Swedish Farm and Clock Museum

After 5 hours of driving south, I’m still in Norrland. Geez, I life far up north!

Thanks to CouchSurfing.org , I was able to find a place to sleep in a small town not to far from Sollefteå (not to be confused with where I live, Skellefteå) called Skadom. I was pleasantly surprised to find an amazing farm and family who opened up to me and showed me a glimpse of their lives!

After a delicious dinner of salmon and potatoes, we went for a walk around the town – er, village. It was a bit damp outside but well worth the 5 minute walk!

The whole conversation the whole time I was there was in Swedish (I was very impressed with myself!) So as I understood it, we were heading for the grandparents house. It was a cute little red house like the others, and when I walk in there some old men sitting around a table, with clocks, talking. They were all very friendly, and asked if I wanted a tour. Of course! Little did I know that I just walked into a very large clock museum!

Never have I seen so many clocks in my life! There were about 6 or 7 rooms solely dedicated to clocks. Now I’m not very passionate about clocks one way or another. So if someone asked me if I wanted to go to a clock museum, I probably would have looked at them funny. But this surprise visit was amazing! The grandfather gave a tour and started turning on all the clocks!

I got to see children’s clocks, old clocks, new clocks, any type of clock you can think of (including calendar clocks, year clocks and sundials) they were there! The clocks came from not only Sweden, but all over the world, including Czech Republic and America!

All of this started as a hobby. The grandfather loved clocks, and started building a repairing them. Soon there were so many clocks there wasn’t enough room in the house, so a special house dedicated to the clocks was made and tourists regularly stop by in the summer to see the clock museum. The best were the tall grandfather clocks that did a little dance when the hour struck. The largest clock in the place rung for about 2 minutes!

It was a great evening to my first day on the road. But the experience in Skadom was far from finished! The next morning, after a great Swedish breakfast, after the kids headed off to school, I received a tour of the farm!

Here they grow both potatoes and trees for planting in the forest, and it is a family business. It was very cool to see how a real farm works nowadays! The trees outside are ready to sell (and they stay out there for the winter too), while the ones in the greenhouse are still young.

All in all it was an amazing experience and I hope to stop by there again on my way home!

Swedish Vocabulary:

klocka – clock
farm – farm