Hi, folks....it's that time again! Time to head back to Scandinavia once more. There will be a brief touchdown in Iceland, as usual...Reykjavík is such a great place to get over most of the jet lag. We'll be staying at the B&B we discovered on our last trip, Erik the Red. Looking forward to Edda's lovely breakfasts, the cozy rooms, and visits from Raggi the cat.
Then, on to Sweden for the bulk of the trip. We've rented cabins for the first two weeks...one in Rimbo, in Uppland, near where Sheila goes for her nyckelharpa course. And then another in Södermanland, close enough to the Midsommar festivities in Lid to be able to walk home after having had a few drinks.
Then Sheila will be at Ekebyholm's nyckelharpa course for most of a week, while Lars hangs out with our friends Ami and Gunnar in Stockholm. He plans a boat-trip out into the skärgård (archipelago), and a visit to the Royal Library--both Ami and Gunnar are librarians.
After that, we'll buzz up to Östersund in Jämtland. Sheila has never been to Jämtland, and it has been decades since Lars was there. Plans include Jamtli open-air museum, known for its famous tapestries, and Glösa Älgriket (Glösa Moose-kingdom), which is 1,000 meters of stone-age petroglyphs, plus hiking trails.
We're not so settled in Jämtland...after a couple of days in Östersund, we'll go to a Sami camp and restaurant, Hävvi i Glen. The menu sounds intriguing, with things like reindeer sausage with blueberry chutney and birch-leaf salad. It's a longish drive on gravel roads, so we have opted to stay the night and maybe do some hiking.
Then off to Åre, a ski-resort/hiking area toward the Norwegian border, for one night on our way to Trondheim, Norway. We spent a few days there on our Northern Lights trip...see the Nomads i Norden 2 blog. Thought it might be nice to see it in the summer as well...again, there are open-air museums that weren't open in February. We'll be there for 3 days this trip.
Back to Östersund for whichever museum we didn't manage the first time...weather could be a determining factor here.
Then back to the southland for a week near Linköping. Ami owns a summer cabin in Vreta Kloster, though it's too small for guests, so we'll stay at a nearby B&B. And then the four of us will spend a couple of days on the Göta Kanal....if there's enough water! Southern Sweden has been having a drought! Hopefully they'll have enough rain to fill the canal before we get there.
Lastly, a few days with friends near Stockholm, involving more music at Vendelstämma (Vendel music festival). Vendel is a medieval village with a church from 1300, and excavations have uncovered 6th- and 7th-century Viking graves, so there are many interesting things to do other than play music!
The adventure begins on Monday, June 5th, so stay tuned! Not sure if we'll have wifi the entire time, but we will post when we can.
