Switzerland: Chateau de Gruyeres

Old Gruyere from Our Hotel

We threw our bags on the beds, and decided that we would spend the rest of the day exploring the old city. We joined the other tourist in the street and headed uphill towards the Chateau gate.

Just inside the inner wall we found several very creepy modern sculptures. They looked like they were from the sci-fi movie Alien. Sure enough, right there, inside a 11th century castle, was a museum dedicated to the Swiss artist, H.R. Gieger, who was the artistic inspiration for the film. I guess where the tourists are, that's where the museums go, historical logic or no. We declined to pay the admission, but did get to peek into a bar across the street who's interior was fully "alienized", ribbed ceiling, vertebral bar chairs, and all. Wouldn't want to get too soused in a setting like that - you'd wig out.

The chateau was the home of the Gruyeres from the 11th to the 16th century. The last Gruyere went bankrupt, and his creditors, the neighboring fiefdoms, split the properties. The representatives of the Fribourgs then lived in the castle for 200 years, when it was sold to a wealth family as a summer residence. They and their artist friends restored it. In 1938 it was sold back to Fribourg and made into a tourist attraction. It is now run and preserved by a foundation.

Chateau Gruyere Kitchen Fireplace

Because of its long history and extensive remodeling in the mid 1800's, you can see quite a variety of styles within the chateau - from gargantuan medieval walk through fireplaces and guard rooms, to highly painted 19th centry dining and bedrooms.

Chateau Gruyere Dining Room

 Inside the chateau walls, but outside the residence, are several courtyards, a chapel, and a substantial church and manse, accompanied by several grave yards. Interestingly, many of the headstones in the graveyards were quite recent. I've heard you only have a certain amount of time in some European cemeteries where space is at a premium before they move you out to make way for the more recently dead. Maybe that was true here?

Church Yard Beside Chateau

Courtyard in Chateau

The views from the chateau were spectacular, from the low surrounding mountains to the broad farming valley below. Very cool.

Evening Falls  in a Gruyere Alley

View from Chateau Gruyere

Church at Chateau Gruyere

 We spent all afternoon touring the Chateau and the surrounding town, looking out over the valley and surrounding mountains, exploring back streets, the other gates to the city, ending with a visit to the church and a walk through the dusky lanes as the street lights blossomed. We were starving.

Kim and Ann Share the Mandatory Fondue

And in Gruyere, how you could you visit and not have fondue? Is not Gruyere the premier fondue cheese? There were lots of fondue joints. We chose one that was bright and cheery, with warm wood walls, and plopped down for a meal of cheese and bread. The fondue was quite good as fondue goes (I am not a natural fan), and the bread was perfect. Ann ordered the pickled onions and baby cucumbers to dip, but I didn't care for that tradition. But good bread dipped in a wine-cheese sauce with a crisp glass of white wine hit the spot. Full and tired, we waddled across the street to our hotel, climbed the stairs to our room, and rolled into bed. Tomorrow, the countryside.

Switzerland: Geneva to Gruyere

Swiss Inter-city Rail

Swiss Regional Rail

Getting to Gruyere was going to be a beautiful exercise in public transit. Kim has no need of a car, and doesn't own one. And the Swiss transit system is famous for its extent and punctuality. Schedules in hand, she walked us the half kilometer to her bus stop and caught the bus to the train station in downtown Geneva. From there we caught a main line. Again, not high speed rail, but very fast and smooth.

We were treated to scenic views of Lake Geneva in the hazy morning light, to outlying cities, to vineyard covered hills (yes, a Swiss wine industry). We arrived at a small, outlying station where we would transfer to regional rail. Kim says, "Ok, 5 minute layover here". Wait, that sounds awfully tight. But we arrive on time, de-train and there's the regional train waiting. We climb on it leaves promptly.

This happened time after time in Switzerland - close transit schedules met perfectly again and again. No delays, no missed connections. It's super efficient, super convenient, and pretty affordable. I love it. And electric trains everywhere, even on small rural routes where in other countries you might expect buses. A train fan's heaven.

Leaving Gruyere Train Station

The regional train wound up into the foothills of the Alps. We crossed field and forest covered hills and farm covered lowlands. There were no soaring, snow capped peaks here, just pretty farms, quaint towns, and beautiful fall color.

We crossed a broad, flat farming valley and pulled into Pingy. This was the town below the Chateay de Gruyeres, along the rail line and the river. Next to the tourist office across from the train station was the cheese vault where the Gruyere cheese from the region is aged. Surrounding the end of the valley were low mountains and between them at the edge of town is a hill capped by the Chateau de Gruyere. Once a fortified castle and home, with a town built against it inner wall, its defensibility is clear from below - it commands the entire region from its redoubt.

The Famous Gruyere Cheese Aging

A steep winding road crisscrosses the hillside, a steeper footpath leads more directly to the old city. We hiked up the footpath in beautiful 50 F fall weather. Cows grazed the hillside wearing the traditional bells. After touring decidedly non-tourist parts of Sweden, it was clear that this was an area focused on tourists. Early November was definitely the off-season, but on this warm, sunny Sunday, there were plenty of folks about. Most spoke French, and being a weekend, we figured they were Swiss out for a nice fall outing after the international tourists had gone home.

Entering Hilltop Old Gruyere

Near the top of the hill our path joined the road and passed through a gate in the outer city wall. The entire old city was within this outer wall. Stepping through the gate was like stepping back into time and at the same time into a resort. All the wonderfully preserved buildings, the gorgeous cobble streets. All the well dressed tourists, restaurants, shops, and boutique hotels. It was a careful balance of preservation and re-purposing generally succeeded.

Kim had found us a sweet upstairs room for three in a hotel in the center of old town (and on pretty short notice - yay, Off Season). She not only was our tour guide, but also our personal discount banker, not only handling check-in here, but all the bills on the Swiss leg of our trip, charging us a straight conversion with no fees at the end, to be paid into her US dollar account. Thanks, cuz.

Stairs to our Room in Gruyere

We climbed the narrow stairs from the lobby, down the narrow hall, and into our cozy room. It was nicely updated while retaining a historic feel. We swung open the windows and gazed over the main street across a flower box of blooming geraniums, listened to the crowd below, and planned the rest of our day.

Switzerland: Umea to Geneva

Kim's 3rd Floor Home

The trip from Umea to Geneva was to be an all day affair, since we needed to return to Goteborg via Stockholm to continue our cheap transatlantic ticket through Frankfurt to our destination in Geneva. What with layovers and multiple flights, it took all day.

We were meeting Jeff's cousin Kim there. She's great fun, and was taking most of the week off to guide us through some of Switzerland she had not seen since moving there 3 years ago, and some of her favorite parts that she wanted to share. What a great way to see a country - joining a local guide with a good command of the local language (French in this part of Switzerland - she can and does walk to France from her condo to grocery shop), who is also good friend and family member.

Our plan was to travel to Gruyere and Murren with Kim at the beginning of the week, then return and tour Geneva the last two days of the week when Kim had to be back for meetings.

Our Home-Away-From-Home at Kim's

We left Umea at dawn as the rain was ending and the clouds lifting, and were rewarded with lovely sunlit views  of the Gulf of Bothnia and Finland from the air. We could see the ships plying the sea, shafts of light piercing the clouds, the fine lacework of waves below. After a beautiful approach over the many islands of Stockholm (we have to get back to Sweden some day to visit there), and some confusion as we missed the Swedish instructions to leave the plane, then re-board, we landed again in Goteborg where our connecting flight to Geneva departed. Five hours layover in Frankfurt (what is this, the O'hare of Europe?) after a wonderful aerial view of the industrial heartland of Germany, and we finally landed in Geneva at 10:30 pm to a madhouse. Everyone must have been returning on the red eye that Saturday night.

Bison Graze Outside Geneva.

But my cousin Kim found us quickly at the baggage claim and expertly guided us through the terminal (she, an inveterate traveler for the WHO in Geneva), avoiding the worst crowds, to the bus terminal and the proper transfer downtown to her condo. Tired and happy to see her again after several years, we climbed the stairs to her home, and dropped into bed.

In the morning we were greeted with a fine breakfast of musli, fruit, cheese, and tea (man, those 240 volt European electric tea pots heat fast. No one seems to use microwaves to heat water over here - the tea pot is faster), and a lovely view of the surrounding farms on the outskirts of Geneva. Wait, are those North American bison grazing the foothills of the Alps? Sure enough. Exotic meat sells well everywhere, I guess, and this Swiss farmer has found a higher margin product I bet.

Without dilly dallying, Kim gets her cats set for our absence, we grab our bags again, and we're off on another leg of our adventure.

Sweden: Umea

Cow Barn and Silo near Umea

A Typical Northern Swedish Farm House

My cell phone had died, and as official family photographer, I had borrowed Ann's. Then of course I set it down on the seat (black on black in the dark). When we left the car at the airport, I check my pockets, and of course had my phone, wallet, passport, etc. And of course Ann assumed I still had hers, as she should have. Well maybe 10 minutes before boarding, she went to use her phone. Uh Oh. Luckily it's a fairly small airport, so Roland and I bolted for the exit, and luckily for me, the car had not yet been moved or cleaned. We were able to retrieve ithe phone from the back seat, get through security (with a funny look from the security check folks when they recognized us from 30 minutes earlier), and back to the gate before boarding began. Phew.

We arrived in Umea (at 63 latitude the northernmost major city in Sweden) well after dark.  But the next morning, we got to explore the rural neighborhood around Roland's home. He lives right next to a substantial dairy farm. He noted that the new steel silo, and many other newer ones in the area, were imported from America - Harvestore, just like I see all over Ohio and Michigan. Funny the specialization of industry.

Beef, Beets, and Potatoes

The farmers were busy with manure spreading this season - the smell reminded me of visiting my grandparent's farm in southern Ohio as a child. Yet here it was surrounded by boreal forest. The rich, broad, flat valleys and clay soils are farmed extensively, even this far north, but the rocky ridges are covered in birches and spruce. Familiar and yet dissonant for me as it seemed a mashup of my childhood in Ohio and my adult life on Lake Superior.

It was raining on and off now, as it would throughout our stay in Umea, so we got to see yet another face of Sweden - cold, wet, and grey. We walked up the muddy lane marveling at the nearly identical red wood farmhouses with white trim. Almost every rural house around Umea seemed to follow this model, with only the rare exception of mustard yellow. Amazing.

Roland took us to a local country restaurant nearby, and we enjoyed a warm, cozy setting and Swedish comfort food on a rainy day. Beef stew, pickled beets, and boiled potatoes. Yum.

Grocery Shopping in Umea

It was great being again in an area not frequented by tourists, and with a local guide. We got to go grocery shopping in town. Not at all unfamiliar, with even many products the same as home. But not the tube food. It makes sense for many foods with a pasty consistency, and the Swedes are crazy for the toothpaste tube for everything. Racks of it. Ann had to try the Kalles Kaviar - a mix of fish eggs, salt, and starch. Very strong, salty-fishy. Commonly eat on crackers, we found that a good squeeze of lemon went a long way in making it good.

And milk products. We noticed this at the breakfast bar in Trollhattan, and again here. Yogurt in infinite variety - thin, thick, sour, varying fats. Curdled milk, almost cheese. In fact, straight milk seems mostly used in coffee. For breakfast, with musli, it's always yogurt or the like. I liked that, though I did in the end find myself missing something wetter on my breakfast. And soy milk like I use at home was less common than cow milk.

Umea's Main Square and Town Hall

Downtown Umea

Cheese. Lots of cheese. For breakfast with bread, in cooking, straight. And good cheese, none of the insipid string cheese or American slices you often face in the US. Didn't see any cheddar - not even the good stuff. Must be a British/American thing? But that didn't matter. We were introduced to Vasterbottensost. New love. Instantly one of our favorite cheeses. Made only in the region around Umea (Vasterbotten), it struck me as a cross between a really good cheddar and a super Parmesan. Swedish demand alone keeps prices up and exports down. Roland made us a wonderful Swedish cheese pie (quiche) with it. Fabulous.  And he's so sweet, he even sent us home with a kilo of it - sadly gone now. We'd been trading regional ingredients already, us introducing him to thimbleberry jam on his visit to Houghton two summers ago. Now we owe him again. Next: Nissu? Pasties?

The next day we returned to town after a long walk in the country visiting the sheep, the forests, seeing the cloud berry bushes and mosses under the forest canopy. We wanted to see more of town, and do some Christmas shopping. The rain made for a special experience - the streets reflecting lights, the shops all the warmer, and the cafes all the cozier. We found a wonderful craft shop where Ann picked out a hand woven scarf for herself, and several other gifts.

Ann Takes Her Tea Warm

Then to the local tea house. Upstairs from a decadent pastry shop, we were told that much of the political business of Umea takes place here over tea. It was very comfortable. We felt very at home in Umea. A city of 115,000, it is home to Umea University. Established in the 1960s, the university is largely responsible for the doubling of Umea's population since, making Umea the intellectual and cultural center of northern Sweden. The streets shops are prosperous, the streets clean and very pedestrian and bike friendly. It's sometimes called the City of Birches, after the streets were planted with silver birches after a particularly devastating fire in 1888 to prevent future spread.

Swedish Ski Museum 

Oldest Ski in the World

Next, Jeff went shopping. As soon as we had arrived in Sweden, I'd noticed that all the workers had very cool work pants with built in tool belts and many pockets. Not your usual Dickies or Carharts like in the States. I had to have some. Well, Rolland knew the store for me. On the outskirts was a place entirely devoted to work wear. It was quite large, and the selection was impressive. I was like a kid in a candy store. I tried on several and finally selected a totally cool pair with nylon knees and seat, lots of pockets, and grey-on-grey plaid fabric. Too stylish almost to work in, but very tough and practical. And expensive. Between the Swedish penchant for quality and the strength of the SEK (Swedish Crown), way more than I normally spend on pants, even for dress. But I bought them anyway. Every time I'll wear them, I'll remember the trip.

We also went to the municipal museum where the Swedish Ski Museum is located. Here we saw the oldest ski in the world (5,000 years), found in a peat bog near Umea. And the skis of the Olympic cross country ski champion, Per Elofsson, who was born and lives in Umea, and a remarkable collection of practical, historic, and decorated skis. An afternoon well spent.

Jannson's Temptation

That night we had a fine dinner at home with Roland, his wife Eva, and her American friend and colleague, Jean. Eva and Jean had just returned from a conference, and we had a wonderful time talking about their work and all manner of things with them. We even got to sample another traditional Swedish dish, similar to scalloped potatoes here, but with potato fingers and anchovies. Not like the nasty ones that come on American pizzas, but larger, and flavored with a hint of cloves. It's called Jannson's frestelse (Jannson's Temptation). Often a Christmas dish, we rushed the season a bit ourselves so we could try it. The cloves and anchovies were a surprise sensation.

What a great time in Umea. We were sad to leave after only 2 days, but Switzerland beckoned. We'll have to go back some day to ski or bike and pick cloud berries.

Sweden: Trollhattan to Umea

Ann's Lecture

Saab Museum in Trollhattan

The next morning I had the honor of attending Ann's second lecture. She had been invited to speak at the annual conference of Swedish university information technologists. Sweden has 30 universities, and the conference rotates between the schools. This was University West in Trollhattan's turn. It was fascinating to listen to the host tooling along in Swedish to the audience, then pow, English - introducing Ann West to talk on federations. Ann then proceeded for with her talk and question/answer session in English, and pop, back to Swedish. She did a great job. And I can see why she had Tuesday off - she did not speak that day, so the entire proceedings would have been in Swedish - not much use to her.


The academic Swedes are especially good with English, and were fine hosts. They took us both out to lunch afterward at a beautiful small restaurant in an old house on the hill above the river, where we enjoyed superb local ingredients, fine service, and a great coffee and desert. We had a fine time with Walter and Roland.

The Very First Saab - Prototype 1, 1947

In the afternoon, Ann continued on with the conference while I walked down to the Saab museum near where we rented our bike the day before.

Historic Locks  below Trollhattan

Saab automotive was established in the late 1940's as an outgrowth of the Saab aerospace company. This was a pretty modern museum ensconced in a remodeled industrial building. It was nicely done, and I had it to myself. Definitely the off-season. It was interesting to walk through the physical timeline of production cars for a smaller manufacturer. In more detail than I often cared to know, you could follow their model development. There was even an engine timeline.

It was especially poignant to be doing this as Saab automobile was at that moment closed and awaiting yet another possible sale (later to fall through) and facing bankruptcy. Another of victim of the consolidation of auto worldwide auto manufacturing. Volvo is apparently still doing well, but you do have to wonder about a country of 9.5 million having two auto manufacturers.

I then hiked further down the canal to the locks. Here shipping leaves the river and traverses 8 locks to rise above Trollhattan falls and the hydroelectric plant there. There are actually 3 sets of locks here, two historic, each superseding the last as ships grew larger and traffic increased. The older locks are still preserved in a park surrounding the working lock zone. Folks used to come down form Trollhattan to picnic, marvel at the technology, and watch to see what the folks travelling up from the big city of Goteborg were wearing. They in turn watched their country cousins to see how they lived. How little has changed.

Downtown Trollhattan

That evening we went to an English pub in downtown Trollhattan with Roland (not be be confused with the Irish pub nearby, nor the 2 Thai and 1 Indian restaurants we'd eaten at on our stay). Most expensive burger and brew I've ever had, nearly 30 USD. But it was trivia night and they were packed. A live MC brought out a mic, handed out answer sheets, and began regaling the crowd with questions, with Roland providing a running translation for us. We did pretty good since a lot of the trivia was about the US and popular culture. There were a few that he could not reliably translate as they relied on plays-on-words in Swedish and Swedish cultural trivia. It was fascinating seeing both the penetration of American culture and history into a far European pub, as well as the cultural specificity of trivia when it was about what was for us a nearly unknown culture.

Freeway to Goteborg 

The next day, we left for Roland's home town of Umea, in far north eastern Sweden. This time instead of train and bus, we rode with him in his rental car directly to the Goteborg airport. It was fun to see another transportation mode in Sweden. Their freeways look remarkably like ours, located as they are away from the historic downtowns and cultural centers. The weather had turned, it was grey, and it began to drizzle, just as it had been when we first arrived. We had hit a beautiful, sunny break in the weather perfectly at Trollhattan.

Sweden: Vanersborg to Trollhattan by Bike

Swedish Graffiti

 So we jumped on our bikes again and headed through downtown. But at the bridge we arrived on we turned left and headed down the other side of the canal, back towards the river. A different way home than I took on my initial reconnaisance sounded fun. And that way Ann got the excitement of finding a new way too.

Old Swedish Farm Estate

As we tooled along the river, I noted not for the first time the restraint of Swedish graffiti. In the US it tends to be anywhere, but here it seemed restricted to public utility structures almost exclusively. Not on bridges, not on trains, not on factories. Just utility boxes. Weird, but I approve.

Past more fields and factories we found this old estate house (now apartments). Maybe Sweden wasn't always so egalitarian. The bike path went right down the driveway, past the car ports, and returned to the fields. More evidence of the Swedish sense of public space. We passed a class on a field trip walking the path (well, some were laying in it and seemed a bit taken aback to have bikers bearing down on them, but they hopped up quickly, smiling shyly and waved).

Small Houses in a Swedish Suburb

We left the fields and rode on around the back side of a smaller, plainer suburb, then back to the river. Here you could see that the local bedrock had been blasted to make the river a  navigable canal, and the path gained a few short hills in what was an otherwise very flat ride. Good thing, as the hotel bike was a very heavy single speed.

As the channel widened we saw signal lights and what appeared to be a low bridge, but as we approached, it resolved into a lock on the canal with a roadway across the top of the gates, kind of like a horizontal swing bridge. Neat! Never seen that before.

Locks on the Gota Alv below Vanersborg

We rode past evidence of another of Sweden's big industries, logging. Here a giant pile of pine logs waited along the narrow paved road and farmer's field. I would have liked to have seen the harvesting and equipment to compare to what I see back home in the Keweenaw. At least one of the major harvesting systems used in our area is manufactured in Finland. I wonder what the Swede's use?

Evidence of Logging

And then we passed the golf course again and were retracing our path to Trollhattan. Along the highway the car's headlights were on as we cruised along the bike path and back to our cozy hotel on the waterfront. What a great day out.

Back to the Scandic Hotel at Dusk

Sweden: Vanersborg by Bike

Ann Crossing the Gota Alv at Vanersborg

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 Brilliantly! How the Swedes handle bikes on this major highway bridge, that is. Look at this, a bike lane and a pedestrian lane, full rails, the works. And it was heavily used. What a great country for human powered transport - all this in a fairly obscure industrial town of 20,000. I reported back to Ann that night that we absolutely had to ride up there on Tuesday, her day off.

Ann Testing the Tourist Bike

We were so stoked! We went down to the dining room with Ann's Swedish colleague, Roland, first thing the next day for the wonderful included breakfast at the Scandic hotel (though we were starting to get an idea that we would be tired of cheese by the end of this trip), already planning our outing. Dropped by the front desk to pick up the keys to a bike, and dang, they were all out but one. We were in big trouble. We were scheming all sorts of uncomfortable and marginally safe ideas like wadding a jacket on the cargo rack so one of us could ride behind the operator. This was not as outlandish as you might expect - these bikes were tanks. 50 lbs, minimum, of Swedish steel, extra spokes, even a pump holder tube. But it wasn't too comfortable, and the handling even on this relaxed a bike took a turn for the worse with all that weight on the rear wheel.

Alloy Plant and Loading Facility at Vanersborg

Concierge to the rescue! She suggested we go down to the tourist office at the south end of town and see if they would rent a bike - they usually had some. So we took turns riding the uncomfortable rack through the streets along the waterfront of Trollhattan to their tourist office and museum center. This is set in a beautifully re-purposed industrial area. Formerly a major fabrication and engineering site, it now houses small, high tech enterprises, the Trollhattan movie studios (nationally known and nicknamed "Trollywood" believe it or not), the Saab museum, and a cable car across the canal to the science museum and hydroplant tours.

Vanersborg Marina and Lake Van

The tourist office was just opening, and they were exceptionally helpful. They in fact had already put all the bikes in storage for the winter (this was late October), but immediately took us around the corner and down to the storage basement, found one my size, took our hotel name and room number, and off we went. Even nicer than the loaner from the hotel, this one had 8 speeds and a lighter aluminum frame. We repeated what I had done the day before, then began our exploration of Vanersborg proper.

From the top of the bridge we could see the industry down the Gota Alv canal and Lake Vanern up the canal. Lake Venern is the largest lake in Sweden and the EU, and the third largest in Europe - about 1/4 the size of Lake Erie. You certainly can't see the other side from Vanersborg, even from the bridge. 

Bike underpass at the Vanersborg Waterfron

We crossed the highway lift bridge in style, then dropped on a bike/pedestrian cloverleaf (yes!) under the bridge to a waterfront park and marina, empty for the season. The bike popped under this welcoming underpass, then headed along the lake shore, it turned out through  many kilometers of shoreline park, encompassing the entire north end of town. The Swedes seem to do well with their public land and parks. Everywhere there were views of the lake, tree covered lawns, and paths with access to the nearby neighborhoods. Eventually, we entered a nature preserve where the paths wound through undisturbed woods, slipping out to the shore periodically for a view, then back into the woods.

Urban Slickrock at Vanersborg

We even found a bit of urban slickrock (exposed bedrock you can ride you bike on) used as part of the trails in the park. Think there were some glaciers here recently? 

Nature Preserve at Vanersborg

I was developing an urgent need to find a restroom. And there was a nice brick one as I rounded the corner in the park, marked "WC" of all things. We saw a lot of English mixed with the Swedish. Some of the Swedes who spoke English had Brit accents and some Yank. To some extent, it was age dependent. I think the schools taught British English, but of course entertainment culture is dominated by American English. Younger folks seemed to have more Americanized English. I wonder if this is really true throughout Sweden?

One of Many Community Gardens

Thinking of language, it was interesting too, watching folks try to peg your origins. Especially on the flights around Europe the flight attendants, who commanded many  languages, had to make a guess about yours when they first addressed you, then remember throughout the flight what each passenger spoke. But I found if you were pretty quite, spoke softly, maybe looked and dressed a certain way, and used the simple Swedish greetings, they often took me for a Swede or assumed I spoke Swedish and if I didn't object, continued to speak Swedish (or later, German) to me throughout the flight. That was fun, and I could usually figure out what was going on - a nice challenge.

Back to the tour of Vanersborg. As we left the nature preserve, we passed yet another community garden. Houses and lots tending to be smaller here, it seems that more gardening is done communally. Each family has a small shed for tools and the like on their plot. The season was well past, so we saw no activity, but it must be amazing in the short, intense spring and summer here.

Vanersborg Watertowr

Downtown Vanersborg

Ending up on the northeast side of town, we crossed the ring highway and angled back towards downtown, passing lumber yards, car dealerships, plumbing contractors, and grocery stores. Kind of  the near-suburban strip, but much subdued. Closer to downtown we started hitting apartment blocks of mid-20th century vintage, heavy bus, bike and pedestrian traffic, and uninspired schools and community centers. If any part of our visit here looked a little less prosperous or wealthy, it was in this area. More similar to a traditional hardworking blue collar neighborhood in the States than we saw elsewhere in Sweden. We turned a corner by the historic water tower down the main boulevard (park and church in the center), then turned on a pretty little pedestrian shopping street.

Nicely done. We parked the bikes in a nearly full rack, one of many, chained them, and went looking for some gifts. We found a fascinating shop, kind of a Swedish Dollar General, though maybe not a chain. They had household stuff, a few Legos, Christmas decorations (and I'll have you note this was late October - we Americans are not the only ones rushing the season), snack foods. Teenagers standing around goofing off.

Bike Path Around Vanersborg

We went down the street a little further looking for coffee, and found a little local place. Not very fancy, but nice enough. Found our first Swede who had little or no English. He was very friendly, and we easily worked out that we wanted cafe (pretty universal word that). But the noshies were a bit trickier. We looked at the menu board, and and worked out something about a bagette and mushrooms. He helpfully described it some more in Swedish which we completely missed, but ordered away and took a seat at a small table. He disappeared up the short steps behind the counter to the kitchen. Another customer came in, they talked, then the customer went behind the counter and up the stairs. Bathroom! my always hopeful and observant wife cried. When the customer returned, she took her turn. Then I mine. Up the steps was the door to a tiny kitchen, and another door. Leaving that door put us in a stairwell, and after a bit of spinning around, I found the tiny WC door behind the entrance door. How cool, just like the Rosetta Cafe in Calumet at home, with the men's restroom across the unfinished basement down a narrow flight of ancient stairs.

Sun Setting on Lake Vanern

I came back to the worst meal of our trip. The coffee was great - never ran in to bad coffee in Sweden, they know how to make good coffee, and strong. But the meal was basically cream-of-mushroom soup on white bread buried under melted cheese. The few onions on it were ok. Another customer entered, apparently a good friend of the proprietor, and he grabbed a bowl of soup and joined his friend for a snack and a good talk. Very homey. Except for the three electronic gambling machines along the back wall next to us. And that's really the best part of our trip to Vanersborg - we got to visit a part of Sweden that doesn't expect to see foreigners much. It's set up for the folks that live there. We felt we got to know Sweden a little better that way.

But the sun (always when we were there - the light felt like mid winter back home at 47 north) was setting lower and we had to be on our way. Thanks, Vanersborg, for treating us like everyone else. Nice town.