"Follow the sunflower" and off we go to the Old Town of Stockholm for a history lesson. I don't want to go as our quirky hotel is much more enticing - I'd like to be one of the people sitting in deck chairs on the lawn - and I soon detach from the group for a spot of shopping. Trouble is shopping always requires a lot of walking and by the time I rejoin them at 1 I'm ready to sit down to lunch cruising the canals and archipelago.
This was so unexpected! What's a Japanese garden doing in suburban Sweden? The answer is: it's one man's passion. He retired 8 years ago and took over from his wife. He started with a 350 year old hornbeam tree and a sloping rock backyard and has created an inspiring garden. To start with as Klaus named every plant in the front garden and we slowly crocodiled around the side it was a bit ho hum - except for David who was throwing around Latin names - then into an exquisite back yard and we were all blown away.
I think I'll let the photos tell the story. After that we just sat stunned on the bus till we arrived in Stockholm.
Jonkoping is on a lake and used to be the centre of the match industry: there's even a museum of matches but fortunately we arrived too late and left too early to see it. David had fun looking at all the forests we drove through - larch, willow for fuel, birch, pine and mixed forest.
It's a land of forest and lakes - so many lakes that canals join them and you can cross Sweden by water. We caught a boat on the Gota Canal for a lunchtime cruise which was very pleasant, sailing along in the sunshine and eating lunch while going through locks. We really are having terrific weather!
After two hours we were at the other end of the lake and Fab met us with the bus. Just time for a snooze before stopping for afternoon tea at a castle. There's a nasty legend attached to it about a Lord killing his two brothers which they make a big deal of for tourists but I thought it was horrid and hopped back on the bus with my knitting.
A super-efficient Swede hops on the bus as it comes to a halt: "Welcome! You may have 2 sandwiches each and a cupcake and then we will dance for you. " Woe and beside anyone who had 2 cupcakes or put a foot wrong in the dance! They wore beautiful costumes and danced away happily to two accordions and a violin. It was great, sitting there in the sunshine by the lake watching them dance and I could have gone on forever but the inevitable happened and we had to join in. Actually it was fun, reminiscent of the Grand March we used to do in grade 4 but with bossy britches to keep us in line we all ended up in the right place. Then bossy b explained the various costumes which was interesting and the dancers all waved us off down the drive en route to Jonkoping (pronounced jyensherping) where we stayed overnight.
Merryle has been to Nova Scotia six times without ever seeing a moose so she is determined to see one in Sweden. We head to a wildlife park which practically guarantees moose-sighting as we trundle along in a little train waving bunches of moose "salad" . Sure enough there they are from cute calm little babies /photo 1 to great big bucks. I can't believe how BIG they are, especially as Emily Louise practically comes in the window at David in the blue coat / photo 3. She soon works out we've run out of salad and pops her head in with the driver, obviously knowing he will give her extra.
Then we come to the American bison and they are HUGE. No way would you leave your arm outside the train with them around. All the animals look calm and are obviously breeding well so it's a successful wildlife park. We haven't seen much wildlife so this is a treat.
We have a picnic lunch sitting on the ground alongside the bus and the Swedes come to gawk at us as if we are another wildlife exhibit. We don't care: we're going to have a nice snooze while Fab drives us to a manor house to see folk dancing.
We are driving slowly towards Stockholm taking 2 days so that we confirm in some gardens on the way. First stop is at Helsingborg where there is a lovely garden donated to the people by King Gustav VI who created the garden with his wife Crown Princess Marguerite, granddaughter of Queen Victoria. She died young but was greatly loved by the Swedes and at the entrance to the gardens stand four huge tubs of daisies, her signature flower. / Photo 1.
Typical gardeners, we spread out over the gardens each intent on looking at their favourite thing. I headed for the vegetables / photo 2 and concluded they are very good - except that it's time to pick the lettuces / photo 2.
It's a very personal garden, still planted with CP Margeurite's colour schemes - beds of hot oranges, reds and purples; ' beds of cool pastel colours and a primrose valley.
After morning tea from the coach we headed off in search of moose.
The final garden for the day belongs to Gurnel (maybe) a former presenter of a garden show on TV called The Green Room - good name. She is a plantswoman and goes more for individual plants than drifts.
We were all worn out by then and happy to listen to her tell us about Carl Linnaeus and other Swedish botanists who contributed their names to various plants.
