Blogs from Sweden, Europe - page 16

Revsunds prästgärd is run by Rueben, a Dutchman who was involved in creating the S:t Olavsleden route from the many individual routes that came together and linked up. The signage alone is clearly a massive undertaking, with everything from small 20mm or so square tiles on stakes, through 50mm or so signs on a variety of square and oblong red painted timber boards and hung, nailed, screwed and strapped to posts, trees etc, and finally big welcome signs at various county and local government boundaries. Revsunds is also a meeting place where several of the St Olav routes meet in Sweden before heading off again in different ways to Trondheim. So I put in a pretty big day to get here from Mordviken (Murder Bay). Most of the morning was spent on quiet roads and forest ... read more

There were no bears Just before i left, Miriam, who helps run Täljegården, warned me that if I should meet a bear today, I should sing to it. While I was prepared to treat this as a practical joke, it was said so seriously that it made me wonder what I might choose to sing. At which point I realized that I barely knew snippets of anything but the Australian National Anthem, and I didn't quite know how 'whose lands are girt by sea' would work on a bear intent on girting me. Sometimes, things like that can stay with you the whole day! Avoiding the Main Road There are times when staying off the E14, the highway the St Olavsleden generally follows in Sweden, isn't a walk by the river, but rather a long, continuous ... read more

Fellow Pilgrims There was a mother and daughter with their two dogs in an adjacent cabin, and the mother came over to see if I was walking to Trondheim. She told me they had been, but the older of the dogs was not coping with the distances required each day. Her choices seemed to turn on getting the dog to a vet, and finding a cheap car so they could continue together in that. I wasn't sure what to think about their predicament, or even whether my thinking about it would add any value, so I put it out of my mind. Ruins, Roads and not much Path The breeze was up enough as I was getting ready to set out to give the vest another try just to keep the wind off my upper body. ... read more

Getting things ready to go I suppose Sundsvall won't be much different from other Swedish towns in that most of the places I thoght I needed to get things done didn't open until 10 am, and in one case, not until 11 am. So it was a bonus to be directed to the post office to send a parcel to Elaine to meet her in Trondheim, after being initially misdirected to a newsagent. There I was able to post my parcel, get a pay-as-you-go SIM and meet a nice Swedish woman who had spent a little time a bit more than a little while ago helping muster cattle in the Kosciosko high country. After buying some provisions for the day, I wanted to get my pilgrim passport stamped in Sundsvall, but the place that could do ... read more

We were getting ready to leave Sweden for Norway. Norway is not in the EU. We had found out Jeffrey needed a tape worm treatment between 1 and 5 days before entering Norway. The nearest vet to where we were was 150 miles away so it needed some planning. We went to Ostersund and a very nice vet gave Jeffery his pill in a piece of meat. After paying the bill we were now able to cross. The book talked of avoiding busy times at the border as you will have to queue. Lots of Norwegians shop, particularly alcohol, in Sweden as it is cheaper. On Thursday we set off for the border. We suddenly realised we had not got the passports out of the safe so stopped in a layby and got them ready. All ... read more