Gränna, Sweden – June 12, 2007

In Andrew’s words: It is really fun in Sweden. I am glad I am able to use my Swedish. Before going on to Rättvik, we spent the morning on Visingsö, an island across from Gränna in Lake Vättern. On the island we visited the ruins of the first royal castle of Sweden. it was built in the 1200’s. Carl and I had fun imagining what the castle really looked like before part of it fell into the sea. My mom was most impressed with the still intact King’s latrine chute. Here’s a picture of Christian, Carl, and I patrolling the overgrown castle walls. There also are other ruins on the island from a castle that burned down in 1700’s, a couple of decades after Sweden held Russian prisoner’s of war there.
Gränna is also really well known for its handcrafted peppermint sticks. We were able to watch them make some in a couple of small shops and guess what… now we have enough in our bags to last us for the rest of our trip.