THURSDAY, JULY 16, 2026
Summer Vacation 2026 Part I: An Enchanted Road Trip from Denver to Albuquerque 
This year, I started my US vacation in Denver where I was greeted with squeals and leaps by one of my bestest friends, Hilary. Hilary is a friend from college and we have adventured and road tripped together through the years, but it had been a while since our last in-depth visit, making this year’s adventure long overdue. After spending the night at her house in Denver, we loaded up the car the next morning and headed up into the mountains.
When planning the trip, we debated about whether we should concentrate on one area or if we should do a more traditional road trip, bouncing from one place to the next every day. I love both and this time we settled on a road trip. Hilary could drop me off in Albuquerque where I’d be meeting up with Carl, and we could scope out a lot of the scenery on the western side of the Rockies for future family trips and future bestie adventures. We saw and experienced a LOT over the trip and my conclusion, which is not exactly breaking news, is that there is a lifetime of adventure to be had in those mountains. On this trip, we scratched the surface, and we already have several ideas for further, deeper, adventures together.
Our first stop was Hanging Lake, a day hike outside of Glenwood Springs that is so popular (thank you Instagram) that you have to have a reservation and permit. The trail is only about 3 miles roundtrip, but it goes up a lot, and I was a little worried about my hiking ability at 7300ft (2225m) since I had not acclimatized at all. My breathing was a little heavier than usual, but I was happy to find that I could hike, even steeply uphill, without too much trouble.
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| Scenery at the bottom of the trail and on the way up to Hanging Lake. |
Hanging Lake is brilliantly green from the moss and other plant life below the water’s surface. Several waterfalls tumble into the lake, and the backdrop is a deep green forest accented by spring green deciduous trees.
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| Thank you Hilary for this great shot! |
From Glenwood Springs, we turned off the interstate and headed south, stopping at Penny Hot Springs for a dip. Hot water gushes out of the banks of the Crystal River, and people have made small rock-lined pools to catch the warmth before it mixes with the cold river water. Other than a widening of the road to allow for parking and these crude pools, Penny Hot Springs is completely natural and has no infrastructure. We soaked for a while, chatting with some other soakers, before heading back on the road.
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| Another great shot from Hilary |
After crossing the scenic McClure pass,
we followed the road through a sparsely settled and gorgeous valley until reaching the small town of Hotchkiss where we camped, for a small fee, in someone’s yard (there’s an app for this). The mountain views were divine, the music and canned cocktails were heavenly, and the farm’s turkey was gobbling. I was starting to relax into vacation mode and starting to really enjoy this luxurious car camping thing—cocktails? music? extra thick sleeping pads? sign me up!
The next day, we drove into the Uncompahgre National Forest and up a valley following the Cimarron River, aka the Magical Valley. Now we weren’t just viewing the mountains from afar, we were driving up into them, and the scenery was getting more gorgeous by the minute.
We saw a VERY large cinnamon-colored black bear lope across the road and passed by several herds of elk. Each branch of the river in the Uncompahgre Wilderness
features beautiful trails which connect on high passes. We chose to hike up the Middle Fork and hoped to make it up to the pass at 11200ft (3415m) before having to turn around. Along the way, the forested trail often gave glimpses to the amphitheaters of peaks around us, but unfortunately, we never made it above treeline.
Being the middle of May, we knew that it was very early to be hiking so high up in the mountains, but with the practically non-existent snowpack last winter, we thought it might be possible anyway. However, after crossing a couple of beautiful mountain meadows with dramatic peaky views,
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| Thank you Hilary for the photo on the left! |
By the time we turned around at lunch,
There is quite a lot of gorgeous dispersed camping in the Magical Valley (note to self!), but we had booked the Jackson Guard Station cabin for the night. Previously used by rangers, the cabin consists of two bedrooms and a kitchen/dining room with a cozy woodstove. The weather was sunny and dry, though, so we hung out outside, listening to more tunes, enjoying our canned cocktails, catching up on life, munching on veggies and dips and tortilla chips and salsas, and gazing into the fire. A litter of coyote pups yipped into the night. It was another fantastic evening, and I slept incredibly well on my little cot in my little bedroom.
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| Jackson Guard Station actually consists of two cabins (and an outhouse). When you rent the cabin, you have access to the cabin on the left. The older cabin on the right was locked and seemingly abandonded. |
It was a little heartbreaking to leave the Magical Valley, but after going over another pass on incredibly well-maintained forest service roads, we descended into yet more beautiful scenery, this time featuring the San Juan Mountains behind jealousy-inducing ranchland.
Ouray’s via ferrata was such a cool experience! Following the side of a narrow river gorge, it is a mostly horizontal route, though there is a good bit of up and down, too.
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| Thank you Hilary for the photo on the right. |
It’s a great beginner’s via ferrata because the entire route is protected—there are no scary, unprotected sections as in the Dolomites (see The Dolomites: Hiking the Alta Via 4 + Via Ferrate and Hiking the Julian Alps of Slovenia). Also, there are rungs provided just about everywhere, meaning that you don’t have to find your own hand and footholds. However, the route was just challenging enough to be fun; there was one traversing section in particular that required a lot of upper body strength. Two highlights of the route were crossing the river on a 3-wire bridge and then crossing again on an inclined ladder.
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| Both of these photos were taken by Hilary. |
In addition to the river gorge we traversed, Ouray also features the scenic Box Canyon. Here, a river flows through a gorge, drops about 300ft (100m) through a twisting waterfall slide,
Ouray is a Victorian-era mining town that has managed to stay afloat long after the mines fizzled out largely due to its scenic location. Known as the Switzerland of America, the town is nestled into an amphitheater of peaks and glaciers and abounds with outdoor adventure.
In Ouray, we stayed in what is probably the world’s cutest motel (it was time for a shower!) which even features its own hot spring soaking tubs. Soaking, enjoying another canned cocktail, and having a deep philosophical converstation with my bestie—what a perfect way to relax my muscles after the via ferrata!
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| Thanks Hilary for the photo on the right! |
When we woke up the next morning, fog enveloped the peaks. Because the next stage of our road trip was supposed to be the most magnificent yet, we didn’t want to drive through the fog and miss out on the views. Instead, we spent the morning at Orvis Hot Springs and waited for the fog to clear. Because clothing is optional at Orvis, all technology including watches is banned from the soaking pools, so we couldn’t take photos. But the property was just beautiful: there were several different pools with different water temperatures that were beautifully constructed in organic shapes and lined with stones and fine gravel, meandering paths wound through exuberantly flowering gardens, and scenic bridges crossed over the hot stream. Fog blocked all views outward and steam billowed up from the pools, creating a perfect little universe sealed off from the real world. Snow fell on our heads as our bodies were happily submerged in the warm water. Holding free, bottomless mugs of hot chocolate and coffee, we chatted with some well-traveled and hard-core adventuring fellow soakers. Soaking at Orvis was a perfect moment that has etched its way into my memory; a new happy place to return to in my mind when needed.
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| photo from https://orvishotsprings.com/ |
The fog lifted by lunch and soon we embarked on the Million Dollar Highway which links the mining towns of Ouray and Silverton over a high pass.
Along the way, you pass by a number of defunct mines, the evidence of which is everywhere in the form of ghost towns,
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| Ironton ghost town |
piles of tailings, and decrepit mining buildings and infrastructure.
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| On the left, an old mining building below Red Mountain. On the right, the road was built on stablized tailing piles. |
Despite this rapacious past, the valley is today incredibly gorgeous with its constant stream of jagged peaks, glimpses of rushing rivers, and aspen groves then in their first flush of spring.
Dropping down into Silverton from Red Mountain Pass, we didn’t realize that we still had two high passes to cross before descending into the Durango area. This was definitely a “but wait, there’s more!” road trip and these mountain passes just got more and more scenic. My favorite was Molas Pass where in the summer, there’s a very scenic campground (note to self!).
After climbing and descending, twisting and turning, singing and belting along to favorite country songs, we rolled into Haviland Lake Campground just north of Durango. Here, we scored a lakeside campsite despite having no reservation. We enjoyed cocktails by the water before returning into the trees to make a fire and dinner once the sun set. As if the day hadn’t been overwhelmingly beautiful enough, we were treated to an incredible array of stars and planets and a setting moon.
The next day started with a spontaneous guided trail ride from the adjacent dude ranch. We wound through the sun-warmed pine-scented forest and clopped by some mountain vistas. My horse was very munchy and would have preferred to spend the day grazing the trail’s delicious, long grass, but we managed to get back to the ranch eventually. We followed up the fun trail ride with a second breakfast of breakfast tacos at a surprisingly tasty restaurant, Hermosa Creek Grill, before hitting the road.
We skipped Durango due to time constraints (next time!) and as we headed south into New Mexico, the terrain immediately flattened and dried,
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| Another photo from Hilary |
to entrance of the slot canyon. There was some greenery in the canyon, a stark color contrast to the fiery red walls. We twisted through the canyon until we came to the canyon’s head, then turned around. So beautiful!
Our road trip came to a close in Albuquerque where we checked in to the newly refurbished historic Hotel Andaluz, a small splurge after “roughing it” in campgrounds and cabins.
After an incredibly deep night’s sleep, Hilary and I parted ways. Hilary drove the direct route back to Denver and completed the trip in about six hours while I embarked on the next phase of my summer vacation. I was sad to end this enchanted road trip. Yes, it was enchanted because of the incredible scenery, the varied experiences, the falling-snow-while-soaking-in-a-hot-spring. But mostly the enchantment was due to sharing it with Hilary, a dear friend whom I’ve missed! I had SO MUCH FUN adventuring with you, Hilary, and I loved loved loved catching up on each other’s lives on a deeper level. Thank you. Let’s not wait 20 years for our next adventure together!
WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 2026
Valborg on Gotland 
Carl and I have witnessed many a Valborg bonfire since moving to Sweden, but we have never witnessed anything like the scale of this Gotland bonfire. Gotlanders really go all in! The mound of kindling was literally house-sized, about 3 meters high (10’) and with a diameter of about 30 meters (100’). Once the wood caught, the flames were almost as high as the surrounding mature trees. It was quite a powerful sight.
This year’s bonfire was made even more potent and primeval by the rising full moon over the adjacent lake. It’s not every year that the full moon corresponds with the last day of April! Between the leaping flames and the full moon reflecting in the water, I felt very connected to my inner pagan Viking!
Valborg celebrations in Stockholm are attended by so many people that unless you arrive at least an hour early, you won’t be close enough to actually see the fire. In Tingstäde, however, the blaze was so big and so hot that there weren’t even enough people in attendance to fully encircle bonfire. Carl and I were the last “guests” to leave the bonfire about 90 minutes after ignition, and the fire was still going strong. The three fire watchers must have had a very late night waiting for the fire to die into a heap of ashes.
The next day, the first official day of spring, Carl and I walked from the house, along the beautiful coast,
past so many beautiful spring wildflowers,
to Lummelunda grotta, Sweden’s next-longest cave system, for a tour. The discovery story is just as interesting as the cave itself: two fourteen-year-old boys discovered the cave opening and then spent the next seven years exploring the cave by candlelight. Candlelight! Eventually, their letters filled with questions to prominent geologists alerted the geological community that something special was on Gotland, and their secret got out. Carl’s family has a somewhat personal connection to the cave because Carl’s dad, who is a mining engineer, was called to the cave in the 1970’s to help the owners blast a new, tourist-friendly tunnel into the cave. It was fun to finally see the cave that I have heard so much about.
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| I was extra excited about the cave's fossils |
Carl’s parents picked us up for a crepe lunch at one of Gotland’s many atmospheric outdoor cafés. So tasty! In keeping with the spring theme of the trip, we then went to a nearby birding lake for a sunny walk and a gander at the many waterfowl.
Dinner was also spring-inspired with a ramslök (wild garlic) soup appetizer.
After the meal, Carl and I walked to a nearby cliff to admire the sun setting into the Baltic sea.
The next day, all four of us drove an hour north on an adventure to check out Sweden’s newest (almost) national park, Bästeträsk. The park is all but finalized and much of the infrastructure has already been completed, but Parliament has not quite passed the final legislation. In the meantime, we decided to check things out before the hoards descend. Our first stop was the Blue Lagoon, a very popular swimming hole in the summer, followed by a picnic lunch at the Är fishing village.
After lunch, we set out on one of the park’s new trails. The trail is so new that while trees have been marked to show the way, much of the path is not even worn through the ground vegetation. The trail passed through a “fossil” beach, now high up over sea level as well as through a forest with impressive, ancient pines.
Carl’s mom prepared yet another delicious spring-inspired dinner, this time with a kajplök, or sand leek, soup appetizer. We always tease Carl’s mom that she runs Gotland’s best restaurant, but the truth is that she runs Gotland’s finest kitchen. We are always spoiled with scrumptious gourmet dinners when we visit.
Before catching the ferry back to the mainland on our last day, we picked som ramslök to take home with us and then helped out at the Brucebo House’s spring cleaning. Carl’s parents are ceaseless volunteers for the non-profit running the historic artists’ residence, and this time they brought us as reinforcements. I spent the day raking leaves, and Carl spent the day doing odd fix-it jobs. It was a lovely day to be out in the gardens and it felt good to do a bit of good.
This was my first visit on Gotland that didn't include at least one medieval church, but we did see some interesting architecture none-the-less.
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| Shed at Polhemsgården in Tingstäde and limeworks buildings at Bläse |
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| Visby, Gotland's medieval city, from the ferry |
MONDAY, MARCH 03, 2026
Magnificent Skiing in Andorra 
Andorra is a teeny tiny country wedged between France and Spain high up in the Pyrenees mountains. The country lives on tourism and the vast majority of the tourists come for the skiing. The main ski resort, Grandvalira, stretches across about 2/3 of the country with ridge after ridge and bowl after bowl of connected trails.
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| Clear signage where off-piste skiing is not a good idea |
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| I didn't actually take specific photos of the off-piste areas, but if you look closely at these photos, you get an idea. |
We actually didn’t have great luck with the weather, but even so, we absolutely loved the skiing here. The slopes were well-groomed and consisted of a variety of wide-open glades as well as more intimate trails through the trees.
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| Most of the lifts were quite modern, but I did enjoy this antique two person chairlift. There were some surface lifts, but actually very few. |
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| Waiting in line for the El Tartar gondola, the only long lift line of the trip. |
We stayed in the village of Soldeu which is in the middle of the chain of connected ridges, giving us good access to the entire spread-out resort. This village had the added benefit of having a number of lower-elevation lifts and slopes, some of the only open lifts and slopes when it was extremely windy. (The neighboring village of El Tartar would make an equally good base for the same reasons.) Soldeu has a few historic stone buildings,
I was a bit nervous about the quality of our hotel and the half board meals which were included in our package deal, but Hotel Himalaya was lovely and well situated near the main gondola and the food was quite varied and very good.
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| Our hotel lobby and hotel architecture. Thank you Ulrika for the photo on the left! |
Some local dishes, some Spanish dishes, some some international dishes. The buffets were enormous with so many tasty options that we all ate more than we probably should have, but alas. What is one to do when presented with so much lovely food? Each night we tried a different bottle of wine—all Spanish, as Andorra seems to have much closer cultural ties to Spain than to France.
Perhaps Andorra’s ties are stronger to Spain because the main river valley empties out to the south? It is interesting, though, because Andorra doesn’t have its own head of state—in an ancient bid to keep the larger neighbors from swallowing up the tiny principality, the country has a dual head of state, a powerful bishop from Spain and the France president (previously the French king). So it’s a bit surprising to me that the French influence seemed so passive when France’s president is also one of Andorra’s heads of state! While Catalan is the official Andorran native language, Spanish seemed to be the most common language among the tourists and those serving the tourists; we only heard sporadic French during our stay.
The culinary highlight of the trip was our lunch at a small restaurant, Pessons, that is only accessible from one windy ski trail. We swished by one day a bit before lunchtime and it smelled so good that I insisted that we return for lunch. And I’m so glad that I did! We ordered two legs of sheep and the meat was absolutely delicious and falling-off-the-bone tender. I’m thinking that this dish is probably what was cooking and smelling so tasty when we had skied by. A dessert of gourmet hot-chocolate topped off the fabulous meal. The food was so good and the restaurant so cozy that we were determined to return the next day, but alas, it was so windy that the lift serving that area was closed, and we weren’t able to return. Next time.
Perhaps Andorra’s ties are stronger to Spain because the main river valley empties out to the south? It is interesting, though, because Andorra doesn’t have its own head of state—in an ancient bid to keep the larger neighbors from swallowing up the tiny principality, the country has a dual head of state, a powerful bishop from Spain and the France president (previously the French king). So it’s a bit surprising to me that the French influence seemed so passive when France’s president is also one of Andorra’s heads of state! While Catalan is the official Andorran native language, Spanish seemed to be the most common language among the tourists and those serving the tourists; we only heard sporadic French during our stay.
The culinary highlight of the trip was our lunch at a small restaurant, Pessons, that is only accessible from one windy ski trail. We swished by one day a bit before lunchtime and it smelled so good that I insisted that we return for lunch. And I’m so glad that I did! We ordered two legs of sheep and the meat was absolutely delicious and falling-off-the-bone tender. I’m thinking that this dish is probably what was cooking and smelling so tasty when we had skied by. A dessert of gourmet hot-chocolate topped off the fabulous meal. The food was so good and the restaurant so cozy that we were determined to return the next day, but alas, it was so windy that the lift serving that area was closed, and we weren’t able to return. Next time.
We ended each ski day with an apres-ski beer or glass of mulled wine. We sat in the sun when possible, but my favorite setting was one bar that had several decommissioned gondolas on its patio. We sat cozily inside the gondola and sipped our beers while a snowstorm raged outside.
We did have two sunny days with magnificent views. On these days, we “ski-safaried” to the two extremes of the long ski resort to check out those far-off slopes and to enjoy all of the various mountain views.
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| Carl and Patrik skiing |
Spending a week with our dear friends Patrik and Ulrika was another highlight of the trip. It was so much fun to converse over beers and meals and to share the magnificent skiing. Thank you P & U for a great trip, I’m so looking forward to our next adventure, and to another visit to Andorra!
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| Us, enjoying the views. Thank you Ulrika for the photo on the right. |
All too soon it was time to leave Andorra. Our transfer picked us up crazy early at 3:15am; not being able to control our transfer time was really the only downside of the package set-up. The flight path home was sadly not over the Pyrenees, but we did have fabulous views of the Alps.
MONDAY, JANUARY 19, 2026
Storlien for Christmas, New Year's, and Epiphany
We had a good winter break in Storlien, but it wasn’t the best ever because the weather was challenging. Our visit was characterized by extremes—from above freezing and rain to a blizzard with hurricane strength winds to extreme cold with temperatures dipping to -30C / -22F. Between the lack of snow, the storm, and then the cold snap, the adventuring was a bit limited.
When we first arrived, what little snow there was had half melted and refrozen into an ice sheet, making any form of skiing impossible. Luckily, we had brought our snowshoes which have jagged soles, giving us enough traction to walk on the ice. We set out on a couple of fun snowshoeing expeditions in the hills around Storlien.
The rain melted away what little snow there had been when we arrived, so we spent a day driving to a couple of well-known waterfalls in the area. The trail down to Tännforsen was an ice rink and extremely hazardous, but we managed to cautiously cut our way through the somewhat less icy forest to enjoy incredible waterfall views.
This stop was a little extra interesting to me because it is an example of small-scale energy production that creates an impressive amount of electricity, supplying 900 households with their energy needs, while neither requiring a large dam nor very invasive infrastructure. From the waterfall vantage point, you’d never know that some of the water is being diverted into underground tunnels for energy production. I’m anti-dam by nature but this solution is an interesting compromise—not appropriate everywhere, but in some places, yes.
During the blizzard, the winds were crazy strong so we didn’t feel comfortable setting off on a long adventure. We stuck close to the cabin and managed a few short loops on snow shoes and later on touring skis.
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| The weather wasn't really cooperating, but our car was ready for adventure! Snowshoes, downhill skis, cross-country skis, and touring skis. |
The blizzard dumped close to a meter of snow, giving the nearby ski resorts enough snow to open some, but not all of their slopes. The Storlien ski resort opened about 2/3 of its runs, and Åre, Sweden’s “Vail” about an hour east of Storlien, had about half of its runs open. Neither ski resort opened any of their steeper runs. Carl and I had been hoping for more downhill skiing, but we only skied once at Storlien and once at Åre. Storlien is a small ski resort,
Storlien and the neighboring areas have a good number of cross-country skiing trails, but they were of course not groomed for the first half of our trip. Even once the snow started falling, many of the trails weren’t groomed regularly, making for less-enticing skiing. We did, however, enjoy a surprisingly good day of cross-coutnry skiing at Fagerlia near Meråker in Norway. This system of trails had beautiful mountain views. In true Norwegian fashion, the trails were hilly but not nearly as extreme as those we encountered in Oslo at the beginning of 2025.
We enjoyed some lovely cross-country skiing in Storlien where there are two competing networks of trails making for an extensive mesh of trails, some flatter, some more challenging. We spent several fun days skiing these trails and enjoying views of the Storlien ski resort as well as of Snashögarna, the high mountain group which dominates Storlien’s skyline.
My favorite day of cross-country skiing was at Björnen in Åre. This 15km trail undulated with small uphills and downhills, but none of the hills were particularly steep or long, making for a tranquil roller coaster of cross-country skiing. We stopped at a café at a historic copper mine along the way and enjoyed both a savory waffle with slices of moose roast and horseradish crème and a sweet waffle with cloudberry jam and whipped cream. A yummy treat!
We spent more time tour skiing than I had expected due to the adverse conditions and lack of grooming on the cross-country trails.
The most memorable expedition was along the flank of Snashögarna where we unsuccessfully tried to ski to a waterfall. We were blocked by too-steep terrain and had to turn around, but the trip was a success anyway because of the beautiful, clear views to Åre and into the Sylarna mountains.
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| We set out at dawn and were back at the car at dusk. Not such a long day considering that sunrise was at around 10am and sunset at around 2:30pm. |
On one of the extremely cold days, we drove two hours each way to visit Trondheim in Norway. Trondheim is best known for its impressive cathedral, Europe’s northernmost gothic cathedral and an ancient pilgrimage destination.
and choir
are solidly from the Gothic era, and the carved details were just stunning.
The inner city of Trondheim is also charming with its meandering river
and charming neighborhoods. In between stops in cozy cafés to warm up, we wandered through a few of the historic neighborhoods.
We also climbed up to Kristiansten fästning, a historic fortress protecting Trondheim. It was poignant to visit this fort because it is the same fortress that resisted Swedish forces in the winter of 1719. When the Swedes were unable to take Trondheim, the troops were ordered to retreat back to Sweden. While crossing the mountains, the ill-prepared troops were caught in a snowstorm and 4300 of the 6000 soldiers froze to death. We had even visited one of the many monuments to this horrible tragedy earlier on the trip, so that doomed march was on our mind.
I was also taken with Stiftsgården, a royal palace from about 1775 that is adjacent to Trondheim’s central square. I imagine that it is Europe’s only royal residence with a wooden facade?
In Bergen, I had noticed that the city had beautiful, custom manhole covers depicting the city's history. Trondheim had its own covers.
There are no cathedrals in Storlien but we did visit a couple of scenic chapels, a modern one at Storvallen
and a more historic chapel at Handöl.
Even though we managed an outdoors adventure all but two days of the trip, we spent far less time outside playing in the snow than usual. But that meant that we had more time in our super cozy cabin for leisurely meals, reading in front of the fire,
naps, games, and snuggling with Gordon.
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| Right: Ris alá Malta, a traditional Swedish Christmas dessert. |
The cabin was very atmospheric, but its heating system couldn’t quite keep up with the extremely low temperatures during the cold snap. The heat was on max/high, but the indoor temperature in the living room was only 7C / 52F. The insides of the inner windowpanes were getting frosty. Poor Gordon, we felt really bad for him having to spend all day in the cold cabin. We built him caves with down and wool blankets, and he spent the better part of several days buried in his insulating nests. Luckily, our evening fires helped to keep the cabin a liiiitle warmer, and the cold snap only lasted a few days, so the cabin was soon back up to normal temperatures.
Storlien is a long drive—8 or 9 hours from Stockholm—and is probably at the outer limit of what we want to subject our cat Gordon to as he is not a fan travelling in the car. There are interesting winter destinations farther north, but we probably won’t explore them by car in the near future. While this year’s winter trip wasn’t our favorite winter vacation ever, I could see trying Storlien again later in the winter season when the ski resorts have hopefully gotten enough snow to fully open and when the cross-country tracks are hopefully groomed more regularly. There’s certainly a lot of potential for winter fun here.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 09, 2025
(Gamla) Linköping at Christmastime 
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| the bishop's residence / royal castle |
When the city center was being modernized in the mid-20th century, many of the quaint historical buildings were moved to the outskirts of the city to a new “Old Town” called Gamla Linköping. This assemblage of historic buildings was inspired by Skansen and other open-air museums, but unlike those precedents, Gamla Linköping is open to wander through without buying a ticket, many of the buildings are occupied by “modern” business including the obligatory cafés and cutesy boutiques but also by lawyer’s and medical offices, and many of the houses are rented out as private residences. Gamla Linköping is quaint and picturesque, but it is also very much a living city neighborhood.
I very briefly stopped in Gamla Linköping for a coffee with co-workers when we visited the city on a work trip several years ago, and I fell head-over-heals in love with it. Upon learning that a) there’s a Christmas market in Gamla Linköping every year and b) some of the historic buildings now make up a hotel, I was determined that Carl and I would visit and stay one year. In previous years I’ve checked too late to reserve a room, but this year, when we learned that Carl’s sister’s kid Blue would be studying at the university in Linköping for a semester, I booked us a room for the Christmas market more than 6 months in advance.
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| the hotel's buildings |
Carl and I took the train down to Linköping on the Friday of the First of Advent, then took a city bus 10 minutes to Gamla Linköping. After checking in, I picked us up some take-out sushi and Blue came to join us for dinner in our cozy room which even had a comfy sitting area. We caught up on the latest news over sushi and then had a fun evening of board games.
The next morning, Carl and I had breakfast at Gamla Linköping’s cozy café then proceeded to stroll through the entire Old Town, even taking in a large farm on the other side of a wooded walk.
None of the architecture was in any way surprising for me, but I did enjoy noticing the local details,
especially the window trim that visually elongates the windows, making them seem taller and more vertically proportioned than they really are.
When the Christmas market got going later in the morning, we started browsing the stalls and stores. Blue joined us a bit later and treated us to a lovely, cozy waffle lunch.
On Sunday, we wandered Linköping’s center. Blue gave us a walking tour of the various squares
It is a more restrained Gothic than in England or in France, but by Swedish standards, it’s a very ornamental church.
We visited the cathedral while the choir and orchestra were practicing for the Advent Sunday service. Their powerful performance of the Hallelujah chorus gave me shivers and was quite the dramatic auditory setting for touring the cathedral.
The ornate 800-year-old stone carvings are beautiful, of course, but I was most taken by a very simple, more modern series of artworks laid among the gravestones and flagstones in the floor of the cathedral. There were perhaps 10 small, illuminated glass globes under clear glass in the floor. Very simply carved phrases encourage you to ponder life and spirituality as you wander around the cathedral. One read, “Love. Let me be one for someone.” Another said “Carefreeness. Every day has enough of its own torment.” Yet another read “Quietness. Breath out darkness, breath in light.”
There was also a very moving bronze sculpture depicting a homeless man lying on the cathedral floor, facing toward the wall.
We took a late-afternoon train back to Stockholm and were home in time for a simple dinner. It was extremely cozy to experience Gamla Linköping’s Christmas market and hotel, and I had so much fun exploring the very livable and just-right sized city of Linköping. Just charming! Thanks Blue for hanging out with us old folks!
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2025
An Autumn Skåne Weekend 
Carl and I took the train down to Dalby last weekend to visit our friends and godchildren. We hadn’t seen most of them for quite some time, and it was so lovely to catch up! They have moved since we visited last, from an urban neighborhood in Malmö to Dalby, a hilltop village outside of Lund in the province of Skåne in southern Sweden. It’s a bit ironic that Dalby sits on top of the biggest hill for miles considering that the village’s name literally translates to “Valley Village.”
Dalby is surrounded by beautiful farm country, but there’s a surprising amount of nature around. Many of the nature reserves are at the picturesque junction between nature and culture where man’s hand has, through the millennia, shaped a landscape that is especially appealing to the human eye. We spent much of the weekend exploring several of the small but lovely nature reserves. The fall colors made the scenery even more gorgeous. Such pops of colors really brightened up the grey, drizzly days.
On Saturday we biked along a wonderful rails-to-trails bike path
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| The family dog hitches a ride in the cargo bike |
Much of the hike was through beech forests which were turning an incandescent yellow. Appropriately enough, the book I was reading over the weekend, The Overstory, has a tree theme, and one sentence on beech trees really stood out: “Hazy and pale in the spring, but in autumn, its flat, wide sprays bathe the air in gold.”
We ended the hike in the next village over, Torna Hällestad, where we had a very cozy fika in the village café and general store.
Back at the house we admired our friends’ wide-open view out over the farmscapes while puzzling. So cozy to chat over a perfectly fall-themed puzzle! We also biked over to another neighborhood which was celebrating Halloween a week early to take the kids trick-or-treating, a new phenomenon in Sweden. The trip wasn’t a big success—it started pouring and the crowds of people meant that the houses ran out of candy early. Luckily, Susanna was prepared with extra candy at home as a consolation prize for the kids who were very disappointed in their yield.
After a relaxing morning when we finished the Grand Tetons puzzle, we headed back out for another short hike. The hike began with a magnificent oak
and continued into the “Troll Forest” where the beeches, which usually grow straight and tall, are instead twisted and gnarled. This is apparently due to a genetic variation that is also present in a few other forests around Europe. Troll-like indeed, and so beautiful!
As usual, the weekend ended all too soon and it was time for us to catch our train back to Stockholm. Thank you Susanna, Johannes, and kids for a great weekend!
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2025
Cozy Autumn on Svartlöga 
Carl and I headed out to stay with his aunt in her little cabin on the
archipelago island of Svartlöga for a fall weekend. We’ve visited many
times before, but the experience is always a little different—a
different angle of light, a newly discovered mushrooming spot, a
new-to-us perch by the water. Even so, some things are constant, like
the cozy atmosphere at the cabin.
Our visit this year was too late for our traditional Friday evening dinner of crawfish, but we were not disappointed because Eva found us absolutely delicious langoustines to feast on instead! What a treat!
Having been to Svartlöga so many times, we didn’t feel a pressing need to get up early to go out and explore. Instead, we slept in and enjoyed slow, relaxed mornings before heading out on walks.
and to spend some time sitting by the water.
One of my favorite parts of a Svartlöga day is playing boulle in the garden before dinner. Carl wins nearly every time, so it’s a big victory when Eva or I manage to score points or to, gasp, even win the game. So much fun! Dinner on Saturday featured some of the mushrooms that we had picked that morning. So cozy to cook and to eat by candlelight!
Carl worked on the ferry in both directions to enable a longer weekend out in the archipelago. I wasn’t the one having to work on a Sunday but if you ask me, it was definitely worth it! Having an extra day made the experience wonderfully relaxed.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2025
Meeting up with a Friend in Bergen, Norway
A dear friend from grad school was going to be touring around Norway with her mom and sister, and since Stockholm is comparatively next door, Rachel invited me to join them for the Bergen part of their trip. I hadn’t seen Rachel in about 10 years, so an in-person visit was decidedly overdue. Coupled with the fact that Bergen has been on my travel list for a long time, the decision to fly over for a couple of days was a no-brainer.
Bergen is apparently Europe’s rainiest city with rain 2 out of 3 days every year. We did have some rain, but we actually lucked out and half of our days were dry. We even had some sunny moments when the city showed us its sparkly side.
We began our time in Bergen with a walking tour which explained Bergen’s history from the Vikings to the present. One historical fact that I latched onto was about the 1397 formation of the Kalmar Union between Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. I’m well versed in the Swedish take on the Union, but I hadn’t really ever understood why or how it was formed. In the mid 1300’s, the Black Death swept through Europe killing between one third and one half or two thirds of the population, depending on location. In the already sparsely populated Scandinavian countries, the reduction in population was catastrophic and society more or less collapsed. It is with this background that the three countries formed a union—given their weakened state, they would perhaps have a better chance of defending themselves as a united front against the expanding German kingdoms.
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| Our walking tourguide pointed out that the Norwegian flag is just the Danish flag with an extra blue cross. |
Another fun fact: traditional Norwegian folk costumes, worn at important events like weddings, cost about $4000 new. The hefty price is not too surprising considering that they are handmade from scratch, but still, expensive! No wonder that they are passed down through the family from generation to generation.
Bergen is on the UNESCO World Heritage list because of its Bryggen warehouse district on the harbor from the city’s time as an important Hansa League port. This historic area is picturesque, and I especially appreciated how closely jammed in the buildings are as well as their color palate which is similar to the historic Swedish color palate and yet slightly unique, but I had been expecting a larger area of historic warehouses and that the warehouses would be right next to the water like rorbuers in Lofoten (see “Summer Vacation 2013: Kaying and Hiking in the Lofoten Islands, Norway). It turns out that most of the warehouse district has burned down in different fires throughout the centuries, and that the land has been filled in to make a wider wharf throughout the centuries, most recently to build a road past the warehouses. Bryggen was a touristy but interesting place to explore nonetheless.
A fun surprise for me was the picturesque, historical neighborhoods of wooden houses tumbling down Bergen’s mountainsides.
Bergen is known for its seven mountain peaks surrounding the city (although surely there are more than seven?). We didn’t climb any peaks but took the funicular up to the top of Fløyen where we enjoyed a wide view out over the city. Finally we had a better understanding of the city’s geography in relation to the water.
We also trekked out to Fantoft Stave Church on the tram. Fantoft was my first stave church, and it was fascinating! Norway once had over a thousand of these Viking-boat inspired stave churches, but they were all small. An ordinance in the 1800’s that at least 1/3 of a parish’s population should simultaneously be able to fit into the parish church caused countless stave churches to be razed and “modern” stone churches to be built in their place. Today, only a handful of stave churches remain.
I’m curious why Norway stuck with its wooden church tradition for so long when Sweden, which had also started out with wooden chapels, began replacing them with stone churches in the 1100’s. The wooden churches that do remain in Sweden are much more like the stone churches with a simple nave construction, but Norway’s stave churches are a whole other architectural phenomenon obviously inspired by Viking ships. Many of Sweden’s churches do share the stave churches’ thick wooden shingled roofs, but otherwise it is fascinating how two very similar cultures can create so vastly different examples of the same building type.
Fantoft was moved from its original location in the late 1800’s, and it was intentionally burned down by an arsonist in the 1990’s. It has been painstakingly reconstructed, but the interior remains “virgin” and is not painted in Biblical scenes like the original. We were fascinated to learn that the weather-protected areas just outside of the church existed so that lepers could hear the service without infecting the other churchgoers.
Bergen was the seat of Norway's royal house in the middle ages, and its ancient fortress protecting the harbor entrance is still a visible presence in the cityscape today.
In addition to wandering, museums, and walking tours, the four of us also spent some time taking in Bergen’s café culture and enjoying various treats (kanelsnurrer and skoleboller, yum!) and hot chocolate. So nice to warm up, and lovely to have time to just chat. We also enjoyed a couple of traditional dinner dishes during our stay in Bergen—unsurprisingly, lots of fish!
I stayed in Bergen an extra day after Rachel and her family left for the next stop on their tour. I spent the day on a fjord cruise through nearby Osterfjorden. It’s not Norway’s most dramatic fjord, but it was still an incredible showing of nature’s power and beauty. It made me even more eager for a fjord kayak adventure some day…
I also stopped in at the Rasmus Meyer art museum. The museum is known for its large collection of early Munch paintings, but I was most struck by the Romanticist fjord and glacier paintings—an obvious motif in Norway but unusual in a worldwide perspective.
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| Left: Johan Fredrik Eckersberg, Fra Böverdalen, 1868. Right: Johan Christian Dahl, Nigardsbreen, 1844. |
All of these sightseeing attractions were illuminating, interesting, and picturesque, but the real highlight of my trip was getting to know Rachel’s mom and sister and to be able to catch up with my dear friend in person. Rachel’s mom insisted on treating me to just about everything, making me feel like one of her daughters. It was such a special feeling to be “momed” when my own mom is so far away. Having the opportunity to hang out with a dear friend and to get to know some of her loved ones was such a rare delight. Thank you for the invitation to join in on your family trip and for treating me so generously!
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| Bryggen, tall sailing ships, the fortress, Håkon's Hall, and the surroudning mountains are all pictured on Bergen's pretty manhole cover. |
