Update
When we were in the north of Sweden, there were signs all over to watch for reindeer on the road, and we saw several of them. They would wander down the road, oblivious to traffic, even the huge ore trucks that whizzed by. But I was never able to get a picture of a reindeer because when we saw them, there was never a good place to pull over to get a shot. So, here is a picture of a couple of reindeer that I had to get in Kent, Washington.
Of course, these were captive. In Sweden, the reindeer roam free during most of the year, and are rounded up the way cattle are here, when it’s time to identify and harvest them for meat and hide.
Off to Sweden!
I’ve finally edited the photos that I want to include in our album of our Sweden trip. I took about 900 photos, but I’m only subjecting you to about 150 of them.
I’m also including a collection of my blog posts during our trip. If you read along during the trip, there is nothing new, but if you are interested, you can read the whole story. Most of the photos in this blog are also in the the album, but there are more pictures in the album and some of the pictures in the blog are not in the album.
July 3. We are off to Sweden! Why Sweden? Our friends, Tim and Annalena Öhlund live there, and it is a beautiful place. (The photo at the top of the blog was taken near their home. Other photos are on my Europe 2006 page.) Our first trip to Europe in 2006 was supposed to be primarily to Ireland, but we decided to “drop by” Sweden to see Tim and Annalena. We didn’t really know what to expect, but we loved it.
A little over a year ago, Tim and Annalena were visiting the Northwest, and when I told them I planned to retire, they suggested that we visit them for a longer time. They live on a farm, and Tim does some very interesting things with his part of the property. He has a large and interesting garden and likes building things, and so do I, so we thought it would be fun to work together. (Tim has his own blog called Timogarden.)
Tim is originally from the US (we went to HS together), but moved to Sweden in the 70’s. There, he met and married Annalena, and he’s lived there ever since. Annalena is originally from Lappland, in the far north, above the Arctic Circle. I really wanted to see the area and culture that she is from, so we timed this trip to coincide with their visit up there. Later, we’ll go back to their home and stay there awhile, then Janie and I will set off on our own to Southern Sweden and Copenhagen.
Our flight left at 6 AM, so we had to be at the airport by 4:30. That began a grueling 24-hour trip! We flew to Newark, NJ, had a 3-hour layover, then to Stockholm with a 5-hour layover, and then to the Northern city of Kiruna. The flights were pretty routine, except long. I tried to adjust my sleeping in anticipation of the time shift to Sweden.
When we got to Newark, we got one of those scooter rides to the shuttle between terminals because of Janie’s bad leg. Apparently, the scooter needed some maintenance because the driver had to yell out “beeeep, beep, beep, beep” every time we approached people in the way. (The pedestrians were surprisingly oblivious to the scooter bearing down on them.) Janie then had to choose between negotiating 30 steps down to the shuttle bus and 30 up to the next terminal, or we would have had to go through TSA security again. She braved the steps and did OK with them.
July 4.
We arrived in Stockholm around 7 AM Stockholm time—10 PM July 3 Seattle time. The airline had an angel meet us to assist Janie with the distance between terminals. It was a good thing, because it was at least a ½ mile complicated hike between them! Anna the angel not only knew exactly where to go, but she also expedited our way through customs and another security checkpoint. (She also taught us how to pronounce Kiruna and Pajala—Pie’-ya-la; I had been pronouncing it Pa-ja’-la.) Once we got to the 2nd terminal, we just had to wait. Our phones did not work both because of a mix-up in getting them unlocked (to be able to use a Swedish SIM card in them) and because SIM cards were not sold inside the secure part of the airport. I was able to get a short-term Wi-Fi connection to connect with AT&T to start the process of unlocking the phones, but as I write this on July 5, we haven’t had a chance to complete the unlocking process or get Swedish SIM cards.
Tim met us when our plane arrived in Kiruna at 2 PM—by now it was 5 AM on July 4 in Seattle, a 24-hour trek that wasn’t over yet. We rented a car at the airport, stopped at a couple of stores for supplies, stopped to look at a couple of sights and started the 2-hour drive to Lovikka, our home for the next few days.
One of the places we stopped was the beautiful Kiruna Church, built in the style of a Sami home. Amazing!
Update: I’ve added a description of the church that we picked up while there, but I had not gotten around to scanning it before. Church of Kiruna
I found out later that the church and much of the city center of Kiruna will have to be moved in the next 20 years or so because the iron mine that is the heart of Kiruna’s economy is literally undermining the town.
Lovikka is a pretty village on a large river, but it is so small it is only a dot on the map with no label. Tim was familiar with it, though, and he did the driving, giving me a chance to acclimate a little. Thankfully, they drive in the right side in Sweden.
We called our AirBnB host before leaving Kiruna, and he arranged to meet us and lead us to the cottage. When we told him we might stop for dinner along the way, he told us we shouldn’t—he had just caught a 10 kg (22 lb) salmon in the river, and his wife would cook dinner for us! They are so warm and friendly! Lasse, the husband, met us and led us to the house. He and his brother were somewhat in a hurry to go fishing, but Eva, the wife, stayed, oriented us to the house, and finished cooking dinner. (The salmon was delicious!)
Eva left, and after dinner, Tim took the car to Pajala, where Annalena is. Now that I think of it, we had Tim leave us in the middle of the Arctic, in a country where we don’t speak the language, without any means of transportation or communication. The start of an adventure, I guess! Most people in Sweden speak English very well, so I am not worried about the language too much.
By the time Tim left, it was getting late and we were jet-lagged and tired from traveling, so we took some time to organize our things and went to bed. This is the land of the Midnight Sun, so not only were we adapting to the time change from Seattle, but we also have to adapt to the lack of darkness. Believe me, these things play havoc with your sense of time! I am not sure as I write this whether it will help with getting over the jet lag, or make it harder.
July 5. I’m also not sure whether it is July 5 or July 4. Counting the days, I’m pretty sure it is the 5th, but my watch says it’s the 4th and our phones and computer don’t give us accurate times since they are not connected. (Later, Tim confirmed the date.) We were tired enough to sleep and although we woke up a few times, we slept through until about 5:30 AM (from now on, I am talking about Swedish time.) We feel pretty good. We finished reorganizing our suitcases, and Janie is making breakfast for me as I write. I had a chance to take some pictures this morning. This is our home for the next few days. It is a classic Swedish country house. There are plenty of birds flying around. I recognize swallows, but I’m not sure of most of the others. There are plenty of birds because there are plenty of mosquitoes for them to eat! Tim says they are thick all over the North Country, so I expect to keep my mouth closed as much as possible for the next few days.
We left to spend most of the day at the Pajala Market, an annual fair. For those of you who are familiar with it, it reminded me of the Kent Cornucopia Days, only larger. While there, we were able to shop for some traditional Sami handiwork, taste local foods (including smoked reindeer and “coffee cheese”), listen to music, watch Bollywood dancing(!) and see the first ever Pride parade in Northern Sweden. We were surprised at the huge turnout for the parade!
A Finnish rock and roll group reminded me somewhat of Irish rock. It was rock and roll, but you could definitely hear the rhythmic patterns of the traditional music—in this case Polka. While listening to the music, Janie struck up a conversation with some friendly local people who were involved in the Pride parade.
After the market, we went to Annalena’s family property for a big outdoor dinner. Again, everyone was extremely welcoming, and since everyone speaks English, we were able to have a great time talking about their family history, what their childhood in the rural Arctic was like, and where we come from. The property was homesteaded in the early 20th century by Annalena’s grandparents, and then her father and uncles built houses on the property. Annalena said that when she was growing up there were 15 cousins all living on the homestead. The food was fantastic, cooked by the women of the family. We ate outside at makeshift tables because there were over 30 people there.
It was still hard to get used to the Midnight Sun. As it went down toward the horizon, I kept expecting it to go down, but it just hung there. I also had in the back of my mind that we needed to leave before it got dark, but it wasn’t going to get dark! We didn’t leave until 10 PM, and the light was similar to just before dusk. When we got to our place, I decided to stay up until midnight, just to say I actually saw the Midnight Sun. So here is a picture of the sun on the horizon at midnight.
July 6. We met Tim at the Market in Pajala, but on the way we saw reindeer. A male, a female and a white baby were wandering down the middle of the highway! I was surprised that the reindeer were not skittish at all. The baby especially seemed oblivious of the traffic, including a giant ore-hauling semi. The drivers were careful to ease around the deer, but the deer pretty much owned the road. Unfortunately, I was not able to get a picture of them because of the traffic and no good place to pull over. I learned later from Tim that white reindeer are somewhat rare. After getting to the Market, we decided that we needed a down day, and didn’t want to spend all day walking around again. We got food for lunch and for dinner later, and headed back to the cottage for a quiet afternoon. I felt so lucky to be relaxing on the porch on a warm (near 80 degrees) sunny day with a breeze blowing, watching the river and drinking a beer! The mosquitos even left me alone! I also had an opportunity to chat with Eva, the wife of our host couple, to find out that she was born a few houses away in this village, and our cottage is their summer home. She is staying nearby with her sister while the cottage is rented. She also told me the story of the famous Lovikka mittens and the giant mitten that is in the Guinness Book of World records.
July 7. We were to leave the Arctic and drive to Tim’s home near Uppsala. Tim went with us and Annalena planned to stay a couple more days. This is a lonnggg drive—about 1000 Km or over 600 miles, but it gave us a chance to see a lot of Sweden, and we also crossed into Finland for part of the way. This was a beautiful drive through forests and farmland. We saw more reindeer along the way, but none of them cooperated by going the right direction on being sighted in an area where I could pull off and take a picture. Again, they were pretty oblivious to any traffic and obviously felt that the road was theirs. Against Janie’s better judgment, we followed Tim’s advice and did not make any hotel reservations along the way. As it turned out, we were unable to find any hotels that were open along the way, until nearly midnight. (Although we had gone below the Arctic Circle, we were still far enough North that it was still light at midnight. We finally found a very beautiful hotel—restored from an obviously old hotel in Örnsköldsvik.
July 8. After a nice breakfast in the morning, I was able to get Janie’s phone working with a Swedish SIM card. We still don’t have internet on it, but I’ll work that out soon. We left for Tim’s and made it to Uppsala around dinner time. After dinner, we arrived at the farm and moved into our suite at the bed and breakfast at the same farm on which Tim lives. So here we’ll stay for a week and then head further South on our own. It is very warm here and there is no air conditioning or even fans, so we have to get used to the heat. It is supposed to cool off in later in the week though.
The farm is as pleasant as we remembered, but Tim and Annalena have created an entirely new garden since the last time we were here. It is really impressive!
We went to town for some provisions and for lunch at a traditional Swedish restaurant named “McDonald’s.” Annalena and Li will be arriving from the North by train tonight.
July 10. We roasted (vegetarian) hot dogs over Tim and Annalena’s fire pit, and enjoyed Tim’s sauerkraut and the company of friends. Janie made a berry caprese salad to go with dinner, and Li joined us.
The weather has been hot, but it began to cool off. After dinner, we had a evening tour of the garden.
Tim has designed the garden in circles with lots of green space around them.
They told us about the family of hedge hogs, and we got to see them first hand. Here is one of the young ones.
July 11.We went down and helped Tim and Annalena in the garden. Tim and I raked up grass, and Tim placed in around the plants for mulch. Annalena weeded and pulled garlic.
Tim has built benches and chairs and placed them in strategic places in the garden so that we could rest where we were working. We enjoyed coffee and sweets during a break.
Later, we went to Uppsala and had lunch at a restaurant in a former train station. We also did some shopping in some neat gift shops. I had to find a phone store to get the internet and text messaging working on Janie’s phone. We went back to our room and had a light dinner, while Tim and Annalena prepared for Tim to take produce, flowers and sauerkraut to the farmers’ market the next day.
July 12. On Saturday, Tim left early with his load of goods for the farmers’ market. Annalena, Janie and I went later to meet him. First we stopped at the Uppsala Domkyrka, a cathedral in Uppsala, where Annalena left us to go through a guided tour. This was the most beautiful church, or certainly among the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. It was originally built in 13th and 14th centuries. We were lucky enough to visit at a time celebrating the appointment of the first Archbishop of Sweden, so the cathedral had many artifacts and art installations (both ancient and modern) on display.
After our tour, we met Tim at the market and looked around, and then got lunch of very good falafel from a food truck.
After lunch, we visited the University of Uppsala Botanical Gardens, enjoyed some coffee and sweets and toured the enormous green house.
After returning home and catching up on our naps, we went to dinner at Tim and Annalena’s where Li baked a fantastic vegetarian lasagna. Their son, Joel, also joined us for dinner.
July 13. Sunday, we did not go too far, but we we went to a local weekly auction. It was interesting, although conducted in Swedish of course, so we didn’t know much of what was going on. It was an interesting mixture of good stuff and junk, and as Janie put it, “Swedish junk is not much different than American junk!” I was admiring a secretary (cabinet, not person) and there were some tempting tools sold at a bargain, but nothing we could bring home. Janie struck up a conversation with a stranger, and we met several other people.
After the auction, we took a scenic route through back roads to a flea market (like a neighborhood garage sale). I bought a little tripod-like device for my camera for 20 crowns (about $3) from this guy, who was quite an interesting character.
We followed more back roads to another old church,Husby-Sjutolfts kyrka, where Tim and Annalena are registered. This one was built between the 1200’s and 1400’s and had beautiful fresco paintings on the walls. We were fortunate to get a tour by a member of the church.
The altarpiece dates from the 1460’s These altarpieces depict biblical stories and are carved wood. The two outer wings are hinged and are closed during the week before Easter. Another example can be seen in the earlier post about the Domkyrka.
After going home for our naps, we went out to dinner with Tim, Annalena and Li to a restaurant in Enköping, which was on a canal leading to the lake. Several people had obviously boated in. Dinner was pleasant outdoors, in spite of the earlier threat of rain.
There was an interesting traffic warning near the canal!
July 14.
We started off Monday with brunch of Swedish pancakes with cloud berry and other jams and whipped cream. They are thin and light and delicious! I like them better than American pancakes, since they are not so heavy. On the other hand, I could eat too many of them! Joel came by with his cousin Samuel, whom we’d met in Pajala.
Joel and Samuel did some work in the garden, including digging in the hole that Tim intends to become a pond, and they put up the tepee, which will stay up for the balance of the summer.
Li was also with us, and Joel’s girl friend Agnes joined us in the evening. She played her dulcimer and sang a little–a beautiful voice!
Janie wanted to cook dinner for everyone, so we grilled salmon, asparagus and corn over the fire. We had potatoes cooked on the stove as well as sauerkraut and salad. Quite a feast! They had never had grilled asparagus and it was a hit. Both Annalena and Li made beautiful desserts; Li’s was vegan and it was really good. Annalena’s was more decadent!
July 15. Tuesday, I started putting our trip after leaving Djurby into the GPS, and realized that I had made a hotel reservation in the wrong city! Linköping is not the same as Lidköping! That would have been a problem, especially since it turned out that there were no vacancies in Lidköping, so we would have arrived with no place to stay.
Instead, I was able to make reservations in Trollhätten, also known as “Trollywood,” because it is a center of Swedish film making.
Later, I went to help Tim with the rock wall for the green house, but he was nearly done for the morning, so I just kibitzed.
In the afternoon, we went for a tour of the parks in Enköping, known as the “City of Parks.” They have a beautiful park system that attracts tourists from all over the world. Our tour was on a tram that took us throughout the park system. Unfortunately, there was no room for Tim, but Annalena went with us, and Tim had a chance to look at things up close at his own pace.
See these thorns? They are 3-4″ long, and are said to be the kind of thorns that were used in Jesus’ crown of thorns.
We finished with a little shopping, coffee and sweets. I bought a carved horse which is traditional Swedish folk art originating in Swedish province of Dalarna.
We ended the evening with a delicious quiche dinner and several rounds of wine. We were treated to a serenade of the famous Swedish drinking song, “Helan Går.” We were told that the song refers to Laurel and Hardy–which led into a discussion and general agreement about how great Laurel and Hardy were, especially in Way Out West. We had no idea that they were so popular with all generations in Sweden! (I’ll teach my brothers the drinking song at our next get together.)
July 16. Wednesday, we did a lot of running around during the day including a visit to a 2nd hand store, and a garden/gift/art/cafe place that was an early inspiration for Tim’s Timogarden.
At the garden store, we had a special experience as a dragonfly landed on Janie and remained for at least 10 min. while I had the opportunity for photograph it up close!
In the evening, we attended an absolutely fantastic concert by a Klezmer band! They were also joined on a few numbers by a well-known Swedish rap singer and slam poet, Henry Bowers (also known as Kung Henry). Who would have known that rap goes very well with Klezmer?
Although we had a snack at the concert, we also had our taste buds set for fish and chips at a pub afterwards. Unfortunately, the pub was closed. By the time we started hunting for an alternative, so was everywhere else, so we wound up picking up pre-made sandwiches at a grocery store. They tasted pretty good by midnight, when we got to eat them!
July 17. Wednesday was a long night, so we took our time Thursday morning, but we still had a busy day! We went to Drottningholm Palace, an active home for the King and Queen. Parts are open to public tours. Unfortunately, we found that there were too many stairs for Janie to negotiate, and it was also unfortunate that no photos were allowed inside. Janie and Annalena waited patiently outside, while Tim and I went through an English-language tour. I wish I could show you photos of the elaborate decor from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries! I did manage to copy this photo of Hedvig Eleonora’s state bedchamber from the 1600’s off the official website for the palace.
Outside the palace was also interesting, and the grounds also include the Court Theater. Still in use, the theater auditorium is unchanged since its completion in 1766.
July 18. Friday, the day before we would leave Tim and Annalena’s and the Djurby farm, we took it easy during the day, but enjoyed looking at Finn’s artwork. He is a very talented artist, and we bought some pieces to frame and display at home. You’ll have to wait until they are framed before I post pictures on the blog, though.
In the evening, we had a lovely outdoor dinner. Annalena’s niece (I think, or maybe cousin), Petra, had arrived on Thursday with her husband and two boys. Finn and his girl friend, Julia, had arrived late Thursday night. Joel, Agnes and Li were there, and before we finished dinner, Annalena’s sister and brother-in-law made it. We had a very good time and a very good meal! Petra and her family had collected a bunch of wild strawberries in the woods and we had wild and commercial strawberry shortcake for dessert.
July 19. Saturday, it was time to leave Djurby! We had such a good time with Tim, Annalena and the whole family! We worried that we were keeping them from doing their normal things, but Annalena insisted that they enjoyed doing the activities with us that they otherwise may not have gotten around to.
We took off a little after 10 AM and for the first time, we were on our own in Sweden. We would have to figure things out ourselves and hope that the GPS was up to the task! Janie can no longer drive a stick shift, so unlike the days that I shared the driving with Tim, I was doing all the driving, and we didn’t want to push it. We drove about 350 km
(210 miles) on each of the next two days, so it was not overly taxing. It is a different experience to be on our own. We had it easy with someone giving us driving directions and translating for us. Now we had to rely on the GPS and hope the people we came in contact with could help us translate. (Most people in Sweden speak English very well, though.)
When we arrived in Trollhätten, we couldn’t find our hotel! The GPS was leading us to a street that was pedestrian only. (Many cities in Sweden have converted some of their streets to pedestrian only.) In addition, there was a huge market (street fair) going on along this street. We finally stopped and called the hotel and they explained that we had to
drive about 1/2 block up the pedestrian-only street to the entrance of their parking lot! We had to drive very carefully, because the street was packed!
The hotel was quaint, built in the 1930’s with a tiny antique elevator. The room was small but comfortable enough. We got settled and then went down to enjoy the street fair.
The street fair was bigger, but not as nice as the one in Pajala. This one had block after block of the same imported T-shirts, jewelry and cell phone cases. In Pajala, there was authentic food and crafts (in addition to the cheap, imported goods).
There was also a live concert going on that night. Although it was quite noisy with the sound of people and music, the babble of people sounded like a river. We had no trouble sleeping and were all ready to go in the morning.
July 20. Our next stop was Göteborg (Gothenburg). This was not originally in our plans, but as we plotted out our route, we realized we could stop there for a short time. We decided to visit a very interesting museum with the remains of a Viking ship and Viking artifacts, as well as other artifacts from Swedish history. The GPS got confused because of construction projects, but we eventually found it. It worked out that we could eat lunch there as well.
Moving on to Malmö, the drive was uneventful, but a pleasant drive through more agricultural areas. (Anyway, uneventful is good!) Sweden is mostly forest, but a lot of the area visible from the highways is farm land, and quite flat for the most part. The highest point in Sweden is less than 7000 feet. On the way to Malmö, we saw many, many gigantic windmills of the modern type, and we saw one windmill that looked like classic windmills we associate with Holland. We hoped to go back to it.
The GPS had a little trouble again in Malmö due to construction–and my taking a wrong turn, but we eventually found our way to our destination, a nice AirBnB apartment. It is bright and roomy and has modern conveniences such as a dishwasher and washer/dryer, which are not that common in the areas where we have been. It has a little private deck that is cool in the evening and where I can sit out and work on this blog. Rather than inserting a bunch of my own pictures, you can see where we “live” at this AirBnB link. The pictures are accurate, except for the private garden, which is now a covered deck.
July 21. We walked to a square today where there is an open-air produce market, and had lunch at a pub, where we finally got our fish and chips!
Along the way, Janie noticed this very descriptive sign, which required no words to get across its message!
Across the street from our apartment, there is an interesting church tower. It looks old and I want to find out more about it. There is a church next door and I plan to go ask about its history.
July 22. We thought we’d take a simple trip to Copenhagen Tuesday. Well, not so simple. It turned into a rather long, but interesting day.
We headed over the Öresund Bridge between Malmö and Copenhagen. I wish I could have taken pictures while driving. It is an impressive 10-mile bridge ending on a man-made island in the middle of the straight, where the road enters a 2.5 mile-long underwater tunnel. From the bridge, you can see Sweden’s Lillgrund Wind Farm to the left and Denmark’s Middlegrunden Wind Farm to the right. (Again, I couldn’t take pictures, but you can click on the names above to link to web sites if you’re interested.)
I hadn’t really thought about this being a toll bridge, but I wasn’t surprised when we came upon the toll plaza. What did surprise me was the toll–495 SEK (about $73)! Each way! Our original plan was to stay 2 days in Malmo and then move on to Copenhagen, but we changed plans because we decided it would be easier to stay in Malmo and make a day trip to Copenhagen. Although I still think the change in plans was for the best, we wound up not only with the cost of the tolls, but a surcharge on the rental car for dropping it off outside Sweden.
Once in Copenhagen, we made a dry run to the airport to make sure getting there would go smoothly on Thursday. Then we made our way through town (and more construction) to the Rosenborg Castle, where the Danish crown jewels are displayed, along with examples of decor from several generations of royalty. We found the castle area reasonably well, but it wasn’t visible from the car while negotiating traffic, and I think the view of the entrance was blocked by tour busses. At any rate, there was no place to park and we had to drive around a large block to find a place to park.
As we entered what we thought were the castle grounds, we came upon a spectacular greenhouse and the grounds were a lush botanical garden. We didn’t know where we were going but finally learned that we had to walk some distance to the castle.
As we walked through the botanical garden, we didn’t realize that we were walking the lonnnng way to the castle. After asking directions of several people, we finally made it there, but we must have walked at least an hour up and down hills through the garden.
When we finally reached the entrance to the castle, we learned that a lot of stairs were involved, and there are no elevators, so Janie would have to wait outside. She wanted me to be able to see it though, so she sat while I went through it. Fortunately, photography was allowed, so I was able to share the experience with her, and with you. Here are some examples of royal crowns and jewels–everything you might imagine!
Here are thrones in the throne room. I will have more photos when I get home and collect them all in an album page.
It was a hot day, and we knew we had a long walk back to the car. I offered to go get it and pick Janie up, but she felt that she could do the walk. She did, too! We were both hot and tired when we got back to the car, and since the castle experience had taken much longer than we expected, we decided to skip going to an old church as originally planned. Instead, we would try to find the old windmill that we had seen on our original trip into Malmö.
I thought it would be a simple matter of putting the city of Gothenburg into the GPS and the GPS would take us back over the bridge, through Malmo and onto the road on which we had come from Gothenburg. The theory was that we would then see the old windmill and get off the highway to go find it. It didn’t exactly work out that way.
A disadvantage of using a GPS as opposed to a map is that you don’t necessarily see the big picture of the route the GPS has planned for you. We experienced that once before in Ireland (as Leslie and Janie will recall), and it happened again. I did not realize that there are two ways to get back to Sweden–one over the bridge, and one by ferry. The bridge is the shortest way to Malmo, but the ferry is the shortest way to Gothenburg, which I had used as our destination in the GPS. So the GPS took us way out of our way. Not being familiar with the surroundings, and not being able to see the big picture, we didn’t realize it until we got most of the way to the ferry.
By then it was too late to turn back, and we wound up taking the ferry from Helsingør, Denmark to Helsingborg, Sweden, about 55 km from Malmö. This is why part of my title is “Adventures in Driving.” The ferry was about the same cost as the bridge. (Price fixing if you ask me!) We just made the ferry. I think we were the 2nd to last car allowed on.
We had lunch in Helsingborg. By now it was 3:30 PM. We decided to head for Malmö, and if we saw the old windmill, we would get off the freeway and go see it. If we didn’t see it, well it must have been farther away than I thought. As we drove, we came to an interesting-looking old church that we had passed on our first trip into Malmö. We decided to get off the freeway and go find it, and I took a few pictures.
Once we got back on the freeway, we drove a long way and were quite close to Malmö. I had given up on the windmill, because we were too close to the city. I assumed that it must be farther away than Helsingborg, but all of a sudden, there it was. We had just passed an exit, so I had to go quite a ways to get off. Then I had to drive by dead reckoning to try to find it. The GPS would be no help because I didn’t know what coordinates to put it, and I didn’t know the name of the windmill. We drove a long way, and I was again about to give up, when I stopped to ask. (I know! I’m not supposed to do that, but I was in another country!) The clerk in a garden store was not familiar with it, but a customer outside knew of it and was very helpful in giving me the name (Kronetorps Mölla) and the general location. It was still a crap shoot and dead reckoning, but then . . . a Swedish miracle! There was a sign pointing to Kronetorps Mölla! Just 3 km. So off we went, and we found it!
Finding a big windmill in the middle of farming country is a little like finding a giant hot air balloon once it comes down low–it is amazing how it can disappear! Janie (the ace balloon chaser) was the first to spot it, and we managed to find the little driveway onto the property. It was closed of course. By now it was about 6:30 PM, but I was able to walk around and get some photos.
Finally, we headed home after a very long day! Adventures in driving! I really appreciated Janie’s patience because I got to see several interesting landmarks, in spite of dragging her all over the place.
July 23. Wednesday was an easy day after our marathon the day before. We got ready for our trip home, walked out to a couple of nearby restaurants, and took it easy. I went out to explore nearby including interesting “church” tower I mentioned an in an earlier post. (Malmö, 7/23/14.) I went to the church next door, but didn’t find a way in, but I talked to some city workers and learned that it is not an old church tower at all, but rather a 100-year old water tower. Pretty fancy for a water tower!
I also tried some “sour” style beer at a nearby pub, where we later went to dinner. I had never had it before, although I imagine that my beer drinking friends have tried it. This particular brand was To Öl, a Danish beer (spelled To Øl in Denmark). It was very good and would go well on a hot summer night, but I am not sure everyone would like it, especially if you like hoppy beer.
July 24. I won’t go into too much detail about our flight home, but a couple of things are worth mentioning. First, when we got to the airport, we learned that our seats had been upgraded to business class without our knowledge. SAS inexplicably changed the seating twice more before we boarded, once back to economy, but in different seats than the ones we had chosen, and then back to business class. I am not complaining though! We wound up in business class for a 10-11 hour flight, and it was sweet! The seats reclined nearly flat and had built in massagers. Service was supurb! We did have a glitch at the ticket counter in that our luggage was tagged for San Francisco instead of Seattle. Fortunately, Janie remembered to check it and the error was corrected. Otherwise, our bags might still be in SF. Always check the baggage tags before you let your bag go on the belt, especially in international flights!
When we got to the San Francisco airport, things were not so great. Signs were not clear about where to go, and we had a long ways to go in too little time. We had to pick up our luggage and go through customs, then redeposit it. Apparently, none of the airport employees knows much about giving directions, and we were nervous about whether the luggage would make it to Seattle. We did make it OK, but it sort of diminished some of
the glow from the business class flight.
Reflections on Returning Home
July 29. Below are some photos of Swedish handicrafts of various kinds that we picked up while we were there. I’ll post others after they have been given to people, but here are some examples:
These denim skirts are very popular, from re-purposed jeans. It turns out that a relative of Annalena’s nephew Samuel (7/16 post) makes them in her home, but they are sold in many stores.
The wooden butter spatula is about 5″ long. They are inexpensive and used everywhere. I don’t know why they are not widespread in the US, but they work really well. We got several. Janie was fascinated by the egg cups that everyone seemed to have. I picked up a couple for her in a 2nd hand store, and she got a set in a department store.
The hat and mittens are a traditional style from Lovikka, where we stayed in the North. Lovikka is famous for this style of mittens, and actually has a giant version enshrined in an outdoor glass case in the village. That one is certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s largest mitten. The bracelets are a traditional Sami (indigenous people of Lappland) style.
As I think back on the last few weeks, I think we were incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to see so much of Sweden. Although we still just scratched the surface, several Swedish people told us that we’d seen more Sweden than they had! Traveling is more tiring than you might expect at times. Dealing with unfamiliar customs, having to figure out how to get things done in ways that you are not used to, and working around language differences can be a real challenge. Even so, we had it easy, since we had the help of Tim and Annalena for most of the trip.
Tim and Annalena were extremely hospitable, taking the time out of their own vacation to share ours, to take us to interesting places, to help us figure things out and to translate. I put a link in an earlier post to Tim’s own blog, and if you are interested in gardening or in fermented foods, you should check it out.