How much dessert can one toddler consume? Today we tested the limits during our day trip to Gothenburg, Sweden (located an hour away from our little cottage by the lake). Swedes love sweets, in particular, cinnamon buns (called kanebullar). They even have a national holiday on October 4 to celebrate them.
Thought to be the birthplace of the cinnamon roll, Sweden does them a little differently than we do in America. First of all, they aren't a sticky or as sweet. There is no icing on top, but they do include a healthy spinkle of pearl sugar.
They sell them everywhere in all sizes (some as big as a dinner plate). We opted for a more reasonable sized one which turned out to be good idea as this was first of many desserts. M was a big fan of the pastry and from the couple of bites Josh and I were able to sneak in we were able to see why.
As we made our way around Gothenburg - seeing the Haga Church (built in the 1850s), the Botanical Gardens and every playground in between - we sampled Swedish chocolates, toffee candies, popsicles, hot chocolate and multiple scoops of ice cream (including a salty licorice and black pepper flavor). We've learned from our previous travels in Scandinavia that the people here love salty licorice called Salmiak. This ice cream incorporated the salty sweetness of a mild licorice and the spicy bite of coursely ground black pepper. It was interesting to say the least.
In addition to sweets, we did feed M some actual food, too. We couldn't leave Sweden without introducing M to traditional Swedish meatballs (not the IKEA kind). So we stopped at a street side cafe for a late lunch between desserts. It was no surprise that she loved the matballs covered in brown gravy served with mashed potatoes, lingonberries and pickled cucumbers.
In the evening we made our way back to our country cottage for some time at the lake. On the walk back we found some fresh wild boar tracks and some other - much bigger - tracks we haven't identified yet. So, that's probably my last trip to the lake.
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