From Filipstad south west around 150km is Dals Långed within the Bengtsfors kommun – a district blessed with acres and acres of clean fresh water lakes and crossed by the Dalslands kanal. The riding here is exceptional as are the lakes – shame I left my fly rod behind as stopping for Fika at the lake edge the fish were clearly rising, might of actually stood a chance of catching something.
Tag Archives: Places
Surströmming and Västerbotten
Taking the opportunity for a few days R&R I am about 15 miles north east of Filipstad in Värmland County – surrounded by hundreds of thousands of acres of forest. I stumbled upon Västerbotten cheese (Västerbottensost) which is aged for 14 months and is absolutely stunning and in limited supply outside the region – its a softer Parmesan style salty, sweet and bitter – a really complex set of flavours, now all I need is some Surströmming.
What makes a successful city center?
Camping on the edge of a Dutch lake this week, a night in Amsterdam and today touring Huskvarna in Sweden, I came to a realisation that city life only works when housing and retail are jointly combined and inter developed. In Amsterdam for example, all the shops and supermarkets are within housing complexes and flats – no real out of town centers and yet the city center thrives, the same has to be said for the beautiful town of Huskvarna… I got chatting tonight with Ingrid from Israel, now settled in Sweden ‘for love’ she tells me, she was fascinated by my shoes (5 Fingers) so much so that she nearly got run over watching my glossy black toes – she said I looked like I should be going for a swim…what could I say, ‘packing light’ loses a lot in translation.
