Old Mill Café

 

Quite a few old mills here and there in Sweden have been preserved by turning them into cafés and tourist attractions. This one at Vänga, a half hour drive or so to the north of Borås, still produces some flour to be used and sold in their own bakery. Their popular café also offers options for a light lunch, so we went there for lunch on Saturday (3 August). We sat on the small terrace to the right (overlooking the stream) and had a piece of pie + salad. (They also have tables outdoors across the stream.) Afterwards we went for a little stroll around the place. We've both been there before, but it's one of those places that it's always nice to return to in the summer.

 

Vänga Kvarn   (kvarn = mill)

They also have a souvenir shop where they sell various arts and crafts.
I did not buy anything, but it's always fun to have a look...

 

 

The old copper kettles are not for sale (I think) but just for decoration.
And the same goes for the rusty old objects on display outside...

Cows were grazing in a field across the road.

 

Staycation

"A staycation (a portmanteau of 'stay' and 'vacation') --- is a period in which an individual or family stays home and participates in leisure activities within day trip distance of their home and does not require overnight accommodation."

It's been a week since my last post. My brother arrived last Friday as planned; and stayed five nights. This year, we did not go away on any longer trip including hotel nights, but just made day trips out of town from here. I took enough photos for several blog posts; but will start today with just the first afternoon, plus a very short summary and some "teaser" photos from the following days.

On Friday (2 August), as P had already spent a few hours in the car driving down from Karlstad, we had lunch at home when he arrived, and then just went for a walk into the town centre, where I played tourist guide and took him to see some of the new and/or temporary outdoors works of art belonging to this summer's Art Biennial.

 

▲ We also found one new mural that I had somehow managed to miss on my previous walks alone. (It won't end up among my new favourites - for one thing, I have no idea what it's supposed to be "about"!) ▼

▼ On the same street, we also happened to see this 'hotrod' vehicle parked:

 - - -

"Sneak preview" from the following four days...

On Saturday (weather still fine) we went for a drive to the countryside north of town, where we have some family roots.

On Sunday (rainy in the afternoon) we had lunch at a golf club in the countryside south of town, then went to a shopping mall on the other side of town for an errand or two, and finished off with a visit to the Textile Museum (same exhibitions that I saw just recently).

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Photo from the golf course

On Monday (sunnier weather again) we went on a longer day trip to the province of Halland on the west coast (~ 1:15 hour or so in direction south-west from here). There we re-visited a castle where we've been once before, but that was many years ago.

 

On Tuesday, we drove ~ 35 min in pretty much the same direction, but along a different road, to have lunch in a small town there; and on the way back we visited a different kind of textile museum - a well preserved old cotton spinning mill, where we also got a guided tour.