Category: B&B and surroundings

Våffeldagen or waffle day is a day on which the Swedes, real sweet tooths, bake waffles for their family.

The funny thing is that the day actually originated from a corruption of the word “Vårfrudagen” or Maiden’s Day, the day on which Mary received the message that she would give birth to the baby Jesus. The day that in the Christian religion is called the Annunciation to Mary or Mary’s message. Until the Middle Ages it was even the beginning of the new year in various countries. In England even until 1752.

In many Swedish dialects “Vårfrudagen” was corrupted to Vaffeldag and that is an old form of Våffla or waffle. And so Mary’s message became waffle day …. You can read the above in the nice book by Jan-Öjvind Swahn: “Svenska Traditioner” in Swedish, but now also in English (and German).

Another explanation is that the Swedes celebrate the beginning of spring on March 25. After a long winter, there is plenty of milk and fresh eggs again. And with the last bit of flour, they bake waffles and thus herald the spring. In addition to the waffles, there is of course delicious sylt och vispgrädde or jam and whipped cream.

If you visit the Bolmen island near us and you take the ferry on the way to that really nice loppis on the island, you will pass a place where they bake delicious waffles in the summer. You can’t miss it because there is only one main road on the island.

Stories have always been around, they were told when everyone had finished work and gathered around the fire. The first stories date back to long before our era and by continuing to tell them we know that.

Around 1800 it was still very common for people to tell each other stories around the fire after work, but a century later this had almost completely disappeared, replaced by the written word and later, when technology advanced, by radio, film and TV.

Around the 1980s it seemed that the most original form of culture, that of the spoken word, was disappearing. But suddenly stories were told again, at festivals, in storytelling cafes etc., all over the western world.

In Småland, in the area around Ljungby, many sagas and legends still lived among the people and many well-known and even famous storytellers lived there. Many stories had already been documented since 1800, as a result of which the Sagomuseet was opened here in 1990. The museum is the heart of a large area in which all kinds of legends have their origins, often in the midst of beautiful nature and in special places.

It is a beautifully decorated small museum. You will find well-known and lesser-known sagas from the area, beautifully designed by textile artist Mia Einarsdotter and painter and sculptor Kjell Sundberg. There is a lot of attention to detail and you can pull strings, open drawers. Suddenly a song sounds or a dog barks. And if you walk around the rooms again, new details will stand out. And worth a visit for young and old, especially if you like stories! Every year just before midsummer they organize a large storytellers festival with participants from all over the world.

Since November 2018, the Sagomuseet Ljungby has been on the UNESCO list of intangible heritage.

Every time we drive back home from Halmstad we see the sign “Danska Fall”, a nature reserve with waterfalls, in the village of Simlangsdålen. Last week we drove there once. It was warm and the water and forest offer nice cooling.

From the Gula Huset it is about a twenty minute drive and that road is also worth it, especially now that the verges are yellow with broom, beautiful. At the parking lot there are various information boards about everything that lives, grows and blooms there, and that is very diverse.

When we get out of the car we can already hear the birds singing. Since there are 2 little people with us, we take the blue route of about 2.5 km and as is customary in our family, we walk the route against the grain. It is a fairytale forest, there are elf benches, and everywhere holes with bright green moss in old fallen trees, gnome holes perhaps?

The forest is known for its diversity of mosses, lichens and plants. We discover places full of clovers, but we do not find a four-leaf clover, but we do find blueberries and we pick them. There are a lot of them throughout the forest. The trees are mainly beech and oak and very old, between 100 and 175 years old. The entire area is untouched because it is mainly left alone. The path is therefore far from smooth, many thick tree roots, stones, the ascent and descent make it a real challenge for children.

And then you hear the water… and it becomes noticeably cooler in the forest. This part is the lowest part of the Assman river, which falls down with a drop of 36 meters. Be careful where possible with your feet in the water. The stones together form a gigantic mosaic through which the river rushes. Then continue over bridges and stairs up to the real waterfall. The water falls down with a roar from different sides, a beautiful sight and very impressive. But it is a good thing that there is a high fence around it. Then down again, with an arc around a forest meadow with sleepy cows and a last bit through the beech forest and we are back at the car.

Back home we discover why it is called Danska Fall…. A sad story. The Danes lost the battle at Fyllebro, the gateway to Halmstad, and fled into the woods at Simllangsdålen. There they were found by the Swedes and forced onto a rotten bridge, the Danish soldiers fell down the waterfall.

Special guests in our B&B, lovely summer weather and therefore time to cook and eat outside. And for this occasion we have chosen a classic Swedish dish with tender pieces of meat, fried potatoes, caramelized onions and a creamy mustard sauce: Biff Rydberg. This recipe is said to have been originally invented in the 19th century Hotel Rydberg (now closed) in Stockholm. This is a dish that is eaten in Sweden later in the evening, for example at weddings, with pickled cucumbers and raw egg yolks. But certainly also very tasty on a sultry summer evening. Highly recommended and we will definitely keep this in our menu!!!!

The town of Lidhult has no restaurant. That is why we also offer our guests a meal. Sometimes something simple and nutritious, sometimes something more extensive, but so far always with great appreciation for what is offered.

On Monday we had the first time in weeks to play the “tourist” ourselves. And since we had heard from a fellow townsman that our house was already on display in Minivärlden, we naturally wanted to see it ourselves.

In this small museum they recreate old railway routes, a kind of Madurodam, but for railways and we live on Stationsgatan so…… The whole thing is based on the collection of a doctor from Ljungby who left it to the Kommun, municipality, when he died. This doctor had recreated kilometres of railway in the cellar of his house, equipped with everything that stands, lives and lives around those railway lines. In order not to let it gather dust, they decided to build a museum around it.

It was really nice to see our house in miniature, everything on it and on it. Coincidentally, the person who built it and who also kept us informed about the whole process, was walking around and we had a nice chat with him.

It is special to see how much love and passion the railways were built with, everything runs and here and there you can press a button and somewhere a cow goes to eat, a man harvests or chops wood, a boat sails across the lake. The railway lines have all been closed down, but now they have been restored to their former glory in this small museum.

It was also funny that the old furniture from the station building is displayed here in Lidhult, complete with a ticket seller who tells his story in 3 languages.

Our house is already there, together with the station building and the former hotel on the corner of our street, the rest still has to grow around it.

Traveling through Sweden?

Then come stay and eat with us!

In March 2019 we opened our B&B Mooi Gula Huset. And we are still working on perfecting our B&B. The house from 1908 has an authentic Swedish look and feel and we want to reflect this in the interior of the B&B. The old Swedish furniture and utensils from our shop ‘Mooi inredning’ will certainly come in handy.

The B&B is located in Lidhult, in the south-west of Småland. In a wooded walking area where you can enjoy peace and space. And of course a good breakfast is a must. Local, organic and home-made products are our preference and will therefore be an important part of the breakfast. If you also want to join us at our kitchen table in the evening (inside or outside), you can eat with us ‘what the pot provides’.

We look forward to seeing you (and in the meantime you can of course follow our blog).

Välkommen, Liesbeth and Joost