Uppsala: Min 3; Max 13. Sunny when we left in the morning.
Rättvik: Min 7; Max 16.
Eskil slept in until 3 am! Hooray – his waking time is moving in the right direction!! Another lovely breakfast at our hotel in Uppsala, then it was time to check out. We hit the road towards Sundborn via various small roads. It was quite beautiful, with green grass and trees contrasted with the Falun red with white trimmed buildings and white birch bark. We passed people gathering flowers by the roadside for midsommar.
We found the first geocache of the trip at a rhunestone in a forest.
Eskil decided to do a service on the van.
While we were stopped, mosted of us ducked into the forest to ‘refresh’ ourselves. Eskil noted that ‘MorMor and MorFar are hiding!’ (Photos not included.)
We were headed to Sundborn to meet up with the others, my cousins Michelle, Mandie and Daneen and my Tante Sandra at Carl Larsson’s Gård. Carl Larsson was a Swedish Arts and Crafts painter. At Sundborn you can visit his house; as many of his paintings revolve around domestic scenes of his every growing young family, visiting it can feel like walking into one of his paintings.
But first things first. We found the disabled parking, were wandering around to see what there was to see, and BAM – there they were, my cousins and my aunt! It felt a little strange to just come across them there even though it was pre-arranged. It was the first time any of them had met Eskil, so he was happy to meet them – especially ‘Shell.
We got tickets for an English speaking tour through the house and spent the wait chatting, having refreshments, looking at the garden, and introducing Monkey George to a Swedish monkey.
We weren’t allowed to take photos during the house tour, but just look at Carl Larsson’s paintings, take out his family, and substitute tour group people. That’s what it was like; it was quite lovely. Afterwards my mum was quite keen to see an exhibition of Karin Larsson‘s works nearby. On our way we happened upon the start of Sundborn’s midsommar celebration!
As we planned to seek a midsommar celebration near Rättvik, we didn’t follow the parade but continued on to see Karin’s exhibition. My mum was very keen to go, and it involved going up stairs, and as I was mildly interested I went in as well to help her and left my father and Scott watching Eskil in the garden. WELL! I loved it. As someone doing domestic arts Karin’s works aren’t as well known; a painting is more easily replicated than an embroidered pillow or woven textile. I loved them. The skill, the colours, the designs! I’m really glad I went. (These all look SO much better in person.)
Sundborn was a lovely stop; I’d be happy to go again.
After Sundborn we headed to our accommodation at Rättvik in convoy. MorMor and Eskil chatted away the whole way, as they had been all day.
We all checked in at the DalaWärdshus and found our cabins.
We met up at the on site restaurant for dinner. There was much chatting! It doesn’t even start to get dark until quite late, and where Eskil was sleeping didn’t have very good curtains. However Eskil and Monkey got off to sleep anyway.
