Saturday, 17 July 2021
kristinehamn
Friday, 16 July 2021
sveafallen
askersund
Thursday, 15 July 2021
the stone ship of nรคssja
elder fuรพark
Wednesday, 14 July 2021
mervรคrdeskatt
Having arrived late at our third choice campsite near the city of Vadstena—for which everything ultimately worked out though it was extra driving, on the lakefront, we opted instead for pizza from the resident restauranteur and we’re delighted to discover not only the Swedish version of the meal that one can’t get wrong (doughy but cheesy and delicious) but also that the twelve percent value added tax applied to take-out is called—because we taught you how to budget and cook for yourself—is abbreviated as “Moms.”
Skydad alternatively is the Swedish term for protection, security. Though the campgrounds were crowded,the protracted period of dusk as the sun never quite sets afforded some nice vistas of the lake beyond.
vรคgarna attraktioner
Traveling on towards Gรถtaland following the shoreline of Sweden’s second largest great lake—the sixth largest in the whole of Europe and thrice the size of Lake Constance (Boddensee), we spent quite a few hours circumnavigating the large body of water, whose name just means that though more rhapsodic academics maintain it refers to the ancient personifications, deifications of the source of sustenance and commerce of the region.
A motorway rest stop offered a pedestrian link under the elevated highway to the grounds of the ruined, unfinished structure called the Brahehus, with a commanding, panoramic view of the lake and the island Visingsรถ. First conceived as a spot for prime real estate development, Count Per Brahe the Younger decided to build on the promontory called Gudsbacka in the 1630s—offering the monumental retreat as a dower home for his new wife.
Sadly his bethrothed Countess Kristina Katarina Stenbock died soon after construction began. Plans were altered and the mansion found some use as a guest house for dignitaries but its location made upkeep logistical impossible. Count Brahe founded the town of Granna on the shore below in 1651, orientated to face Brahehus.
slottruin
After departing from our natural campground in the woods at the border of the farmstead on the shores of Helgasjรถn, we first visited the nearby ruins of the fortress Kronoberg, built originally as a summer retreat for the bishop of Vรคxjรถ, destroyed during the Dano-Swedish War in 1470, rebuilt and fortified and eventually appropriated by Gustav I with the country’s conversion to protestantism.

Our rebel leader Nils Dacke captured the castle in 1542, nearly repudiating the king’s authority by depriving the army, albeit temporarily, of this strategic stronghold.
The eventual retreat of the border from Smรฅland to รresund meant Kronoberg lost military significance and fell into disrepair. Continuing north towards the Vรคttern region, the lesser of the great lakes—we stopped to inspect the old church of a village called Hjรคlmseyrd
Tuesday, 13 July 2021
the glass realm
vissefjรคrda
catagories: ๐ฉ๐ฐ, ๐ธ๐ช, architecture
Sunday, 11 July 2021
ales stenar
Sticking to the southern coast, we came to a megalithic so called stone ship (see previously)—a burial setting from the late Nordic Iron Age, most likely, of an oval of colossal stone pillars weighing up to five tonnes with larger ones stern and aft. It’s true purpose a matter of dispute, researchers are divided whether the Ale‘s Stones were primarily a funerary monument, a worship site or a sort of lunisolar calendar as there are points of correspondence throughout the year with the turning of the seasons.
The outline of an astral boat, seventy meters long and consisting of fifty-nine boulders, overlooking the sea reserves some mysteries and projects a certain energy.