A day in Bollnas

It is about 45 minutes to Bollnas but it takes Farmor closer to an hour to make the drive. We enjoy the view of the countryside on the way and we see lots of horses and cows. Linnea eventually falls asleep in the car. We left our house around 11am and had just eaten an early lunch. We decide to find a place to get "fika" (Swedish for "coffee break") so we find a place in downtown and walk to the cafe. We don't go very far but the weather today is cold and wet so it makes the walk a bit more uncomfortable. The weather report said it had a high of 65 degrees today but I don't believe it. Maybe it was the cold wind which made it feel like 50 degrees or so? It was chilly!

So, we have a little bite to eat with our "fika" and Linnea tries out this strawberry shortcake type of dessert. The whipped cream wasn't sweetened so I had to grab some honey to make it more to her liking. The only kind of sugar this place had was cubed. She liked it and ate most of it. She is also drinking Fanta.

My cutie pie at "fika" 

Linnea's strawberry thing is in the middle but there are lots of other sweet options too. 

My "fika" with coffee and a shrimp sandwich. It was delicious! 

After we ate, we headed to a toy store where Farmor bought a croquet set and I bought a small plastic horse for Linnea. Apparently, these figurines are hand painted and there were many to choose from. I told her it was a special item and to make sure and take care of it. Then we headed to a department store called Lindex that sells women's and children's clothing mostly. Linnea loved the underwear that Farmor had sent her for Christmas so we went looking for the same kind. We succeeded and I also decided to buy her a raincoat. I really like the Swedish ones and we lost the last one we had bought for her 3 years ago. It probably wouldn't fit her anyway so now we have a new one.

Then we go to Åhléns which is another department store that also sells clothing but homegoods as well. It is sort of like Target to me. I wanted to see if they had some things for the house that I could buy and of course they do. I don't buy much but my wallet is $120 lighter. Target quality but not Target prices! It is actually fairly inexpensive for Sweden though...

We were done shopping (I had spent enough for today) so we headed to Farmor's house which was just a few minutes away. She made "dinner" for us which was a salad, cured salmon, boiled potatoes, toast and pancakes for Linnea. They were not the same kind she was expecting and of course no syrup to go on it so we had it with butter and sugar instead. We ate "dinner" around 3pm and decided to go to the playground for Linnea. Farmor lives in a "row house" or townhome where many houses share the same outside walls. We meet several young girls at the playground and they looked at us very curiously since we were speaking English. Farmor and the girls dad translated for us but they still thought it was strange. However, it didn't take long for Linnea to make friends with the oldest (4 years old) and they blew bubbles together. She also got to practice some Swedish and the girls knew a few English words too. What fun!

It was time to head home as I was getting quite tired and Linnea too. She again fell asleep on the car ride back to Bondarv. Lucky girl. I only had my cell phone with me so I decided to try to see if any photos would come out from the car. It turns out it worked just fine! However, by the time I decided to take a photo of something we had past it.

One of my test photos that actually came out just fine. I like the pinkish-red roads here. 

So we are home and Farmor returns to Bollnas to sleep. I think it will be another early night for me too. "God natt!"