LearnSweden Blog

The Art of Coffee

~A Look Back~

While we are on spring break I thought I would share with you a look from my travel journal. Last September I made a big trip to Sweden and had a great time. Come and have a look at the most fabulous way to have coffee.

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Greetings friends. Sorry to leave you for a few days without a blog-post. I'm in Sweden ,and the last four days have been a whirlwind. Aside from some serious jet lag, I've been spending most of my time catching up with friends. Here in Sweden we have great tradition called a Fika. This is a nice little word which means coffee break. At least once a day, sometimes twice, I meet with friends to share a fantastic cup of coffee and some sweets.

 

 

I had such an occasion with my friends the Svangrens, as we visited this beautiful manor house to taken in one of the best Fika's around. I now invite all of you to embrace this tradition.

   

   

 

 I want you to stop what you are doing, grab a friend, sit down, have a cup of something and catch up on all of your doings.

I'll be back soon with some more visions of Sweden. Until then, take care.

    

   

  

Ölandsbron

by Per Svangren

Connecting the island of Öland with Kalmar and the rest of Sweden, is the Bridge of Öland, Ölandsbron. Built and ready in 1972 and about six kilometers long, it's free of charge to use and cost Sweden XXX to build. 

Öland is the second biggest island in Sweden, after Gotland. The island is about 130 kilometers long and about 20 kilometers from east to west at it's broadest part. Living on Öland are about 25.000 people, but during the summer there is about  double the people living on the island. One of them visiting Öland and the castle Borgholm, is the Royal family and every year the Crown princess Victoria celebrates her birthday on July 14th here.

On the other side of the bridge you´ll find Kalmar. One of the ten biggest cities in Sweden. The town is famous for its castle, Kalmar slott, built in the 12^th century and a very beautiful place to visit. 

 

Karlskrona

by Per Svangren

Recently,Valarie and I went to Karlskrona for the SACC convent, Catwalk XX. We went there by car from Stockholm and took our time to see and visit some interesting parts of the south east area of Sweden. We stopped in Söderköpng, Vimmerby, Kosta and Orrefors. 

It's been a couple of years since I was in Karlskrona and then I just stayed there for a couple of hours. Now we were there for three days and had time to explore the city. The camera was working hard and here are some shots which speak for themselves. 

To När

 
There is nothing better than a Sunday drive. Mine took be to my families home in När, a small hamlet on the east coast of Gotland. In När you can visit the medieval church, go to the fishing villages,hang out on the beaches, bird watch and....play golf. Now I will ask you Per's famous När question,.....Have you ever heard of the Ainbusk singers? Well if you have, they're from När.  I invite you to come along and enjoy this journey with me. It was a lovely day but a little windy. Thank goodness for the windmills, they came in handy.

 

  
  Hope you had a great weekend!
  

 
 
 

Astrid's World

 When Per,Lotta, and the kids came for Thanksgiving last year we took them to Dollywood, home of everything Dolly Parton. So it was only fitting that when I'm in Sweden that Per would take me to Astrid's World,home to everything Astrid.

For our friends who aren't in Sweden and don't know who Astrid is let me share a little bit about her. Astrid Lindgren, is the most beloved children's book author. In all she wrote over 100 books, the most famous being Pippi Longstockings. Many of her books have been translated into many languages. Astrid Lindgren's World is a theme park which is located in Vimmerby,Sweden. There one can meet all of the beloved characters from Astrid's books in person. Everything is built exactly as they are described in the books and give us all a chance to enter into the stories such as, Pippi Longstockings, Emil i Lönnberga, Karlsson on the roof, and so many others. Everyday there are tons of musical performances in the various stories.

Lucky for us Astrid's World was open but  unfortunately no performances. Aside from one school group , we were the only ones there. A perfect day to take photos.

 

An announcement somewhere near Vimmerby

We decided before we left Stockholm that we would stop along the way often to take photos for our new book. (We can't say more about it now but Per and I are writing a book. It's a very exciting project which we will share with you very shortly. )

Everything caught our attention and we stopped often. This lovely place didn't miss our attention and we took a moment to take in it's beauty. I'm not sure of the name of this place but we were close to Vimmerby and it's just off the highway. Enjoy !