DAY 139 & 140 - Rättvik, Sweden - At LAST!

Aug 5 & 6 - Traditional Swedish Customs & Culture
Finding Krister and Sasa was the BEST thing because I wanted to search out my ancestors and stay in a place that would be easy to do it.  We had easy accessibility to the town, use of their car and bikes, and we learned so much about the Swedish culture since we were there for a whole week.

The bus ride was about hour hours.  We found out we had a celebrity on our bus and I asked to take his picture.  Evidently he is a famous composer and musician from Rättvik. 

Sid Jannson from Rattvik - he sings and plays the violin

Krister took off work to pick us up at the bus depot.  He was so kind to bring us to his home and then he went back to work. 

This cute bedroom was to be ours for the week.

 Note the beautiful Swedish rug that everyone had and someday I will try and find for my new house.

What a cute living and dining area.  Sasa is a beautiful home interior decorator.  

Spacious area for their whole family with three nearly grown children.

                     

Sasa's office space near the kitchen.

I loved their kitchen and it was always so clean and tidy.

We even had a fire one night when it was a little chilly.

The shower was the best...heating lamp and jacuzzi-like spray with circular enclosing.

 We became familiar with their place and when Krister told us we were welcome to pick anything in the garden that needed picked, we helped ourselves.  Berries were coming on strong as well as beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, and more.  We were in heaven as we have really missed not working in our garden at home.

The raspberries were HUGE and very abundant.

These berries were EVERYWHERE - I picked a TON & froze them

Just as in Denmark, they had MANY other berries, too.

That night, Kister barbecued salmon in their pit in the backyard. We ate on the back porch with a beautiful evening sunset.

Roasted vegetables - we love veggies!

Sasa tossed together a big salad with everything in it.

SO SO G-O-O-D !

The next day we went into town and walked around.  Rättvik lies on Lake Siljan and has about 5,000 inhabitants.  It is widely known for its old traditions of folk music and the beauty of the surroundings close to Lake Siljan.  It is an example of a traditional Swedish and Scandinavian way of living.  Rättvik is situated in the middle of Sweden in the province of Dalarna.
 

The beautiful Lake Siljan in Dalarna County.

 

We visited the town on a Tuesday which happened to be a good day as there was music in the streets and on the stage and many tourists were enjoying some Swedish culture and sunshine.

This building was built in 1860

 There were some traditional pieces of furniture, costumes, and several items in this museum-like visitor's shoppe.  I had fun looking through books of old costumes that would have been used a couple of hundred years ago.  I imagined by relatives wearing them.

 I love the bright colors of their folk dresses.  Each area has a different style and everyone knows where you are from by your traditional clothes.

 

 In mid-June, Mid-Summerfest celebrations and dances are held in many of the small villages.  Too bad we were a little late for that.

 Typical folk costumes in Rättvik

It's near here that the famous Dala horses are still made

 I will talk about these famous horses in a future post as they were everywhere.

Rock bands performed throughout the afternoon and their were a lot of young people enjoying them.

We preferred the folk singing music of these two "young" men.

 Evidently others enjoyed this music better.  There were more people watching here.

Aren't these two so cute?

The Swedes love their folk music.

 I discovered a flea market where I found all kinds of treasures.  I could only get this one item, however, as we live out of a backpack - remember?

This will go by my front door in my new house.  It means, "WELCOME".

A beautiful water fountain in the middle of the town plaza.

Ice cream in Rättvik is very popular, so we had to try it. - YUM!

Another wonderful meal together with our great hosts.