Day 10) Day of Rest

This was a very light rest day. Mostly just hung out with Lars’s family. We played some games and I caught up on my journaling. Also helped out with some Swedish to English translations for the wedding. Actually Lars did the translation, I just cleaned up the english a little. On a 15 day vacation I almost always spend a middle day relaxing. Today was it.

Day 9) The Day After

Ufffff. Everyone�”s moving a little slow. Eventually we get moving, swap stories about the night before and slowly make our way back to the cars. Some of us stopped off for lunch and then head home. Today was the fireworks for the waterfall festival. Since it gets dark so late here, the fireworks don�”t start until 11:30 at night. It was a very nice (but a bit short) fireworks display.

Day 8) Kidnapping Party

In Sweden they do not warn the guest of honor about bachelor(et) party. Instead they just kidnap them and take them to the party. After hearing stories about these parties I understand why.

Day 7) Prep – Day

Spent the morning finishing the prep work for the party (see day 8). Then Lars and Carman needed to pick up their daughter at the airport. On the way out they dropped me off at the Waterfall Festival going on down town.

Day 6) The Gang

Today is the day I am scheduled to meet up with the gang. Lars comes to the hotel to pick me up. He gave me a quick tour of the town by car then took me to his house. He�”s very kindly offered for me to stay with him and his family for a while. His wife Carman is a little fire ball, always on the go.

Day 5) Trollhättran

Trollhättan is a little city of maybe 65,000 people. The down town area is a picturesque town complete with a river and locks through the down town area. I walked many of the down town streets watching people and looking at architecture. After about 3 hours of that I headed to the locks. I walked the trails around all the locks and river areas watching life go by. For a town of 65,000 people Trollhättan has the feel of an American city maybe ¼ it�”s size. Being from a small town I like this very much. It took maybe 3 hours to walk all of the locks area. By this time I was getting hunger so I headed for dinner. I had my first real Swedish meal. It was raw Herring in 3 different sauces. A ketchup-ish, a cranberry, and a white creamy. Good thing I spent the last 3 years eating all manner of raw stuff. If not I�”m not sure I would have even tried it. In Japan they spend a lot of effort making the raw stuff look good. You can almost forget your eating raw meat. Here, not so much so. It was good. Just didn�”t look so appetizing. After dinner I did a little more people watching and headed to my room for same sleep.

Day 4) Drive about

Today I made my way to Trollhättan. The plan is to take two days to get there. So after renting a car I head out of town. Heading straight across would only take 6 hours. Too short for a 2 day trip. There is a big long lake called Vättern that runs in the general direction that I want to go and has a few interesting stops on the way. Driving is not so bad in Sweden. Roads a pretty well marked. There are a few signs I have no idea what they mean so I�”ll just try not to hit or get hit by another car and hope for the best. The drive itself is nice. The country side reminds me of northern USA. Lots of pine trees and wooded areas. My first stop is some castle ruins near Gränna. It�”s pretty cool. It�”s only 2 stories tall but the wall are maybe 4 foot thick. I stop off at a few small towns just to check them out. Then I head to were I�”m going to stay for the night. Taberg is a small town that is suppose to have places to stay and a very tall hill with a café at the top with a great view of the lake. When I get there I stop off to ask where there is a place to stay. The guy tells me there is only 1 place and he points it out to me. I stop by to find it closed. The bar, grill, and the hotel all closed. So I think maybe too early so I head up to the top of the hill to grab dinner. The view was really nice but you could hardly see the lake at all. You could however see all around for miles. Had a nice dinner and hiked around the top for maybe an hour or so. I looked down at the inn from time to time but never saw any signs of life. I decided that it was getting late so I had to make a choice. Head on to the next place or wait and hope it opens at some point. I drove back to the hotel to check one last time but still closed. I decided to drive on, but to where? I guess it doesn�”t matter. I just start driving north and see what I find. About 1:30 mins later I still have not found a place to stay. By this time I�”m only about 45 mins from Trollhättan so I decide to just show up there a day early. (and hope the hotel have a room for me) After a little map searching and guessing where I am I find the hotel. I check in, return the car, and head for dinner. I find a nice little café next to the river that runs through Trollhättan. It�”s been a long day so I only walk around for an hour or so then head back to the room for bed.

Day 3)

Took a ferry to the outer Archipelagos (and yes I had to look up the spelling for that one The ferry took about 2 hours. It was very nice. There where houses spread out all over the thousands of islands. Sometimes the house was almost as big as the island it was sitting on. I was very odd to see a house on an island so small you could throw a rock from one side to the other. The island I went to was an itty bitty thing that they use for camping and it�”s beaches. I had dinner at a nice little place overlooking a small bay. I walked around for maybe an hour or 2 and made my way back to the dock for the ferry ride home. I met a great couple on the ferry ride to the island. They were from Stockholm and were heading to the same island I was going to. We had a great chat about all kinds of things, and they gave me some advice about what to do next. Actually this has been real common. On the plane ride to Sweden I sat next to a very nice couple from Sweden how gave me some advice on things to do. At dinner the first night a lady at the table next to me suggested this ferry ride I did today. Everyone has be very nice and friendly. I still have not gotten use to how light it is so late in the day. Even going to bed at midnight makes me feel like when I was young and had to go to bed after the Disney Show.

Sweden Day 2)

Not too early of a start (see Day 1) It�”s now 9:30 pm and I�”m sitting on top of a rocky peak overlooking Stockholm watching the sunset. I love doing this. Even more so recently. Every time I watch a sunset, I am sent back through time to other times I�”ve done this. I remember being in the Gobi desert sitting on a pile of rocks overlooking a ger camp and watching the sun set across the desert. Next I�”m at the foot of Mt Everest having a hard tome writing because of lack of oxygen but looking at one of the most beautiful view I can imagine, next I�”m in Hawaii sitting on a hammock on the beach watching the sun set between 2 palm trees, then Thailand, Japan, Yap, Palau, on & on & on. Anyway today: I spent the day exploring Stockholm. Starting with a boat tour. The most memorable thing I think is the �SStockholm Beach�. It seems any bare rock next to the water is a beach in Stockholm. Were ever I saw bare 2 sqr yards of bare rock facing the sun, there was a sun bather. Next I went to a museum built around a ship that sank in 1628. I call it the Swedish Titanic. It seems the King build the biggest war ship of it�”s time. A real monster for it�”s day. About 20 mins into it�”s maiden voyage, it tipped over and sank. In about 1956 they brought it back up and build a museum around it. It was amazing how well preserved it was. The rest of the day was just walking around, dinner, more walking, then I made my way to the rocky peak for sunset. I estimate I walked about 10 miles today.

Alive and Well in Sweden

Just wanted to let anyone interested, that I made it alive and well. When I get a chance I’ll tell you all about it. You’ll get years of making fun of me from this one l-) .