I didn’t end up in Rättvik by choice. I nearly went back up north thanks to some platform confusion in Östersund, when the the 7.20 to Mora actually revealed itself to be the 7.15 to Gällivare. A mad dash ensued and in the midst of the great train swap some travellers resorted to a spot of backpack rage. My 15-kilo rucksack and rugby skills gave me a reasonably good advantage in the scuffle.
In Dalarna, there was no room at the youth hostel inn in either Orsa or Mora. And lucky for me there wasn’t, otherwise I would have missed Rättvik revving up for its annual Classic Car Week, which I really wouldn’t want to have missed.
Thousands of enthusiasts and their American autos assemble to cruise around and inspect each others engines, which all sounds rather suspicious to me, but that was the official version I was given on inquiring as to the point of it all. I posed the question to my camping neighbours Urban, Roger and Håkan from Hälsingland who had driven down especially for the event. These trio of likely lads are classic car fanatics; Urban has a Cadillac, Håkan has both a Buick and Mustang and Roger tries hard but has a Toyota.
My room mate was so excited about Classic Car Week she decided to extend her stay for another two days especially. That would be Trudy, a vibrant German pensioner who is inter-railing around Europe this summer. While I retired for an early night, Trudy was on her way to a folk music evening and must have had a good time, rolling back in at 3am in the morning, singing and jigging around for ten minutes before finally and thankfully collapsing into bed.
I was also quite thankful for classic cars as they they gave me something to look at, aside from caravans, and the only other attraction I could find – Rättviks resident accordian-playing busker who’s reportoire solely consists of The Birdie Song.
Cadillac from '64, driver from '76
As sweetly as I smiled, I couldn’t persuade Urban et al to give me a lift to Borlänge. However, I did persuade him to let me do two laps of the camp site in his 1964 classic.
