Trip to Stockholm

My sister and her family were also at my mother's place the weekend of August 15-16, and we did some excursions in the area together. We went to the highest waterfall in Skåne, Forsakar, which is about 10 meters high (a second one in the same creek is about 8 meters high). Not that impressive statistically, but a pretty area with "troll forest". My brother-in-law is interested in geocaching (treasure hunting with a gps), and he found some locations during our trips. We were also at an old water mill for the bakeday and we drove around in a formerly military area on the coast which is a moor with grazing sheep. It was a special place with dry grasslands and flowers, with a very nice view of the coastline.

The first three days of last week my mother and I went to several fleamarkets and second hand-stores, visited some of my mother's friends, picked wild blackberries, and prepared for the up-coming trip. Wednesday we took the train to Stockholm. It was two hours delayed, and it was very boring to stand and wait for it, but we endured. We visited my mother's 1st cousin Rolf and his wife, who have an apartment two subway stations away from the central station. I visited them in May also. My mother and I couldn't help ourselves, so we frequented many of the second hand-stores in the area. We found some real nice things. I got a pair of shorter pants for 20 SEK and a white skirt for the same amount. Also a handbag cheaply. My mother found an ad in the local paper about a store that sold pearls for 70% off, and she spent an hour in there, shopping like mad. She got some great bargains also in other stores. Our relatives brought us to Millesgården, which is a sculpture garden formerly owned by the artist Carl Milles. Not only interesting pieces of art both inside and outside, but also an incredible view from it and a great restaurant.

Saturday my mother and I travelled on to a friend of hers who lives northeast of Stockholm. We travelled by train (two different) for about an hour. We found the Petersen family at the greyhound racetrack. They were working there as volunteers, and didn't participate actively in the racing. They have two greyhounds, but one is too young to race and the other too old. It was interesting to see the races, the dogs were running very fast. A race was over in 32 seconds and it was hard to see who actually won.

Sunday we went to Vaxholm to take the ferry out to an island in the norteastern archipelago. Finnhamn is a rocky island covered with forest. There is a restaurant, a hostel, a small farm, some small houses for rent and lots of visitors come from Stockholm during the summer to enjoy the nature, go sailing and hiking. It was very picturesque. We had a magnificent lunch there, a special kind of herring on crispbread.

We started out early this morning and that was good, because there were transportation problems in Stockholm. It took two and a half hours to get from Åkersberga to central Stockholm by train, subway and bus. We spent the morning in Gamla Stan (the Old Town), a very touristy area with lots of souvenir shops and small cafes. We found a store with everything half price off, and made some purchases there. After lunch at a coffee place, we returned home by train this afternoon. I arrived back in Kävlinge at 8 pm.