Our plan included 9 nights in Sweden, 8 consecutive nights
after leaving Denmark, and one additional night when traveling from Norway to
Sweden. My mother’s paternal
grandparents both emigrated from Sweden to the US in the late 19th century, and I have relatives in Sweden that we plan to
visit in several locations in addition to sightseeing. Our longest stay in Sweden would be 3 nights
in Stockholm.
Day 22 – Monday, July
8. Lund, Sweden. After crossing the Øresund Bridge, we headed
to Skanör to visit with my relatives, Sivert & Agneta. They previously spent about 3 years living in
the United States and speak excellent English.
After visiting for a short time at their house, Sivert took us around to
show us the local sites. Skanör is
located on a peninsula, and is the “Florida of Sweden”, with miles of beautiful
white sand beaches. It was a beautiful
sunny day, and would have been perfect for swimming. We didn’t have enough time for that, but the
kids did get to go wading in the water. I made it as far as the end of the
boardwalk but wisely decided that trying to walk through soft sand on crutches
was a bad idea. We also stopped at the local boat harbor, and
two of the churches in town. We then drove to some Bronze Age burial mounds. There are a lot of them in the local area, and
they provide good vistas of the area as the land is otherwise very flat. After that we went to our hotel in Lund to
check in. Sievert then took us through
Malmö which is one of the fastest growing areas in Scandinavia. Much of the old shipyards where Sivert used
to work have been transformed into new development, with lots of new jobs being
created. One of the newer buildings in Malmö is the “Turning Torso”,
a 54 story residential building which was the tallest in Scandinavia when it
was completed. The uppermost segment is twisted
90 degrees from the ground floor. After leaving Malmö we headed
back to Skanör and had dinner with Sivert & Agneta and their youngest son
Peter and his family. Dinner was
wonderful and we had an enjoyable evening visiting with them.
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| Matthew and Elizabeth on the beach in Skanör |
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| The "Turning Torso" building in Malmö |
Day 23 – Tuesday,
July 9. Broakulla. We got a late start as we didn't return to
our hotel the previous night until ~11 PM.
We headed north to Osby to go to the Brio museum. Growing up one of Elizabeth and Matthews favorite
things (and mine) was building elaborate train layouts out of Brio. A lot of the museum was geared toward younger
kids, but we enjoyed it. While we were there
I felt like an actor on "What would you do?", an American TV show
that uses hidden cameras and actors to create certain situations to see if
people walking by will stop and "do the right thing" or walk by and
ignore someone in need of help. In my
case I stumbled on the uneven floor with my crutches and fell. There was a woman only 10 feet away who
watched me fall and then struggle to get turned over without further injuring
my foot. She stared and me, said nothing, and then waked away as I was still
trying to turn over and reach my crutches which had fallen several feet away.
Once I got turned over I was unable to get up as I had nothing to pull myself
up on. Several other people walked by and stared at me sitting/lying on the
floor of the museum and also did nothing other than keep walking. Finally my
family came by and helped me get up. I would like to think I would "do the
right thing", but I guess you never know.
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| Brio Museum |
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| Elves at work in Santa's Workshop at the Brio Museum |
Part of the southern area of Sweden is known as “The Kingdom
of Crystal”, or Glasriket. It is famous
for its many small factories and craftsman making hand blown glass. We had originally intended to go to a glass
factory today close to where we were spending the night, but our late start meant that by the time we got there only the shops
would be open and the glass blowing would be done for the day. So, we went directly to our B&B, a nice
place out in the country ran by a Dutch couple.
Our room was on the second floor, but given my foot and challenge in
climbing stairs they gave me a small room on the first floor at no additional
charge. Matthew stayed with me in case I
needed any help during the night, and Karen and Elizabeth slept upstairs.
Day 24 – Wednesday,
July 10. Oskarshamn. We were going to go to one of the larger
glass factories that we had read about online, but ended up going to Shrufs
Glasbruk in Skruvs. This place was recommended
by our B&B as a more intimate small place that was also free (many of the
larger places charge to see the glass blowing).
The recommendation turned out to be excellent - when we were in the
glass works watching the craftsman make pieces we were the only ones there. You definitely knew you were not in the United
States. After the craftsman completed
each piece, he had to take it to the annealing oven, and to do so he walked
right between us, we could have stuck our hand out and touched the almost red
hot pieces if we had been stupid enough to do so. In the United States there would have been a barrier
to keep us from getting close, and likely we would have been on the other side
of a glass wall. In the US the laws (or
the concern over lawsuits) results in keeping everyone away from anything that
could potentially be dangerous, whereas most other countries assume that people
can use some common sense and that if someone does something stupid their first
thought is not to sue.
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| Glass blowing |
We then headed to Kalmar Slott (Castle), an imposing castle
built on an island adjacent to the city of Kalmar. Fortifications on the site date from the 12th
century, but it was during the 16th century that the fortification
were turned into a castle fit for a renaissance king by King Gustav I and his
sons. It started raining before we got
to Kalmar and was raining hard as Karen dropped me off along with Matthew close
to the entrance while she looked for a place to park. The ticket booth was
outside and there was a line. My faith in people was renewed when the people
ahead of me in line saw me on crutches and insisted I go to the front of the
line. With the exception of my bad experience
at the Brio museum, everyone has been very helpful of me with my broken foot
and crutches – going out of their way to help me, moving so I could sit down
and rest, etc. The website for the
castle said they had wheelchairs to loan, but unfortunately that turned out to
be inaccurate. I did get free admission, and there was a
lift to get to the second floor of the castle.
There were still a number of stairs to be navigated up and down to go
around the 2nd floor, but I made it all the way around with the help
of numerous benches along the way to sit and rest. I skipped the 1st floor displays
and a live exhibition in the courtyard which the rest of the family went to.
After leaving the castle we drove north to Oskarshamn where we would
spend the next two nights. Shortly after checking in a couple of my
relatives met us at the hotel to give us information on the arrangements they
had made for me to get my foot checked at the hospital. We found that the hotel had a washer and
dryer available free of charge for quests to use, so we did a couple of loads
of laundry before going to bed.
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| Kalmar Castle |
We returned to Oskarshamn around 2:30 in the afternoon. One of my Swedish cousins, Åsa, and her
husband Kalle and their 4 children met us at the hotel. They live ~ 2 hours southwest of Oskarshamn
in Ryssby, but had come to Oskarshamn to visit with us and other family members. We followed them in our car to the family
farm in Ström, which is where my great grandfather lived before he immigrated to
the United States. Åsa’s brother, Dan,
currently lives in the house in Ström. The
original house is still there, but Dan has added on to it and extensively
remodeled it. At Ström we were also met
by Åsa’s uncle Karl-Ivan and his wife Gunilla. We learned about some of the
history of the farm. The farm included
some of the Islands offshore in the archipelago, which came with fishing rights. This was very valuable in the days where
people needed to be primarily self-sufficient.
After leaving Ström, we briefly stopped at an observation tower by the
local nuclear power plant. The kids and Karen
climbed the 100+ steps to the top to get a view of the nuclear power plant, the
offshore islands, and the surrounding countryside. We then went to Åsa’s mothers (Ingegärd) house
for tea/coffee, cookies, and fresh strawberries. The fresh strawberries reminded us of Oregon
strawberries – very flavorful. The house
that Ingegärd lives in is the same house
that she grew up in. The weather had
cleared up and we enjoyed sitting outside and visiting. Ingegärd lives in the country with beautiful
flowers in her yard. Åsa’s brother Dan joined us after his business
meetings were over. After leaving Ingegärds
they took us to Götehult. We visited the
house there that my great-grandfather was born in. The farm house there was built in sometime in
the 1600s and has been changed very little over the years. It was great to see all the history, and
amazing that many of these places have been in the family for 200+ years,
passed down from generation to generation.
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| Family photo in front of house in Ström |
Day 26 – Friday, July
12. Stockholm. After leaving Oscarshamn, we stopped at
Misterhult, to see the church there. This
church was built in 1779, and played a key part in reconnecting with our
relatives in Sweden. My mother has long
been interested in genealogy and knew where her grandparents had come from in
Sweden, but had no information on relatives still living in Sweden. She made numerous attempts to locate
relatives, and one of those was writing a letter to Misterhult Parish Church,
which was in the area that she knew her grandfather had come from. In her letter she provided what information
she knew, and requested that anyone who knew of relatives still in the area to
write to her. She did not hear back for
several months, but eventually got a letter back from one of her long lost relatives Sweden. Apparently the church had posted the letter,
and someone had read it that was related.
My parents have made several trips to Sweden to visit with relatives and
reconnect with my mother’s heritage, and this was my second trip there.
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| Church in Misterhult |
After leaving Misterhult we drove north to Stockholm, a 4
hour drive. Along the way we crossed the
Göta Canal, which cuts across Sweden, linking the city of Gothenburg on the west with the
Baltic Sea on the east. This canal was built in the
early 19th century, primarily to transport goods. Today it is used primarily by recreational
boats, and has earned the nickname “divorce ditch” for the troubles that
couples have to endure while trying to navigate the many of the 58 locks by
themselves. We arrived in Stockholm in
early evening, and easily found our apartment.
There was no reception, and the agency had emailed us the access code to
the front door and to the apartment a few days earlier. It is a nice, newer, studio apartment with kitchenette. We bought some groceries, ate dinner, and
then spent the rest of the evening mapping out our two days in Stockholm. Our hotel is just across the highway from Hammarbybacken,
which is a ski area just minutes from the center of Stockholm. There are only two lifts, and a maximum
vertical drop of 82 m. That is tiny
compared to some of the ski areas in Oregon that have over 1000 m of vertical
drop, but you can’t beat the location and convenience. While we were there we saw the lifts
operating, towing bicyclists up the slope. We also saw runners getting a workout running up the slope.
Day 27 – Saturday,
July 13. Stockholm. We spent most of our first day in Stockholm
at Skansen, an open air museum that was founded in 1891, advertised as the
first in the world. It has more than 150 buildings relocated from across
Sweden, from old farm houses to churches, post offices, etc. There are staff in period costumes performing
tasks typical of that done in the era of the buildings and providing
explanations to visitors about the history and function of the buildings. There is also a zoo there, with animals
native to Sweden including bear, moose, fox, lynx, and reindeer. Skansen is very large, covering more than 75
acres. Fortunately they had wheelchairs
for loan, so I was able to get around without using my crutches other than to
go in some of the buildings. The site is
very hilly, and most of the paths are not paved, so Karen and the kids got a
good workout pushing me, and my upper body also got a good workout as it
required effort from both me and the pusher to navigate some of the hills.
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| Skansen |
After leaving Skansen, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner and for Karen to purchase a pin. We forgot to look up where it was and determine the best route the night before, so we asked at the information desk when we were leaving Skansen. They told us which subway stop to get off. We asked for directions when we came out of the subway, and found that it was about a 10 minute walk away. For me that translated to 30+ minutes that just about did me in. My hands and wrists were especially killing me from the crutches by the time we got there. Fortunately on the way back we found we were able to catch a bus right across the street from the HRC that got us back to our hotel with only one transfer.
Overall we found the Stockholm transit system moderately complicated to use. Online they only had PDF maps for the handful of subway lines. There was an online tool to show you the best way to get from point A to point B, but no downloadable map that you could take with you that showed the tram (streetcar) lines and stops, or bus lines. The tram line that was closest to our apartment was shut down for some reason, so that added some complication the first day while we had to figure out what bus to take to get the subway. We had to ask a couple of other questions in the stations on where to go, but ultimately we got where we wanted to go without lots of delays. We also found that the riders in the subway were very aggressive and a lot of them in a hurry – lots of people running for trains with no apparent regard for other peoples safety. This was something we had not seen in any of the other big cities so far. Matthew got knocked to the ground by one man (who did stop to help him back up), and Elizabeth got ran into and nearly knocked down. I, being either a coward or quicker to adapt, sought shelter next to a pillar whenever a new train arrived and a throng of people went dashing by. The last thing I needed was to be knocked down, especially since I no longer had the protection of the cast.
I know that I originally said that I broke my foot falling off a stool, but I was really just trying to be modest. The real story is that I broke my foot saving the life a woman who was falling off a building. We spotted the woman below desperately clinging to the side of the building with her fingernails. I rushed over, getting there just as her last nail broke and she started to fall. I was able to catch her, but the force of her falling broke my foot. She didn't suffer any injuries.
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| The "real" reason for my broken foot |
OK, that is not the real story. It sounds better than falling off a stool, but the photo above is in Stockholm. There is a dummy clinging to the side to the building ~30 feet above the ground across from the central subway station.
Day 28 – Sunday, July
14. Stockholm. The walk to the Hard Rock Café the previous
day along with helping to propel myself up the hills around Skansen in the
wheelchair did me in. I was exhausted
when we got back to our apartment, and my hands, and arms were still tired and
sore the next morning. We had an active
day planned that required a lot of walking, and I wasn’t up for it physically
so I made the decision to stay back at the apartment and rest, catch up on the
blog, and do some research online for upcoming days. The family headed off at about 10:30, with
the first task at hand to find an alternative place to park the car as the
street we were parked on was posted no parking from midnight to 6 AM on Mondays. They found a place to park one street
over. Parking in the section of
Stockholm we were staying in was SEK 15 per hour (~$2.25), but only Mon-Friday
from 0900-1700. Since we arrived late in
the afternoon on Friday, we only had to pay for 2 hours of parking for the
three nights we were there.
Karen and the kids spent the first part of the day on Gamla
Stan. This is the oldest part of the
city, dating from the 13th century.
They went to Storkytan, the Royal Cathedral of Sweden, and then to
Kungliga Slottet, the Royal Palace. At the
Royal Palace they watched the changing of the guard, a 45 minute ceremony complete
with a 30 person band. They also wandered
through the narrow streets looking at the interesting architecture. Later in the afternoon they went to the
Vassamusset. This museum houses the
Vasa, a large warship that was the pride of the Swedish crown when it set off
on its maiden voyage in 1628. Unfortunately,
the ship was very top-heavy and it capsized and sank within a few minutes. It remained buried in the mud until 1961 when
it was painstakingly excavated and reconstructed. Putting the ship back together was like a
14,000 piece three dimensional jigsaw muzzle.
The ship is in remarkable condition
after being underwater for more than 300 years.
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| Matthew and Elizabeth with royal guard in Stockholm |
Day 29 - Monday, July
15. Borlänge. We
packed up and left Stockholm Monday morning, heading to Borlänge to visit with
my relative Bengt. Borlänge is about a 3 hour drive northwest of
Stockholm. Along the way we made two
stops. We first stopped at IKEA. Karen loves IKEA, and had to go to one in
Sweden, the home country of IKEA. At
home we pronounce it “eye-key-uh”, but in Sweden they say “ee-kay-uh”. She didn’t
buy anything other than lunch at IKEA, but enjoyed it since it was larger and
had more “stuff” than the stores in the United States. Karen’s only disappointment was that she wanted
to buy some Swedish fish (candy), but they did not have any. So, she bought some Swedish moose instead. After IKEA we drove to Skokloster Castle. This castle was built between 1654 and 1676, and
is a monument to the Swedish Age of Greatness – a period in the middle of the
seventeenth century when Sweden expanded to become one of the major powers in
Europe. One notable thing about the
castle is that construction stopped when the owner, General Carl Gustaf Wrangel,
died in 1676. In fact, in the large
banquet hall, you can see the partially finished room, complete with
workbenches full of tools. The day that Wrangel
died the builders stopped working and left because they were afraid they that
they would never get paid. The room
looks almost identical to what it looked like 337 years ago. Overall the castle is remarkable in that the contents
have been mostly kept intact over the past 300 years because Wrangel dictated
in his will that none of his collections could be removed from the castle. I managed to make it through the entire 1
hour guided tour of the castle with my crutches – all the way to the 4th floor
and back down (32 stairs per floor), but if there had been even another half
flight of stairs I probably wouldn't have made it. However, a week ago I probably would have struggled
to make it to the second floor.
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| Skokloster Castle |
We were running late when we got to Borlänge, so we checked
into the hotel but then went to my relative Bengt’s house without unloading our
luggage. He lives only about 5 minutes
from our hotel. We had dinner with Bengt
and his friend Majt. They both speak
English very well – Bengt used to be a high school English teacher before he
retired. After dinner we had some more
of those wonderful Swedish strawberries and visited with Bengt and Majt. They were both very nice. We left shortly after 10 to return to our
hotel. We had an interesting room. The bathroom was larger, but the main part of
this hotel room made our room in Copenhagen look spacious. There was a twin bed on one side of the room,
and a bunk bed on the other side of the room with a pull out trundle bed under
the bottom bunk. When the trundle bed
was pulled out it came within about one foot of the twin bed on the other side
of the room. Not quite wall-wall beds,
but close. Most mysterious was that the
ladder for the bunk bed attached on the side of the bed where the trundle bed pulled
out from. Elizabeth slept on the top
bunk, and once she got into bed we had to remove the ladder to pull out the
trundle bed where Matthew was going to sleep.
During the night Elizabeth needed to get up once. We had to wake up Matthew, push in his bed,
and reattach the ladder for Elizabeth to get out. Bizarre setup.
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| Giant Swedish horse on drive to Borlänge |
Day 30 – Tuesday,
July 16. Onward to Norway. Today we had about 230 miles to drive, 150
miles to the border with Norway, and then another 80 miles to Oslo. We will spend one more night in Sweden on our
way to Finland, but will finish this Swedish section of the blog as we enter
Norway. Our final day driving through
Sweden to catch the ferry to Finland will be included in a later section of the
blog. Our drive to Norway was mostly uneventful,
although it took about 6 hours as almost the whole way was on winding two lane
roads with low speed limits and limited passing opportunities. The further west we got, the more varied the
terrain became as we left the mostly flat terrain of eastern Sweden. The land was mostly forested, with a number
of lakes, hills that could be considered mountains, and the first fast moving
rivers we had seen on the trip. The area
is very sparsely populated. The one
challenge we had was that we could not find a gas station in western Sweden
that took either cash or a magnetic stripe credit card for payment. They only took cards with embedded smart chips
which we did not have. We experienced a
couple places previously that took smart cards at the pumps, but they always
had at least one island that you could pay inside with a “traditional” credit
card. Alter trying several stations and
being told “no gas stations in Sweden take cash or magnetic stripe cards”
(which we knew was not true as we had previously filled up the car in Sweden),
we finally resorted to asking another patron at a gas station for help. We found a man who was willing to use his smart
card and have us reimburse him in cash.
After thanking the helpful man, we headed on towards Norway. We probably had enough fuel to make it to
Norway, but who knows what we will find there.
We arrived at the border at 3 PM.
Total distance driven in Sweden, 1030 miles (1660 km). Total distance
driven to date, 3240 miles (5220 km).
Our favorite things in Sweden were:
Matthew – Vasa Museum, Karen – strawberries and painted wooden horses,
Elizabeth – Gamla Stan and the changing of the guard, Mike – visiting with
relatives and getting my cast off even if it was still a challenge to get
around.
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| Matthew, Mike, & Elizabeth - Lake by Sweden/Norway border |
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