Scandinavia

Friday the 1st of August, Arjan's 39th birthday. The weather today looks much better than yesterday. A blue sky with some friendly clouds here and there. The bed on which we slept last night was again hopeless, the same type as we had on the camping in Tampere, a sofa bed for two persons. But with every movement it creaked and the mattress is very thin so you sometimes feel the steel beams from which the bed is made. The coming nights we'll sleep on our inflatable bed like we did in Tampere. After breakfast we left to explore the surroundings. First we went to the Tourist Office in Mora to gather some information about the sights in this area. From the Tourist Office we went to Nusnäs, not far from Färnäs. In Nusnäs you may find the Grannas factory in which the famous red Dalahorses are produced and we had promised Ciska to visit such a factory (there are more of those Dalahorse factories in the region). It is a real tourist attraction. First we visited the factory. At first they saw the coarse shape of the horse from a piece of wood (next to horses they also make pigs and chickens among other things). After that, the details are carved by hand with a sharp knive and then the horse is scoured mechanically. The next step is dipping the horse in red paint and when that has dried it is painted by hand. Very fascinating to watch and Ciska really liked all the Dalahorses. After visiting the factory we went to the adjoining shop to buy some souvenirs. For Ciska we bought a pair of wooden shoes painted with the same kind of decorations as the horses and one of the Dalahorse painters painted Ciska's name it. After we had something to eat and drink in the restaurant we left for the island of Sollerön in lake Siljan. There was not much to do so we immediately continued to Gesunda on the south side of the lake. We wanted to ascend the Gesunda mountain by chair-lift to enjoy a magnificent view over lake Siljan. But unfortunately the lift was broken so we couldn't go as high as we wanted. At a restaurant nearby we had lunch and after lunch we went to Falun. The town of Falun has an old copper mine, the oldest in the world, about 1000 years of age.

The mine is no longer in use as such but it can be visited. Arjan also went into the mine as we didn't bring a warm coat with us for Ciska. The temperature in the mine is about 7°C. With an elevator you descent to a depth of about 55 meters into the mine. The deepest point of the mine however is at around 600 meters below the surface of the earth. From there you walk through a number of galleries and you get an impression of how they digged the copper-ore. Next to copper they also digged zinc and gold in this mine. The excursion lasted for about an hour and in the mean time Hilleke and Ciska admired the surface of the mine. The story goes that the mine was discovered by accident. A farmer spotted a goat with red horns and he followed the animal to find out what was the cause of it. The goat grated his horns on a piece of rock and because of that the copper was exposed. This all has taken place about 1000 years ago. Near the mine there is a large wooden goat to remember this happening. After we had visited the mine we left and header towards the town of Rättvik to have dinner in a restaurant on the shores of lake Siljan. After a delicious meal we went back to our cottage. In the evening Arjan was allowed to use the PC of the owner of the cottage to read our mail and to update our travel website.