Mora
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| The scenery was spectacular. Lets live here.... Wait, it snows |
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| St George made an appearance too! |
Mora is a definite outdoorsy town, set by
the edge of some beautiful lakes. On our
orientation walk, we learned of Mora’s participation, in 1520 and at the urging
of Gustav Vasa, in the fight to free Sweden from Danish occupation. Sweden’s history changed. (Remember that name!) Otherwise, Mora is best known for its metal
working, sharp knives and the Vasaloppet, a 90km cross-country skiing event. Our hotel room was an Ikea experience, making
GS feel really at home. Welcome to
Sweden!
Sweden
appears not to be short on fabulous scenery - pine dressed hillsides,
picturesque waterways and energetic people.
I’m not quite sure what we had envisioned for our time in Mora, but our
leader had many plans. Mainly a bicycle
tour of the lake! We could do the short
trip (22km), the medium trip (36km) or the long trip - a quick round of the lake
at 48km. Our hire bikes were sturdy
mountain bikes (built for beefed-up Swedes) with the most uncomfortable seats
imaginable. Perfect!
Off we set
with a promise of lunch in the village of Orsa (which was really nice - a table
set on a balcony overlooking the lake and a salad buffet to keep the calorie
intake down..).
From there the group
split with the Cap’n leading the charge on the 48km trail. I might add we were still recovering from the
previous day’s orientation walk (3kms), a picnic lunch by the river followed by
(for some) a 7km hike. Are you getting
the Action Jackson drift here? Anyway,
we managed to survive it all… But only
just!
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| Oh darn, there's still 19km to go... |
Stockholm
From Mora,
we caught a coach into Stockholm
where our hotel was thoughtfully, centrally located. Aside from a little window shopping, we only
had a short time to explore this delightful city set on many green islands (green in
summer) and extensive waterways. They say
Stockholm is built over 14 islands and is connected by 57 bridges. I think we crossed all of them on our Big Red
Bus tour of this city with a style (chic, cool, funky, tattoo-ridden) all of
its own.
The Vasa
Museum was our first priority, and what a stunning display of the world’s best
preserved timber warship from 1628. Launched
on the 10th August, the Vasa, in all its spectacular, splendiferous-ness,
sank in minutes - only 1.3km from the Royal Palace. Their sad loss was history’s gain.
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The Vasa was apparently very colourful
& the King obsessed with all things Roman |
This is without doubt one of the most
interesting museums we’ve visited.
Included was a retrospective of other events occurring during the
Renaissance era but from a world-perspective, such as the Mughal Empire in
India (Shah Jahan from his palace in Agra) and the artist, Rembrandt, who died
penniless in 1969.
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| This was about the best photo we could get of this massive ship |
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| Another Marching Band |
Our walking
led us to Gamla Stan, the old town section with narrow cobbled streets,
souvenir sellers galore and reserved historic palaces all fighting for
attention. We could have stayed longer,
we could have dined at Jamie Oliver’s restaurant and we could have done the Millennium*
Walking Tour (only it wasn’t Saturday either)…oh well! There was so much we had missed but at least,
from our short time, we’d gained a decent overview of this interesting city and
touched a little of what it did have to offer.
Perhaps we’d better go back some day…
(Oh dear, the Cap’n has just fainted!)
*Steig
Larsson’s very successful novel trilogy.
Starting with “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” these three slick &
pacey books dig deep into the darker side of Stockholm. GS is currently obsessed with them!
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| The harbour was full of interesting sights |
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