second destination in Dalarna at 5:30 pm.

We were so happy the shop was still open. We had been worried that our trip to the factory where they make the Dalarna horses would be closed by then. However, they were wonderful. One man started up his band saw so we could see how they cut out the horses and proceeded to make eight blanks in a few moments. He then showed us the processes and, even though some parts of the process were not being shown, we were able to see where all the action happens and we got to watch one artist hand paint a special horse.

For those of you who are not one of my siblings… When I was here the first time, I sent each sibling and my grandparents a little blue or red horse for Christmas. The letter I sent with the package somehow was never seen so everyone got a present without any context. Now, let me provide the context. Historically, Swedish loggers would carve different things around campfires in the winter. They would often carve horses as presents for children and as trade items. The horses became Swedish icons after the Word’s Fair in 1939 and an earlier Expo in Paris. The horses are all produced by hand. The blanks are cut out in the factory and then shipped to home crafters to be carved into the right shapes. They are then sent back to the factory where they are primed, filled so the horse is smooth, dipped in a rich colour and then hand painted. We saw horses in each stage of completion. A special grey horse was made for the Crown Princess of Sweden for her marriage in 2010. My treat was a horse painted the colour of the original horses. Dale bought himself a Dalarna Pig, just to be different!

We then went to Rättvik for our evening rest. The food was wonderful – our third feast of salmon since our arrival. Not sick of it yet . We had a great time walking through the town before crashing. The Internet connection didn’t work for me to post my blog – so you get two today! Tomorrow we head for Örebro.