KARLSTAD, Sweden — "Two provinces in the heart of Sweden's southern region and both in the lake country represent the soul of this Scandinavian nation . . . Dalarna, in which lies beautiful Lake Siljan . . . and Varmland, along whose southern border nestles Lake Vanern. . . ."
- Frommer's Scandinavia on $50 a Day
It was "the soul of this Scandinavian nation" that we were seeking. Washington alone is not the United States, after all, and Stockholm is not Sweden.
So when business took my husband to Stockholm - and opportunity led me to follow - we agreed that we wanted to see beyond the capital, even as lovely a capital as Stockholm.
David and I narrowed our possibilities down to three: Dalarna, Varmland (each about four hours by train from Stockholm) and the port city of Goteburg (the region from which my husband's grandparents emigrated toward the end of the last century). Ultimately, though tempted by the thought of distant cousins and family sagas, we succumbed to logistics. The longer trip to the coast deserved more time than our schedule allowed.
After consulting several guidebooks that extolled Dalarna and Varmland equally, we chose the latter on the basis of history: Many of the Swedes who settled in America during the 19th century came from Varmland.
To cap it, we read that the province is "sometimes described as Sweden in miniature . . . rich in plains, mountains, rolling hill country, valleys, islands and racing rivers," a place "of festivals, folklore, music, art, literature and handcrafts."
We took the train to Karlstad, capital of the region and centrally located for a driving tour.
Our hotel, the Stadshotellet, was built as a guesthouse by the government in 1873. A grand old neo-baroque palace of a place, its exterior painted a jaunty sunflower yellow and white, the hotel dominates its surroundings. Our room - a small suite, really, with bedroom, bath and sitting room - was a cozy retreat, well worth the $98 it cost.
The center of Karlstad itself was not much to see, its small business district a collection of undistinguished stores and modest restaurants, in one of which we had the only bad meal of our trip. A narrow, crowded, cafeteria- style place, it smelled of stale cooking oil, which should have been warning enough. We both ordered hamburgers, which arrived topped by greasy fried eggs and surrounded by greasy French fries. The burger itself was thin, tough, tasteless and full of gristle.
