On the road again

Yes, I have been out on a little road trip. I went up to see our old friends who now live up in Hälsingland. For the non-Swedes reading, here is a snippet of information from good ol' Wikipedia. If you have a look at the map you can see that our cottage is down on the west coast in the part called Bohuslän and our friends live in Hälsingland, on the other side of Sweden, and MUCH HIGHER UP. The trip took about eight hours, excluding power naps.

On my way up to Hälsingland I stopped at Husaby church. They have found a bit of oak from year 1000 but the present church is from 1120. It is where, for the first time, a Swedish king was baptized as a Christian.

It is not just that Hälsingland is far away, but it is also very different. They have beautiful, big farm houses in this region and our friends themselves live in one of them. Many of these farms have been classified World Heritage and we went and saw some of them on one of our outings.

The flower of Hälsingland is flax (every 'landscape' of Sweden has a regional flower) and you make linen from it. We went for a study visit to Växbo; it was very interesting. I love clothes made from linen; it is a shame they are so darn expensive. However, my friend bought me a dish rag (!) made from linen and swore that it is the best ever. Apparently, I would never want anything else after using one of them. We shall see.

There were many looms in Växbo,
but in metal, and very noisy when
they were all running.

One of the highlights of the trip (since I missed out on the Jimmy Reeves museum and the hubcap museum on the way up) was a visit to the Lill-Babs café and museum. Lill-Babs was a very popular singer when I was young and she has had a long and active carreer. She comes from a place called Järvsö and we went there for a coffee on my second day.

I have lots more to tell, especially about the trip back, but it has to be for another time. It's now time for some gardening. Just wanted to show you what I came back to:

Nothing!

And this is what I left in Hälsingland, yum!