Tour of Ostersund

Today the rain radar looks quite wet again. It's high time for a little city trip.

In fact, it's not that easy here in Sweden. Östersund is about 1 hour away from our holiday apartment. The Swedish city is home to 53,000 inhabitants and is generally known for its beautiful nature and as a UNESCO city of gastronomy. A comparable “big city” can only be found some distance away. Karlstad is 550 km away, Umeå is 400 km away and Sundsvall is 200 km away from Östersund. It's really crazy when you think about how many cities in Germany are on the 550km route between Lübeck and Frankfurt.

The island of Frösön is located directly near Östersund. The island, which was named after the pagan god Frö, even has its own airport.

Morning walk

But before we set off, of course we have to go for a morning walk. Today I follow path 222 below the mountain and combine the loop with a short training session.

Like every morning, we pass the friendly-looking, if somewhat stoned-looking motorhome. Today I just had to photograph it. It looks too funny.

Our route takes us right through the forest and the winding, very muddy paths ultimately lead to a very dilapidated-looking bridge.

Even though it was a bit wobbly, luckily it held us 😅. The stream below definitely looks exceedingly cold.

With a few wrong turns we finally find our way back. In total we traveled 6km today 💪

Walk around Lake Ändersjön

Luckily the forecast rain passed and didn't reach us until around 7 p.m. 🤗

After we first start on a very disappointing tour around Lake Ändersjön (not to be confused with the Andersön nature reserve 😂), we quickly decide to drive straight on to Östersund. The overall atmosphere of our walk is quite eerie. The lake is located directly at a recycling dump and the local press squeaks along the dark, narrow path through undergrowth and bushes with a few glimpses of the actual lake😅.

Get out of here quickly 😅

Tour of Ostersund

The parking lot at the fifth largest lake in Sweden - yes, obviously such rankings are a hit here 😂 - the Storsjön is a real eye-catcher. Compared to other parking spaces such as the one at Tännforsen, it is very cheap at 5 crowns per hour.

According to old stories, this lake is home to the Jämtland equivalent of the Scottish Loch Ness monster. The Storsjöodjuret, also called Birger, runs through the entire cityscape. In the cute city center we pass other models of the Swedish monster on every corner.

The city is very artistically designed. On every street we pass small studios and the streets are decorated with colorful cloths and flags.

What is particularly striking are the many rainbow-colored works of art on every street corner. Until yesterday the so-called Staaren Pride took place in Östersund. A happypride initiative that symbolizes the openness of the city.

In addition to the colorful flags, we can hardly find a gray wall in the small streets and alleys. The houses are covered in pretty colorful graffiti. A large work of art that runs along the entire wall of the house particularly reminded us of the game Cyberpunk and the Tarot Card Quest "Fool on the Hill" in which you race across Nightcity to find the graffiti equivalent of the Tarot images. I remember a very similar work of art here.

The city's many small backyards, where there are cute cafés, are particularly cute.

We decide to take a short break in one of them and enjoy the atmosphere.

Inside, the cafe is very crowded. So we decide to stay outside. Mia will like it much better out here anyway. Since she is the everyday dog, she is of course allowed to go into town with us 🤭

She is clearly enjoying the kelpie-free quality time 🤭.

Even the muffins here are incredibly colorful 🤭. The coffee is also extremely delicious.

The café also plays country covers of well-known songs as background music. Overall, the music fits the place very well and creates a very relaxed environment.

After the short break we continue through the city. Some sea monsters particularly caught our eye. For example, this one reminds us of Temeraire, the dragon from the novel "His Majesty's Fire Riders".

Overall, the city center of Östersund is manageable. After a short while we were in every little cute street. Of course Mia has to sit on a cool graffiti model again 🤭.

On the way back to the car we pass another special sea monster.

Before dinner we go back to the car to walk a short distance along Storsjön with the dogs. The sun even shines on us as we walk.

The road runs directly along the lake for miles. Of course it's a little maneuverable here again. But fortunately it's not nearly as cold today as it was two days ago.

There are a lot of nice hotels and accommodations everywhere here at the lake. The view from the top must be really beautiful.

After our walk, Arya can go into town with us. The little mouse is particularly cuddly and cuddly again today 🥰. I just can't leave them in the car.

By the way, we had blueberry cheese burgers for dinner today 🤭. A very strange but surprisingly suitable mixture 😂. Almost a bit like Camembert with cranberries.

Short visit to the island of Frösön

At the end of our tour we take a short detour to the island of Frösön. The road to the parking lot leads through a large gate past green military vehicles. The island already seemed extremely eerie to us this afternoon.

Once you get to the parking lot, however, the initial horror disappears. We come directly to the water in three directions. Without further ado, we decide on one of them and come to a beautiful beach on the shore of the gigantic lake.

The dogs are really happy about the space and the evening bathing session. The dachshund has wanted to go into the water all day. However, so that she wasn't wet and cold for too long, she wasn't allowed to do so before going for a stroll through town.

We are now reconciled with the island again. It's much nicer here than at Ändersjön.

After a long game with the rascals and a short hike along the lake, we go back to the car just in time.

As soon as we got in it started to rain. Similar to the shower 2 days ago, the rain suddenly becomes very heavy and is accompanied by a biting wind. We were really very lucky there.

On the way back we stop briefly at the supermarket. Our new car boxes have already more than proven themselves. I would love to store everything in these boxes in the future 😂. Unfortunately, today I'm putting away the basket while Ian is socializing at the checkout. I just had to Tetrissen. There was no other way 😅. Maybe the baskets weren't such a good idea after all 🙈

I just discovered the *not loitering* raptor in the photo while writing the blog 😂😂😂😂🦖🍪.