🙂 AMAZING HISTORY, STUNNING LOCATION!
What a privilege to be invited to this magnificent family home. We were welcomed with a champagne reception by the Manfalk Family and the Akessons – always such fun!
After lunch Stefan gave us a tour. There are a total number of 40 bedrooms! Care and maintenance of a place like this along with their other properties is one of their son’s sole occupation – a full time job! Reading the history and gracing the same corridors as the King of Sweden and the niece of Napoleon Bonaparte is quite something!
It was a wonderful playground for the children – what a wonderful spot to raise your family! We went out on the boats and Ben got up first time on the wakeboard.
It was a real shame that the weather was not great … but that did not deter us from having a great time! In the morning after breakfast we headed over to the lighthouse island in the archipelago called Haradsskar where Stefan had bought a little house – these are in families for generations and only come up about once every two hundred years – so a fantastic purchase!
It was world lighthouse day so we took a stroll and climbed to the top where the light was on while Michael, Jonathan and Stefan cooked lunch. It is the first lighthouse in the world which flashed. Paul captured a grasshopper so that Caitlyn would not freak out and had to hold it in his hand the entire time! We tasted some wild juniper on the way – just like gin!
We enjoyed boar burgers – thanks to Jacob’s hunt before heading back.
We all had a snooze while kids played carom billiards, also called French billiards which is a game played with three balls (two white and one red) on a table without pockets, in which the object is to drive one of the white balls (cue ball) into both of the other balls. Each carom thus completed counts one point.
Then it was time for the crayfish party which entails drinking schnapps, singing songs and eating crayfish – and a hangover!
We all had a lie in! After breakfast Caitlyn gave wakeboarding a try and Ben tried skiing – but it was not a great success…then the rain came in!
What a fantastic weekend with warm and welcoming Swedish hospitality. We had a long drive back to the airport but it was very quiet and we got through quickly – but then the engine wouldn’t start so we had to go back to the stand and the engineer had to start it manually! We had great views over London as we flew in.
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