Sept 15 -Excursion Away From the Big City of Stockholm
Ingalil was very excited to take me on an excursion with some friends of hers. The weather was perfect for a boat ride to a small island, one of over 20,000 islands in Sweden.
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| The town of Vaxholm was established in 1558. |
Ingalil has lived in her neighborhood in Taeby for many years, so she has some wonderful neighbors. Inga and Franck were perfect hosts for the day.
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| This is the boat company we went to the island on. |
Vaxholm's Kastell is a fortress originally constructed in 1544 to defend Stockholm
against shipborne attacks from the east, but most of the current
structure dates from 1833-1863. Russian prisoners-of-war were used in
part to build the fortress
. The stretch of water below the building was formerly the main sea route
to Stockholm. The fortress was strategically situated to defend
the city from naval attacks. It was attacked by the Danes
in 1612 and the Russian
navy in 1719. Since the mid 19th century, its military importance has
ceased.
Today, it is home to theSwedish National Museum of Coastal Defense.
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| Waiting in the beautiful sunshine for the boat to come. |
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| HERE WE GO! |
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| It only took about 15 minutes to arrive at the island. |
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| Beautiful ride |
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| DESTINATION: Stegesund |
There are rough roads here on the island...most everyone just walks everywhere. We walked about 10 minutes to the 1890 year old home that is a summer house of Franck and Inga's daughter.
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| What a a beautiful view they have outside their back deck. |
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| Come on in for a tour of the home. |
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| Dining area with a perfect view! |
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| I love the old grandfather's clock. |
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| Oh how I LOVE the Swedish colors! |
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| They even have an old piano which I had fun playing. |
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| Looks like a REAL sheep skin blanket. |
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| Posing in the sunshine on the deck |
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| Queen Victoria stayed in this bedroom when she came to the island, about 150 years ago. |
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| The trunk says the year 1785. |
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| Bedroom where the children stay upstairs. |
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| Typical narrow, windy staircase. |
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| Such beautiful decor |
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| The sun feels so good! |
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| This is the bathroom and it's so cute! |
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| Isn't the duck lift-up toilet seat so cute?! |
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| The view behind me is so pretty! |
We took off through the woods on a walk. Immediately beneath my feet, I began seeing so many different kinds of mushrooms They were very colorful and so beautiful. I didn't realize that Franck had brought along a knife and a sack to collect edible mushrooms.
MUSHROOMS....MUSHROOMS.....Everywhere MUSHROOMS!
We found a couple of varieties of berries. Most of the berries on the island had already been harvested earlier in August.
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| Sloanberry - VERY nutritious! |
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| A common wild blueberry - so sweet! |
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| I loved this cute little yellow house with a picket fence! |
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| Swans, ducks, and more wildlife. |
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| Each house had some kind of gate with a special painting or picture. |
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| Amazing summer houses all over the island. |
We came across a man gathering mushrooms to eat I couldn't believe all the different varieties and colors. I was told that the best ones are kantarell and bjorksupp.
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| Aren't they beautiful! |
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| This is a special specimen! |
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| My favorite mushroom of all!!! |
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| This one is a good one - maybe we'll cook it tonight! |
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| Another good one - they are few and far between as many others have been picking, too. |
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| There are some really interesting fences. |
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| What a wonderful afternoon we've had! |
Back to the house of Franck and Inga's daughter....we enter into the back gate.
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| Into the cute kitchen where they've canned blueberries recently. |
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| Tagliatelli Borgonese Lunch - VERY good! |
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| This is how you do it. |
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| Such great company on a beautiful island! |
Ingalil....I'm so lucky to have met such an elite lady. Isn't she so amazingly beautiful?
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| SWEDEN....land of MANY islands |
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| Dessert time ....I had brought some millionaire's shortbread from England. It was the BEST! |
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| Haven't we had just the BEST day? |
We're getting ready for the boat to come get us.
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| Thank-you ALL for a most memorable day in Sweden! |
On land, we go back to the town of Vaxholm and to our car. These buildings have a lot of history.
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