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Published: April 25th 2021
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I love Hjo
The town name "Hjo" is pronounced the same way as the word "you". Therefore they have "I love Hjo" as a slogan for the town. In early March we took our trusty car and drove down to Västergötland District for a weekend. Ake grew up in this part of Sweden, so we've been here many times and know it fairly well.
We might one day dedicate an entire blog entry to the sites in and around the village where Ake grew up. There are plenty of interesting things to see there so such a blog entry would make sense. But that's for some other time. Here we will focus on the places we visited on this short trip. But for the fun of it we have also gone through our archives and we have thrown in a few additional photos taken at previous visits to this region.
Källby Källby is the village where Ake grew up. When we drove down we passed Källby and we made a quick stop. We visited
runestones that stand there and an outlet store the food producer
Dafgård has in Källby.
Runestones are a kind of memorial plaques. They are typically flat stones, up to three meters high, with inscriptions on one or both sides. The runestones were erected in Scandinavia from the
Lidköping town hall
In the middle of Lidköping square is the spectacular town hall, built in the 17th century. 4th century to the 12th century. Much of this time period coincides with the era when the Vikings roamed in northern Europe and in other parts of the world. The Vikings, who by the way were more of tradesmen and sailors than savage plunderers, also erected runestones during their travels. Runic inscriptions can be found in UK, Turkey and Ukraine for example.
We mentioned the food producer Dafgårds. They not only have an outlet store in Källby, all of their production facilities are also in Källby. Fun fact: One of their products is the meatballs served in the restaurants in the European IKEA stores.
Husaby To label
Husaby a village is generous. "An aggregation of houses" is more accurate. However, for its size it is generously blessed with historical sites.
=> Husaby Church - A church from the medieval times. The oldest sections of the current church is from the 11th century.
=> St Sigfrid's well: According to legends the first Swedish king who converted to Christianity was baptised here.
=> Husaby runestone - stands in the cemetery of Husaby church
=> Husaby bishop castle. Built in the 15th
Lidköping as seen from the river
The river Lidan runs through the centre of Lidköping century and is today a rather nice ruin.
=>
Flyhov rock engravings: With around 500 pictures it is the largest collection of Bronze Age rock engravings in all of Västergötland District.
=> Lasse's cave: In the end of the 19th century a local eccentric decided to transform a cave into a home. He lived in this cave cum house for several decades. He was a bit of a recluse and preferred to limit his interactions with the rest of society to a minimum. He also had a bit of a temper and was feared by the locals. They took a kind of revenge when he passed away, because they demolished his house. But later the historical value of Lasse's cave was recognised. With help of photos that were taken when the house was occupied, his home was rebuilt again.
Hällekis The panoramic photo at the top is of a disused open-pit mine in Hällekis. It is a place that offers a quite spectacular view.
Lidköping The town
Lidköping has an unusually large town square. It is actually the largest town square in northern Europe. In the middle of the square is the
Runestone in Källby
Runestones are a kind of memorial plaques. They are typically flat stones, up to three meters high, with inscriptions on one or both sides. spectacular town hall. It was built in the 17th century. Before it was turned into the town hall, it served as a private hunting lodge.
Skara The town
Skara is locally known for its cathedral. The cathedral traces its origin as far back as the 10th century, making it one of the first churches in Sweden. Most of what can be seen today originates from the 13th century.
Lake Hornborga Lake Hornborga is popular with people who are into bird watching. In spring also people who usually don't care much about birds (us, for example) come to the lake to see the migrating cranes. The cranes spend winters in southern Europe or in Africa. Summers they spend in northern Sweden. On their way north in spring many cranes stop at Lake Hornborga to feed and hang with their buddies. Some days well over 10,000 cranes can be seen at Lake Hornborga. We were there very early in the season though. We saw only 10 or so.
Varnhem The main attraction in
Varnhem is its church and the ruins of an older church and a monastary. The older church
Husaby bishop castle
Built in the 15th century and is today a rather nice ruin. is actually one of the oldest known stone churches in Sweden. Unfortunately we arrived late in the afternoon and could not enter the church. We guess we'll have to go back some day.
Hjo One of the reasons we went to Västergötland District was to visit the town Hjo. The name "Hjo" is pronounced the same way as the word "you". Therefore they have "I love Hjo" as a slogan for the town.
=> Wooden houses: Hjo is famous for the many beautiful wooden houses in town. Next time we go to Hjo we are going to stay in a youth hostel that is housed in one of them.
=> Hjo stream: We have seen it translated as "river" but it is so small that "stream" or "creek" describes it better. Its length is not more than a few kilometres and it is possible to walk its entire length and back in about two hours. Not only is it a nice walk in itself. The nature along the stream is interesting. Also there are many historically interesting remains of old dams and mills along its entire length.
=> Hjo bath: Hjo is next
Runestone in Husaby
The runestones were erected in Scandinavia from the 4th century to the 12th century. Much of this time period coincides with the era when the Vikings roamed in northern Europe and in other parts of the world. to Lake Vättern, the second largest Lake in Sweden. They have a beach and along it there are several photogenic beach huts.
Karlsborg On our way back to Stockholm we made a stop in the town
Karlsborg to visit
Karlsborg Fortress. They started the construction of the fortress in early 19th century. When it was finished, almost a century later, that kind of fortress was obsolete. So the impressive construction that stands there today can be described as a bit of a fiasco. Today visitors are more than welcome to come and visit. But since the armed forces still use parts of the fortress photography isn't permitted everywhere.
The last two photos In the end we have included two photos that were taken at the top of Kinnekulle, a mountain near where Ake grew up. One of the photos is of Ake and his sister Asa in 1974. The other photo was taken in 2010 in the same spot and of the same people in the same position as in the original photo.
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Rainyb
Lorraine Brecht
That's cute!