Sweden 2024

Started with a quick trip to a nearby bakery for fresh bread for breakfast and vanilla buns for fika. Squeezed in a few more tunes, then off to the airport. Flights were even on time. Fabulous trip, but happy to be home!

One last day in Stockholm showed us real Swedish weather with cold rain. It didn't stop if, though! We took the steam boat to Drottningholm. The palace is too much, like most royal palaces, but still very interesting. The picture is an old harpsichord that was apparently played until quite recently. The theater was separate from the palace. Built in 1776, it's still actively used, mostly for opera. We got lucky and heard a bit of a rehearsal. Japanese ramen for dinner, because why not. 

Made it back to Stockholm and got the car returned successfully. A couple stops along the way, but most interesting was Mariefred. We were too late to do the full tour, but walked around and saw a rune stone, one room of paintings and the outside of the castle. Then walked around the village, and had a wonderful fish stew for dinner. 

Like yesterday, started with a walk after breakfast, this time post a "manor house", some fiddling for Anders and me and then to the spelmansstämma. Lunch of traditional raggmunk (fried, cured pork--sort of like bacon--potato pancakes and lingonberries.  Then a series of fabulous concerts plus some dancing. The first cold, rainy day of the entire trip and we managed to be tucked in the concerts and only got sprinkled on.  One picture is the manor house, the other is the kitchen in one of the buildings at the spelmansstämma site-- the rack hanging from the ceiling is for your knäckebröd.

Started with a hike through the forest around the hotel (really.a vandrarhem, or hostel), then some fiddling, then off to the spelmansstämma. Really good class with Mats Edén, then a bunch of good music for listening and dancing. Really crowded dance floor, but we managed--and nice to see lots of younger dancers.

Long drive today to our next adventure. Found a nice spot for lunch but the river shown in the picture. Got to put hostel, collected Anders, and checked out the location of the Spelmanstämma tomorrow. Judging by the number of people arriving and the areas blocked of for parking, it won't look like this picture tomorrow.

Nice walk across the Vikbron (wooden bridge) and through part of the nature reserve. Picnic lunch, or maybe it was fika, and made it home before it started raining.  After-dinner/pre-dessert walk in the neighborhood since the rain had stopped. While crossing the golden gate bridge, we spied what must be the rock where Spel-Josse found Näcken and learned a polska from him without getting drowned. (No water in the river today because the dam is closed.) Dessert was strawberry rhubarb pie from homegrown rhubarb. Yum! Then a bit of fiddling.

Super day in Sundsvall: walked around the downtown area checking out the dragons, then up to Norra Berget and the open air museum for Medelpad. Nice to see the old buildings, animals and nice view of the city. Gorgeous weather helped. Then to Nils and Lina (and Rut and Siev) for dinner and some tunes. Too much fun...