Biltema car park, Borlänge - Thursday, 18 August

Geoff
Today, we had something planned for the morning and another thing for the afternoon. First, we drove to the little town of Insjön. We visited the Clas Ohlson Museum. Now, I'd never heard of him, but his name is known in the UK, it seems. In 1918, he started in business on his own, selling DIY manuals and technical drawings. He had a bicycle repair shop and sold plans and materials by mail order for woodworking machines, kayaks, radio receivers, steam engines and grandfather clocks. Now, the name is known for large retail stores in several countries. I googled the name and there are Clas Ohlson stores in the UK, although some are currently closing as sales have been lower than expected. We went in the adjacent store and bought a few things, including a Multi-trimmer, which means that I will get a haircut maybe in the next couple of days!

Clas Ohlson museum

Amanda navigated us to an interesting place for our sandwich lunch. We swung off the main road, over a railway and along a track uphill for a mile or so. The camper didn't like it! At the end of the track, was a little car park at the entrance to a nature reserve. I wandered off into the woodland, where there was a well used path with others signed off it to various places.

After lunch, we motored to Borlänge, a largish town not far away. The town's famous son is the Swedish tenor, Jussi Björling (1911-1960). We visited the little museum that bears his name, which is very much a labour of love. During his life, he toured Europe and the USA and made many recordings of operatic songs. We bought a CD of some of his music.

Jussi Björling museum

A visit to Sweden wouldn't be complete without a visit to an IKEA store, which is what I did this evening. We may pop in tomorrow morning before we leave Borlänge. We are spending the night in the car park of a Biltema store in an area reserved for camper vans. There are decent loos in the store until 8pm and again at 7am. There is some traffic noise but for a free overnight stop we can't complain.

Amanda

We bid a fond farewell to Tällberg and embarked on an urban day taking in a couple of museums which had attracted G's attention. First stop was the Clas Ohlson museum not far from Leksand. He started a mail order firm in the 1920's from which grew quite a little empire. His stores and catalogue cover household goods, camping equipment, games, bicycles and electrical equipment, all at very reasonable prices. Although we had never heard the name, we have since discovered that there has been a  Clas Ohlson store in Norwich, now closed. We enjoyed the museum, and then went across to the store , in search of a replacement  for the cheap Tesco frying pan that ended up in a rubbish bin a few weeks ago. Having discovered when I checked and paid our Barclaycard statement this morning that we have spent less this month than we usually do at home, we got a little carried away, and purchased a number of very useful bits and pieces, including two things that we have wished we had brought with us. The first is a multi-trimmer for Geoff's hair. He is getting agitated because it is growing too long already after his number 5 trim just before we left. I have never used one before, but it can't be too difficult, can it? The second is a salad spinner. You may laugh, but what spins salad can also spin hand-washed underwear and socks! And it is also a bowl shaped measuring jug, so fits the required multi-purpose standard admirably. We didn't find the right size frying pan though.
We moved on heading for our next stop in the town of Borlänge, but I diverted us in search of a nice rural  lunchstopspot. We headed up and up a narrow unmade road with no passing places, (and no other vehicles, fortunately) which got more and more bumpy, to find an isolated little parking place at the end, with a picnic table, and far reaching views.  G was able to enjoy a wooded leg stretch while I made the sandwiches. He informed me that my reward for finding the place was to drive back down again, but I didn't want to deny him the pleasure.

Our destination in Borlänge - which seemed a very pleasant large town in the sunshine - was the Jussi

Björling museum. I remember my mother speaking of him in the same breath as Caruso and Richard Tauber. As with this morning's museum, this was a lovingly put together and maintained tribute to a fascinating man. He was only 49 when he died in 1960,  but produced a huge number of recordings and gave an amazing number of concerts all over the world. I was inspired to buy a CD - avoiding Nessun Dorma, but including the Pearl Fishers duet.

It was 5.30 by the time we had shopped for basic provisions (bread, milk, eggs, chocolate?), and been distracted by Coconut Icecream, which came in two little half coconut shells and seems to have been produced in Spain for a Japanese market; and a freezer full has ended up in a German supermarket in Sweden! Delicious! They had to be consumed immediately of course, as we have no freezer. So, as time was getting on, we thought we'd suss out the town's Camperstop. Thus our urban day has ended fittingly in an out of town shopping centre next to a Biltema store. Instead of his habitual pre-supper ramble through the woods, G set out intrepidly  on an expedition to IKEA, nearby but the other side of a couple of busy roads.

He has just returned having, he says, broken into a cold sweat when he couldn't find his way out. So question - did he ever get lost on his early evening treks? Answer - just the once .....