Tuesday July 5, Guldsmedshyttan

 

This evenings walk, with the sun
creating steam on the road after
the rain.

I have been enjoying knitting while we are travelling and needed (or wanted) to visit a Swedish wool shop. Checked with Google and found a store in Soderkoping that opened at 10am. Perfect, our first stop this morning. The map took us to some older buildings and from the outside couldn’t see any shop where Google sent me too. Left Ian in the van and had a look around and finally asked at one of the other shops, showing her the details from Google. She soon put me right, sending me over to a larger older building and told me to go upstairs. I really wasn’t sure where I was going to as I climbed up some old internal stairs, but finally I found it, and what a find. There was a room full of many different yarns with some labels I had seen in NZ. Then I met the owner, Lotta, who was so welcoming and explained the background to the store. The large building had been a sewing factory until the early 1990’s, and now the many rooms are used to house all sorts of crafts. She has a huge stock of beautiful yarn from around the world. There is a room set aside for knitting classes, as well as sewing classes where people come in to use the machines. And there were a number of weaving looms of various sizes which people rent. Brought back memories of my weaving days many years ago.  Naturally I left with a few balls of wool!

We continued our drive north around Norrkoping and onto Orebro where we found an excellent Truck stop and were able to do all our van “ablutions”….emptying and filling with fresh water. Perfect. Found a camping site and thought we would stay there and perhaps walk into town, but it was very small and right on a busy road so after stopping for a very late lunch..again, we gave it a miss and headed another hour north to a spot we had found on a lake, just ideal.

No chance to explore yet as it started raining as soon as we arrived but checked the forecast and it looks to be clearing this evening. Fingers crossed as I also want to walk back up the road to a rather lovely church and cemetery, we passed driving in.

…Put a chicken casserole in the oven and then the rain stopped so off for a walk up the narrow road with my camera. It was really pretty with lupins growing beside the road and the sun peaking through the trees. I spotted an old stone in the church grounds and it seems the church was built in 1718. The grounds with the cemetery were so well looked after and I gathered by the number of cars outside that there was some service going on. A very pleasant amble. And l have no idea how to pronounce the name of this town!!! 

Visit to the wool shop, the owner Lotta was
so welcoming and helpful.

 

This afternoons drive and playing with
the phone camera!

Reeds reflecting in the lake.

Lupin after the rain.

View from our overnight campspot.