Siljansnaes: happy days by the lake

Lake Siljan is really very very large.  In fact we thought we'd arrived already when we were about 9nm away from the airfield, only to discover that what we had thought to be the lake was just an inlet....  It is the preferred holiday destination of people from the south of Sweden (in which I include Stockholm), and despite many dire warnings about mosquitos was really very comfortable with good weather.

The wonderful lichen on the redcurrant tree warns of good rainfall...

We arrived just as their annual 2 week fly-in 'Crayfish days' was beginning, so it was all action with a wacky flying theatre show involving a couple of small bi-planes planned and lots of preparation. 

Not the flying theatre, but maybe future pilots???  We loved these pedal-planes.

The location is really idyllic, and the air-park reallly very tempting.  We just have to work out how we can combine living there for part of the year with a Europe based business. We met a large number of really interesting people who live at the airpark (at least part of the year) and the entire place has a very congenial atmosphere.

These kit houses not only look traditional, they're also remarkably quick to put up, now if only the weather were appropriate for such a building in Hervey Bay!

traditional Leksand wind indicator

Lovely plots facing onto the runway

We ended up spending most of our time socialising (I nominated myself as the official waffle taste tester for the trial cooking runs for the fly-in), so didn't get out and about too much.  We rode into the nearby town of Leksand one day which was a really beautiful ride, especially on the way back along the lake (we managed to take the main road on the way in), the route took us through a lot of beautiful little villages and the site of the largest half-pipe in Sweden.  I was surprised at one point by the strong smell of wook permeating the air, apparently from one guy chopping his winter wood supply.... Then we came around the corner and saw the sign to the sawmill.

Leksand crispbread on sale in the Leksand supermarket

Traditional style building in the ski-area, note red colour from rot-inhibiting copper paint

Days 17 to 18 - so back to the mainland: Siljansnaes via Lemstanas

We thought we'd go to Siljansnaes on the way to Norway, as it's a really massive lake which is meant to be really beautiful.  Well we made it across the sea before the cloud level sank and sank and a short way inland we ended up landing at Lemstanas glider club.  This was really the best thing that could have happened to us, as it is a really active, well organised club with very kind and enthusiatic members.  We got up very very early (5am Swedish time) and so landed shortly after 9am, and as the day progressed, more and more members came in to say hello.  Paul took us around the airfield and showed us his lovely Zodiac; we asked if we could borrow his jerry cans to fill the plane up more economically (compare just over €1 per litre to the €2.44 per litre we paid a couple of days earlier at Mariehamn airport).  Then he offered to drive us into town (Sandvik) to fill the cans, and then giving us a tour of the town before dropping us off to do some touristing / shopping.  My sneakers smelt so bad by this time that Julian had strongly suggested that I get new ones....  And then they have these neat shopping baskets with alloy frames....  And then we found a System Bollaget (system company direct translation), which is an outlet of Sweden's alcohol monopoly, and when I say outlet, I mean the only shops in Sweden where you can buy any drinks stronger than  3.6% beer.  I can tell you this system has probably been good for us as we just haven't drunk anything except for the odd light beer since we've been in Sweden.

The evening was car bingo; what is car bingo I hear you ask???  Well it's pretty wacky, about 80 vehicles turned up on the field, and sat in their cars while the MC called out numbers.  When they got a bingo they honked....  We sat in the clubroom and helped support the club by eating 4 hotdogs each (not american size, but IKEA size - we're really surprised  discover that IKEA food really is exactly what the Swedes eat).  And spent the night in a visitors cabin, which was really very comfortable.

Bingo!

The next day Paul and a friend took us around the local area; to a summer farm, where young women used to take the cows and goats in summer to graze in the forest, freeing up the main farm for hay production.  The women would milk the animals and make cheese.

Nibbled to death by goatlets!

At the summer farm - I love these traditional fences and would like to make one myself

We then went to a local printing museum, whcih was quite fascinating: one day in the mid-70s they went home from work and the next day the plant was closed, so everything was still there and they do a little printing of napkins etc. these days.  The funny thing was the no-one appears to have ever changed anything when they were working there: there were drawings from 1900 and newspaper cartoons still stuck up on the wall.  There are very many small museums in Sweden - pretty much every small village you come to has at least one.  They appear to be mainly privately owned.  Around 4 the weather was clearing so we went back to the airfield and continued on to Siljansnaes.

Goodbye Lemstanas, we had a fantastic time