As we mentioned in a previous post, we don't like to drive long distances, we prefer to find something interesting along the way. We took the road up to Fjällnäs via Leksand, Rättvik and Mora. You can read about this tour here. After one fantastic week at Fjällnäs mountain hotel, however, it was time to go home and since we were going to visit some friends in Falun, we took a new route. Before we were completely done with Funäsdalen, however, we had to book a visit to Skoog's pub, which we had read so much about.
Skoog's tavern is a family-owned restaurant in Funäsdalen that focuses on locally produced and sustainable raw material production. As much as possible, they try to only use ingredients from the area and on the menu you can read on which farm the cow was raised and where the vegetables and berries were grown. When we turned into the parking lot of Skoogs, we saw a guy jump on his bike and I jokingly said that it must be the chef who is going out to pick the gooseberries. A moment later we saw the same guy coming on a bicycle with a pack of rhubarb, and yes, it was actually the chef. 🙂
At the pub, a tasting menu is served that is adapted according to the availability of ingredients and according to the season, if you want something simpler, you can instead visit their bistro, which is next to the pub, here you can also buy goods from their deli. If you want to invest in a wine package and not take the car home, you can book accommodation at their accommodation. We had a car and therefore skipped the wine package but instead took their juice package. Here, the mother in the family had cooked juices of all kinds, delicious with the food, which was a bit unexpected, juice is not what you naturally think would go well with, for example, perch.
Vi hade en fantastiskt trevlig kväll på Skoogs med god mat, vackert serverad och med en personlig touch. Vi kände oss direkt välkomna i den mysiga restaurangen och stämningen var varm och familjär. Middagen avslutades med en kanna handbryggt kaffe från ett lokalt kafferosteri. Tyvärr är det ju inte möjligt att få lokalproducerat kaffe men de hade insett att det i Sverige inte går att driva en restaurang utan att servera kaffe varför de hade fått tumma på sina principer här. Däremot serverade de faktiskt inte te utan ”te” vilket visade sig vara infusion-te bryggt på lokala bär och örter.
On the way to Falun, which was our stop for the day, we stopped in Sveg. Sveg may not be a metropolis, but is otherwise best known for its large wooden bear. The presence or absence of the wooden bear has been a local matter for several years as the bear began to rot and threatened to collapse. The latest I heard, however, is that some sort of rescue operation is underway to stabilize the bear, which for a couple of years has been close to losing its chin (literally, that is).
However, we were not on a bear hunt but on a coffee hunt and then found the exciting film museum as well as the coffee shop Café Cineast. The outside is quite inconspicuous, but when you enter, a large room opens up with several rooms dedicated to various film classics, everything from the cell in The Key to Freedom (don't forget to look behind the poster) to various horror film classics with Freddy Kreuger's glove and other scary things. In addition to the cool interior, the coffee was delicious and they also have lunch for those who want something more substantial.
The road between Sveg and Orsa is long, very long in fact, and there is mostly forest here. But then suddenly the small town of Noppikoski appears. According to Wikipedia, here is the only gas station between Sveg and Orsa and the number of inhabitants is 1. When we arrived driving around lunchtime, however, here was what you could almost call a full crowd at Värdshuset Trollet. The place didn't look like much to the world, but as it was full of people who had stayed, we did too. Judge my surprise, but the little galley actually had a perfectly fine restaurant with homemade cream stewed pittipan. Satisfied and satisfied, we could now roll on towards the final destination, Falun.
I have never been to Falun before but really appreciated the small town. There is a beautiful wooden house environment here and it is cozy to just stroll around. Again we opted out of the chains and stayed at Hotell Falun. Located in a rather dreary 1970s mansion, I wondered at first what I had actually booked, but the hotel is newly renovated, well located and has friendly staff. The fact that we were greeted by the smell of apple and cinnamon didn't make matters worse, it was tomorrow's granola that was in the oven, the girl at the reception told us.
The given destination in the city is of course the Falu copper mine, but since we finally got to experience some summer heat, a cold mine didn't feel so enticing. During our hiking days, the thermometer had struggled up to a maximum of 10-11 degrees, so we preferred to stay above ground this time. However, after reading a little about the mine and the destination, I realize that there must be a trip to Falun again soon. In addition to the mine itself, for example, you can also visit a home for a typical miner's family from 1897 and from 1958. It's always fun when the museums expand a little so that there is something for everyone. If you are not very interested in mining, you can still find interest in what society looked like at the time when the mine was in operation. The same thinking can also be found at the Air Force Museum in Linköping and the Brigade Museum in Karlstad. It's not just bombers and cannons, but also exhibitions about how the contemporaries behaved during the periods in question.
Now we were on our last day of travel and were on our way home to Karlstad. We took the road via Ludvika where, by the way, there is an excellent waffle cafe, Våffelbruket, with good waffles and a view of the water. We stopped in both Grängesberg and Kopparberg, but they are both rather dreary communities in my eyes. If you have tips for things to do there, please comment in the chat! If you have a little more time, it is of course not very far either to Loka brunn, Saxå mill or the pleasant little town of Nora, but this time we were on our way home and didn't want to take too many detours.
When it was time for lunch, we instead took a small detour from the 63 and turned in to Bredsjö Blue cheese cafe & farmhouse bistro. It is a farm restaurant and shop where you can also buy cheese and meat to take home. They have a mixed menu of dishes from the farm, all served with a hearty chunk of their cheese. In little Bredsjö, which is an old mill community, there seems to be a lot going on. In addition to the cheese café, there is also another café and a B&B in Bredsjö manor.
Towards the afternoon we rolled into Karlstad after just over a week on tour. We had fantastic hiking days in Fjällnäs and pleasant trips both there and home. If you just make a little effort and look, there are lots of little gems along the way and new things to discover.
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