Falun-Mårbacka-Karlstad

After an overnight stay in Falun, our group visited its former copper mine the following morning.

Given the scrapes his hard hat suffered during a visit to a mine in the Harz Mountains, Red Baron decided not to descend into the mine with the others but to explore the Falu gruva surroundings.

The hole of the former open pit mine is impressive and depressing at the same time.

I noticed some socio-political remarks in the mine museum that ignored the unhealthy and inhumane working conditions for …

… the defender of the Lutheran faith, King Gustavus Adolphus, commented unexpectedly, "What potentate would not wish to have such a palace as I?"

… Gustav Adolf's Catholic-leaning daughter Kristina implored, "May God never let such fumes run out in my time, for the mine produced copper as never before."

… the barber stressed, "I don't just shave and cut hair. I also bandage wounds and, in the worst case, amputate legs crushed in accidents."

In the afternoon, a visit to the Selma Lagerlöf estate was on the agenda. At the entrance, the goose on which Nils Holgersson once explored Sweden was unmissable.

Lagerlöf family home at Mårbacka, Värmland (© Joel Torsson [Loejth], Wikipedia)

Selma's former home had been degraded to a museum overloaded with knickknacks. Fortunately, taking pictures was not allowed; the photos of the many individual objects would have exceeded most camera phones' storage capacity.

Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf, born in 1858, published her first novel, Gösta Berling's Saga, at the age of 33. She was the first woman awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in the year 1909.

Selma's world-famous work is Nils Holgersson's underbara resa genom Sverige. This literally translates to Nils Holgersson's wonderful journey across Sweden. On the other hand, the adopted English title says little The Wonderful Adventures of Nils.

Towards evening our group arrived in Karlstad, a place we only saw a little of because we left early for Karlskoga the following day.

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