David & Diana's Excellent Vacation In Sweden

Wednesday, July 28, 1999

Today, we're visiting Sala Silvergruva (The Sala Silver Mine).  You can find Sala at the northwest corner of this map.

But first, we stop by Västerås to visit Highland Air's hanger.  Hans was a First Officer for Highland Air flying Jetstreams.  Highland Air later became part of Direktflyg.  You can find Västerås on the west side of the map along the north shore of Mälaren.


Hans is giving Rasmus his first flight lesson.


Hans demonstrates his special technique to look out for other airplanes.

Our next stop between Västerås and Sala is to visit Anette's aunt at her cottage in the country.


Check out the wood in the dining area.  Also notice the reindeer antlers and beer steins.  (Anette's uncle is from Austria.)


This is the staircase going upstairs with more interesting wood.


These steep steps lead down to the basement.  Notice how the steps are interleaved.  At first it looks kind of weird but it works very well.

Sala Silvergruva (Sala Silver Mine)

Next, we finally make it to the Sala Silver Mine.  This mine was started in the late 1400's.  That's around the time that Columbus sailed to America.  Mining at Sala stopped in 1908.

We select the Kingsway guided tour.  One advantage of the Kingsway tour is that you get to ride the elevator back to the surface.  Unfortunately, Rasmus is too young for the Kingsway tour so Anette and Rasmus take the tour to the 40 meter (131 ft.) level.  Fortunately, their tour coincides with the beginning of our Kingsway tour.

Look out, it's the Dork Patrol.

Seriously, the hard hats are required because there are low rock ceilings within the mine.  The rubber boots are required because there is water standing at several places within the mine.  The blue coats are required to keep our clothes clean and to make us look funny.

The deepest shaft in the mine extends to 318 meters (1043 feet) underground.  The mine will eventually fill up with water if it isn't pumped out.  Now, they only pump it out to slightly over 100 meters (328 feet).

The Kingsway tour goes down to the 60 meter (197 feet) level.  We see several tunnels named after Swedish kings.  They also named tunnels after world leaders at the time.  We saw the George Washington tunnel.


Here's Diana deep underground.


Here's Diana, Hans, and our guide at the 60 meter level.  While backing up to take this photo, David tripped and accidentally sat on a strategically placed rock.  He took this picture while sitting on his butt.


This building is above one of the shafts leading deep underground.


Diana points to the Swedish flag at a gift shop at the Sala Silver Mine.


Rasmus escorts Diana back to the Volvo.

Sigtuna

On the trip back to Stockholm, we stop by Sigtuna, the oldest town in Sweden.  Sigtuna is north-northwest of Stockholm.

These photos were taken on a walking/stroller tour of Sigtuna.

 


Back at the apartment, Diana teaches Rasmus to say "USA Number One!".


Nej, nej, nej!  Rasmus needs a little parental persuasion to brush his teeth.


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David & Diana's Excellent Vacation In Sweden


Copyright 1999 David Jones & Diana Hartman
Last revised: November 05, 2005.