July 15th. Stockholm to Osterhammers Estate.

Happy Anniversary to my lovely wife! We got married 22 years ago today. We are spending it with my family on a 450 year old farm estate in central Sweden!!?!!

We had to get going early this morning to catch a train to the town of Arboga . We then had to wait for another train to take us to the town of Orebro. We arrived in Orebro about 11:15 and then spent the next hour and a half trying to pick up our rental cars from Circle K (they are not used to renting to Americans). Once we got our cars we drove about a half hour along winding roads through the Swedish countryside. We made it to the small town of Fellingsbro where we met a relative of my grandfather, Sverker Lerhedan. Sverker then led us in his car to his estate called Osterhammers. It is a 450 year old estate and farm where he lives with his wife Birgitta. There are two main houses on the estate. Both houses have been refurbished and made livable. We are staying in the 450 year old house. Sverker and Birgitta live in the 300 year old house. Our place still has the original wood ceiling and old, old ceramic fireplaces. We feel like we are staying in a museum.

Once we arrived we had a delicious lunch of cream of vegetable soup. We then had coffee and dessert on their porch that overlooked the beautiful Swedish landscape. After lunch we had a tour of the houses and the other buildings (old barns, storage, etc...). Sverker and Birgitta are not farmers, but they allow farmers to let livestock graze on their land. As we walked around we got to hang out with cows and sheep. Sverker then took us on a tour of the rest of the 2500 acres of the estate. Like the livestock, much of the land is leased by other farmers so the other farmers can grow their crops.

Dinner consisted of vegetables and apple sauce from their garden and moose meat. Dessert was fresh raspberries and blueberries on Ice cream. We don't have to leave until about 11:00 am tomorrow so we will still have more time to take in the place as it is quite impressive.