Our official anniversary isn't until August 16; however, since Mark was going to Costa Rica May 17-26, we decided to take our trip during that window of time. We left one day earlier and came home two days later. Wonderful friends helped us by taking us to and from the airport, taking Mark to and from the airport, taking Mark to and from school, and hosting Mark at their house.
The story behind us going to Sweden and Denmark requires its own post. The short story version is that we wanted to see and spend time with our dearly beloved relatives there.
We booked our tickets on Icelandair. It's a great airline for many reasons--the chief reason for us is that you can fly into one city and home from a completely different city at no additional charge; plus you can have a stop-over in Iceland of up to 7 days for no additional charge.
The day before we left, we were notified that our departing flight from Seattle to Keflavik, Iceland was canceled. No reason was given, but we learned later that it was due to some sort of strike. I scrambled to make other arrangements.
DAY ONE: We left 6 hours earlier than our original flight was scheduled and flew on JetBlue to Boston. From there we traveled to Keflavik and connected with the final leg to Stockholm. Johan picked us up at the airport and drove us to Valla (via Monica's work). Shortly after we arrived and got a bit settled, Monica and the boys came. We had a nice home-cooked meal and then went to bed. It was fun to see that Monica and I have identical IKEA kitchen cabinets. Monica and Johan gave us their room, and they slept in their boys' rooms. Elias and Edvin seemed happy to see us. They are so cute. Elias greeted us by saying, "Good morning, Pancake!" (He learned this phrase last year while visiting us and other relatives in Utah.)
Plank steak instead of flank steak. Yummy! Lance and I shared.
It's a good thing we didn't have jet lag because we kept going and going and going. Johan drove one car with one boy, Gosta and Margit. Monica drove the other car with the other boy, Lance and me. Johan was the lead car. We took a 3-minute (or was it less?) "ferry" ride and ended up on the mother of all winding roads. It was so windy that even our illustrious driver, Monica, got car sick. She got very car sick and had to stop twice. She wanted to just park the car and walk the rest of the way, but the rest of the way was just a few more yards to our destination--Borje and Tanja's! They live on the top of a hill. They have a little "compound" with 10 buildings. Two houses, a guest house, a garage, a sauna, a well, a tool shed, and a couple of others. It's an idyllic setting that seems like paradise. I wouldn't ever want to leave if I lived there. The houses were built in the 1800s.
The lack of sleep caught up with Lance. Imagine him sleeping in a chair catching a few winks. I have the photo to prove it, but he wouldn't be too happy if I posted it. I wish I had taken a photo of us eating the delicious rhubarb pie (gluten-free!), juice and cookies. The refreshments were eaten in the glassed-in patio house.
DAY THREE was Sunday. We played with the little boys in the morning after eating our traditional and delicious Swedish breakfast. A typical Swedish breakfast consists of hard-cooked eggs, cucumbers, tomatoes, sandwich meats, cheeses, breads (crisp and regular, and in my case, gluten-free), caviar, juices, yogurt (in a milk-like carton), cereal or muesli, and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting. Monica took Lance and me to church in Katrineholm. The congregation is a small branch. We thought we were attending just sacrament meeting, but Monica was given incorrect information by a missionary (who had only been in the city 3 days). Lance went to priesthood meeting, and Monica and I attended Relief Society. (She translated the lesson on "forgiveness" for me.) The church members were very friendly and welcoming. Monica fixed us a taco lunch. Monica drove us to Vingaker to see Nytorp--the house my great-grandfather built. I was excited to show Lance the place that had been in our family from 1850 until just a couple of years ago when it was sold. The new owners added on, and the place, sadly, is kind of run down. Still, there is a lovely feeling there, and I love it. No one was home, so we weren't able to go inside the house, but we walked around the property and down to the lake.
Monica took us to another lake nearby where we think my great-grandmother was from.
Later we met Johan and the boys and went to Gosta and Margit's house and had more food (desserts and drinks). The Swedish people love to feed us!
We went to Vingaker castle. It's no longer a castle, but is still in use as either a museum or performing arts center. I can't be expected to remember all these details. I must return.
DAY FOUR: Anna-Lena, Monica's sister, baby-sat the boys while Monica, Johan, Lance and I went to Stockholm. (When we returned, we got to meet Emma, Anna-Lena's very cute and sweet daughter.) Elias told his mom that he likes me but that it is "easier" with Anna-Lena because she speaks Swedish. I speak Swedish, too. Two or three words of Swedish.
This is 90-year-old Lennart. He looks, talks, walks and acts like someone at least 20 years younger. He is wearing Tommy Hilfiger jeans, a gold chain and a black leather vest. He plays bridge twice a week. He was a member of the Swedish parliament for over 30 years. We had some refreshments (of course) and parked the car at his apartment. He walked with us to the train station where we took the train into Stockholm.
We visited the palace and surrounding areas and Old Town. It was raining, but the outing was still a lot of fun. I managed to snatch up a few souvenirs. I tried to restrain myself because Lance hates to shop, and I didn't want to drag the others into souvenir shops. We ate the most wonderful lunch at 19 Glass and then had ice cream. There were a few gypsy women begging in the streets. I felt sorry for them, especially because it was raining.
DAY FIVE: We said good-bye to Valla and Elias and Edvin. Who knows when we will see them again. They really are cute, cute boys! One of them likes to be photographed with his tongue sticking out.
We drove to Granna on the coast of Lake Vattern. We first drove past Granna due to too much talking. We had to stop talking and find our way back. We met Dick and Vivianne in the parking lot.
I had fish and potatoes for lunch. Lance had something else that contained chicken. We did a bit (emphasis on "bit") of shopping and watched a worker make some peppermint candy.
Lance took a photo of a rabbit cage behind a restaurant with guard cats.
Monica remembered that I loved visiting Granna on my last trip to Sweden. Being mindful of small details like that is one of the reasons I love her. Just one of the reasons.
It was painful, but we had to bid farewell to Johan and Monica. They are just the greatest. Fun, funny, entertaining, accommodating, kind, smart . . . they are wonderful! We hope to see them again SOON!!! Chances are they will return to the U.S. before we return to Sweden. They are good like that. Of course, they left us in the very capable hands of Dick and Vivianne. I was very happy to note that Dick's driving has improved greatly from my first ride with him 34 years ago. I would say that he's now a perfect driver. And he's still as fun and funny as ever. And Vivianne is as sweet as ever. Let's face it--all of those Swedish and Danish relatives are perfect. I wouldn't change anything about them.
We drove to Ljungby with Vivianne telling us about the places in between.
Here is their house and garden. They added a pool since my last visit. It has a nifty cover. Lance was most impressed with the robotic lawn mower. Too bad it costs well over $2000.
A delicious meatball, potato and salad dinner magically appeared. And Johan (Dick and Vivianne's oldest son) came to visit. He and Dick explained what the letters in IKEA meant. (Johan works for IKEA.) I mentioned how I'd seen a moose on my last Swedish trip and how I love to see moose in the wild.
DAY SIX: We were awakened by a phone call from Sara saying that Sadie had knocked over some sort of toxic substance in the basement and asking what she should do about it. Well . . . she took care of it with the able assistance of next-door neighbor, Katie. After we dressed for the day and ate breakfast, we were off to the "elk" (moose) park 10 minutes outside of Ljungby. The moose were a bit tired and resting in the shade, but it was still a lot of fun to see them and to do a bit of shopping in the souvenir shop.
Next we stopped at an Iron Age burial ground. We walked around a bit and Vivianne picked flowers. Lance found a snake.
Of course, we had to return to Ljunbgy for ice cream and juice. We needed to get our energy up for our visit to Rashult. In the 1700s Linnes Rashult classified all of the plants and gave them Latin names that are still used today. Rashult is a working property similar to Plimouth Plantation and Williamsburg. We ate lunch there, and most everything we ate was grown on the property. They had some pretty scrumptious gluten-free bread, too! We hiked around the property careful to avoid the giant ant hill. (Vivianne got a few ant bites.) Dick carried a backpack that contained some water and fruit, and we had a little snack right there in the woods.
We saw the E and A of IKEA. One of those letters represents the place where I.K. was born, and the other represents the village or community. If I could remember which was which, I would tell you.
That afternoon and evening, we did a little laundry and then had a yummy dinner consisting of grilled pork, potatoes, salad, cucumbers and pea pesto. We talked a lot about family history. Johan joined us later.
DAY SEVEN: We ate breakfast and left Ljungby. We drove to Helsinborg. The scenery changed from forested areas to more open areas with fields and meadows. We visited Sofiero, the former summer home of the former Swedish king. It was beautiful! We had lunch outside the castle, and I had a most delicious cream of asparagus soup. Lance had chicken caesar salad with bacon.
The statues were interesting.
We ventured on to Malmo and checked into our hotel, the Mayfair Hotel. It got its start in the 1300s and was completed in the 1600s. We walked around that area a bit--a place I'd been before. I liked the town square and the square that had buildings from the 1400 and 1500s. Vivianne and I managed to find a Swedish housewares store. Lance and Dick waited outside.
Lomma was our next stop--the home of Niklas, Caroline, Oscar and Elias. We were joined by Robert, Elin, Hannah and Erik, and Johan. Another lovely home with a beautiful garden. We were fed a most tasty salmon, new potato, peas and asparagus dinner, with ice cream and fresh strawberries for dessert. The kids (ages 9, 6, 4 and 1) were adorable and curious about the strange Americans (us). They warmed up to us and played games (Go Fish, chess, jigsaw puzzle, and curling) with us after we walked 1 block to the beach.
Brothers, Johan and Niklas
Niklas, Caroline, Oscar and Elias
Robert, Elin, Hannah and Erik
The beach
Erik
DAY EIGHT: We had breakfast in the hotel "tunnel." My knight in shining armor along with Dick and Vivianne checked out of the hotel and headed to Denmark. After we were a ways out of the city, Dick informed us that there had been a car bomb in Malmo the previous night.
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