This ninth installment of David Anderson’s Return To Sweden includes the Dalarna village of Nusnäs and a surprise evening coffee with Nils-Erik Nilsson in Avesta.
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June 9, 2014, Monday
Lake Siljän is the heart of Dalarna, and Dalarna is the
heart of the idealistic heart of Sweden.
We may have been seeing red and white houses every day and everywhere we
go in Sweden, but it is here where time hasn’t stopped, but slowed way down. Quaint villiages with narrow streets
overlooking a beautiful lake, where summer days are always warm and sunny. Yes, that is the idealistic view.
Siljän itself marks the southwest corner of a 40 km wide
meteor crater. Even looking at a regular
road map the boundaries of the crater can be discerned since some of the area’s
major roads follow the perimeter of the impact crater. I am not sure when this impact happened, and
if it would have been an extinction type impact or not, but I know I wouldn’t
want to be around if another this size strikes again.
There are many places to visit in the heart of Dalarna. Falun gruva, Tallberg, Rättvik. The list goes on and on. But one of the places I had not visited
before was Carl Larsson’s house in Sundborn.
We went on a guided tour and upon entering the first room my breath was
literally stopped. I felt like I was in
a Carl Larsson painting. The feeling was
amazing. You can tell by the way they
painted that they loved this place and each other.
In the evening back in Avesta this evening we have the honor
and distinction to experience evening coffee at the home of Nils-Erik
Nilsson. This is a wonderful experience
because not only is it a sunny and warm evening with no mosquitoes, but I
realize that Nils-Erik is the author of a book in my library at home. He is the author of “The Forest”, which is
one volume in the National Atlas of Sweden.
When I say, Oh! If I had known you were the author of that book, I
should have brought it with me to have you autograph it. His response: “My autograph has little value in
Sweden, and I think less in America.”
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