Day 12 - Carl Larsson's Museum - and onto Borlange

the kitchen - wonderful feeling of Margaret Olley interiors at B&B

mossy rocks and lakes - says it all

Inside the Sondborn church

B&B - yellow house with a yellow fence

Carl Larsson's home - great light for his studio!!

trying to capture the wind in a photo....  check out the birch tree

an old stone barrier - hadn't seen one like this before

the road ahead - or behind - imagine the wind tunnelling along here - whinge whinge whinge!!

after breakfast, I went for a quick tour of this area again - it is so pretty and idyllic and easy to understand why Larsson jumped at the offer to a home here!  had a quick look in the church - it was quite a simple affair inside, but when I noticed the coffin, I sort of thought I should leave....
I waved goodbye to Lena and Lars and headed off to the museum.  I have looked into the history of Carl & Karin Larsson and here I was - in their home.  The next English tour was not for another hour, so I tagged along a Swedish tour with a written English booklet to help.  it was quite a buzz being in the home that actually features in many of his drawings.  The windows, the bedrooms and the studio - with the textiles created by Karin...  There was a tapestry by Karin and one by a friend - plus the really interesting door curtain she wove.  the furniture looked so familiar.  unfortunately, photography wasn't allowed. there was one Bruno Lillefors painting - white hare in the snow - hanging on the studio wall, so that was also a bonus!  so yep I did enjoy the whole experience...  I had a quick look around the gift shop and then headed off for a quick lunch at the little cafe just down the road and then toot toot!  we're on our way again.

Lars had said there were some short cut options to Hosjon - but all I saw were unsealed gravelly roads, so I stuck to the main one back to the motorway.  There was a bit of dashing to and fro to get across the motorway and onto the road I needed and eventually I pedalled down to the servo to get some more directions.  The guy was very helpful and soon I was on my way - once again struggling with the wind blowing right in my face. We rode alongside the lake for awhile, but then the bikeway disappeared and I had to do a dash along the major road again.  This wasn't the best of the day for sure.  No shoulder to ride on and constant traffic.  I had to get off and let cars pass as my pace was so slow and not easy to control wobbling around on some of the hills.
but eventually we made it to the turn off to Vika and back onto a friendlier road - except for the wind.  This road wound between open farmlands and small patches of forest and nothing much else.  I think if the wind wasn't in my face i would have really enjoyed this ride, but....  it was another day of struggle.  Maggie and I are getting pretty good with hills, but that head wind just adds a dimension that we don't particularly like - I was trying to control Cranky Chris and I mostly did, but occasionally I would crack and cuss a bit!!
But there is always an end to a daily journey and we coasted into Borlange with a little help from passer-bys.  why do signs point in the wrong direction?  I found the tourist info centre and got the name of a hotel and after pedalling past Ikea and wriggling around a bit I located the Active Hotel - think I might be the only person here - its just down the road from the Stadium and thankfully there aren't any games happening there this weekend, so plenty of room for me - and at 695kr I am happy as!

Tomorrow will be my last day riding in Sweden - I should get into Ludvika in a happy mood - as long as the wind dies down!