There's a reason most Swedes take three weeks off in summer and then spend most of it in their home country. July here can be magical. We want to know what readers think are the best things about holidaying in Sweden in summer. Tell us in this form.
Whether you spend your time in a campsite, a country cabin, a hotel, or just at home in your house or apartment, summer holidays in Sweden can be gorgeous, with a very different vibe from what you might be used to from the resorts of Spain, France or Italy.
What are the things about your summers here that you most appreciate, whether this is your first summer holiday here or the latest of many?
Guests at the funeral of Swedish football legend Sven-Göran Eriksson were to be treated to a menu of local Värmland cuisine on Friday: motti and molusk.
Sven-Göran Eriksson, one of Sweden’s most famous football icons, passed away at the end of August, just a few months after he went public with the news that he had terminal pancreatic cancer in January this year.
His funeral was scheduled for 10am on Friday in his hometown, Torsby, in Värmland. Many aspects of the funeral were planned by Eriksson himself, who was famously proud of his roots in Värmland and much-loved in Torsby for his down-to-earth, friendly nature.
Eriksson requested that the funeral be open to the public, so the 600-seater church was expected to be packed with a mix of small-town locals alongside his star-studded guestlist, including former England captain David Beckham and fellow England manager Roy Hodgson.
As the number of people interested in attending far exceeded space in the church, the local town set up a big screen outside where onlookers wishing to pay their respects would be able follow the funeral live.
“I think there will be as many people outside as inside the church,” Christopher Janson from Torsby’s funeral parlor told local newspaper NWT. “He was so folklig [down to earth], remembered people and checked up on his old school classmates. He was definitely a popular figure in town.”
After the ceremony, there was set to be a procession accompanied by Torsby’s local brass band – again, Eriksson’s own request, inspired by the funeral of Italian team Sampdoria’s former president, which Eriksson attended in 1993.
The procession was due to end at Kollsbergs hembygdsgård, where guests were to be treated to local specialties motti and molusk.
But what exactly does that entail?
Luckily for the guests, the molusk has no relation to slimy invertebrates, rather it’s a cake made to the same recipe as a chocolate ball (chokladboll in Swedish) – oats, cocoa powder, butter and sugar – rolled into a log and dipped in chocolate.
“It was Svennis’ request to have molusks and I think it’s because the molusk is a well-known cake from Torsby which has been baked here since the 1950s,” Lisa Nordqvist, from Wienerkonditoriet in Torsby, who supplied the cakes for the funeral reception, told The Local.
“We make the original and everyone who comes from Torsby has heard of it. A lot of people who have visited or have connections to Torsby speak highly of it,” she continued.
Motti, on the other hand, has its roots in Finland, and was brought by Finns to Värmland in the 1600s. It’s a type of porridge made from a special kind of flour called skrädmjöl, which is made from toasted oats.
It’s considered to be Värmland’s national dish, and is made by dumping the flour on top of some sort of liquid, either water or stock, and letting it steam for around ten minutes.
This results in a lumpy, relatively dry porridge which was traditionally eaten with the hands – another word for it is nävgröt, “fist porridge”.
It’s usually served with lingonberry jam and fried fläsk, which is similar to bacon, but slightly thicker, where the lumps of porridge are dipped into the jam and bacon fat.
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my Kronor goes farther in Sverige, och Sweden is gorgeous 😍
We are an aging couple from Nowra, New South Wales ,Australia that visit Stockholm every summer to visit our grandchildren who live in Bromma Kyrka. The weather is usually nice, warm days with no hot winds, much better than spending a winter at home, even though most Swedes laugh at us when we tell them our winter temperatures get as low as 15!
Our job is to look after the children while Mamma and Pappa are working. We enjoy visits to Skansen, Grunalund and fikka visits to Bistro Bromma. Luckily we have made friends with a group of AWs and they make us feel very welcome…our Swedish is not up to a high standard, but we try!
I go swimming Every morning with a group of ladies in the local lake. It’s what I look forward to all year long.
Also, the chance to just be quiet and not have the sounds of the city around me constantly, it reminds me of who I am and what I value.
And gives me the strength to face a Swedish winter. Just barely.