It is a quiet Friday morning here in Stiftsgården – Jo and I are hoping to go to the prayer time in the chapel at 12, and then visit the town of Rättvik after lunch.

Stiftsgården is owned by the (Lutheran) Church of Sweden, and is both a residential and conference centre and a small hotel. The main building has a 3 star badge.

There is both a chapel in the main building and the local parish church nearby.

Jo and I met with Nils, the director, last night, and talked about Corrymeela. There have been strong links in the past, and we batted around ideas for better links now – hopefully this will help Nils in talking to the folks in NI. It was an interesting evening.

The journey yesterday was quiet, but long enough at 3.5 hours. Sweden built most of its railways inland, so as not to scupper the boat trade along the coasts, so there is plenty of forest to see!

Stiftsgården is very close to Lake Siljan. I took a walk to the nearest garages last night, and came back along the side of the lake – the gravel path ended at a memorial to the people of Dalarna, specifically Rättvik who had fought alongside Gustav Vasa against Christian II of Denmark in the 16th Century. After that, I took what looked like a well-trodden path back to Stiftsgården which turned out to be too well-trodden – I have lovely muddy converse now which are still drying!

To be honest, at this stage Jo and I have mixed feelings about going home on Sunday. We’re really enjoying the holiday, and not necessarily looking forward to having to work on Tuesday, but part of us also wants to get home to our own stuff!

More later.