One part travel blog. One part nerdy history lesson.

Day: September 6, 2016

Day 3- Östergötland and Västmanland, Sweden

Our cute little empty spa hotel had a great breakfast this morning. Because of this, I got a little adventurous with the selection. ha 

They had the normal meats and cheeses, but then they had some seemingly odd very Swedish choices.

 They had shrimp salad…which was heavy on dill but was good. Mustard pickled Herring….which I was half gagging at the thought of trying…but actually was pretty darn good! I think its a bit of an acquired taste, but I can totally see how people eat that…I kinda want more now that I’m typing this. ha  Lastly, the caviar paste. Sounds so fancy right? Well, they serve it in a squeeze tube… so I dont think we’re talking Beluga or anything. lol 

I’ve had that type of caviar…and its not really my thing, but it’s just salty and has a water texture…. THIS caviar…. wowza. It was pretty terrible. Its like if something fishy sat out for a day and then got pureed with some salt. I had that little pink dollop and the taste was in my mouth for 3 hours. There isn’t much I don’t like… but I put this on the list. haha But all in all, glad I tried it all.


We covered a lot of ground today…and a little bit at the beginning twice…because Google Maps did me wrong! lol We were looking for the Berg Locks on the Göta Canal, which turned out to be right near our hotel…but Google Maps had it listed about 45 minutes away. But I had never seen a canal before, so we backtracked and took the time to find it. This canal was constructed in the 1830s and connected Gothenburg on the West coast with Söderköping on the East coast and into the Baltic sea.

They have a cool display of the doors that have been used in the locks over the last 150 years. Surprisingly, the metal ones fared the worst…only lasting 30 years before they had to replace them….one of these doors lasted from over a hundred years.

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Standing in the middle of one of the lock doors looking down.IMG_1136 IMG_1139 IMG_1145 IMG_1149 IMG_1150

Just a couple of horses with the view of a lifetime.
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We found a Toys R Us at the exit by the canal. (yeah, I know… I was as surprised as you are) and I wanted to get a couple gifts to take to Marie’s little boys (age 2 and 5, I think…)

Norah had fun.. who needs Sweden, we could have just given this kid a lego table and been set.


We had a little bit of a drive. We stopped at a gas station for water…and I found weird snacks… so we sampled.

First was a Kex bar. Wafer chocolate… thought it would have been my thing. mehhh. Norah loved it. lol


Next up, Colaflaskor. Cola flavored gummies with the texture of JuJuBees. Kegan didn’t like them, but I did…


Later in the afternoon we tried our third- a Japp bar. It basically turned out to be a 3 Musketeers so it was ok but nothing I’d ever pay money for again.


We drove another couple hours and stopped at a roadside Restaurant. Norah had Ikea food. ha (Meatballs, gravy, potatoes and lingonberry jam.) We had a prosciutto and mushroom pizza.


On the way out, we got some desserts to go (because we are apparently eating our way through Sweden today haha)

We had no idea what we were getting at the time, but just pointed and researched later haha

Norah got a Chokladball – which was like a chocolate cake donut rolled in coconut. I got a PunschRulle (punsch roll) which is chocolate cake covered in green marzipan, with the ends dipped in chocolate. It is dunked in Punsch, which is a liquer here apparently. I took the first bite and was like, WHOA! thats got booze in it. haha I had to taste Norah’s to make sure we didnt give her booze chocolate. Hers was fine. Kegan got a Mazatin cake- very basic but good- crust, white cake, hard icing glaze. He was happy.

We drove a bit farther to the north side of Västerås to Anundshög: Sweden’s largest Viking burial mound. They have records of people in this area since 2500BC when the glaciers receded in the area… and all the way into Christian times. There are also some Viking stone ship grave markers that would have been used to mark the burial plot of someone really important. I think I read that they researched the bones found here and found they were all females… with gold and bracelets and pearls… so they were royalty of some sort.. but I don’t think it’s known quite what their role in society was…

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In records from the 1600s, all of the stones weren’t standing anymore. They were repositioned in 1932.IMG_1167 IMG_1168

They had a cute little playground at the visitor center that Norah was a fan of.IMG_1176 IMG_1178 IMG_1181

A cute church as we were leaving the viking mound


From there, we continued driving to our hotel another couple hours away. We actually ended up driving through Marie’s little town of Avesta… but since I didn’t know we would be (because we changed our route today) I just sent her a little message and said “Waving as we go through- see you in a couple days!” ha.

This area near our hotel had tons of these style fences. Thought they were pretty cool.IMG_1187

Our hotel is so typical Swedish minimal and cool. Concrete floors, 2 twin beds and 2 chairs.IMG_1190

The hotel itself is so amazing…. the First Hotel of Tällsberg. The lady at the desk said there were only like 4 guests tonight. They didn’t even have the restaurant open, so she sent us into town to another hotel with dinner tonight.IMG_1193 IMG_1194

We walked down to this gem. The Hotell Klockargarden. The waitress was really confused when we asked to eat…turns out it was because they were having a pre set 3 course menu tonight for a conference at their hotel…so she went to go ask the chef if he had enough to serve us as well… and he did! So we got lucky. IMG_1197

The food was excellent, but not out of this world… and when we paid, we learned that it was $142 US. eek. Wow, it costs a lot to eat in this country. ha Luckily, our lunch was only like $27…so i guess it evened out? lol

The first course was a marinated reindeer with pickled onions and some other stuff. Really good.

Main course was Prime Rib with potatoes


Dessert was a frozen Blueberry pudding with ice cream, cloudberries and some sort of crunchy pound cake crouton. so good. By far the best course.


We walked back down through town to our hotel and let Norah run off some energy at this massive jungle gym that have inside our hotel! This sold me on this place vs the other… even though it cost a few dollars more- I knew Norah would lose her mind. and she loved it. She asked to play on it twice tonight. IMG_1198 IMG_1205 IMG_1210

Inside of our hotel

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Tomorrow, we’ll see Mora, go to a National Park and make a 4 hour drive into Norway again to go see some Fjords on Thursday morning.

Day 2-Gothenburg and Småland, Sweden 

Day 2 started a little a few minutes behind because I hit snooze twice without fully waking up. haha so, we lost a few morning minutes of Gothenburg. ha oh well, we saw a lot in the short time we had anyway. Our hotel had a great Swedish breakfast laid out: yogurts, cereals, cheeses, cured meat slices, anchovies, jams, breads and of course meatballs! I was in heaven. Random cheeses, some cured meats and a slice of dense nutty brown bread with whipped organic butter? Yes please. Every.Day. Norah made her own and it’s worth noting the contents for posterity’s sake: Vanilla yogurt, Bran flakes, Muesli, raisins, sugar, a dollup of orange marmalade and coconut flakes. ha The hotel had a nice little bag storage, so we left our backs and carseat there and walked 15 minutes or so over to the canals.

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This is the Tradgardsforeningen (Horticutural Gardens). I LOVE this glass building. It feels very Victorian…although I have no idea if it actually is. ha…but definitely a DREAM of a greenhouse. We didnt go inside because…alarm clock, but there are supposed to be some great plants and amazing lillypads inside.

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“We had to come all the way to Sweden to find some palm trees and alligators?” says Kegan… haIMG_0946

The strangest and most random posts I’ve ever seen….IMG_0948 IMG_0949

As we exited the park, we saw this big bamboo structure across the street. It’s something by a Japanese Artist that was done this summer. It was made out of old wood in a dump with some young bamboo mixed in… called “Reincarnation” because he gave the old discarded wood some new life. I’m not a big art person… so mehhh. but objectively, it was pretty cool. IMG_0954 IMG_0955 IMG_0959 IMG_0960
We had reached the canal and we were ready for our 11am boat ride with Paddan boat tours. Can’t recommend it enough. IMG_0961 IMG_0974 IMG_0975

If you go under a bridge or through a tunnel, Norah makes everyone hold their breath…or in her words “get your big bubble in”. lol Boat tours are no exception.IMG_0985 IMG_0986

We cruised under a lot of low bridgesIMG_0989

German ChurchIMG_0998

Sweden Battleship HMS Smaland. Biggest ship in the harbor- now a floating maritime museum.IMG_1015 IMG_1016

The new Gothenburg opera house. IMG_1018

We were really lucky to take the tour today, because Gothenburg was hosting the Tall Ship Regatta which brought in tall ships from across the world into the harbor…and our boat captain Hannah just happened to be the most knowledgeable and passionate sailor I have ever met. She basically took the mic away from the tour guide at the front, which I think stunned him a little. ha She said she had been doing the tour for 3 years, so she had done the tour thousands of times…and this was the first one she ever narrated or took off course… so we felt really special!! She took us out past the normal tour route into the more open water to float past ALL of the tall ships. It was spectacular….she said that the crew who sail these tall ships are usually not paid- as there is no market for them and they don’t transport any goods anymore… that the average tall ship costs around $1,000 a day to own and maintain while sailing…so these boats are only owned and maintained by true passionate sailors. She said she sails on them from time to time as well… and you could just hear the passion in her voice as she talked about these boats being our heritage and a testament to our past when there were no machines, only keys and sails. A real sea rat, that one. 🙂  Also to note: I love how in Scandinavia truly has gender equality which has yet to reach the rest of the world. I think it harkens back to Viking times. Pre Christianity, Viking women could inherit land, make decisions, rule in absence of their husbands, get divorced. It wasn’t until the catholic church came to town that women were marginalized in their society and it’s so great to see how “equal” everything is. Not just in namesake, but in practice… something I think we still struggle with in the US. I’m super guilty myself… as the guide and the captain boarded I was 100% certain the guy was the captain and the pretty girl was the tour guide…and then I was 100% impressed and awed at her knowledge and ability.

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My new hero Hannah.IMG_1052

Gothenburg has a history as a shipping port, but since 2014 the cranes have been shut down. It wasn’t profitable anymore… but when the city tried to remove them from the harbor to “clean it up”, some local celebrities purchased the cranes and saved them because they believed they should always stand in the harbor as a reminder of their history. As a total nerd, I can get behind that! 🙂

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Next on our tour came the “Hairdresser” bridge. Since it’s so low that you might end up with a new hairdo if you don’t duck your head! This would have NEVER been allowed in the US. haha I’d give it one week and some idiot not listening ends up with a broken neck. You really don’t get babied as much in Europe. They expect you to act like you have a brain and take care of yourself. IMG_1055 IMG_1058

Lastly, on our way back we passed the Feskakôrka..or literally “Fish Church”. The building was built in the 1870s by the city architect to house all of the seafood vendors. It still is the place to go for seafood in the city…so says the tour guide. I’ll have to find out myself next trip.IMG_1063

After the tour we popped into a market across the street. Even the markets are pretty here.

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Mmmhhhh….public drinking water. lolIMG_0967

We caught an Uber here, swung back by our hotel and then headed out of town to the airport to pick up our rental car for the rest of the trip. A black Volkswagen Golf hatchback with automatic. (and yes, Sweden drives the same as the US) so for the first vacation in recorded history…drumroll…. Kegan is the driver! Man, does that make such a huge difference! As we pulled out of the airport, I spotted a McDonalds and we needed lunch quick, so drive thru we go. We were able to order in English, so thats good 🙂 But the menu was of course in Swedish. I got the El Maco burger. Which from the photo ad on the menu, I assumed it was just their version of a Big Mac. (somewhat close advertisement)el maco

Nope. It was definitely a Taco burger. and i couldn’t eat it. haha Luckily, Kegan didn’t hate it and he totally won brownie points and traded me for his Double cheeseburger. Seriously? a taco burger at McDonalds? It was spicy like Taco Bell hot sauce, but sweet, too…with sour cream and lettuce on it. ha


After the weirdest McDonalds on all time, we stopped into the town of Boras and drove around a bit. Lots of pretty building art around the town…of which I got no good pictures, but there was this this guy in his summer construction shorts. ha it’s 60 degrees. GET CRAZY!


After that, we stopped alongside a giant lake to see some ruins. It’s not vacation unless there is some roached out castle on a vista point. These old things are my happy place.  This one doesn’t have much of a story really. Some count in the 1640s had it built. He lived there. In 1680, he died- in 1708, it caught on fire…and here is sits since. Kinda seems like a waste, but that view. wow.

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Next was Alvastra Monestary out by Ögeshög. Originally, it was a monestary of the Cisternian Monks. (the white robes… and the Trappists) They believed in the life through self sufficiency…oh, and they made the best beer on the planet, these Monks. Go to a craft beer store and buy a “trappist” beer. Out of this world- to this day. 🙂

I digress. These monks have land given to them by the government in the early 1200s. and all went well until the 1500s when the Protestant Reformation occurred and the government took it back. (Martin Luther, creation of the Protestant and Lutheran Churches, basically an overhaul of the catholic religion with changes that people tended to agree with more. Like no pope and less corruption.)  Another nerdy note: Protestantism was coming about in 1517 and the pope banned Martin Luther in 1521…but it was made official by Henry VIII and MAJORLY fast-tracked, if not totally legitimized, because he wanted a divorce from Catherine of Aragon so he could marry Ann Boleyn and the catholic church wouldn’t give him one. Just think, if one crazy man hadn’t hated his wife so bad…all Christians might still be Roman Catholics instead of Lutherans, Presbyterians and Baptists! 🙂

It was on beautiful country farmland.IMG_1099 IMG_1102 IMG_1104 IMG_1106 IMG_1108 IMG_1109 IMG_1110 IMG_1111

We found this apple tree behind it…and so we searched the ground for an good apples that had fallen. (Im sure it would have been no big deal to pick one judging from the volume of apples on this tree… but just in case thats some sort of personal property felony…we stuck to the ground hahaIMG_1113 IMG_1114IMG_1118

Last stop before our hotel was a little village called Vikingstad and they have a fancy little Runestone outside of town along the highway. The writing along the edges is in Runic. A phonetic line drawn alphabet. This one is broken, so no one knows the full inscription, but the part that can be read says

…erected this stone after Agute a good…”   …a good friend? a good father? a good husband? We’ll never know.

Also nerd sidenote: we get the word husband from Old Norse Viking language. húsbóndi ‘master of a house’, from hús ‘house’ + bóndi ‘occupier and tiller of the soil’. Word etymology is so cool.

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It was now getting towards sunset time, so we headed to our hotel.

 It is a Hotel/restaurant/spa/conference center in the middle of a wheat field…and we were the only people here… but it was so great! I had a meal that is in my Top 5 of all time. It was the “Farmer’s Dinner” on the menu- whatever is fresh and good that day…and man was it. Pork tenderloin with potatoes, veggies, a green peppercorn sauce, some pickles….there wasn’t a flavor that wasn’t present. I’m going to dream about this meal.

 

The starter was equally as good: marinated deer back. 

Since those two were out of the park…I had to get dessert. For scientific reasons of course…
A Mazatin Cake with dark chocolate, fresh berries and a white chocolate whipped cream. Also to die for. One of my favorite desserts ever. And I forgot to photograph it. #fatkidprobs

 Norah was good during dinner so afterwards, the waitress asked her if she wanted to see their pets. and of course she did. Turns out, the “pets” are the little fish they use for the fish spa pedicures where they eat your skin. hahah Norah absolutely loved it and she even got to feed them. I’ve never had a fish pedicure, but i’m kind of disappointed we arrived too late to do it, could have checked off another thing I’ve never done 🙂


We watched some tv, showered, smothered the 4 year old and now I’m headed to sleep…. I was talkative tonight! It’s 2:30am ha