Honeymoon Pictures (part 2)

OK, so they aren't all horses. Here's Megumi with a pig version of the things. Note the animal shapes carved into the slats on that railing, too.

There was not much around the town but fields, farms, hills, forests, and lakes--lots of lakes. The sky was still blue in spots, but the clouds were rolling in and the rain was on its way.

The workshop is open to visitors. Just walk on in, stay away from the huge power tools, and hope a pile of unfinished horses doesn't come crashing down on your wife's head.

This man's job is to dip wooden animals into a vat of brilliant red paint, while wearing either a feed bag or a mask to keep the fumes out of his lungs and brain. All the horses make me think that feed bag is the right choice here.

More rows of unpainted horse dolls. A few pigs in the back there . . .

This place was definitely a workshop. This looks like the basement where my dad used to put together tile boxes, at least if you imagine a tile planter as being a tiny little red horse.

Red is the most famous color, but it isn't the only one. There are blue and white and yellow and (insert festive color that helps you forget the long northern winter here) horses to choose from.

After the red base is applied, the horses get their saddles and bridles and things painted on by hand. Then they get lined up like terra-cotta figures in a huge Chinese tomb.

Another choice of beast is the noble chicken.

The largest horse we saw all day ate my head. Enough with the horses already!

This was probably the plainest breakfast we came across all trip. Every hotel you stay in provides huge piles of delicious bread, lots of cheese, ham, sausages, eggs, multiple flavors of pickled herring, fruit, coffee, on and on. Good stuff. Oh, and candles--always candles.

Megumi poses on the shore of Lake Siljan. Mora is the finish line for the Vasaloppet, a cross-country ski race that goes on for way too many kilometers. Skinny people There's another race of the same name in the town of, of course, Mora in Minnesota. This morning was a beautiful one, but when we headed toward Norway this day we left this blue sky behind for good.

Here the camera proves it's no slouch at taking pictures right into the lake-doubled sun.