Love that roof on the house your great grandfather built
I'd be stopping to check out every critter too. Thanks for sharing your experience

I speak no Swedish but my kid took the trouble to learn several useful phrases. Turns out that almost all Swedes speak English. The further out in the country (like where we are now) a little less. We’re currently in Dalarna where the famous mid-sommer (summer solstice) festivities are famous. We will be cavorting and dancing around the maypole on Friday. For the life of me I can’t correctly pronounce the Swedish word for beer. Ol with the little dots over the o kind of sounds like “eel” but guttural.

Great pics, thanks for sharing.

Good stuff BP. Keep the pics coming

My kid made a move on two gorgeous blonde super-model looking Swedish gals a bit ago and I was sure tempted to ask if I could take a pic of the threesome but thought it might be too bold on my part. Maybe tomorrow …😀

Swedish being part of the Germanic languages, like a lot of English is, has a lot of words that are basically similar to English if think about it a bit. That "eel" is related to "ale".

Found that with German after did a year course in it (over 50 years ago) and then later dealing with German Air Force guys buying furs for years in the '80's and '90's. Also when went to Norway a few years ago. Not hard to start putting the basics together at all if you listen and read carefully.

any food or historical pictures ?

Stay tuned


Old style Swedish cabin. Livestock below, grain etc and living quarters above. Sod roof. According to my dad who lived a year in Sweden (just before WWII) manure was often shoved up around the foundation during the winter to keep it warmer.

Heard a Swedish cuckoo bird call out over the Viken where my grandfather Teodor once swam. Am told Swedes always eagerly awaited the first calls as a harbinger of spring.
They have a crow like species and I finally got a pic…like our crows they often hang out around food establishments an pick up scraps. You can get pretty close.

Its calls are different than our crows and they have grayish heads.

Thanks! It appears to be closely related to our crows. I also see magpies that appear identical to ours.

Some more random Sweden observations:
Swedes seem to have a fascination with vintage American cars. Lots of 40’s and 50’s Chevys, Fords, Chryslers running around. A lot of the young crowd have converted them into low-riders with big boom speakers. Last night they cruised Leksand all night long blaring American and Swedish music.

I’ve noticed some cars that have slow moving vehicle signs on the back that only travel 20 mph. I finally asked what that was about and it turns out that 16 year olds can get a tractor license but have to be 18 for drivers license. So if you modify the engine to max out at 30 kilometers an hour it’s a tractor as far as Sweden is concerned.

Also traffic enforcement is with severe penalties here Drive over 30 kilometers an hour over the speed limit and you lose your license. Drinking and driving is jail time with no exception.

Traditional arrival of the may-pole decorations coming upriver from lake Silyan in a long boat.
Dalarna, Sweden. Midsommer Fest.

Most of the girls wear flower garlands for midsommer that they made or bought.

My poor kid is suffering a bad case of swivel-neck disorder! I’m sure glad I’m not that age anymore…always trying to figure out how to connect with the lovely ladies! Poor lad. No luck at all so far. Lol

This is the Vasa. A 1628 war boat that sunk in the harbor out of Stockholm on its maiden voyage. 30 sailors drowned. It is the only fully restored ship of its kind for that time period. It took about 17 years to restore it. Slowly the salt water was replaced in the wood by a liquid poly plastic preservative that the had to irrigate the wood with for 9 years. The wood was black oak from Smaland.

Forests are well managed here. The dominant species appears to be shore pine. I think it’s the identical species we call lodgepole pine in Central Oregon. They do pre- commercial and commercial thinning as well as de-limbing the trunks with a mechanical device on a skid steer.

This pic just for you Keith!

Wow! Thanks for sharing for sharing some of your trip, and some pictures. You must be having a lot of fun touring around.
Love the pictures. Not sure of my favorite. It is down to your great grandfathers house, the war ship and the two blondes!

Thanks again

Mac

Tack sa myket! Mac.

One more pic: almost every house in rural Sweden is painted barn red. I’m told it is because they mine some sort of iron oxide from the copper mines and it was cheap and lasts almost forever.

Some very nice pics!
I guess if they keep maintaining their forests, they’ll never get the old growth forest look eh?