REMEMBERING SCANDINAVIA #1

Elaine on patio outside Breakfast Room of Radisson Blu Hotel

View from front of hotel, a heritage home

Alice and Bill

Laurel and Alice outside Harrod's at Heathrow

On Sunday, July 18/2010, my sisters Laurel and Alice, Alice's partner Bill, and myself took off from Edmonton International Airport via Air Canada at 7:50 p.m. en route for Stockholm. We were given a good send off by Helge, Glen K., Megan, Tamara, Kayli, Melanie, Cory, Jonas, and Emmett. We arrived at Heathrow, London around noon the next day after approximately an eight-hour flight. (London is 8 hours ahead of us.) After a couple of hours wait in London, we boarded an SAS flight for Stockholm. We arrived in Sweden around 6:00 p.m. We took an airport shuttle to the nearby Radisson Blu Arlandia where we spent our first night. We had supper that night at the hotel. We especially enjoyed our appetizer of three kinds of herring, boiled new potatoes, chopped red onion with chives, and a bountiful basket of fresh breads and crispbreads.

The next morning we had a complementary breakfast fit for kings!! It was truly a smorg with a variety of fresh fruit, cheese, breads, yogurts, liver pate, salmon, Swedish pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, roasted potatoes, baked beans, and good coffee. Mmmm... After breakfast we headed for our car rental place. As luck would have, this place was a short walking distance from our hotel. We were impressed as Alice had booked the car, and I had booked the hotel.

We rented a Volvo diesel station wagon, packed up, and headed north on the E4 following the east coast of Sweden, Laurel driving. It would have been nice to have spent some time in Stockholm but we had a long journey to our(Alice's) timeshare in central Sweden at Storlien.

Our first pit stop for morning coffee was a "Dinners" just outside of Gavle. One of the brochures we picked up here was on the farms of Halsingland. Some of the descriptions were intriguing:

"The ambitions of the farmers of Halsingland to construct grand and beautiful buildings have always raised admiration. Large, sumptuous and painted red, with many windows and elaborate porches.......Inside the farms of Halsingland are magnificent interiors with art painted on the walls, stencilled wall decorations, and expensive wallpaper."

Painted red with lots of windows

Nice porches

Maypole

Note the foundation

Familiar sight (looks like Helge might have done this)

Fencing style common throughout Sweden

Alice and Bill at the well

Laurel noting fruit

Can you see the wire moose?

Wallpaper and stencilling

Wallpaper closeup

Some like vintage machinery

The brochure marked 52 of these farms on a map. Some were in the Soderhamn area, the next major stop. We decided to continue on to the next major stop, Hudiksvall. From Hudiksvall we travelled a short distance east and visited the Heritage Centre, Forsa Forngard. (It wasn't until we reached our timeshare later that evening and read the info that Aunty Bea had sent Alice that we realized that our Grandfather had been born in Soderhamn!! Fortunately we were able to return there at a later date.)

Just before Sundsvall I took over the wheel and headed west on the E14. Around 3 p.m we finally found a place to stop for lunch and fuel - Luddes Gatukok at Vallfartsvagen. We continued on to Ostersund where we stopped for groceries. Bill then continued driving until, late in the evening, we reached our cute, rustic cabin at Storlien. Ahhh......such a good feeling!!