Lapland

[Stichill_imp]

Thanks guys for your kind comments, much appreciated!

@pdede, on the food – yes, the kitchen really excelled, it was truly delicisous. Not bad for a B&B and they've built quite a reputation for themselves the last few years.

@Comanus, on the beer – you are right, their home made beer was in the same calibre as the food – really, really good. I’m no beer expert but I’d say that they could easily have sold it nationwide.

@MrBob – thank you, cool to hear that the Swedish culture lived/lives on. I’ve never been to Minnesota but would love to, thanks for the tip. And you must let me know should you ever head this way!

@Stichill – it was a sublime morning indeed, one of those rare to remember for a long time. Not a single sound. Still to the point that I ended up pushing my bike around rather than start it and rip apart the peace. Does not happen often, especially not uphill.

@Henrik, on the Swedish cheesecake being different from the American chesecake – I missed to mention it so thanks for pointing that out. The Swedish cheesecake (in Swedish “ostkaka”) is a speciality of the region of Småland (where we were) and has been around since the 1520’s (yes, more than 500 years). Traditionally it is based on milk converted to cheese through a special procedure, but today most use cottage cheese as its much easier. The base is mixed with eggs, cream, sugar, almonds and bitter almonds. This is baked in an oven and served warm but not hot.
Epilogue day 2 of 3 continued. The last stretch to our friends place led us as far into the archipelago you can go and still be on the mainland. Getting there took a while and involved a narrow proper road, then a gravel road , then an ancient gate that was made to look locked but wasn't, an finally an uneven and wildly twisting loose gravel track with a few surprise inclinations combined with hairpins. On arrival we, or at least I, could have done with some rest but instead we were handed life vests and ushered into a boat. It turned out that someone on a nearby island had begun to make really good ice cream and now we were to get some. When we reached the island there was drama - their cat had climbed onto the roof and into a swallow's nest, so most of the staff and some of the customers were busy saving swallows. This was eventually successful, everybody went back to what they were doing, we got our icecream and returned for a very nice dinner.

Directly from two wheels to keel


The ice cream offerings for the day


The scene of the cat-swallows-staff drama


Most have boat houses, originally meant for boat and fishing gear. Many are still used this way but but some are transformed for lodging and, if you're picky, perhaps not always with all the needed building permits. However, pragmatism is what makes life work here and the law seldom comes this way.

Love the photos and love this!