Jönköping den 16 August 1926Dear Jessee,
I wonder where you are and how you like it! We are having a grand time crossing Sweden by canal and auto, taking almost a week to stop here and there. Oh, we like Sweden, even when we can't find out whether the little shop will make us an omelette or not! Both the maids and we nearly had hysterics over our linguistic difficulties yesterday, no, day before, at Vadstena which seemed to have no English in it at all! The hotel porter knew enough to help us get the right train - that was all for 24 hours, but we saw a fine old castle, the kind with a moat and great thick walls, oh, some parts must have been 15 feet thick, and huge halls which used to be hung with elegant tapestries. The frescoes still show, and the whole thing is better preserved than any of that sort I've ever seen. There was a huge church too where the Holy Saint Bridget ("Heliga Birgitta") used to have her convent. The remains of her influence show not only in the church and, presumably, her bones in a box, a statue dating from 1400 (?) but in the lace-making still characteristic of this region. We liked Vadstena immensely. One thing is remarkable, and that's the size and the seriousness of the bookshops in these little places. Vadstena has about 3,000 folks, and it's [sic] bookstore - the biggest one, there was another, too - is far better than any in Nashua! I could see the kind of books they had, even if I couldn't read them.
We moved on by a little electric train - quite a few Swedish lines are electrified including two main lines - and a bus to Grenna. And there we were amazed to find in a little town a most delightful hotel. It was kept by Baron von Düben, and I think he was an old sinner who had to "keep boarders" to retrieve his fortunes, but was clever enough to make his place most attractive, individual and successful. There were huge gardens, with such beautiful flowers! We counted 14 kinds of sweet peas, planted by colors, perhaps 10-12 feet of a color, along a trellised walk, and beside them were all sorts of other things - lots of things. Then at the other side the garden had many fruit trees as well as flowers, with statuary and gravel walks all about, and always tables and chairs. I never saw so much out-of-door eating and drinking in my life in any country. They seem to eat all day long everywhere! But the regular meals inside were great! I had two friend chickens within 24 hours, just right. Oh, I'll tell you some time about Swedish food - it's not like ours in all respects, though fried chicken is natural enough.
Well - the Baron had ancestral portraits with golden crowns over their crests all about, he had wonderful carved sideboards and such - and he moved about among the guests (the place was full of auto parties and it's just about nowhere, like Milford, say) and played the part of dignified host - oh, we found it vastly entertaining. He talked English all right, also his porters, and there was at least one English party there. The place was diverting no end.
The little town was full of flowers. We couldn't understand who the folks were. They didn't seem to be either summer people - there's really no "attraction" there - nor yet artists, but here were all these nice little houses with exquisite gardens. The Baron enlightened us - they are mostly Civil Service Pensioners! They build little homes or big homes for themselves and enjoy life in their gardens. The reason they choose Grenna is because the hill they call a mountain keeps off the winds and makes the spring early and the fall late! Now isn't that amusing? You'd love those gardens.
We took a walk up the hill and found beautiful woods and views, and also the cows keeping tryst with the milk maids. The girls drive out of town with huge cans, &c, to the edges of the pastures and the cows assemble to be milked. The girls take their stools and pails around from cow to cow, and the beasts stand perfectly still, just in the open field, very entertaining.
We came on today to Jönköping, pronounced "Yearnchirping" with New England "r's". It's a thriving little city and the hotel has running water, so we promptly washed. We have washed all summer and I hate it! But I'm grateful for clothes e.g. the nightdress you gave me, which dry quickly. A friend gave me a line and little clothespins, which take almost no room, and I've used them constantly.
We had lunch in a restaurant, Alphyddan, up in the Park, overlooking the city, the hills and the lakes, a lovely view. Sweden has so much grain, all golden now and being cut. It's very decorative. In New England we don't know these yellow fields, though I suppose they are nothing to the western ones.
Aug. 17.
We're at Hjo for lunch, on our automobile trip of two days. It's a summer resort and though "the season" is over, practically, there are a few people about. We are the only passengers in the big auto coach meant for 12, and we have a personal conductor! He speaks some English and really is not bad at all. This restaurant where we are to eat is right by the lake, and we might have had a bath. The lake bathing is quite a fad, evidently, but it's too much bother, though the water looks lovely and the bathhouses like everything else Swedish exquisitely clean.
I hope you've been having a fine time every day and I expect you have. You'd enjoy the country and your companions and seeing Sarah. My greetings to them - unless you get home before this reaches you! Mails are most uncertain here. I'm sure I must have had more mail than has reached me, for it has been very little indeed. There may be some forwarded to Copenhagen - we get there in three days.
Much love, Jessee dear -
Abby