Sunday, July 19, 2009


We went down to an old fishing village the day before I drove home again. We had decided to eat lunch in a restaurant they have there. It was surprisingly much like the fishing villages we have on the west coast. Small houses close to each other.









We all agreed that it would be fantastic to have a small cottage like this, but that they were to close to each other. The next door neighbour could probably hear if one farted in ones own house even if all doors and windows were closed :-)
There were some souvenire shops and shops where they sold hand made sweaters, tablecloths, jewelry and other things. But the prices were sky high. I know how much hard work it is to make all these things by hand and that they are worth every penny they get for them. But I still think it is to much to pay 330 swedish kronor ( around 43 US dollars) for a pair of mittens. Okey, they were high quality mittens, but still.




This bay was almost totally closed. It had only one way that the boats could come in and out of it, so it must be a perfect harbour in stormy weather. For me from the west coast this water is a bit salter than freshwater, but here they think it´s really salt :-) In the water they can catch both fresh and saltwater fishes.


The only way out is on the other side of the bay, way behind this white boat Yoy can see by the bridge.I think one has to know that it´s there to see it :-)



When we sat at the restaurant eating there came a boat with a family in it. It´s always fun to look at people trying to moor the boat when they are very unsure how to do it :-) I think I still can do it in five minutes, even if I haven´t been on a boat for over fifteen years. For theese poor people it took almost twenty minutes and during that time everyone in that restaurant had a good time watching them :-)


I ordered the restaurants special. Five different fishe, smoked or fried. I can tell You that it was delicious!


I stopped beside the river just near my friends home to take a picture. When I first saw the river I thought it was a lake. The further north one drives in Sweden, the bigger the rivers become.



The day after it was time to drive home again. Since I had come through the wood on a shortcut I had no idea how to drive back the same way I came. So I had to get out to the highway and drive there for a long time until I could find my way back to the smaller roads again. I was lucky to find the way home on the road I had missed on my way up north. Finally the road was winding and there were some old fashioned cafés on the way.



Finally one of those winding roads I´ve been looking for on my trip.



Unfortunally no place accepted cards as payment. The card machine is expensive to have and would probably take all the profit they made during the day. It was the same with the small shops too. But I had a pleasant journy anyway.


One of the lakes i drove by on the last miles home. Finally I had found the winding roads I´ve been hoping for on my trip. Funny that they were so close to home :-)




It was a nice trip, but now I have to finish my pond and paint my cottage before doing anything else. My first week of vacation has passed and now I only have three more left. Times just flies away. But we´re going to have lousy waether today too the say, so it´ll be just lots of tea and reading I think :-)
Have a great day now!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Christer, you keep putting off painting the house and you'll soon be painting it in the rain. Do a little each day, I think. So the pictures of the fishing village show a rather small town atmosphere on a huge lake. Must survive on tourists as the winters there are so harsh. The photos are delightful. Glad you had a good time. Yummy on the five fish lunch.

jaz@octoberfarm said...

i love going on these trips with you! why are so many of the houses red? and what type of wood are they made from? they must be cedar or something at least that durable? when i go on my trip in october i will take pictures of houses along the way. here we have mostly brick though mine is wood. believe me i understand why they use brick here. a wooden house is very hard to maintain. on the way to new england i drive through areas with many victorian homes and italianate. then when i am in new england many of the homes are cedar shake.i always find it interesting to study the architecture in areas and try to figure out what materials were used and why! joyce

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Z&M!
I would have started to paint now, but can´t just because of the rain. The paint I use doesn´t mix well with rain :-) I´m wondering if I should start with the highest parts of the cottage or the easy parts. I hate to stand on ladders high up in the air. Not because I would die if I fell, but that I would survive with all that pain that comes with a fall :-) :-)

It´s not easy to survive on what they make for the things they make by hand, but the prices were a bit higher than usual here. But I do think they are worth every penny they get for the things they sell.

It really looks like a big lake, but it was a bay filled with semisalt water. We don´t have saltwater lakes here. But it was a really beautifyl place and the dinner was perfect :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Joyce!
Almost 60% of all houses in southern Sweden (in the country side) is red and painted with a special kind of paint. We love our red houses :-) They made a survey a couple of years ago and that showed that almost every one in Sweden wants a red house on the country side, that´s the swedish dream. My cottage has just the same color as these houses, but with another kind of paint.

Most houses in Sweden is made of pine or spruce I think. It´s mostly in the cities that we can find stone houses or brick houses (or on castles and mansions of course).

We have tree houses just because tree is what we have a lot of here and as long we don´t have the same humid climat there is further south they are perfect, But nowdays we are getting a more wet and humid climate and it creates some problems for us. But I agree, it´s far less work to maintain a stone/brick house.

I love to look at arkitecture and how it changes from place to place. Further north in this country they don´t even paint their houses, just oil them.
Have a great day now!
Christer.

Kat said...

Christer,
Wonderful pictures. I love seeing the cottages, so different than the ones here.

Your lunch looked delicious!~

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Kat!
They are beautiful in their smallness. They are miniature copies of houses found a bit in from the coast. But I can imagine that it looks different from where You live.

That lunch was delicious! It was two kinds of salmon and two kinds of herring.
Have a great day now!
Christer.

Anonymous said...

Thank you Christer for coming too us, I´m still laughfing when I think of all you told us.

I hope you come back next vacation and bring Miras family again. My friends think I´m crazy when I bring all dogs in my house, hihiihi.

Hugs from Ljusne

NinaH said...

Guess you have som god memories from that trip! It looks lovely!

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Lotta!
Loved comming up to You and I´ll come back next year! Nothing crazy about that, just natural :-) :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Nina!
Yes, lots of good memories and it was a lovely place!
Have a great day now!
Christer.