Quaint, really quaint and quaint++ fishing villages

Today's mission is to drive down the coast and see fishing villages, and we have good news and bad news. But first, we stopped by the local UNESCO World Heritage site in Tanumshede (where we're staying) to see rock carvings from 1000BC or so. As you would expect, you go into these exhibits / parks not too excited about it (oh boy, rock drawings..) and come out with an appreciation of how far we have come, or not.. The ocean was higher so there was water where there are now farms. These folks did not yet have written language so they drew pictures. There was gobs of god stuff, horses dragging the sun around, etc, which helped explain the unknown, as more religions did/do. These guys happened to scrawl their stuff on rocks with other harder rocks and now it is up to anthropologists (detectives) to try and figure out what they were trying to say. It is important to stand there looking at something someone scratched out 3000 years ago and see them as not much different then yourself (food, shelter, family, worry, status, all the same things but we have different stuff (cars, houses, iPods,...). The other interesting side note is that due to the sulpher and nitrogen from industrial pollution (specifically a 2011 Ford Fiesta Diesel Car), the rock is breaking down and they are starting to cover them up so they do not erode. Same thing we heard about the Roman ruins and same reason Lincoln's nose hairs at Mt Rushmore stopped growing (made that one up).

We rented bikes to go visit those spots and the first bike I got had really loose handlebars so they got me the wrong wrench, then another bike that was not there, so they felt bad, gave us something free from the gift shop cause they felt bad, and then I got a working bike.

So then we headed down the coast to see the villages on the shore. It was Sunday so there were a lot of folks doing the same thing. We hit town after town, finding the free parking lot (usually a short walk from town), walking in and wandering around until we did (or did not) find the center of town, back to the car, and off to the next town. So the verdict is that my favorite town was Grebbestad which got high marks because it had the most normal working Swedes on Holiday there. Also high points for not having any Ferrari 458 Italias or Porsche GT2 RS's in them. Most of the rest have been over run with pretty rich folks that buy the quaint little towns up and make them even more quaint. The main thing to notice is the lack of fishing boats, which Grebbestad had plenty of, good scratched up, well loved fishing boats at that. The fishermen there apparently organized to keep the tradition alive there some how.

The village that was the most quaint (not too over the top) was Fjallbacka. Another nice one that everyone raved about, very rich, but also had the nicest rock islands (picture above) was Smogen.

At around 5pm we headed back north a slightly different way seeing a few more small villages, and once wandering off down a dirt road to find not much. I was hoping to find the Swedish trailer parks but I don't think there are any (remember socialist country, 45% taxes, etc..). The dumpiest houses we have ever seen would be well insulated, painted red, etc. A lot of people live in apartments here as well. All of these fishing villages are connected with a bus system so you can get back and forth.

We ended up back in Grebbestad and got good old American cheeseburgers at a place famous for tuna (go figure). Then an after dinner stroll down the boardwalk to inspect the fishing boats and then drive back home to the Hotel. Good and tired again, so off to bed so we can get up early and leave to cross into Norway in the morning. Maybe Oslo but there is another cool town Fredrickstad we may explore. Oh yea, 51MPG today, gotta love it. Diesel is 13.74 Kroner per liter which sugars out to $2.18 per liter so $8.25 per gallon. Stop your whining about high fuel prices!!