We were spending the weekend with our friends Björn and Linnea (and their kids) at their house in Brunsberg, a tiny village 30km from Arvika, Värmland County, Sweden, which is not too far from the Sweden-Norway border.
Swedish Sunrise and sub-zero temps
After a long travel day from Warsaw, via Oslo, and a late night, we woke up to a nice minus 7 (feels like minus 10). Sunrise is quite late here at this time of year (well after 9am ) so we got to enjoy the views over breakfast. Breakfast consisted of some Swedish honey, which the kids were quite fans of!
There was plenty of snow around and we planned to take advantage of it. Björn had organised to take us to a local sledding spot. The kids love sledding so were, of course, very keen!
It was so cold outside that our cars were pretty solidly frozen as we head out for the morning!
Icy but scenic drives…..
Björn thought he’d take us to a popular sledding spot, Rokkmakkstugan. The kids didn’t take a lot of convincing to get their ski gear on and help with getting lunch packed up.
Unlike our sledding adventures in both Mürren and Innsbruck during this trip, the local spot here involved a slightly terrifying 40 minute drive on narrow, snow-banked icy roads. It was however very scenic and we got to see plenty of the local countryside.
We cruised past plenty of lakes that were now solidly frozen, with people out cross country skiing and ice fishing.
As we headed into the forest areas, the piles of snow on the side of the road got higher and the ice on the roads got thicker. At least it was daylight and we could see where we were going, unlike the drive from Arvika to Brunsberg, the previous night!
The snow laden trees were rather pretty, and it was very much a Winter wonderland.
We made it to the sledding spot without any incidents… and only 1 wrong turn despite following both the GPS and Björn!
Sledding fun and sun
We hadn’t seen a huge amount of traffic on the snowy roads but the make-shift car park near the sledding hill was packed with cars. We unloaded our cars and the excited kids and sleds made their way up to top of the hill. We had a variety of sleds Björn had located including a sit-on ski sled, and a green mattress, that proved to be rather fast and fun.
It was a gloriously sunny day and despite it being minus 3 (feels like minus 6) we were plenty warm-enough with all our ski gear on. It was a very pretty spot and there were a bunch of families with kids, little and big, out taking advantage of the lovely weekend weather.
Unlike in Mürren this was not a groomed sledding run with a funicular to drag us to the top. It was more like the sled run near our Airbnb in Igls (Innsbruck, Austria) where everyone just made a run that allowed them to sled for as long as they could. It was a challenge to see how far down you could go.
With 4 sleds and 3 kids and 3 adults, we had to take it in turns. The green mattress was particularly popular with people who wanted out-of-control fast slides. Trudging back up the hill in soft snow was more challenging than our lazy funicular rides in the Mürren but at least we had unlimited runs here, and got plenty of exercise.
There were a few different tracks to take, and we all ended up sideways more than once, but were having plenty of fun.
I even wrestled a sled off a kid and got a few goes, managing to get a long day down the mountain with a few good choices of line. Sadly it meant a very long walk back up!
On the drive to the sledding spot, Soren had been in Björn’s car and had regaled him with stories of the 3km sled run in Mürren. Björn then realised the kids might be slightly disappointed with this Swedish offering 🙂 Sledding is sledding though, and the kids were more than happy throwing themselves down the slopes as fast as possible over and over again.
Once we worked up an appetite, we had a Swedish picnic lunch of cheese sandwhiches and strawberry cordial drink. It was still minus 3 out but the beautiful clear day meant that it wasn’t too cold as long as you kept moving.
There was a hut with a warm fire that people were using to warm up and dry out gear. Zinnia eventually got a bit cold and wanted to hang out in there for a bit!
After food and warming up, none of the kids were keen on abandoning sledding and plenty more runs down were had.
The kids took it in turns to push start the adults to see if they could crash us!
Sadly we had to eventually tear the kids away from the sleds and snow. It was a bit of an icy and snowy drive back to Brunsberg. With the early sunset we decided to leave by 2pm as we did not want to be doing that drive in the dark!
At least on the way back we knew the bits of road that were not great. The sun was already starting dip towards the horizon. We managed to make it back to the highway with only one wrong turn and no getting bogged in snow…..
A lazy afternoon…..
Once we were back and all dry and warm it was time for a chilled afternoon. We caught up on washing and the kids played with Björn and Linnea’s animals. Astrid retreated to chat to Nelly, pleased to have the company of another teenager.
There was also time to have some Swedish Glögg and watch the remaining sun disappear.
The plan for dinner was to head out for dinner, to the ‘local’ pizza and kebab place in Edane. As Brunsberg is so tiny there were no eating establishments, so local meant an 18km drive on snowy roads in the dark. Luckily Anto was getting used to this….. and on the wrong side of the road to boot 🙂
We had pizzas and falafel and the kids replaced all those calories they’d burnt tearing up the sledding slopes.
As we head back to Björn’s for some drinks and a reasonable bed-time it was minus 6, feels like minus 12. The temperature was definitely not getting above zero the next day either. Not that we minded, even this far into the trip, snow was definitely still a novelty for these Aussies.
Up next……
Our Sunday in Sweden was another relaxed affair, hanging out with friends but we had some amazingly cold temperatures and some magical scenery.
