It’s November. Light is fading. Sunset is around 15:30 and on overcast days it never really gets light. Halloween is past us, it’s a couple of weeks before Christmas decorations and the anticipation of Christmas lights up around us. The body wants to sleep. It is time to rest and recover.
Enjoy family life with good cooking, reading, watching movies, playing games.
Mariefred
I had my father visit us from Denmark for a couple of days. Great that he is still fit for travelling. I picked him up at the airport and we had a good time. Spending time with the kids and some relaxed sightseeing trips. Last year we did the big sights of Stockholm with the Vasa Museum. This year I picked car friendly destinations: Tumba Paper Mill, Gripsholm Castle.
Especially I enjoyed revisiting Mariefred, a scenic small town next to Gripsholm Castle at the shores of Lake Mälaren. It was nice to experience the quietly buzzing life of a place that is otherwise a tourist destination for the summer months. A cosy little bookstore, a cheese stand on the main square, and a dog friendly lunch cafe with a decent selection.
Sigtuna
On the way home from the airport Sunday I stopped at Sigtuna to walk the dog. It’s a nice little place north west of Stockholm that was a major town near the end of the Viking Age. Today it sports a picturesque shopping street, a rune stone trail, and ruins abandoned since the Reformation of some of the first stone churches built in Sweden.
The local museum showcases Viking Age and early medieval finds. Buried treasure hoards as well as items of bone and wood, preserved due to local soil conditions. Asa relics uncovered in the same layers as items decorated with Christ and crosses witness of the transition to Christianity.
The viking craving for silver was so strong that there is now more ancient coins in Scandinavia than in the countries in Asia and Arabia where the coins were minted. Coins were minted in Sigtuna for 150 years, the first coins minted in Sweden.
Sigtuna brands itself as Sweden’s oldest town. The exhibition included a thoughtful text on nationalism and the evolving concept of “Sweden”. When did Sweden begin? What are possible answers to that question? Who gets to decide? In this time and age of resurfacing nationalism and big alpha male world leaders, it is nice to be humble about such matters.
Take care. Be kind. Light will return.
