Dalarna Holiday Jaunt

On day one at the new job in Stockholm I was asked when I was planning on taking holiday. It wasn’t something either of us had thought about too much to be honest; don’t I have to actually work first? In Sweden; apparently not.

To be honest, we weren’t ready for a holiday. Having spent the last couple of months frantically packing, moving to the other side of the world and then attempting to get settled and start a new life in Sweden, we both felt like we actually had to spend some time in our adopted city – Stockholm, get in to some sort of daily rhythm and maybe then we would consider a holiday.

People kept telling us, urging us to take one though. “Go before summers over”. “Make the most of the warmth and the long days, it’s a long, long winter”. And my personal favourite “Sweden’s got one of the worlds highest suicide rates for a good reason… winter”. Well, OK, if we must. Besides, after one month in our apartment in Rissne, the days slowly shortening, Ana starting at day care on the 19th of August, and an actual rainfall event (yes, practically the first since we arrived two months previously), we decided we had better heed all the advice and go on holiday before the doom and gloom of winter hit us.

But where to go? With Karin around for dinner one night, we consulted the map, which mostly consisted of Tina and I pointing at areas saying things like “That looks nice” and Karin replying with statements like “That’s boring, don’t go there”, or “dull”, with a screwed up face, or simply just a screwed up face. We were beginning to wonder it was worth going anywhere. I’m absolutely positive Karin will never get a job with the Swedish Tourism Board though.

We settled on a region called Dalarna, an area about 3-4 hours drive north west of Stockholm, on the border with Norway and known for some of the best skiing and mountain biking in the whole country. Unfortunately it was both summer so the skiing was out, and our mountain-bikes are still chugging their way over the ocean on the slowest boat known to mankind. The Lonely Planet for Sweden had a whole 9 pages devoted to the rather large region and Dalarna and it was pretty uninformative, so we simply found a couple of national parks, selected four hostels in the area, booked a room in each and hoped for the best.

The hire car, ram packed with our usual entourage of stuff, sped out of Stockholm at the start of the weekend and we arrived in the pleasant town of Rättvik on the shores of Lake Siljan by the early afternoon. The sun was blazing and Ana whopped in delight at paddling in its shallow warm waters. The first of many paddles and swims that were to be had in the following week, or so we thought.

Lake Siljan - that's winter arriving behind us 

Mora was the first stop for the night and we were relieved to find that that hostel we had booked (as were the following 3 over the course of the week) was not a hang out for ageing teenage bus trips or the 20 bedroom dormitory variety. This probably has to do with the fact that they are run by the Swedish Tourist Association (STF) and as Karin suggested, there isn’t much to see in Sweden so the booze buses stay away. In fact we were practically the youngest people staying, accommodation was rented out on a room basis, it was clean, quiet and reasonably priced.

Our arrival in Mora coincided with the end of summer (as holidays are good at doing). The rain and cold came later that evening and the voices of my work colleagues willing me to take a holiday before summer ended rang in my ears all night.

The morning offered us a narrow rain free window and we drove to the small village of Sollerön to wonder amongst a Viking burial site. The villages in the surrounding countryside were very picturesse with wooden red walls and white trims and pretty surrounding gardens giving them an aptly Swedish look. It was no surprise to hear that the surrounding area is known as the most Swedish looking area in Sweden.

The next morning we made a sweeping visit to the Dala Horse factory in Nusnäs so that Ana could feed her passion for all things horse and see a few thousand little wooden horses been created from lump of wood to painted tourist kitch. We left with a few of Sweden’s most sought after souvenirs and Ana also got to drive a bus  (busses being her second greatest passion) when she decided to climb aboard a awaiting tourist bus and the driver happily gave up his seat for a few minutes.

Dala Horse factory - Sweden's most sought after souvenir

Ana about to take a group load of Austrians on the ride of their life!

Next stop was Särna. We stayed at the STF hostel again which was run by a Dutch couple. It was a little akin to a Faulty Tour’s episode, with the constant noise of the landlady yelling at her 4 children (if I had four children I would probably yell a lot too), eccentric rooms that opened either straight into the dining room, lounge or kitchen (as ours did) and seemingly strange long term inhabitants who didn’t (or couldn’t) smile or talk and drank a lot of cider. We stayed 3 nights, the temperature never reached double figures and I can’t remember ever seeing the sun!

Särna also felt like the beginning of the back and beyond too. It was surrounded by endless pine trees, lakes, rivers and not a lot else. It was a handy base to nearby national parks though, hence our reason for staying, and we had a successful day in Fulufjället National Park were we hiked to the base of Sweden’s highest waterfall – Njupskars vattenfall, and up onto the stunted plateau that forms the basis for most of the park. The track verges there, and the tracks virtually everywhere we went during our nine day sojourn were literally heaving with blueberries. Ana, having already become accustomed to this literally endless bounty of her favourite food being absolutely everywhere, soon became an expert blueberry picker and we spent many hours every day feeding our faces with natures free gifts as well as collecting for desert later that night. 

 

Blue berry hunting

The hunter in action

Walking in Fulufjället National Park

Hard to keep walking when there are blue berries everywhere!

Njupskars vattenfall

The following day was cold and bitter. We steered the car north and drove up to Nipfjället National Park. To our surprise we saw a heard of a dozen of so reindeer by the side of the road. Of course we stopped and took photos as the strong bitterly cold winds battered us from all sides. It didn’t seem to bother the reindeer… I guess if it did they would have migrated south a long time ago, but with this being virtually their southern limit I guess they were practically basking in the warmth.

 

Nipfjället National Park - Now that's more like the Swedish summer I was expecting

Through the rain we drove up to Långfjället National Park through increasingly sparse towns, did a short loop walk around the Troll Garden and after Ana had tired of picking up rocks (as toddlers love to do) and eating blueberries (after we dragged her away from them) we drove back to Särna hoping for better weather the next day.

Troll Garden - Långfjället National Park

The weather was better, but it also coincided with me catching a bout of food poisoning. We did manage a short walk back at Nipfjället in the sun (although it was still bitterly cold) and watched a reindeer literally walk straight past us on the track, but it was a reasonably sedate day as we then headed south to the town of Gräsheden which wasn’t a town at all but a place on the side of the road that consisted of a single hostel that looked more like a truck stop run by a strange man from Birmingham, and a development gone wrong that consisted of incredibly expensive looking houses that were all completely empty and awaiting buyers… since the global financial crisis apparently.

Herd of reindeer at Nipfjället 

 

 On the first night we had the hostel to ourselves bar a couple of mountain bikers who had lost the ability to smile and make conversation (including offering a greeting). They were early arrivals for the cykelvasan – a 95 km annual mountain bike race that attracted a mammoth 12 000 competitors. It was run on the same course as the more famous vasaloppet, the worlds largest cross country skiing race. That we happened to be in the region on the very day of one the world’s largest (by participants) mountain bike race was purely coincidental. Yes, we both felt pangs of jealously, but when we saw the course - practically fire roads and tarmac which explained the super fast times (2 hours 43 minutes was the winners time), the pangs subdued somewhat, but only a little. The vasaloppet however…. Hmm, I might have to learn how to cross country ski!

So while the cyclists arrived the next day, we took ourselves walking and blueberry hunting in Granfjällsstöten in the cold, but avoiding the afternoon rain once again (just).

If in doubt - pick blue berries

 

Add your own caption here??

The next day we wove our way back to Rättvik where we bumped into a lady we had met a month before while waiting for a ferry on the other side of the country (I love small countries). Our arrival also coincided with the return of summer. Perfect timing considering the next day we drove back to Stockholm and to work. Although, the heat probably had more to do with the location of our holiday than a change in weather patterns.

 

I think I see the sun....

OK, there was the odd bit of sun

Potty training of a road trip

 All up, a successful adventure, some places to return to – with bikes and skis, and we now feel a real need for another holiday soon.