We left Stockholm this morning, off to Småland to explore our Rudeen ancestry.
Of course no matter where you go in this world, there are always Rademachers lurking about. We stopped at the Rademacher Smedjorna (forge) in Eskilstuna, a popular tourist attraction. Reinhold Rademacher came here on the 1600’s from Livonia at the invitation of the King of Sweden in order to establish a metalworking industry. I don’t think Reinhold is any relation but you never know. Dale is being a good sport about all this Swedish stuff so it was fun to surprise him with this destination.
We continued on toward Nobynäs, a 400-year-old manor house where my great-great-grandparents worked as servants. Today it is a “bed and breakfast” although I use the term loosely. I think the decor dates back to 1958 or maybe 1959. But it is charming in its own weird way. There is a flock of sheep out front and Dad noticed that the entire vocal spectrum is represented: sopranos, altos, tenors and basses. The other guests here at the B&B are a bunch of men from Croatia working on power lines in the area. The hot water is out but they expect repairs to be completed in the morning.
We drove around Lake Ralången, ate dinner in Aneby, stopped by the Marbäck church and drove past Eket. We’ll be visiting the latter two again in the coming days so more about them later.
The wi-fi here is dicey so I’ll have to post this via cell phone. Pictures will come later.
Great stuff Karen!