Blogs from Jämtland County, Sweden, Europe - page 4

A visit to Sweden wouldn’t be complete without at least seeing (or perhaps eating) a reindeer, the subject of every child’s Christmas dream and the quintessential ‘Northern’ beast. There was no way I was going to take the easy way out, having come this far I refused to visit theme parks, petting zoos are worse still, introduce myself awkwardly to an air-tight plastic pack at the supermarket. I insisted that my first reindeer experience would be in the wild with no weapons, machines or fat Santas (although if he or she wished to air-freight me a new season snowboard in the near future I wouldn’t complain).

Sweden is big. I’m not talking Australian outback big or Russia big but on a European stage they certainly receive their fair share of jealous stares over the back ... read more

Ah, following on from Christmas in Sweden, was a quick trip to the family-friendly ski-field of Åre, in the Swedish mountains near the Sweden-Norwegian border. Åre is apparently Sweden's number one ski resort, consisting of four separate ski areas and cute little villages containing everything from beauticians to coffee houses to trinket stores. The scenery is breathtaking, particularly from the very top of the largest mountain which overlooks the whole area. Framed by low sweeping mountains covered with pine forests, all overlooking a majestic, deep and frozen lake, it really is quite spectacular. Reason enough to go on its own, even without the skiing and the opportunity to spend a little more quality time with Luke, Maria and the child-to-be. At 8 months, Maria really was doing marvelously well to be moving about as freely and ... read more

Sweden Day ThreeAmanda Avar’s and Train Back to Stockholm I’m pretty sure the jet-lag hit. Michelle and I had planned on riding bikes to the train station to buy tickets to go back to Stockholm, but I was dead to the world when she tried to wake me in the morning. When she got there the place was closed, but luckily they had a machine where she could buy the tickets. Mom and Cathy needed tickets but we didn’t because we had our Eurorail passes. Sven-Eric took me to the store to find cardamom, and some sort of salt and something that is used to make thick milk for Mormor. I can't go into detail about what thick milk is, but let me just say that the "good grandaughter" in me wanted to find it, but ... read more