Last Roadtrip... Looking back

As we celebrated our one year stay in Sweden we took a drive down one of my favorite places in Sweden, the countryside. We drove along the 180 road to Alingsås and found the most amazing villages and towns along the way!  The lakes in the countryside were still frozen! Driving along the many lakes outside of Gothenburg and seeing a figure or two ice-skating on it, was truly remarkable.  In Gothenburg all the snow and ice already melted away into the abyss of the winter and forgotten memories of snow was packed away into my camera's memory.  But in the countryside people still risked (or knew their lakes) skating on thin ice in the early spring sun. 

I was completely taken aback by the small, but lively town of Alingsås.  A church, a square, small, cute shops and beautiful waterways surrounding the town and meeting the lake on the outskirts.  This town has a truly Swedish vibe to it.  And I have to say the cleanest town I've ever been in.  The streets are perfectly sweeped and the houses and shops perfectly painted in pastel and the swedish-red colored buildings.  The church is quaint and inviting and the streets a dream to wonder about. 

I've recently read the poems of Karin Boye, the famous Swedish poet and writer who committed suicide and who's body was found close to Alingsås. Knowing this while visiting Alingsås, I imagined I felt a deep contentment, a deep respect for the unknown and a deep appreciation for life.

Statue of Karin Boye in Gothenburg, Sweden