Visiting Ancestors

Stacy woke up feeling better on Wednesday morning. Our first stop was Rolfstorp, the little town where her great-great grandmother was from. We found the local church and looked through all of the gravestones in the cemetery, but couldn’t find any that matched the family name. The church was open, and was one of the only ones I’ve seen that had a brochure about the history of the church in English! It was a beautiful little church with paintings on the walls from the 14th century, and a rose bush that grew up between two panes of glass when the church was added onto in the 17th century. Stacy was happy as she was fairly sure this was the church her family would have attended. She was also pretty sure that they likely would not have been buried at the church as they were farmers and most likely would not have money for gravestones. We were both excited to have found such a lovely little church and for her to have been able to get so much historical information. We did a little drive through town, it consisted of only a few streets so it didn’t take long then we were on our way to Broby where my paternal great grandmother‘s family was from.

On the way to Broby, we passed a sign for a grave vault, an area where there are ancient grave markers. It was a perfect spot for us to get out and stretch as it was about a quarter mile walk to an area where there were dozens of gravemarkers spread along the hillside. In Broby we found the church and looked through the cemetery, but weren’t able to find any graves corresponding to my great grandmother‘s family. We had a look inside the church, which was quite modern and didn’t have any information in English. We were getting hungry at that point and found a cute little café across the street where we got a shrimp sandwich and salad to split. We had initially looked at a large chalkboard menu leaning against the wall that had various pizza options, but were told that menu was just for the upcoming Friday night. I guess maybe in a small town like this they have special meals on certain nights and advertise them all week long? Anyway, the food was delicious and there was lovely artwork on the walls of the café, including in the bathroom. I ended up buying a watercolor by a local artist that really appealed to me. I liked in the bathroom that instead of paper towels there were dozens of washcloths for drying your hands.

Back on the road, we decided to stop at the IKEA Museum since it was only a half an hour away and on our route back home. We were both pleasantly surprised at how much we enjoyed it. There was a floor with history of the area and what life was like for the people who worked the challenging land in this part of Sweden. I tried my hand at churning butter and weaving a rug. We then learned about the history of IKEA and its evolution over the years. The museum sits on the site of the first IKEA Store. It was a hit from the start in Sweden in 1958 due to the government’s emphasis on social change and creating a social democracy, where all families could afford a home, a car and all of the things for modern life. There was information about how kitchens were planned to be as efficient as possible, and the childcare assistance that was available decades before such a thing was common in the US. We didn’t spend too much time going through the exhibit about how IKEA decides what kind of products to make and how to source them. There was a temporary exhibit about women and design. One designer in particular was fascinating to me, an Iranian woman who makes stadium seats using old headscarves. Women in Iran are not allowed to attend public sporting events, so these seats are intended to bring awareness to that discrimination. We made our way back to our Airbnb, stopping to pick up some salad for dinner and enjoy another beautiful sunset.

On Thursday, we drove from Varberg back past Gothenburg and up north to Vanersborg at the southern end of Lake Vanern. On the way we stopped at Lacko Castle, did a guided tour in English checking out all of the imposing rooms and the incredible gardens. The castle is right on the shore of the lake and what an amazing view. At this point, I was starting to get Stacy’s cold so we headed to our hotel. Because of a mixup with the reservation, we ended up getting a suite instead of regular room, which included our own sauna! That was exactly what we both needed.