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It's fruitless to dwell too much on the agreed beauty of Dalarna . It holds a special, misty-eyed place in the Swedish heart and should certainly be seen, though not to the exclusion of points further north. And despite its charms, you may soon tire of the prominent folksy image: one small lakeside town looks pretty much like another, as do the ubiquitous handicrafts and souvenirs. Dalarna actually spreads further north and west than most brochures ever acknowledge. They, like most tourists, prefer to concentrate on the area immediately surrounding Lake Siljan - which on the whole isn't a bad idea. Most of the towns are connected by rail, and there are ferries across the lake at Mora and Leksand; you also don't need to worry unduly about accommodation, of which there is plenty. North of Orsa, the county becomes more mountainous and less populous. Lake Siljan is what draws many tourists to Sweden, its gentle surroundings, traditions and local handicrafts weaving a subtle spell. There's a lush feel to much of the region, the vegetation enriched by the lake, which adds a pleasing dimension to what are, essentially, small, low-profile towns and villages. If you've only got time to see part of the lake, MORA is as good a place as any, and a starting point for the Inlandsbanan rail route. At the northwestern corner of Lake Siljan, the little town is more or less a showcase for the work of Anders Zorn, the Swedish painter who lived in Mora and whose work is exhibited in the Zorn Museum , Vasagatan 36 (mid-June to mid-Sept Mon-Sat 9am-5pm, Sun 11am-5pm; rest of year Mon-Sat noon-5pm, Sun 1-5pm; 35kr), along with his small but well-chosen personal collection. Zorn's oils reflect a passion for Dalarna's pastoral lifestyle, but it's his earlier watercolours of southern Europe and North Africa that really stand out. It's also possible to see his former home and studio, Zorngarden (Mon-Sat 10am-4pm, Sun 11am-4pm; guided tours in English every 30min; 45kr). The tourist office (mid-June to mid-Aug Mon-Fri 9am-8pm, Sat & Sun 10am-5pm; rest of year Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat 10am-1pm; tel 0250/56 76 00, mora@stab.se ) is at the central Mora Strand station, and the hostel at Fredsgatan 6 (tel 0250/381 96, 105rum@telia.com; GBP5-10/$8-16). At RATTVIK , on the eastern bulge of the lake, there's an introductory spread of museums and craft exhibitions, the Gammelgard , 2km from town, with reconstructed buildings, period furniture and traditional costumes. The tourist office is at the train station (mid-June to mid-Aug Mon-Fri 9am-8pm, Sat & Sun 10am-7pm; rest of year Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat 10am-1pm; rattvik@stab.se ). The traditional pine log-built hostel is on Centralgatan (tel 0248/105 66; GBP5-10/$8-16); and there's a campsite (tel 0248/516 91) with its own pool, on the lakeside just 200m from the station. LEKSAND is perhaps the most popular and traditional of the Dalarna villages and certainly worth making the effort to reach at midsummer, when the festivals recall age-old maypole dances, the celebrations culminating in the church boat races , an aquatic procession of decorated longboats which the locals once rowed to church every Sunday. The tourist office in the train station building (mid-June to mid-Aug Mon-Fri 9am-8pm, Sat & Sun 10am-5pm; rest of year Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat 10am-1pm; tel 0247/803 00, leksand@stab.se) has lots of information on the area as does the hostel (tel 0247/152 50; under GBP5/$8), 2km south of the centre at Parkgarden. Bikes can be rented from Stamnas Diverse (tel 0247/330 15; 60-100kr/day, 350kr/week). Nearby FALUN was prosperous in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries due to its copper mines (May-Aug daily 10am-4.30pm; Sept to mid-Nov, March & April Sat & Sun 12.30-4.30pm; 80kr). Two-thirds of the world's copper ore was mined here, and Falun acquired buildings and a proud layout in line with its status as Sweden's second largest town. An unnerving element of eighteenth-century mining was the omnipresence of copper vitriol fumes, a strong preservative. One case records the body of a young man found in the mines in 1719, who died 49 years previously in an accident; his corpse was so well preserved that his erstwhile fiancee, by then an old woman, recognized him immediately. Falun's tourist office is in Trotzgatan (Mon-Fri 9am-7pm, Sat 9am-6pm, Sun 10am-5pm; shorter hours in winter; tel 023/830 50, turist@welcom.falun.se ); from the train or bus stations, take the underpass and then head towards the shops. A reasonable hotel is Hotel Winn , Bergskolegrand 7 (tel 023/636 00; info@winnfalun.softwarehotels.se ; GBP20-25/$32-40). There's also a hostel (tel 023/105 60; GBP5-10/$8-16; bus #701) 4km away at Haraldsbro and a campsite at the National Ski Stadium at Lugnet.
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