Back in Action

When I started this blog, the plan was to post a little more often than once a week--really! Unfortunately, I slept through most of this week after picking up a cold virus.  I'm told that this is part of the travelling experience. As such, I should probably relish said experience and share it with you in great, gory detail. Instead, I may just celebrate that it has almost completely succumbed to the efforts of my immune system. It really was fabulous having energy again today!

So, as I'm sure you can imagine, quite a lot has happened, especially since I didn't even manage to get caught up last time I wrote! We arrived in Sweden on the evening of July 9th. On the eleventh, our dear friends with whom we have been staying took us for an astounding three-day tour of one of Sweden's important cultural districts: Dalarna! We saw so many really cool things! Our first stop was Falun copper mine which operated for about 1300 years (estimates seem to vary regarding early operations from as early as 700 onward, but it was known to operate in 1080, and it only stopped active use as a mine in 1992) at different stages as an open pit and underground mine. It also boasted a 40m high hoist wheel and a 208m high foot bridge over a shaft to the underground workings:

See, it's a very long way down! The open pit and the field hospital were also very impressive. There were huge innovations in mining developed at Falun including mechanised hoist systems.  There were equally impressive medical innovations, but if I'm not telling you about my little cold, I'm certainly not sharing the gory details on those babies! (Seriously gory there folks--just think mining accidents before the invention of anaesthesia and you know I need to go no further)

While still in Falun (town) we went to the Dalarna Museum to check out impressive cultural contributions such as the world-famous, wooden "Dala" horses, Swedish traditional folk costumes and embroidery beyond compare!

On the second day we split up into two groups: one went to check out waterfalls and a limestone quarry loaded with columns and columns of cephalopod fossils; the other went to Anders Zorn's old-style farm and textile museum.