The last few days we have just been taking things slow and have been enjoying taking things easy, like catching up on some sleep been able unpack the suitcase. As great as it is travelling it is a good feeling being able to be in one place for more than a few days and this little town of Hudiksvall on the coastline only a few hours north of Stockholm is where we lived, worked got married and where Louise was born before moving to Australia so there is a lot of history here. Little things like knowing your way around not needing our beloved life and marriage saver, TomTom(GPS) to get around. Hudiksvall hasn’t changed much at all and it’s so quiet compared to our life in Australia and yet this is the busy time with lots of tourists around as this weekend is the biggest weekend of the year. The Midsummer weekend is being celebrated and this is the biggest weekend of the year and also the lightest day of the year and is always enjoyed by all young and old with lots of traditional midsummer celebration of dance, food and drink. But more of that later!
After catching up with Gunnar and Agneta we have also started to catch up with friends. Peter has been spending some time with his fishing buddy Lars planning fishing getaways for sure whereas I got dragged out of bed the other day by my friend Kiina, who is an old work college and a fellow horse fanatic. It was rush rush to get to the stable for a weekly riding lesson only to find out after the horse was dragged from it’s very lush paddock brushed and saddled that Kiina had forgotten the lessons had been changed for the afternoon. Talk about everyone having hysterics at the stable when it all became apparent of the mishap. We still enjoyed a cuppa with some other horse friends where we shared 3 years of catch up.
As Peter described earlier it is so beautiful here at the moment and it is hard to paint a correct picture of the lush foliage everywhere and these amazing light nights. It doesn’t matter what time you wake up during the night it is just light outside and even though you know that this is how it is, it is still incredible! Bring on daylight-saving I say or even better send the Qld politicians over here to visit and see how the curtains and cows cope!!
On Thursday Peter and I decided to go bushwalking inland and to climb and conquer a mountain top. A 3.5 km walk uphill, with markers along the way to guide people in winter when the snow is metre deep or more, to finally end up at the top of the cliff where we could enjoy the breathtaking views.
A wind/weather shield had been built with a good open fire place and this is not a place where you’d want to be at all a little bit intoxicated as the cliffs end is something like a scene from the movie Cliffhanger and not for the faint hearted.
A 150 metre vertical drop and not a fence in sight and pretty scary for anyone not being fond of heights.
In the evening we joined Lars who was overseeing an old flax/grain mill making sure it was working for the midsummer celebrations the next day giving it a test run and of course it worked beautifully.
With only running water as the only power source flax could be swingled and grain could be grinded into flour.
An ingenious construction. Dating back to the 18th century the mill has been restored to working order by volunteers from the local community.
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