Scandinavia Day 16 Lake Siljan area

Day 16 of our trip (half way!) was all about exploring Lake Siljan and Dalarma.  We ran into strange problems (at least for Americans) like no restaurants being open before 10 am and the tourist office being closed on Sundays, but we still managed to find lots of fun things to do between the occasional rain showers

We ate a very light breakfast in our apartment because we had hoped to have a real breakfast someplace but litterally nothing was open.

Instead we went right away to Nunas which is where Dala horses are made.  Two bothers started shops here and we went to both

Guy carving the horses

Outside the first shop we got to paint our own horses.  Lincoln did a tie dye one

I tried my best to make one that looked like the original

Then Lincoln got to ride a Dala horse

He was facinated watching the woman paint them in the shop.  We of course bought lots of souvenirs here (both shops!)

Also near the shops was a church boat which we looked around

Then we stopped in Mora to finally get a little more breakfast and coffee

The Mora church

We also stopped at the grocery store to have a picnic along the water

Then since the tourist offices were all closed and we couldn't get any information about hiking we stopped in the Vasaloppet museum to see about hiking the vassaloppet trail.  The museum was also pretty cute, but Lincoln was pretty antsy by now

Here is the Vassaloppet finish line (it is a 90 km ski race that ends in the real Mora)

After some driving and guessing about where to park we found a trail to hike...but barely in time.  It was starting to sprinkle on our hike

It was a short 2.6 mile hike but had lovely views at the top

We made it!  And it barely rained

Strangely the top was marked with bananas and there a trail marked with bananas

View of the village and scenery coming down for the hike

The village Maypole

A checkpoint on the Vassaloppet that also had free water

Next we drove around the lake and let Lincoln sleep.  I searched for coffee and this strawberry stand came up.  We stopped anyway and they did have good strawberries and passable coffee

Rain coming in over the lake.

Last stop of the day when it had just stopped raining was to do a very short hike through a gorge created by a meteor

I carried Lincoln this time on our short hike with lots of stairs

Waterfall!

Layers of rocks cut away by the meteor

Then back to our apartment

We tried searching for food and nothing was open but this pizza place near us.  Also the first time we found somebody in a shop who didn't speak English so we had to interpret the menu ourselves

Decent pizza and salad

Then after we put Lincoln to bed Zach and I had a beer and this thing which was supposed to be desert.  Zach thought it was pistachios, but it was clearly something very strange.  Later we would learn it was a specific dessert of Sweden with almonds and a liquor in it.

Tomorrow we make the trip back to Stockholm with multiple stops along the way