The hotel we stayed at had a fantastic breakfast spread, we both enjoyed lots of salmon. Yummy! Back on the road again on Friday, this time driving up to Sillerud Parish, where Stacy‘s great-great grandfather‘s family was from. Our first stop was at a hiking trail that took us to a viewpoint of Lake Vanern. It was a fantastic spot, we met a very friendly Swedish couple who told us that we were lucky as the weather had been so nice recently. When we checked into our hotel the day before they had commented on how hot the weather was, we just laughed as for us it seemed very, very mild. The hiking trail was beautiful and peaceful, we heard lots of thunder and got rained on a bit on our trek back to the car.
It was good to get out for the hike as we had a 2 hour drive ahead of us. We put on an audiobook that Stacy had just started to listen to. This was probably one of the most beautiful drives we’ve had so far, we passed lots of lakes and rivers and beautiful groves of trees. We stopped at a rest stop to eat lunch, and found a picnic table hidden away on the hillside in the trees. Definitely not your typical US road stop! Sillebotten turned out to be very small, with unpaved roads, but at the situated on the edge of a lovely lake. It was a charming little place, there were kids out in a boat, other ones playing at the local park. Like many places they have a summer café, but this one was not staffed, it was in the local community meeting space where there were shelves of chips and other snacks an ice cream freezer and a drink cooler. There was an unlocked cashbox where you could leave your payment. Wow! We followed part of the historical walking trail through a beautiful little forest next to a stream. I think this would be a lovely place to come spend a week or so in enjoying all the natural beauty around. About 10 minutes away was the local church and cemetery. We struck out trying to find gravestones for her family, and unfortunately, the church was locked so we won’t be able to get inside. This was been the first time a church has been locked since I’ve been in Sweden. On our return, we stopped in Vanersborg for dinner at a lakeside restaurant. We both had the lobster shrimp soup, which was rich and delicious.
