FAMILY ADVENTURES IN SWEDEN--PART 5

DALA HORSES--SYMBOL OF SWEDEN--JUNE 23, 2010

The carved wooden Swedish horses, made in all sizes from very tiny to the size of a real horse, can be seen all over the world! We decided that we wanted to visit the Dalarna Horse Factory near the town of Mora to see how they are made. In the year 1928 the Olsson brothers, Nils and James, started to carve figures of horses. They sat in their family's baking shed and carved and painted, mixing the paints themselves and making paintbrushes from squirrel hair. The traditional handicraft is still carried on in the same area by new generations of the Nils and James families.

                                                                                         

The prototype for the Dala horse we know today was born in the 1600's! Woodmen in the forests occupied their free time carving toys for their children back home in the villages. Horses were invaluable working companions for the woodmen as well as for the farmers. About 200 years ago came inspiration for painting the horses with flowering patterns similar to those painted on the Dalarna walls and furniture. In this year's World Exhibition Expo 2010 in Shanghai, China, visitors to the Swedish pavilion will be welcomed with two gigantic Dala horses.

We enjoyed seeing all the stages of making these symbols of Sweden--the carving and painting as well as rooms where they are displayed before being sent all over Sweden to be sold.       

                                          

A definite highlight for Dugan and Sage was having the opportunity to paint their own Dala horses! They did a fantastic job! They each bought one of the professionally made Dalarna horses as a special remembrance of Sweden.

                 

After spending the day at the Bear Park and the Dala Horse Factory, we found a pizzeria for our dinner. What is different about a Swedish pizzeria and an American one? Each one of these many small restaurants serves pizza and gyros! Instead of calling them gyros, however, they call them kebabs, so we had to realize what was on the menu was different from what we expected. The gyros were gigantic--wrapped up in a bread like a burrito.

You can even order a kebab pizza. The pizza was delicious, too, but we had some difficulty reading the ingredients in Swedish. Most of the Swedish people speak English quite well, but in some of the restaurants the workers are immigrants who know their home language and Swedish but not very much English. Sometimes we didn't get what we asked for and had to reorder, but we did amazingly well anyway.

Everywhere in our first few days we have enjoyed the food, but we were surprised that it seems in Dalarna there are more of these PIZZA/KEBAB restaurants than any other kind. We thought there would be lots of Swedish meatballs, potatoes, fish and lingonberries, and I am sure we will enjoy these when we visit in the homes of our friends.