Asköviken och Tidö slott

These photos are from Asköviken - a bird sanctuary with watch huts and walkways - and Tidö slott (slott means castle).

We unfortunately didn't see many birds at Asköviken, but we were also accompanied by a restless younger cousin (kusin), so not much of a chance to stay long. This guy above is known as a rödben - red legs :D

 We went walking through a farmers paddocks and across the lake you could see Tidö slott.
I think it's wonderful that fields in Sweden are open to the public for exploring. The only rule is that you should keep away from the house (hus), and of course not stay for extended periods or be disrespectful of thier land. It opens up beautiful (vackert) lands to be seen, and probably contributed in the past to the Swedes' love of nature.

 Above is the inner courtyard of Tidö slott. It was closed that day, so no inside shots.

The grounds were dotted with large, very old trees (träd). They made the area look quite beautiful.

 This particular tree was about 3m in diameter! Huge! You can see my arms didn't even reach the edges! The second picture has a child in the shot, and I reckon you could fit about 20 of him into that trunk, hehe.

 I thought the new shoots were quite spectacular on the trees, on that farmer's land.

 Inner courtyard of Tidö slott

 This water well was a bit creepy

 These dragon/fish (drake/fisk) were rain gutters!

 We stopped for lunch in the cafe on Tidö slott grounds. I was just sitting chatting with the family, and noticed these huge snails (sniglar) in the garden. I've never seen such large snails before so I had to investigate. The slime he left on my hand was quite hard to get rid of!

This is the cafe - quite cute. The outside area is very popular in spring and summer. Not surprising; everyone wants some sun after the long, deep winters of the north.

This is in the Västerås area...it takes a short drive to get to both. Buses do travel to Tidö slott, but not often, and only in the warm seasons.

Neglected and Power Meet

Well I've definitely neglected this blog for a long time. Last time I checked, I only had 2 readers; a personal friend, and a 'pen pal' from a blog we both read. I see now that my subscription increased to a whole 5 ppl! So...I thought why not post again?

I've taken hundreds of pictures since posting last, and I really enjoy it. I think I will post a few blogs with just pics and some short descriptions - I'll add some swedish words too :)

These photos are from Power Meet 2010. Power Meet is a huge event in Västerås, which happens every year, and people from all over Sweden, and even from other parts of the world come along and bring their cars to show off. Most of the cars (bil/bilar) are American muscle cars or hot rods.  Rules are relaxed for the day, and nearly everyone drinks in public. Police (polis) even turn a blind eye to underage teens drinking - unless they are in trouble or seriously drunk.

Midsommar

Wow what a party! Every Swede celebrates Midsommar, I have to say I havn't foudn a single one who doesn't. This is as big as Christmas here! In the two weeks leading up to Midsommar I learnt a lot about it in my SFI classes. We watched movies on how it is celbrated, on the songs children sing, we sang some others that weren't on video, and we spoke about it for days on end!

I took tonnes of photos, unfortunately I can't post all of them here, although I'd love to :)

On the way to our Midsommar celebration place of choice, we stopped at the giant Dalahäst, and also had a look at some small ones. These are traditional Dalahäst (Dalarna area horses) and are all hand crafted and hand painted. As you can imagine, they are a little on the pricy side! Still, its the sort of thing you can't pass up, so I bought myself a black one with pretty silver details.

We also wandered around an open air museum(frihetsmuseum) in Leksand, Dalarna. This is a shot of me standing in the front door of an 18th century Gothic style- traditional Swedish house. As you can see, the doorway is tiny! It goes from my knees to just below my head, and I have to bend over to get under the eaves of the house haha! Im not tall either, only 165 cm :P

This is one other house from a bit further back, so you get a better idea of the overall look.











Onto midsommar...we had a picnic in Leksand, then drive a little way further to Torborg or something like that - it was a tiiiny village! But with very rich peoples houses, and a lot of touristy places. It was a beautiful little town, and would recommend it for a relaxing holiday, especially if you want to see a more traditional area of Sweden. We watched the celebrations here, including the parade before everything started, raising of the maypole and dancing.We headed back to Leksand to watch some long boats cruise down the river, accompanied by violins. Everyone involved in presenting the midsommar celebrations was clothed in traditional folkdräkt.So...here are lots of photos!

2 little boys in tradional clothes 

A small parade of folk dressed in traditional clothing, ringing a bell, and accompanied by a distant long horn.

 The small group of performers.

 Preparation of the maypole (majstång) - adding the flowers.

Above and below- everybody joins in the dancing!

Above right- Some strong men lifting the heavy maypole into the position to begin lifting from.

Lifting the maypole using crossed sticks, and on the right, its finally in place after half an hour!

Longboats coming down the river, on the left all are rowing, on the right, half the boat is playing violins

 A closer shot of the longboat

 A giant Dalahäst! Thats me by the back leg!

Traditional Midsommar food: herring (sill), boiled potatos of a particular type (färskpotatis), potato salad (potatis sallad), Strawberry cake (jordgubbstårta) and alcohol (Aquavit). Of course if you're celbrating with the family or friends in a summer house, you will probably have a giant buffé too.

The most memorable song from around the maypole is små grodarna (the small frogs)...its a lot of fun, and I joined in! Everybody is in a giant circle. You put your arms on the person in front and walk in the circle, then you wag you hands by your head, then wag your hands behing your butt, then you jump around the circle with hand on hips! While doing this you sing the song, which pretty much says, small frog, small frog, no ears no ears, no tail, no tail, kuwack ack ack, kuwack ack ack, kuwack ack ack (frog noise apparently hehe). Its quite funny. The song is then extended to other animals which may have ears and a tail, suck as mosquito (mygg), elephant (elefant) and a pig (gris). Elephant is an embarassing one haha, you have to make the gestures of big ears, and make a howling trumpet noise, and swing your arm in front of your face like a trunk!
There is also a dance about birds (fåglar) where people flap their arms. Hehe i think the adults need to be drunk to do this stuff! Hence the Aquavit.

For next time, I'll add some pics of more beautiful flowers, and my trip around Västerås city, exploring it's history!