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(If you missed my introduction post yesterday to our road trip, you'll find it here.)
Friday, 8 July: On our way to Linköping, we made a stop at the small town of Gränna on the east shore of Lake Vättern (second largest lake in Sweden). The first photo shows the square on the hillside, used for parking. We had already had lunch at a motel along the motorway, but wanted to stretch our legs a bit, and revive memories of a previous visit to Gränna in 2017. Back then we also visited the museum commemorating S.A. Andrée and his attempt in 1897 to reach the Geographic North Pole by hydrogen balloon. (Click the link for my post from 2017.) This time, we skipped that; but visited another local history museum building close by:
They also have a couple of polar bears in the garden! (Related to Andrée's polar expedition.)
Polkagris (pl: polkagrisar) is a Swedish stick candy invented in 1859 by Amalia Eriksson in Gränna. It remains a well-known old-fashioned candy in Sweden, often sold at fairs, Christmas markets, and the like. The traditional polkagris candy stick is white and red and peppermint-flavoured. Since 2022 the name has been given geographical protection and to be called a genuine polkagris it now has to be manufactured in the town of Gränna. (Wikipedia)
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| "Polkagris-affär" = Polkagris Shop |
(We walked past that shop without going in, though!)
We also went up to (and into) the church, as we hadn't done that on our last visit either.
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| (The building to the right is a parish hall.) |
And then we walked back to where we parked the car, along a different street, with lots of charming old houses.
One area of old houses belonged to a school (college) of some kind. Looked like an idyllic place for summer courses... We didn't see any students about, though.
From Gränna we continued driving along an old road closer to the lake for a while, rather than going back up on the motorway.
I managed to get some photos from the car looking up at Brahehus Castle Ruins. On our tour around Lake Vättern in 2017, we were up there, looking down on the views below. This time, the other way round!
Great photos of museum, church, old houses!
ReplyDeleteThanks Duta
DeleteHow wonderful that that candy is now protected by law to only be made in that town! I sure think I'd enjoy a stick of it!
ReplyDeleteBarbara, my brother and I are both trying not to eat too much sugar these days, as both our parents had Diabetes type 2...
Deletebeautiful church and I love the house with red trim and the arbor! my favorite of today. I like all of the buildings and the colors and the weather looks perfect for photo taking
ReplyDeleteSandra, we really did have perfect weather most of the time - neither too warm nor to cold. One or two rain showers the last couple of days, but we managed not to get soaked!
DeleteWonderful photos. I love the simplicity of the interior of the church - it looks so inviting. Everywhere looks so well-cared for.
ReplyDeleteThanks CG. Yes, I think most of the 'touristy' places are rather well-cared for.
DeleteWhat a gorgeous church! But my favorite here is you with the polar bears.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ginny :)
DeleteThank you for sharing your holiday with us, Monica! Some of the houses are like straight out of a picture book, and the little girl on the sign in front of the candy shop reminds me of Carl Larsson‘s work.
ReplyDeleteI also like the bright and calm atmosphere in the church.
Thank you for following, Meike! Gränna is a very picturesque little town with all its old wooden houses well preserved.
DeleteBeautiful church and I really like the architecture of the houses you have there. So much more interesting than New Zealand houses.
ReplyDeleteAmy, I love visiting small old towns of this kind myself. Where I live (Borås), we have very few old wooden houses preserved in the city centre because many were destroyed in big fires during previous centuries.
DeleteSomething I don't think has occurred to me before is that there are some similarities between the housing in the area and some New Zealand housing.
ReplyDelete