Anniversaries have to be celebrated though, even if you are flying solo on the day (we usually celebrate apart since it falls in the middle of the summer holiday). So we all went on an excursion, to Varnhem.
I wanted to go somewhere to have a really nice 'fika', and the Klostercafé didn't disappoint. They were really well kitted out for Corona-safety, both inside and outside; and their tables were all spread out with good distance in the garden so we felt really comfortable.
After the fika we took a walk through the almost thousand years old monastery ruins. This used to be a major spiritual, political, cultural and economic center in the Middle Ages and many Swedish kings have been buried here in the graveyard.
We also made another visit to Kata Farm, as Morfar hadn't been yet. This time there was a lot less visitors than last time we were here, so we had another good look inside the information building, which is built on top of the Viking Age church preserved here.
The old crypt still remains, and is considered to be Sweden's oldest preserved room. You can also see Kata's grave with runes engraved in the covering stone, Kata who gave her name to the farm.
In the monastery herb garden:
In the abbey museum:
We also visited a small exhibition housed in Ryttaregården close to the church about the later history of Varnhem, how it developed from being an abbey community to a village.
And finally we took a look at the dahlia presentation by the 'Svenska Dahliasällskapet', which was right outside. They were displaying about 50 different kinds of dahlia flowers. The dahlia flower is named after a botanist called Andreas Dahl, who came here from Varnhem.
Amazing to see all these different varieties, different in height, and with different colours, shapes and amounts of flowers.
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