Scotland and Stockholm 2013: Mill Towns and the Baltic Sea.

Monday June 26.

Today I put my feet in the Baltic Sea!!

We drove through beautiful country to two old iron forge cities, Lövstabruk and Forsmark.

The Walloon Ironworks in Lövstabruk (Lövsta=glade, Bruk=ironworks) was founded in the 16th century. There were about 1300 people living there during it's most productive days, now there are about 100 residents. The village offers a look at the past and is the home of artists and craftsmen. Robin bought a beautiful earthenware bowl and two small figurines at the little store. There is a cute little church here with a well-preserved pipe organ built in the 1720's. While we were visiting it was being played by musician visiting from Indiana so we got to here it being played...so lovely!

Manor house at Lövstabruk

Pipe Organ at Lövstabruk

Robin and Linda at Lövstabruk

Our next stop was Forsmark another village with very few inhabitants now. We had lunch in a little cafe there. There was, for sale in the cafe, the most hideous sofa I have ever seen! It was an old sofa with a very pretty wooden frame upholstered in a very busy patchwork of bright fabric. The piece across the back of it had a picture of a man and woman (picture a 60's B grade movie..dark swarthy man with flowing hair) embracing, naked! LOL! Really awful! Wish I had taken a picture!

Forsmark

After Forsmark we drove north and took a ferry over to the little island of Gräsö. Gräsö is an island in the northern part of the Uppland archipelago. This island is 30 km long with a few hundred inhabitants in the winter. In the summer it is visited by thousands of people who go to enjoy the sun, sea and cliffs. It's really beautiful. We spent several hours enjoying the sunshine and watching the birds and boats. Eros took a little swim in the cold water while the rest of us merely dipped our feet. There were loads of Terns there and Donald was attacked by one when he got too close to her nest and babies. It was pretty funny but no one had a camera ready to get a shot. We tried to talk him into going back to his previous location to no avail!