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Published: August 4th 2012
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Good morning all
It has to be done - each year we come to Sweden - we go to stay with Lars and Lillemor at the hostel/guest house they run at Omberg on Lake Vattern about 20 km from Vadstena ( a lovely town with a castle and a great cathedral on a Pilgrim Route.) The hostel is in an eco park, an ancient beech and oak forest on the rocky shores of one of Sweden's largest lakes. There are many trails for walkers and bikers and so lots of folk staying at the hostel, eating breakfast, the daily smorgasbord lunch buffet and eating oodles of snacks and cakes and icecream....and so we do our turn of duty helping out. By last year we had mostly sussed it out in the kitchen where everything was - but just to confound us there has been a new kitchen installed with walk-in fridge n freezer...so here we go again learning the ropes!!! However my favourite place is the washing up kitchen with the very large dishwasher and stainless steel countertops where I can wield huge baskets full of cups n glasses and plates to my hearts content. Lesley gets the clearing and
wiping down the tables jobs with occasional promotion to kitchen help cutting up veg for salads. Lars always expects me to make a cake - one of those I have no recipes, don't know how to measure and the cake tins are much bigger than at home cakes!!!! But thanks to a gift of a huge bucket of blueberries freshly picked in the forest by a local lady - I managed somehow to make 2 blueberry cales and also an english treat for the guests - some cheese scones....well thats if Lillemor doesn't eat them all first. You wouldn't believe how much fun we have working for a few days there. But we are full of admiration for Lars and Lillemor who do it day in and day out and manage to always greet their guests with a smile.We did manage to sneak some time out to sit in the sun under the trees and read and had walks down to the lake.
For our return journey we decided to drive a route right around Lake Vattern, Omberg is on the East side of the lake about halfway down ( 3.5 hours from Stockholm) - and off we set
and by the time we got home 9 hours later we had done about 500km. A great trip as always forests , rocks and lakes abound in this landscape and going through some very pretty towns. If you watch the detective series Wallander you might think Sweden looks a bit grim - but it's not like that at all.
So yesterday was a rest day sunbathing on the deck in the garden. This holiday is going all to quicky and we only have 3 more full days....so lots to pack in. Hope the photos give you a taste of what it's like....and hope you like the headgear!!
Love Lynne and Lesley. xxx
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Cherri
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Looks and sounds like you had great fun at the hostel, I love the pic of you at the top! x