Special Trip - was it worth it

Sheila had a great idea and I went with it because I agreed. We are in Sweden so what is Sweden famous for? Volvo. Yes well I am not buying a new one of those although it would be high on my list of cars to buy if money was not an issue. ABBA, Sweden is famous for ABBA but that is not it either. Sweden is famous for IKEA as Sheila thought it might be an idea to eat lunch in an IKEA in Sweden. I decided to look up whether there were any particularly notable IKEAs and discovered that their headquarters and IKEA museum is in Älmhult which was not too far from where we were. It was a bit of a diversion from the planned route but since we don't have any special plans we decided to go for it. We even agreed to pay to get into the museum!

IKEA Museum

Inside the museum

So we arrived at the museum building and found a suitable spot to park the motorhome then we paid our admission fees. Now we expected to find samples from over the years and the story of IKEA etc etc. And we DID find those things but one other thing I expected was to be led through the story from start to finish in a chronological order and without choice of route, just like their stores. However it was all a bit random and we were round it in double quick time. So much so that the restaurant was not even open for lunch. We set off on a walk around the town and returned when our appetites were sufficiently built up to get the famous meatballs.

Of course the restaurant is also the staff canteen and it was now lunchtime so the queue was quite big. We were however determined to enjoy the delicious fare. The menu did not appear to have any choice of accompaniments and the meatballs were served with mashed potatoes and pickled cucumber!!! Now those of you who know my aversion to cucumber know that this is not acceptable. I also knew that my knowledge of Swedish was never likely to allow me to negotiate the dish without the offending material. We noticed that the veggie balls were served with potato wedges and salad and this looked an altogether better option. We ordered two veggie balls and headed with our trays to the tables. Sheila thought they were "quiet nice", I thought they were "OK at best". All rather disappointing.

Woodland walk

We then headed northwards again and spend the night in Ljungby. The campsite was 4 km outside the town and was connected by a great cycle path so we got settled and then cycled into town. It was a nice enough place, nothing too spectacular. A few big churchy buildings and a bit of a town square.



I am thinking of a new feature instead of big churchy buildings. I might call it my POP feature. People on plinths might be quite interesting for we have actually noticed quite a significant number of POPs to choose from. This is the first. It is Kristina Nilsson (1843-1921), the Swedish opera singer. Specifically, it's a bronze sculpture of her as a thirteen-year-old, holding a violin. The statue was created by Carl Fagerberg and unveiled in 1938. Look out for my next POP offering.

As a change to the sightseeing we decided we would like to have a game of golf. Sheila found a golf club who offered an overnight in their motorhome spaces right by the clubhouse. It was perfect. We enjoyed a great game of golf and then overnight in the carpark. Very peaceful.


My holiday week is almost over and I have a very busy few days coming up so we are planning to head to a spot just inside Norway for a few days in one place.

D,S and MJ

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