A Walk in Råda
Today started off slow. My arrival to Sweden is still fairly recent, so we’ve taken the last few days off to relax and snuggle.
In the afternoon, we figured that it’d be a good idea to go for a walk and be a little active. Querido had mentioned before that he would like to take me to Råda, since we would be able to see the whole town from there; so we packed a polkagris and started our journey. It took us about forty minutes to get to this beautiful view:
On our way back, we looked at some old houses and read about Skogsrå sights in the forest. In Swedish folktro, a Skogsrå is a creature that, seen from the front, has the appearance of a beautiful woman; but seen from behind, she has a hollow back like a tree. It is said that the Skogsrå would seduce men - especially hunters - so that they would get lost. Zira mentioned that, in some tales, she devours the men. There are many versions of this tale; one of them is related to Odens jakt. We also took a closer look at the church in Råda. Before traveling to Sweden, I had never paid attention to the architecture of Protestant churches: they look beautiful and somewhat austere at the same time and enjoy a different kind of impressiveness. The church in Råda is originally from the 1100s, but it has been updated many times - the tower is from the 14th century. It really is a favorite of mine.
As we were passing by the horse stables, we started being followed by a cute tortoiseshell cat. All the locals are welcoming, even the cats.
When we came home, we took care of the garden and I learned to pick rhubarb. We finished the day off with a warm and crunchy Swedish-style rhubarb pie made by Querido.
