Here is Part 2 of the mad adventure of two old women tracing their ancestors in Ireland and Sweden. This segment is long, covering 15 days crammed with unusual sights in small Swedish towns and graveyards, plus Limerick and Adare, Ireland.
The 8am train ride from Copenhagen Airport to Stockholm was amazing! We opted to go first class and it was worth every penny. The train left on time, there was plenty of room for our baggage, truly comfortable seating. We sat at a table (see above) with travelers from Chile and the train had charging stations at each seat for our electronics. Porters immediately came through with coffee and breakfast, followed several hours later by coffee and sweets. (Note: coffee is the national drink of Sweden. Always hot and very, very STRONG!) The ride was about 5-1/2 hours long. The scenery was spectacular, particularly at the start — crossing the Oresund Strait — then down into a tunnel under the strait for 4 kilometers, up to sea level again with heavily forested scenery flying by before arriving in Stockholm. Passport Control agents interrupted breakfast as we crossed the border into Sweden.
Thick forests flew by
The Central Train Station in Stockholm was massive. Took us a while to find Hertz. We decided to stop for late lunch/early dinner at the Radisson before getting the car. Out of this world shrimp salad and fish chowder, and perfect chocolate truffles for dessert.
Traffic, 4pm downtown Stockholm, Sweden, outside Hertz Car Rental
Our destination was Uppsala, currently a university town and originally the capital of Sweden, about 70 km north of Stockholm. Negotiated heavy traffic through Stockholm on 3 and 4 lane freeways, made a wrong turn once forcing us to retrace our path and arrived at our Airbnb about 9pm. Speed limit ranged from 60-80 kph or 37-49 mph. Safety is far more important in Sweden than speed, a lesson we here in the US could certainly learn from. Never saw an accident the entire time in Sweden or Ireland.
Selmas Airbnb Uppsala Sweden
What a wonderful change of pace — a hostel on a houseboat on the Fyris River that runs through Uppsala. Our cabin had bunk beds; shared shower. Easy walking distance to town center, restaurants and the castle.
Lots of interesting sailboats moored along the river.
Fyris River, Uppsala Sweden
Sure looks like Autumn sedum in bloom
Black-eyed Susans again
View toward Airbnb houseboat from bridge about 2.5 miles into the town center
Part of the colorful uphill walk to Uppsala Castle
Our first destination was Uppsala Castle. It is massive. Photographs were difficult since it was situated on a hill obstructed by trees. Judy only had two pics, no better than mine. (Suggest you go to Google to get better feel for its size). The only part that was open housed an art show by Finnish artists in celebration of 100 years of Finn’s freedom from Russia. Several truly unique displays including a stunning ‘forest’ made entirely out of reclaimed plastic tarps/plastic bags and a 30’ tall pair of multi-strand cascading loops made from unused toilet paper (sorry, photos not allowed).
Uppsala Castle — a massive 16th century royal palace
Ornately inlaid stone step in Castle
Uppsala Castle Defense
Some history of the castle gardens
A hooded Crow on the garden grounds
View of part of the gardens from Castle Terrace
Ducks in/around the river — Uppsala Castle
A crocus maybe?
Growth and blooms along river
We spent the next day in Gamla Uppsala, a short drive from the Airbnb. It is the oldest part of the city, the historic capital of Sweden, and site of the Royal Burial Mounds.
Gamla Uppsala Royal Burial Mounds
History and information
Calm beauty juxtaposed with a threatening old tree stump.
Original Gamla Uppsala church later replaced with stunning cathedral in Uppsala. Stone church was built in the early 12th century over a pagan temple.
We were successful when we searched the church graveyard for Perrson graves. Found two with dates that coincided with Judy’s info! The only documentation she had of her family were letters and postcards dated in the 1870-1900 period from Uppsala, Gamla Uppsala and Nora, Sweden. And a government document from 1900 allowing her father to immigrate to the US. So that’s where we started. Nora was a treasure trove of information in the form of an older gentleman who was the unofficial genealogist for the area. Judy’s gravestone photos were immensely helpful in his compilation of family info. More on that later.
Ornate chain protecting carefully raked graves
Close-up of chain size and detail.
Interior of church vestibule; hand painted arches
Incredibly well-preserved color decorations on arches and ceilings of church. Green is probably terre verte (green earth; prason); orpiment (yellow); lamp black; iron ore (red); pigments came from earth, minerals or organic sources.
Front of stone church
Erik’s Cross
Rune-stone at church foundation
Many graves were carefully tended and had many varieties of heather in bloom. November 2 was a national holiday in Sweden — All Saints Day. On this day/weekend, it is a long-standing Swedish custom to tend grave sites (sand/gravel carefully raked into patterns ala Japanese gardens — cemeteries provide the tools), plant flowers, lay Christmas wreaths and light candles at graves. It was a sobering experience watching elderly relatives performing this custom, moving flowers and candles through the gravel pathways on their walkers.
Newer section of cemetery
We then spent several hours in the Gamla Uppsala Museum located on site. It contained many relics and treasures secured from the burial mounds during excavations in the late 1800s. Museum housed historically accurate depictions of ancient Swedish living quarters, building methods, toys, spiritual dedications and information on Saint Erik.
Judy at Gamla Uppsala Museum amphitheater with view of the Mounds.
Owner of Airbnb’s dogs. They were ALWAYS on the sofa!
Back to reality — tagger art on the walk to town center
We had one of the finest dinners of the entire trip that evening at a micro/craft brewery in the town center. Out of this world melt-in-your-mouth pan fried flounder, mashed potatoes, heady dark porter-like beer and mouth-wateringly good freshly baked bread made with the hops/barley saved after brewing.
View from our dinner table: micro brewery had about 8 fermentation vats and lots of customers
On to Orebro, Sweden, our home base while planning trips to Nora, Lessebro, and Kalmar Sweden. Approx 150 mile drive from Uppsala (late arrival). We chose a very modern hotel for our 2 night stay — our single biggest housing expense of the entire trip. We needed it after the bunk beds and shared shower!
How crazy is this? An Irish sports bar/pub in Orebro Sweden. Late lunch in Orebro on Sunday game day. Soccer, Rugby, American football on TVs. Collapsed and slept in the next morning.
Orebro Castle, moat utilizing part of the river; fascinating patterns of cobblestone streets/walkways and the omnipresent urban pigeon.
Orebro Castle
Interior castle courtyard
Castle defense
Access to interior courtyard
Public sculpture in Orebro
More public sculpture
Castle signpost. Cats, head away from the castle!
Colorful cobblestone
Autumn color around the Castle
Bright blue painted art-walk street closed to traffic. Marvelous exhibition of local artists working in every possible medium: acrylic, oil, yarn, metal, fabric, found objects, computer generated graphics. Street also had tiny boulangerie and patisserie; custom clothiers.
The hotel room was a perfect example of Swedish modern simplicity.
The card key was used for entry and to turn on the lights
The floor to ceiling tiled bathroom! Low flow toilet (2 flush options), heated floors/towel bars, acrylic shower shield (wall-mounted and moveable), wall-mounted soap, shampoo and waste basket. I want this bathroom!!!
Our first foray out of Orebro was to Nora, Sweden, a small town (established in 1643) of approximately 6,500 people, 30 miles north. Judy had a dog-eared picture postcard of the church written from a relative in Nora around 1900 to relatives in Uppsala. Driving was easy and the town was just as easy to find. As soon as we rounded the last curve in the road, there it was and we knew we were in the right place.
Nora, Sweden, Lutheran Church
Judy in front of Nora Sweden church
Interior of Nora Lutheran Church
We decided to check out the town square, shops and, of course, have coffee and lunch before touring the church.
Charming old cafe proudly displaying its giant working coffee mill.
Just outside the cafe was a florist/plant seller. Had to investigate the captivating wide variety of available plants, most of which were in bloom. It also turned out the owner knew of a gentleman who was known to be the Nora area’s unofficial genealogist. Plants and genealogy within one short walk. Bingo!
Japanese Skimmia — Confusa ‘Kew Green’ — evergreen shrubs
Hellebore
Barljung Caprifoliaceae — snowberry; Symphoricarpos; part of the honeysuckle family
Parachute Plant — Ceropegia Sandersonii. Strange plant! Blooms trap flies to be their pollinators.
Hyacinths (thinking of you Missys Brother)
Heather
Amaryllis (I think)
The shop owner was fascinated that a woman from the US would be in Nora in November tracing her heritage. She recommended we find the owner of ‘Central Photo,’ a store also located on the square. We made a few purchases and headed to Central Photo only to be greeted by a sign saying “At Lunch. Back 2:30pm.”
We strolled down to the lake for about an hour.
Lake Nora — picturesque beyond belief. A summer getaway for Swedes.
Color around the lake
Hundreds of ducks followed us along the path hoping to be fed
Lake Nora and more ducks
Snowberry in the landscape
Fabulous carved wooden doors. Note the cat drawing in transom.
One of a pair of old carved wood doors leading into a cobblestone courtyard
And then we found Central Photo, a mish-mash of antiques, old cameras, new cameras, film, vinyl song albums, furniture, jewelry, glassware, silverware, linens, clothing and bric-a-brac. Tucked into the back of the cluttered shop was a tiny office that smelled of old photographs, paper files and photo developer. With only one chair — his.
Central Photo
‘Central Photo’ — Nora Sweden
The owner greeted us and asked what we needed. Judy explained. The next three hours were utterly absorbing. He had centuries of records on his computer of virtually every birth and death from the province (essentially equivalent to a US county). The question and answer period was crazy. He spoke some English; we spoke no Swedish. Judy showed him the letters, postcards and government document — all in Swedish. He translated. We laughed at the banality of the postcard/letter messages to family...weather is terrible, kids are fine, farm is good. Judy showed him the photos of the graves in Gamla Uppsala and the hunt was on.
Judy’s father changed his first name long before he emigrated. She wasn’t sure what his original first name was. More computer searches without results. And so began Judy’s email friendship that continues to this day. Every time we found a grave with the Amblat or Perrson name, Judy sent it to this gentleman, who promptly responded with how they fit into the family tree. Judy was ecstatic, excited and impressed! Her family tree had found roots. And her father’s given first and middle names were Richard Karl. Back in Orebro we celebrated and luxuriated in long showers and feather down duvets!
Next, our road trip to Lessebro — a 224 mile trek on 2 lane paved mountain roads in altitude, through fog, rain, wind and sunshine. Saw many ‘moose crossing’ road signs which we didn’t catch fast enough to photograph. We were delighted to find playing cards in our Airbnb with the picture we were looking for.
The splendor of nature at its best. Oh my, the colors are luscious!
Roadside wildflowers
This is the photo I’ll use as a basis for a new painting
Judy and her local Minnesota newspaper showing Lutheran church
Photo of “moose crossing” playing card. The orange sign is an accurate depiction of the road sign.
The Lessebro/Nybro region is known as the glass blowing capital of Sweden. Manufacturers like Orrefors and Kosta are located there. Kosta bought out Orrefors a number of years ago, so the entire complex is known as Kosta Boda.
Our Airbnb was a comfortable set of rooms with a private bath in a large house on the town square. Kitchen privileges. We decided to stay for 5 nights instead of 3.
Airbnb, Lessebro
Awesome trees:
I see an elephant’s backside on the left!
Magnificent front yard tree — a study in fractals.
Seed pods from the ‘elephant’ tree.
Too pretty not to photograph! Think the green things are fir/pine seedlings. Probably another painting using artistic license for sizing of seedlings.
Lichen covered tree
We spent one day at the Kosta Boda complex watching continuous glass-blowing. Teams of 6 people worked to create elegant stemware, tumblers, pitchers and vases from kiln-molten glass to hand-blown finished product. I was so mesmerized I took no photos!
Kosta since 1742; they have perfected glass as art
The ladies’ restroom at the factory included a crystal wash basin with an embedded colorful fish
An immense Christmas 2017 art glass show displayed 6 artists’ work and took us a whole day to tour. Artists were Vallien, Bergstrom, Fjellman, Warff, Ehrner and Engman. So proud to see 3 women artists in this group. Enormous glass hot air balloons suspended from the ceiling, violins made entirely of glass, an 8 foot long boat with crew, giant glass perfume bottles and lipsticks, giant colored glass rabbits, cartoon-like characters, delicate pink glass roses enclosed in their own clear glass egg-shaped cover, undulating vases, tall heavy angular clear glass vases refracting the liberally colored inside. Here’s the only picture I sneaked:
8’ long glass boat. ‘Crew’ embedded in the hull. Bertil Vallien.
We spent another two days shopping at the outlet stores and enjoying coffee and giant peppermint meringue cookies.
A giant lighted crystal tree — Kosta Boda
Christmas decor — they planned to blow in man made snow
Hand hewn wooden fences surrounding the Christmas tree. Art gallery in background
On our last day we traveled to Kalmar, Sweden, about 60 miles east to the coast. Yes, another castle!
Kalmar Castle
Aerial view of castle layout
Castle defense inside the moat
A variety of Danish rose at the groundskeeper’s house
The drawbridge
Then we were off to Vaxjo Sweden to investigate the country’s immigration records department cache and take the train to Copenhagen airport for flight to Dublin. Never got to the immigration records department. We lost more than half a day in Vaxjo trying to return the Hertz rental car. Strangest rental drop-off in history. First conversation with AAA: leave car parked and locked behind the cathedral (6 blocks from train station) and return the keys to the convenience store in the train station. Huh? Surely we misunderstood. We made another call to confirm this was true, mostly worried it was some sort of scam (leave keys at convenience store???) and griping that two old ladies shouldn’t have to drag their travel baggage 6 blocks in the rain. AAA eventually relented and said to park the car in the lot across from the train station, pay for 1 hour of parking and leave parking tag on the dashboard. Someone would pick it up. We’re still waiting for the bill!
Sights in Vaxjo:
A murder of crows
A painted train (not tagger) at the station
Bicycles everywhere at train station
Our flight arrived in Dublin at 10:30pm. We took a tour-size local bus from Dublin to Limerick for our last hurrah in Ireland. Arrived at Arthur’s Quay at 1am. Someone from Airbnb picked us up at 2am. LONG DAY. We were grumpy. And got a bit grumpier when our plan to take a guided tour to Galway to see more of the Wild Atlantic Way — the Cliffs of Moher and possibly the Aran Islands — was nixed. All tours had ended the prior weekend (weather, holidays, etc.)
After a short good night’s sleep, we headed out to see the sights in the rain. Never made it to King John’s Castle.
King John’s Castle. Shannon River has an incredibly swift current.
Now that’s a cool dog! Art and book fair at Arthur’s Quay. Found a book of poetry by Thomas Moore illustrated by Keeley Halswelle (1855); and “Popular Geography of Plants” by Marie E Catlow and Charles Daubeny (1865). Both beautiful, old, leather bound/gilt cover design, Moore book gilt edge. “Plants” has hand written inscriptions in French script and botany notations in English script. Tracing to see if they have any value above the 6 Euros I paid for each. Probably not, yet still proud to own them.
Some pretty amazing rattle-can tagger art
More tagger art. (Have 20 more photos)
We spent one day in the Hunt Museum.
A swan on the Shannon River near the Hunt Museum
Painted horse outside the Hunt Museum
Another painted horse outside Hunt Museum
Hooded crow on museum grounds
The next day — on to more cathedrals.
A dedication plaque at St. Mary’s Cathedral. At 97 years, the woman still tended the flower beds. That’s commitment!
Flowers in the very ancient graveyard at St. Mary’s Cathedral
Saint John’s Cathedral
St. John’s Cathedral spire
St. John’s Cathedral. Utterly amazing patterns of hand-laid tile and herringbone wood floors.
Sculpted metal angels’ wings — St. John’s Cathedral
Pipe Organ — St. John’s Cathedral
Our favorite pub/restaurant in Limerick
Limerick’s message of the day across from St. John’s cemetery.
Purple shamrocks and begonias at Airbnb
Landscaping at Airbnb
Then we took a day trip via local bus to Adare, considered the prettiest village in Ireland, known for its thatched roof cottages. Unfortunately, the cluster of thatched roof cottages were under repair. A recent fire in one set the others ablaze.
Hydrangeas
Entrance to park
A tributary of the River Maigue running through the park terminating at the “Washing Pool.”
History of The Washing Pool. Apologies for the low quality of photo.
Safety fence at the tributary
Intriguing covered arch within the park
Unknown blooms
Camelias
Trainitarian Abbey, Adare Ireland — more hydrangeas
I think that’s a Dragon Tree bloom.
Trinitarian Abbey church, Adare Ireland
Especially for estreya! Irish honey at the local gift shop.
We flew home on November 15 from Shannon. Our cab driver stopped at Bunratty Castle for 10 minutes before getting to the airport so we could take photos. All our photos are terrible and not worthy of sharing.
Took 18 hours to get home including the time change. We had a 3-½ hr layover in Boston before our flights to Dallas and Minneapolis. Both of us needed 12 days to recover. And we both came home with more information on our roots and a very strange assortment of ‘gifts’ in our suitcases. It was a spectacular trip!
I’m in contact with the Listowel, Ireland, genealogist (not getting any answers yet) and Judy is still emailing her contact in Nora. Will keep you all updated if any info of value appears.
It was a pleasure reliving the trip while writing the story. Thanks for spending time reading!