Blogs from Värmland County, Sweden, Europe

Pick up a hire car today for the Swedish part of our trip. Found the Avis shop and into a relatively new Opel Corsa. A bit smaller than expected but we could fit all of the bags in the boot. That is because we left the big case behind at the hotel as we are coming back there at the end of our trip. Out of town and heading ultimately for Karlstad. This is where Stephanie spent around 10 months on student exchange in 2000. We are staying with her host father, Christa. Unfortunately her host mother died late last year. We stopped at a very old castle which Christer had suggested on the way. Skokloster Castle which was built in the early 1600’s. Very interesting especially how they have used the original furnishings where possible. ... read more

I DO remember the last time I was in Sweden, but as it was (I think) in 1978 I don't remember everything about it. It was our last family holiday and we spent 2 weeks camping in southern Sweden. Some of this holiday has become legend in Risby family history. The main thing I recall about the trip is that we had been told that bread was incredibly expensive to buy in Sweden. We therefore decided that we would take our own "crispbread" supplies with us from England, as well as most of our other food for cooking in the campsites (eating out was not thought to be an option if we could not afford bread!). To make our diet more interesting we purchased a wide variety of crispbreads so we would not become bored with ... read more

A blog with the founder of the Nobel Prize, one Nobel laureate and a troll that has nothing to do with any of them In August 2022 we both managed to get a few days off from work. Since it was still summer and the weather forecast promised lovely weather we decided to go on a little road trip. We travelled through a district called Värmland Country. Our main goal for this road trip was a very small place called Båstnäs, so small that it doesn't even count as a village. We will write about Båstnäs and the site we wanted to see there in our next blog entry. Båstnäs is located only 2 km from the Norwegian border so to go there we pretty much had to travel all across Sweden. In this blog entry ... read more

Bonjour à tous, Ce matin avant le petit-déjeuner, je sors voir si je n’ai pas de nouveau un ticket sur le pare brise, non, mais surprise il y a une petite fraîcheur, 12-13º. Je vais donc enfiler mon sweat-shirt aux couleurs suédoises, jaune et bleu, certaines mauvaises langues disent « vendeur IKEA « . Le thermomètre n’a d’ailleurs pas dépassé les 18º, avec un vent du genre Mistral des grands jours et presque froid. Hier je ne vous avais pas parlé du Musée Nobel, en fait je suis passé devant sans savoir ce qu’était cette bâtisse. Ni du musée ABBA, qui paraît-il a un succès spectaculaire, des gens viennent du monde entier pour ce musée. Pas moi. Je prends donc la route direction Oslo, à la sortie de la ville un grand centre commercial je m’y ... read more

Wanderer How does John Bauer see his trolls No, they are not trolls, what do you think – in today’s Internet: heroes-not-heroes-anti-heroes! They are the real trolls, as Europe and the world saw them a hundred years ago (1911;1912;1913). Not everyone, of course, saw them, but those who became acquainted with the world of John Bauer (1882 – 1918), Swedish painter and illustrator. Trolls in Scandinavia, especially Norway, are naturally already known in ancient times. But really they are depicted by Henrik Ibsen in his Peer Gynt and can be heard in Edvard Grieg’s music. However, the particular form they took only in the listener’s mind and imagination. Each had their own trolls... read more