Thursday, June 24, 2010

Day 13-Farö,Digerhuvud, and Saffron pancakes


Digerhuvud, Farö

Today was a fantastic day, after our breakfast we rented a car and headed to the island of Farö. Farö is at the northernest point of Gotland and it's teenie tiny, but majestic in it's beauty. This might be one of the prettiest places I've ever been to. It was a 45 minute drive to Farösund after circling for 40 minutes in the city trying to find route 149 for the "scenic route" the jokes on us it's all scenic and we could have taken 148 which is a shorter trip, oh well it was pretty anyway. Beautiful pines, shrubbery and wild flowers dotted the landscape.


After the drive we drove onto a ferry that took all of 3 minutes to cross and it comes every 1/2 hr. We never waited. When we arrived in Farö we saw that there was nothing but lovely nature and the sporatic hut or house.


We were desparate for a loo, so we followed the signs for Lauter's cafe after about a 10 minute drive through a winding road we found this wonderful oasis.








Lauter's has a beautiful cafe in a large barn all done in clean scandinavian design, you would never know it until you approach it. They also have a bar and a gift shop in a separate barn, the barn looks like something shot for architectural digest or vogue.





We sat in the sun on a lovely deck outside the cafe, we were surrounded by greenery and the water was only a few feet in the distance. Debra and split a egg and lox sandwich and a grilled veggie sandwich. For dessert we had a Gotland traditional treat a saffron pancake with berryies and whipped cream.





Then time for a snooze on a hammock while someone played their ukele in the background.


Nap time over, back to the car and off to the next beautiful place ,Lauterhorn. Lauterhorn is somewhat surreal, it's an arid land with some shrubery surround by a white rock beach with clear water that's home to some very angry birds.


I had my slip-on Tretorns so not the best for navigating the rocks but then adding an angry bird aiming for you because it must have a nest near by was extra scary, I felt like I was in the movie "The Birds". We walked along the white rock beach and there wasn't a soul around except the birds. Along the shore line we saw with the bones of fish a couple swans which we assumed were from the nearby swan lake.


I forgot to mention it before on our ride to Lauters cafe I saw a lake full of swans and their babies it was unreal. After we had taken the view in we jumped back in the car and took another road right outside of Lauterhorn that said nature preserve in Swedish. This was a road alongside the water and on the other side a short pine tree forest.Our first stop was at Digerhuvud. Here's what Farö and Farösund are famous for, giant limestone formations along the ocean that are thought to be old reefs. When you are climbing them you feel like your on "Planet of the Apes" or some sci-fi flick. It's one of the coolest things I've ever seen. For this alone I'd come back here.


I put on my grandma water shoes, rolled up my pants and wading into the ocean. The water was cold but not freezing and it had tiny snails and mussels floating around. The ocean is so calm here it's like a swimming pool. After about 40 minutes in this beautiful part of nature we got in the car once again and drove for about 5 minutes on the same road in the preserve until we reached Gotländska fiskelägen a historic group of fishing houses or shacks that have been kept up through the years and are still in use today.








We realized we needed to get back on the road asap because the restaurants in Visby shut down at 10pm and we needed a least an hour between driving dropping the car off, and walking back into town. But first a 10 minute dash back to Digervuhud to snap some shots of some glistening light and long shadows, okay time to drive home.
Debra did all the driving which I am ever so grateful for, I took a snooze to forget my painful mouth. Dropped the car off. Dropped the keys off (oh yeah the craziest thing here is there are unattended boxes to drop rental keys in for cars and bikes, and our hotel will leave keys on the reception desk for you to pick up, just sitting on the counter, no one around),walked to the hotel to drop some stuff off. Finally dinner at 9pm at Rosengarden. Our waiter Carlos, who's originally from Bolivia but grew up in Stockholm, was incredibly sweet and helpful. Debra had a veggie parmesan timbal and I had the steak frites with the traditional saffron pancake as dessert. So stuffed time for bed.







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