Sweden by Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Written: Jan 05 '07 (Updated Jan 05 '07)
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Pros: Beautiful country, great culture, food, people.
Cons: Costly.
The Bottom Line: Sweden is a lovely country that is culturally different enough to be unique, but similar enough to be accessible.
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| FlyBear's Full Review: Sweden |
For many years, I dreamed of visiting Sweden. I have made a lot of friends from the country, have taught myself the written language (over the course of ten years), and love the hockey culture.
So when I had the chance recently to take a working vacation in Sweden to see the World Junior Hockey Championships, it was a dream come true. I even got to take my wife along to share in the experience.
Usually, when you build something up in your mind for so long, the reality can't possibly live up to the fantasy. But in this instance, my expectations were actually exceeded. There were minor annoyances, but the payoff was worth it many times over.
Note: I originally wrote this epinion using the Swedish alphabet, but saw the Swedish characters come out as garbled symbols on the final version. I have edited it to take out the Swedish letters to make it read easier.
All over the map
Before I get into the specifics, here is a quick look at our itinerary, to give you a sense of where we went and how we got from place to place.
During our late December trip we spent parts of three days in Stockholm, four days in the Dalarna district (central Sweden) and two days in the north.
* On Friday, December 22 we flew Continental Airlines from Newark, New Jersey to Arlanda Airport in Stockholm. We arrived on the morning of Dec 23 (Swedish time, six hours ahead of eastern time in the USA).
* On Saturday Dec 23 we stayed at the Scandic Park Hotel on Karlavagen in Stockholm. We took a bus to Djurgarden to visit the julmarkad (Christmas market) at the Grona Lund amusement park. Afterwards, we walked along the famous waterfront on Strandvägen, around to Kungstradgardvagen and then made our way back to the hotel.
* On Sunday Dec 24, we took an early train from Stockholm to Leksand in the Dalarna district. We took an early afternoon horse-and-wagon ride, walked along the forest and briefly took a path down to Lake Siljan. In the evening, we relaxed at our our bed-and-breakfast (Furuhaga Gasthem) before trying unsuccessfully to find a place to eat in Leksand on julafton (Christmas Eve).
* On Monday Dec 25, we walked for several hours around Leksand, checked out Ejendals Arena and visited the lovely Mission Kyrka (church). At night, we took a taxi from Leksand to Tallberg to have a Christmas dinner at Hotel Dalecarlia.
* On Tuesday Dec 26, we explored some other paths in Leksand and did a little lunch-time food shopping at a local grocery store. At night, I attended the hockey tournament at Ejendals Arena. After the game, my wife and I were invited to a private party at a restaurant in the town square.
* On Wednesday Dec 27, we took a taxi from Leksand to the village of Nusnas to see a factory where the famous Dalahaster (Dala Horses-- carved and elaborately painted wooden horses) are made. Afterwards, we got a ride to the town of Rattvik and took a bus back to Leksand. At night, we ate at the restaurant we visited the night before and then I attended the next round of tournament games.
* On Thursday Dec 28, we took a bus from Leksand back to Stockholm to meet with friends. At night, our friends took us out to dinner in the city. Once again, we stayed at Scandic Park.
* On Friday Dec 29, we took an early morning SAS flight from Arlanda Airport to the northern Swedish town of Ornskoldsvik. At night, we took in a hockey game at the new Swedbank Arena. We stayed at the home of a friend.
* On Saturday Dec 30, our friend had to attend a wedding, so we sat in the back row of Sjalevads Kyrka. At night, we visited the home where our friend grew up, located in a remote village outside Ornskoldsvik and then had dinner at his mother's home in the O-vik suburb of Domsjo.
* On Sunday Dec 31, we took an early morning bus ride from Ornskoldsvik back to Stockholm, arriving mid-afternoon. We stayed again at Scandic Park Hotel. At night, we had dinner at a nearby restaurant and then walked to Skansen for the big annual New Years' Eve festivities held there.
* On Monday Jan 1, we flew back on Continental from Arlanda Airport to Newark.
Continental Airlines-- Bleep Happens
We had quite an adventure getting to Stockholm. The seven and a half hour flight was smooth and relatively uneventful in and of itself, but there was quite a commotion before the plane took off.
Two rows in front of us, a Swedish woman traveled with her adorable little daughter. To make a long story short, the same little girl that everyone was cooing over moments ago suddenly had a bout of explosive diarrhea, messing not only her diaper but the seat she was in, the floor, the window and the armrest. As a result, a cleaning crew had to be called onboard and the seat replaced, causing a lengthy delay in takeoff.
While we could understand the responding flight attendent being less than thrilled about running the cleanup operation, the cracks in her professionalism were obvious. She followed the right steps as efficiently as possible (because each passing minute meant a longer delay in takeoff), but was miserable about it.
The flight attendant's snappy responses to the people sitting around the accident scene and surly treatment of the kid's poor mother afterwards were duly noted by us.
Would I want the responsibility of dealing with that type of situation (if it didn't involve my own child)? No.
Could I handle it with a smile? No.
But then again, that's not part of my job.
As for the other aspects of the flight, the meal service and in-flight entertainment options were adequate. I thought they ranked behind Lufthansa in comparison.
Immaculate Arlanda
Arlanda airport in Stockholm is one of the cleanest, most well-maintained airports I have ever seen. In fact it may be number one. Hardwood floors, easy navigation, polite, efficient personnel -- if only every airport was like that. We went through customs swiftly and were on our way.
Shortly after arrival at Arlanda, I headed over to the SJ (Swedish Railway) desk to purchase our train ticket to Leksand for the next day.
Prior to coming to Sweden, I had already researched the train schedule (there were only two trains to Leksand on julafton, with a changeover in the town of Borlange).
Unfortunately, the SJ website wouldn't let me pay by credit card online, saying the prefix numbers were restricted (non-European issuing bank) and I'd have to buy the ticket in Sweden.
I was mildly annoyed that, due to the last day purchase, the only tickets left were standby tickets, meaning we would probably have to get up several times from our seats and find other vacated seats as some folks got on and got off.
Ordinarily I wouldn't mind that type of arrangement at all, but we had all our luggage with us and it was a three-hour train ride with only ten minutes to make the subsequent changeover to the train to Leksand.
As it turned out, we were able to continually find seats in the same train car and there was no problem whatsoever. But if I had it to do over again, I probably would have booked the ticket by phone in advance of coming to Sweden.
The declining dollar
After booking the train, we went over to exchange some money for the trip.
A few years ago, the American dollar was worth 8+ kronor, which cushioned the blow of some of the notoriously high prices in Sweden. (This is not a myth-- everything in Sweden is expensive, although apparently not as bad as Norway and Iceland).
Unfortunately, the current exchange rate is about 6.2 SEK to the dollar.
As a result, you end up spending a lot more than you would at home for comparable goods and services, especially when you're in Stockholm.
Spent a mint on taxis
In retrospect, it probably cost us more not to rent a car because we ended up having to take about seven or eight cab rides during the trip.
The bad news about taxis in Sweden: They are very, very expensive.
The good news: Almost without fail, the taxis are clean (and are fairly new cars) and you don't have to worry about getting scammed by the driver.
Speaking the language
Most Swedes under the age of 50, except for small children, speak English (this is true for the small towns as well as the cities). They like to practice and often drop English words and phrases into conversations with fellow Swedes.
Even among older Swedes, there is roughly a 50-50 chance the person can at least communicate in English well enough to be mutually understandable.
Nevertheless, if you can learn at least a little Swedish, it opens up all kinds of doors for you. While there are many Swedes who are talkative and inquisitive (contrary to the age-old stereotype), just as many wait to be spoken to before engaging with you. If you even make the effort to speak Swedish to them, they open right up.
I have a decent Swedish reading comprehension and was able to understand non-translated signs, read the newspapers, etc. It came in handy several times, especially outside Stockholm.
My grasp of the spoken language is far more limited. A Stockholm cab driver good-naturedly told me I speak Swedish like a Finn. In terms of listening comprehension, the speed of typical conversation often leaves me several sentences behind, still translating the words in my head.
We usually ended up switching to English before too long, but the attempted interactions in the native language tore down barriers much faster. It adds a whole new dimension to the experience.
Case in point: When we took the bus from Örnsköldsvik to Stockholm, we were the only non-Swedes on the bus. After conversing briefly with the driver in Swedish before loading on our bags, he made all announcements in both Swedish and English during the eight-hour trip.
Would he have done that anyway? Perhaps, although our Swebus driver from Leksand to Stockholm only made announcements in Swedish-- one of the situations where it came in handy to know a bit of the language . More importantly, the driver from the O-vik trip went the extra mile to be helpful on our behalf, and my wife especially appreciated it.
If you know you are going to Sweden, invest a few bucks in a "Teach Yourself Swedish" tape or check out the free online Swedish-English dictionary that the Swedish Skolverket offers. Be aware that there are some pronunciation differences in the dialects of Swedish spoken around the country. For example, in Stockholm, the word "skeppet" (the ship) would be pronounced somewhat like "hweppet," while further up north it sounds more like "sheppet."
Great Deal at Scandic Park
The Scandic hotel chain has a solid reputation and was recommended to me by other journalists I know (both Swedish and non-Swedish).
If you go online to the Scandic site, you can usually find some good deals, especially over the holidays. The only hitch is that the room must be prepaid and is not refundable.
We got in on a fantastic Christmastime deal at the Scandic Park Hotel (43 Karlavagen) right downtown. The room was only about $70 a night, including tax, and would have been worth it at more than double the price. We'd stay at a Scandic hotel again in a heartbeat.
The room was spotless and, while essentially no frills, quite comfortable and attractive, with the sort of attractive hardwood floors you find throughout Sweden.
The staff was polite and knowledgeable. They offer free wireless internet in your room (a huge plus in my line of work) and free guest computers in the lobby. There's a sauna that's free to guests. And, oh yeah, they have a spectacular full breakfast included in the price.
Charming julmarknad at Grona Lund
Grona Lund is an historic amusement park in Djurgarden. Small and quaint by modern standards, it is still worth seeing, especially during the holidays. After checking into our hotel, we crossed the street and took the bus to Grona Lund.
Every Swedish town has a julmarknad (Christmas market) and Lucia festival in December. The Christmas market at Grona Lund, while pricier and more generic than ones you'd find elsewhere, is still a distinctive slice of Swedish culture -- with mostly Swedish crowds coming out to it.
It's a good place to sample Swedish Christmastime goodies such as glogg (a warm mulled beverage) and pepparkakor (gingerbread cookies) while checking out some holiday crafts.
Images containing the jultomte, the Swedish version of Santa Claus, are just as omnipresent in Sweden as things with Santa Claus in North America. The "get your kid's picture taken with Tomte" lines were pretty long at Grona Lund.
So long, in fact, that one child simply lay down prone on the cobblestone ground because he was tired of standing still. My wife and I snapped a picture of the boy, hands on his chin, lying on the ground. It was one of our favorite photos of the trip -- a universal childhood moment.
When we later traveled to the Dalarna district -- where Swedish children's folklore has it that Tomte comes from Mora -- it was Tomte Times Twelve. Even the newspapers had Tomte on the front page. By the way, not so coincidentally, there is a "Tomteland" tourist/ family attraction around Mora.
Beautiful Djurgarden and Kungstradgard
The bus ride to Djurgarden is short. It only takes a few minutes to get from the park area near Karlaplan to the stop near Skansen and Grona Lund. The local busses in Sweden are clean and comfortable, but on the way back from Grona Lund, we elected to walk. It was a great choice.
Walking up toward the famous harborfront street of Strandvagen ("strand" means beach in Swedish, although there's no beach on Strandvagen), we took in the beautiful architecture of the Nordic Museum and the picturesque boat-lined harbor. The time was now about 3 PM and the sun was starting to set over the horizon. It was quite a sight to see.
We wound our way slowly around the harbor and headed up to Kungstradgardvagen (King's Walking Garden Road-- Swedes have an insatiable love for compound words, so whenever you see a ridiculously long looking word it's probably a compound of several short words) where there were several sights we wanted to see.
There is an outdoor skating rink in the main Kungstradgard square, which is really atmospheric during the holidays. Crossing the street just beyond the square, there is an upscale area lined with boutiques, a huge department store, and a variety of nice-looking restaurants. To either side of the square is a nicely maintained old church and a variety of small kiosks.
Tucked away on a small side street opposite the skating rink and church is a synagogue. The synagogue courtyard is home to Stockholm's Holocaust Memorial, with a large sign reading "Glom oss inte" (Forget us not) that explains, in both Swedish and English, that the memorial in the courtyard contains about 8,500 names of Holocaust victims, contributed by the surviving members of their families living in Sweden and elsewhere.
My wife and I are Jewish, so the memorial and synagogue had special significance to us. I joked to my wife that Jewish people living in Stockholm had better turn out early for havdallah services (end of Sabbath services held at sunset) this time of year or they'll arrive at 4:30 PM to find the services over and the lights turned out. For that matter, what would an observant Jewish person do on the Sabbath in the north of Sweden in the summertime, when the sun never sets? Hard to tell when it begins and ends.
After window shopping at some of the stores on Kungstradgardvagen, we looked for a place for dinner.
Dinining in Stockholm and beyond
On our first night in Sweden we found a suprisingly good pan-Asian restaurant that featured an "Asian julbord"-- a Japanese-Korean-Thai tinged buffet loosely arranged to look like the traditional Swedish Christmas Table. We ended ordering off the regular menu rather than doing the ultra high-price julbord.
Throughout the trip, we were very impressed by the food in Sweden. The food was tasty and it was easy to eat healthy if you want to. Even when the food is rich and/or smothered in delicious-but-fattening gravy, the portions served are what Swedes would describe as "lagom" (not so little as to leave you wanting, but far from excessive).
On our return trip to Stockholm on the 28th of December, our friends took us to a spectacular restaurant called Den Gyldene Freden east of the center of town, at 51 Osterlanggatan.
Built in 1722 and tucked away in a winding cobblestone alley, this retaurant features a host of modern continental dishes, pasta, traditional Swedish husmanskost (home cooking) staples and husmanskost with a twist, such as wild game (reindeer and elk) meatballs. Although you will pay top dollar at DGF, if you are going to go all out and indulge, this is the place to do it. They will also gladly prepare something for vegetarians or people with dietary restrictions.
By and large, however, most of my Swedish friends are not enamored of eating vegetables, except for potatoes. Perhaps it's cultural. The Swedish word for vegetable (gronsak) literally translates to "green thing." Most Swedish restaurants offer salads and creamed or bacon-smoked vegetable side dishes but raw or steamed vegetables usually have to be asked for seperately. If it's not on the menu, just ask. In my case, I will eat just about anything -- I love most meat and fish dishes -- but have friends who are vegetarians or other restrictions.
On New Year's Eve, most restaurants were jammed. One of the front desk staff at Scandic Park tipped us off to a Malaysian restaurant just a few blocks from the hotel, where we could probably get a table right away. The restaurant was virtually empty -- most native Swedes and western tourists don't think, "Hey, let's do Malaysian in Stockholm for New Years!" -- but the food was excellent and pretty authentic.
A little earlier I mentioned the outstanding breakfasts at Scandic Park. Basically, there is something for all tastes, ranging from an extensive selection of Swedish favorites (as a crisp bread, herring and gravlax lover, I was in heaven, and quickly came to enjoy the caviar paste that is readily available around the country) to the heavier meats, sausages and cheeses that German tourists often prefer. You can even get American-style pancakes and an array of juices, including blueberry juice.
Our bed and breakfast in Leksand, called Furuhaga Gasthem, offered a similarly extensive breakfast table. As a result, throughout our trip, we tended to eat a fairly hearty breakfast early in the morning, followed by a light lunch/snack midday and an early dinner if possible.
We carried that schedule over to the nights we stayed with our friend in Ornskoldsvik. Early on Saturday morning, we went to the local Hemkop (a supermarket-- you also see ICA Supermarkets all over Sweden) and picked out some things we wanted for breakfast. That was fun.
My wife had no interest in trying blodbrod (blood bread) but we did try some of the other northern regional specialties, and enjoyed tunnbrod, a thin bread that looks a lot like the Passover matzoh we grew up with.
While in Leksand, we ran into some problems on Dec 24. Swedes have their big family Christmas celebration on julafton rather than December 25, and there was not a single place open in the town, including the lone Chinese restaurant.
Likewise, there were no taxis or busses running that evening to take us to the hotel-laden nearby town of Tallberg, which offered a variety of julbord dinners to their guests. Since we hadn't rented a car, we were stuck. We ended up eating dried apricots and pistachios in our b-n-b bedroom.
The next morning, however, Furuhaga owners Rick and Marie Reimer -- with their family members still staying at the inn-- served some of the leftover julskinka (Christmas ham) from the previous night with breakfast. And Rick arranged for a taxi to come get us to take us to Hotel Dalecarlia in Tallberg for their special three-course Christmas menu, which was absolutely wonderful. What's more Hotel Dalecarlia is beautiful, both on the outside and in.
There is one very nice restaurant in Leksand, called Bygatan 16 (the name is also the address), owned by a German man, Helmut Schwabe, and his Swedish wife.
When we traveled to Ornskoldsvik, our friend took us to his mother's home for dinner both nights. She was one heck of a cook, making a delicious chicken with meatball-style gravy on the side one night, and melt-in-your-mouth salmon the next, with potatoes and a small side salad, followed by a wonderful blueberry bread-pudding dessert. That was REAL husmanskost at it's best!
We weren't in Sweden the right time of year to try surstromming -- fermented Baltic herring that is a specialty in the north. No one dares eat it indoors because of the overpowering smell, our friend from Övik told us. Instead, people consume it outside, on one of the Swedish breads with onions. Being an adventerous eater, I would be willing to try it. My wife, fairly adventerous in her own right, said she'd pass.
A few final notes on food and drink in Sweden: Most everyday restaurants offer a dagens ratt (loosely, daily special), which is a reasonably priced way to sample typical Swedish food. If you are going to indulge in dessert while in Sweden, try something topped in cloudberries (hjortron in Swedish). Cloudberries only grow in Sweden and are great on top of vanilla ice cream or certain pies.
Lastly, I have some good news and bad news about wine and beer in Sweden. The bad news is that wine is almost prohibitively expensive. Coming from Pennsylvania, which still has an archaic state store system, I can relate to some of the high prices stemming from the government-administered stores (systembolaget in Sweden) and high license fees for restaurants.
Another piece of bad news is that there is a reason why Swedish beer such as Spendrupps is not a big export item. Most of the domestics are just OK, no more and no less. But you can get Czech, German or Belgian beers many places in Sweden. And, if you are willing to bite the bullet and pay through the nose for the indulgence, the nicer restaurants often have good wine lists.
We drank alcohol sparingly in the trip, and didn't try aquavit or anything with Absolut vodka, which we've had plenty of times at home anyway. Instead, we drank rivers of Loka, a brand of mineral water that is sold just about everywhere in Sweden and stocked at our Stockholm hotel and Leksand b-n-b.
Pleasant SJ train ride to Leksand
The SJ trains we took to Leksand -- one from Stockholm to Borlange and another, ten minutes later, from Borlange to nearby Leksand -- were spotlessly clean and well maintained, as was the train station (jarnvagsstation). It left and arrived punctually, according to the schedule.
As I mentioned earlier, we bought our SJ train tickets at Arlanda Airport, because we were unable to complete the purchase online before we left for Sweden. There are also automated ticket machines at every train station, and the price of the ticket is refundable (minus a 40 SEK booking fee) up until the time of departure.
For our return trip from Leksand to Stockholm, we bought an SJ ticket at the automat in the town of Rattvik-- the bus and train station are in the same place in Rattvik, Leksand and elsewhere. But the time schedule was inconvenient, as we needed to arrive in Stockholm several hours earlier than the train would get us there. We ended up buying a ticket on Swebus Express that better matched our schedule.
There was no hassle whatsoever getting a refund. We merely called ahead and then redeemed the tickets for a refund in Stockholm Central Station.
Anyway, upon arrival in Leksand, we discovered yet another reason why we should have rented a car. Furuhaga was a little too far to walk, at least with all of our luggage in tow. There was no taxis to be seen at the train station.
Fortunately, there's a speed dial number -- plus it's a free call -- to the taxi station in Leksand's torget. Although the small cab company was running on an even more short-staffed basis than normal, because it was julafton and they were about to close to go home to their families, they did send over a car to get us.
Otherwise, our only other option would be to walk 25 minutes with our luggage or get one of the locals to take pity on us and drive us over to Furuhaga.
Christmas in Dalarna
There was no snow to be seen in Dalarna this Christmas, much to the chagrin of people who lived there.
In fact, other than Ornskoldsvik, we didn't experience a single day with sub-freezing temperatures during the sunlight hours the entire time we were in Sweden. Even in O-vik, temperatures were in the high 20s (Fahrenheit equivalent).
We ended up being too warm in our heavy winter coats and didn't need our hats, gloves, etc. We had dressed for an old-fashioned Swedish December, not the ever-warmer winters they seem to be having. There was a lot of talk of global warming, both in everyday conversation and in the newspapers.
But snow or not, Dalarna is one of the nicest places in the country to see what a Swedish Christmas is all about. The small houses -- mostly red -- are decorated in a more understated way than we often see in North America (although slowly creeping closer toward the North American plastic-light-up-reindeer-on-the-driveway look we are used to seeing).
The sights and smells are wonderful and even strangers are all too happy to wish you a "god jul!" as they pass by, which wouldn't happen in Stockholm.
Adding to atmosphere, we booked a horse-pulled sled ride through Leksand on December 24, operated by a local farm called Myrbacka Gard. Since there was no snow, the sled ride was cancelled.
Instead, we took a horse and wagon ride, joined by a Swedish family from the western part of the country, taking a three-generation family trip to enjoy the holidays in Dalarna while staying at the nearby Korstäppan hotel in Leksand (a country squire's estate converted into a hotel).
On December 25, we took the scenic route to see Mission Kyrka in Leksand, stopping in to light a candle. Although we are Jewish, we could fully appreciate the beautiful artchitecture and welcoming interior of the church.
As a tourist, expect for stores and even the tourist bureau to be closed on December 24-26, with things slowly opening again on the 27th. If you stay in Leksand, my best advice is book a julbord in advance at Korstappan or arrange a reservation and transportation to one of the nice places in Tallberg, such as Akerblads or Hotell Dalecarlia.
If you aren't staying at Korstappan or another place with a julbord, the owners of Furuhaga, Hotell Leksand and other places will be glad to assist with the arrangement as long as you give them enough advanced notice.
Other than that, you can't go wrong spending the holiday just wandering through the forest and taking in the postcard-like views on Lake Siljan.
If you don't go during the holidays, the peak season for Dalarna is midsummer in the middle of June. The district has the most extensive, pageantry-laden celebrations of the midnight sun held anywhere in Sweden.
Someday, hopefully soon, we'd love to return to Dalarna to experience a Swedish midsommar. We'd also like to see some of the artwork of famous Swedish painter Anders Zorn, housed in his hometown of Mora.
The joys of Lake Siljan
When we first arrived at Furuhaga, the innkeeper, Rickard, told us the best thing about Leksand was it's simple pleasures. He had lived much of his life in Stockholm and had played college baseball in the U.S. Living in and around sparsely populated Leksand, he said, there is no crime, hardly any pollution or litter, little noise and lots of natural beauty.
"Just breathe in the air," he said. "You breathe better here. There's no stress, no time clock. People here live longer than folks in the city."
He was absolutely right. The air is crisp and clean in and around Leksand and the surrounding towns. Especially if you're a vistor, the pace of life lends itself to talking long walks in the forest and simply standing by beautiful, placid Lake Siljan, looking out from the valley (Dalarna means "the valleys") at the peaks and trees in the distance.
As capitavating as the views are during the daylight hours, it's almost an otherworldly experience at sunrise and sunset.
If I had to pick my single favorite aspect of the trip to Sweden, it was our walks around the lake. We were filled with a type of serenity and peace that you can't put a price tag on and, sadly, you can't take with you when you go.
Hockey heaven
Leksand and Mora were great sites to choice for the 2007 World Junior Hockey Championships. In Leksand, the Leksands IF (AKA Leksand Stars) hockey team is one if its biggest claims to fame. The team has produced a host of National Hockey League players throughout its storied history. While its on-ice fortunes have declined in recent years, to the point of being relegated from the top league of Swedish hockey, the LIF hockey team is part of the lifeblood of the community.
The Stars play at modern new Ejendals Arena, on the same site where its historic arena (the Isstadion) stood for over 50 years. What makes the arena unique is the way it is so intertwined with the community. At most sports arenas-- in Sweden as well as North America-- the arena complex is segregated from the actual community.
In Leksand, Ejendals Arena is just as much part of the town as the homes, schools and businesses. The arena is never gated or otherwise separated from the public. If the professional team (or, during the World Junior Championships, a national-team squad) wasn't playing or practicing, the kids from the town can use the ice for free. Locals walk there from their homes because the arena is situated so close by.
Directly adjacent to Furuhaga Gasthem, for instance, there is a quick little shortcut that cuts through the forest directly to Ejendals. Across the parking lot from Ejendals you will find school buildings. Continue a little further and you are on the path that leads to Mission Kyrka.
Meanwhile, in Mora, the team has preserved its historic arena, performing extensive renovations to keep it viable in the modern era. Now sponsored by the FM Mattsson company, the arena is home to an Elitserien (Swedish Elite League) club.
Later in the trip, we visited the new Swedbank Arena in Ornskoldsvik and then saw the historic Kempehallen arena, which is now used by youth players.
Despite its small size, O-vik is the home to Modo Hockey -- a long time Elite League team known throughout the hockey world-- and the hometown of some of Sweden's most famous players, including Peter Forsberg, Markus Näslund, twin brothers Daniel and Henrik Sedin and, from an earlier era, Anders Hedberg.
Originally, I was supposed to see a game in Stockholm at the Globe Arena (Globen), the largest arena in Sweden. I saw the globe shaped edifice from the car and in the distance on New Year's Eve, but didn't get inside this trip.
My kingdom for a Dala Horse
One of the most enduring images of Sweden is the hand-carved, elaborately painted wooden horse known as the Dala Horse (dalahast in Swedish). The traditionally home-made handicrafts (hemslojd) are native to Dalarna.
Today, there are two tiny factories/stores in the village of Nusnas, where you can see the crafts made from start to finish. The stores, originally founded by the Olsson brothers but now running in competition with one another, are about 200 feet from one another.
Nusnas is about halfway in between Leksand and Mora. If you don't have a car, your best bet is to take a bus or train to the town of Rattvik and then take a second bus to Nusnas.
I've always been fascinated watching things get made -- I've always been a sucker for those television programs that show the manufacturing process at different factories or visit the kitchens of famous restaurants. I loved watching the labor-intensive Dala Horse making process up close, from the bandsaws cutting the blocks of wood, to the carving of the horse's distinctive shape with a hand knife, to the dipping in primary paint and glossing to the final outer detailing with a thin brush and colorful paint.
The workers have gotten so used to the repetitive taks that they can do about 150 horses at their particular station in the course of a day, replicating the same level of detail time and time again.
Of course, the whole purpose of the free tour is to get you to buy a horse in the shop, but I must say (and my wife agrees) that I felt a little better about paying the rather high prices they charge for the souveniers after seeing just how much exhausting handiwork goes into them.
The shops sell the horses in everything from the traditional red color -- about two-thirds of the horses are done the traditional way -- to pink, blue, black and purple. They also offer other well-known painted wooden handicrafts of the area, ranging from clogs (träskor in Swedish) to Mora clocks.
While you can find these items pretty much anywhere in Sweden (and some of which are now made in China), it's worth the side trip to see how they are made.
Politics on the periphery
As beautiful and peaceful as Dalarna is, it is not immune to the problems of the world. A few years ago, there was an upswing in unemployment and crime around the working class areas of Borlange and elements of the far right and far left wing each try to spread their equally poisonous messages in a variety of ways.
Sweden's socialist democracy has had strains on the system in recent years, with an increased number of people withdrawing from the system without paying in. As always, the shrill voices of extremists get louder.
The far left wingers try to paint any sort of privitization of services as ruinous to the people. In two spots, we saw far leftist posters. The used "avoid the end of society as we know it" type of scare-tactic images to try to enlist support. Meanwhile, the far right wingers spew old-fashioned venom toward minorities and immigrants, blaming them for all the world's ills.
At least among all the Swedes I know and have spoken with on the subject, there is little time or patience among the average Swede for sword-rattlers representing any political extreme. They realize there are problems in the system, as there are in all political and economic systems, and want to see them handled intelligently. Hatred and prejudice just make the problems worse.
We actually saw that first hand. In Leksand, there was an anti-minority website banner posted on a tree and a swastiska painted on a shed. But at the first locale, someone ripped the URL portion off the neo nazi website banner. At the second, it looked like someone had first tried to rub out the swatista but, unable to do so, grafittied the international slash-out sign on top of it.
The High Coast in winter
After we returned to Stockholm to meet with our friends on Dec 28, we flew SAS from Arlanda north to Örnsköldsvik to stay at the home of another friend. The drive takes about seven to eight hours, but the flight is less than one hour.
The short flight went off without a hitch. They served a continental breakfast, collected the items and before you knew it, we were landing.
The small city of Ornskoldsvik really isn't much to see in and of itself. The city proper is utilitarian in nature, serving people's basic needs and little else. For decades, the MoDo paper company was the town's biggest employer, and forestry the dominant industry.
More recently, the company was sold, the name changed and the factory and now operates at a fraction of the size it used to, still billowing a hazy smoke in the air.
What makes O-vik special, apart from its hockey team and the ski jump right in the middle of the town, is the sorrounding villages, the countryside and the High Coast (talk about beautiful sunrises!). Even in winter, these areas are beautiful and peaceful. Weather permitting, there are plenty of great areas for snowmobiling around O-vik.
Come summertime, they make for a great vacation area. We also had the great opportunity to be in friends' homes. Seeing daily life is always just as interesting, if not more so, than visiting tourist attractions. O-vik (like Leksand) seems like a great place to raise a family.
During our stay in O-vik, we got to witness a wedding at Sjalevads Kyrka. The church is an eight-sided edifice rated as Sweden's most beautiful church building in a national poll, although we personally found the Sophia church overlooking Stockholm to be even more magnificent than Sjalevads.
Most people in and around O-vik get married at Sjalevads, even if they typically go to another church or rarely attend church at all. December weddings, however, are relatively unusual there. The wedding ceremony was very interesting to watch, and we made sure to keep a low profile in the back pew. One common feature we noticed at all three churches we stepped into in Sweden was a small play area in the back for toddler-aged children.
Another highlight of O-vik is the Väckefjärden golf course and country club, owned by hockey superstar Peter Forsberg and his father, Kent. Among its members are many of Forsberg's hockey buddies. There's not much of anything going on there in the dead of winter, however.
Departing from Ornskoldsvik, we rode another clean, comfortable Swebus Express back to Stockholm. Far and away, the highlight of the eight hour bus ride was traveling along the High Coast as the sun was just coming up. If I could have, I would have gotten off the bus and just stood there.
God Forsattning!
We ended our trip with a bang, walking from Scandic Park Hotel in Stockholm to the traditional New Year's Eve celebration at Skansen in Djurgarden. The zoo areas are closed off ("djur" is Swedish for animal) and there is an entertainment stage set up, with a breathtaking view of the city as you walk to the periphery-- fireworks going off everywhere you look, ships on the harbor and Globen in the distance.
Attending the celebration with an almost entirely Swedish crowd (the only other foreigners we met that night were French) we reveled in the sights and sounds around us. At midnight, there was a spectacular fireworks display at Skansen and Swedish toasts to the new year.
During our time in Sweden, we were at two parties-- a private party at a restaurant in Leksand and the big public celebration at Skansen.
Watching Swedes at home confirmed what I already witnessed from my Swedish friends who have visited me in the USA: By and large, Swedes are among the most orderly, well-behaved folks you will ever meet -- I mean that in a complimentary way, because I think people elsewhere could learn a lession from it.
But they do know how to let their hair down, especially when they think no one else is watching!
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Families
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime
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FlyBear
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Reviews written: 61
Trusted by: 16 members
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