The Läckö Slott Castle Gardens, part 1
As I was looking through my photos of at the Läckö Slott Castle, I quickly realized their gardens were too lovely to be cut down to one post. I’ll start with the upper garden, which is where we came into the garden. It’s perched up above the walled garden overlooking the lake and with stunning views of the castle towering above it. Part of this garden is an herb garden, part a vegetable garden, and part consists of cold frames for growing out plants. Photographs never do gardens like this justice, theres’s simply too much complexity and detail to get in. I hope you enjoy this garden in the few details I was able to capture.
Check back tomorrow for the second part of this garden, the lower section that was filled with vegetables neatly arranged in stunning patterns.
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The Läckö Slott Castle
While we were in Sweden last week, we spent one night at the Läckö Slott Castle naturum (which is their nature center). They only have a few rooms, which makes for a very quiet and relaxing stay. There’s also a restaurant on site that serves delicious meals using produce from the garden, fish from the lake, and meat from local farms. We checked in around 5 pm and had dinner in the restaurant. The room was quiet and nice, complete with balcony view of the lake.
We then had dinner in the restaurant downstairs, it was fantastic. Mr Chiots had fish from the lake, I had beef with a mushroom sauce. The side of deep fried new potatoes that came out in a small copper pan were to die for!
After dinner we took a walk down by the lake and around the castle. We even hopped up on the castle wall to get a few photos of the lovely potager behind the wall.
The next morning, we were up early and enjoyed a wondeful frukostbuffet (breakfast buffet) at the hotel, it was one of the best from our entire trip. It was so good, I didn’t get any photos of it. Swedish breakfast consist of various breads, cured meats, cheese, pickles, jams, coffee, tea, juice, yogurt, muesli, and a few other lovely things. Check back next week for photos of the lovely gardens behind the wall.
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The Tall Ships Regatta
The first thing we did after picking up our car is head to the harbor in Gothenberg to see the tall ships that were in town for the The North Sea Tall Ships Regatta.
We had heard that they were going to be in town when we were planning our trip and hoped to be able to see them during the short window we had. Lucky for us, it worked out perfectly. We spent an hour walking around and admiring these amazing ships!
After our time at the festival, we set off through the countryside to our next stop, a lovely castle on a lake…
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A New Car + a Vacation
On the 4th of September, around 1 pm, we arrived in Gothenberg, Sweden after a long red-eye flight. We had left Maine at two the previous afternoon. After checking in to our hotel, we set off to see a few of the city sights. Even though we were both super tired, we were determined to reset our clocks to avoid too much jet-lag.
You may wonder how we ended up in Sweden, it’s not really a popular destination spot. When I was in third grade, the people up the street from us had a brown Volvo station wagon, I thought it was amazing. Now that we live in Maine and have a very long, steep, curvy driveway, I’m in need of something with all wheel drive and something larger than my little HHR. We weren’t about to get anything new until the old chariot was to the point of not being reliable, so we waited, and saved our dollars. Around 6-7 years ago, I learned about the overseas delivery program from Volvo. You buy a car and can pick it up at the factory in Gothenberg, Sweden. They give you airline tickets, a night in hotel, a few meals, and you get 2 weeks of auto insurance so you can drive your car around while on your trip (did I mention you also get your car cheaper than if you just buy it from a dealer?).
After picking up our car and going on a tour of the Volvo factory (which is pretty amazing), we headed off to the Volvo Museum to check out all the vintage Volvos. If you happen to find yourself in Gothenberg, you can tour the factory without purchasing a vehicle, I highly recommend it.
It was pretty amazing, seeing the history behind the company. I’ve been a fan of their cars for many years, I especially love their dedication to safety. We can all thank them for inventing the seat belts we all wear to protect ourselves. Mr Chiots is especially happy about their safety ratings as he’s frequently on the scene of auto accidents with the local volunteer fire dept. Check back in the coming days to see where we drove our new chariot when we were in Sweden.
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Friday Favorite: Community Gardens
Last week, when my friend and I were in Vermont, we stumbled across a lovely community garden in Shelburne Falls. There are a good number of plots, all of them unique, and each one beautiful. Together, they formed a beautiful garden quilt brimming with vegetables and flowers. There’s something wonderful about people coming together and making a garden in a public space. Growing food for their friends and families and cultivating community while they do. I could go on and on telling you about what we saw, but luckily I had my camera so you can see them for yourself (even if photos don’t quite do it justice).
We spent quite awhile walking around this garden admiring all the plots and getting ideas for our edible gardens. I love seeing real gardens, the ones people live in and use. Botanical gardens are nice in their own way, but often what we see is not attainable for us in our own spaces. Community gardens like this one are truly the most beautiful gardens of all!
Have you ever had a plot in a community garden? Are there any in your area?
