Sweden

Sweden   May 31- June 7, 2012

Sissel's daughter's boyfriend volunteered to take us to the airport on Tuesday morning. We left Randaberg at 8:30am and arrived at the Stavengar airport at 9:00am. Our flight left at 11:05 am and arrived at Oslo at 12:00 noon. We did some shopping in the dutyfree shop and ate our packed lunch of   ham sandwiches and bananas. We took off  at 1:25pm in a small two prop engine plane...a little sceptical  and arrived in Gothenberg, Sweden at 2:35pm.

The view out the window was one of endless evergreen forests and lakes. We have read that 58% of the country is forested.

Maria Peterson picked us up at the airport and took us to her one bedroom condo in Gothenburg about 15 minutes from the airport. We rode down a four lane highway into the city passing a large amusement park with a huge ferris wheel and roller coaster and tall buildings.

Parking is difficult in the city and Maria explained that she could park for free because she had a environmental safe car. We finally found a parking space. As we were getting out of the car this huge truck with a big trailer was driving by with a bunch of screaming and shouting teenagers. What was going on? They all wore little white sailor captain caps and were having a great time. Loud music was playing on the truck. Maria explained that it is the Swedish tradition that graduating seniors celebrate their graduation by wearing little sailor caps and riding around the whole weekend in this truck and that we are going to be hearing it for the next few days. These kids were so joyous and loud. We also saw many cars with streamers and balloons and teenagers hanging out the windows. It was great to be apart of their exciting celebration.

Maria's condo was on the 4th floor of a six floor building..Carrying luggage up flights of stairs....Ugh! We were happy to see a tiny elevator....Yeah!!!

Six floors of a beautiful winding staircase

When we entered her condo we quickly met Neo, her long haired English brownish-black male cat with bright yellowish-orange eyes.

We had agreed to take care of Neo a few months ago when our arrangement was made. We quickly found that Neo is king of the condo with his own kitty cat condo (that he climbs to the top of in the wink of an eye).

Little mouse toys were everywhere. He loves to sit in the windows and snuggles up to you...especially when you are eating.

Maria was helpful in giving us maps and directions to areas to visit... the trolley, the grocery, parks, and the waterfront. She had also collected a bag of brochures of things to do in the city.  We started making plans to visit  some of these in the upcoming week. Maria was staying with her sister while we were visiting Gothenberg. We unpacked and just relaxed the rest of the day. It felt good to just get settled into our new home  and enjoy some time catching up on email and updating the blog. We did watch a DVD, "Traffic" before going to bed. The sun shines late, late here and is up bright and early in the am. We noticed  this morning at 4:30am, it was just like noon.

We still find it hard to believe that we have landed in another new country, Sweden, with just a short flight. So thrilling!

Day 1
Larry and I enjoyed listening to some of Maria's CD's this morning (ABBA, from Sweden) and then decided to head out to get some groceries for the upcoming week. It was overcast and windy...a bit on the cool side.  We walked about two blocks and came to a mall with a grocery inside. Larry headed for the meats while I gatherd some fruits and vegetables. It is always interesting to  shop in a foreign country. This store had a large freezer with frozen strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries. You just scooped  the amount that you wanted and put them into a plastic bag.

Larry pick out some fresh fish and some huge cooked crawfish. The lady let him sample one, peeling it for him. He was delighted and got enough for us both for dinner.

The conversion for Swedish Kronas is decided by dividing by 7. The money exchange was much better on the wallet here than in Norway. For example: one dozen eggs in Norway were 42 kroners...we divided by 5 in Norway so the American dollar amount was $8.00. In Sweden one dozen eggs were 29 kronas...we divide by 7  in Sweden so the American dollar amount  was $4.00....much more reasonable.

We carried our items home and  decided to just relax for another day. What a great way to enjoy a chilly day outside!

Day 2
We dressed warmly and  headed for the City Center. Large brick buildings flank the streets with shops on the first floor and multiple apartments/condos five and six floors above. The Gothenberg Museum flanked one side with a huge nude statue in the center. We have noticed that all the statues in Gothenberg are anatomically correct.

We walked down the Main Street....Shops and restaurants were down both sides of the street with city buses and  trams running as well for  transportation.

Great places to relax and enjoy the outdoors when the weather is good.

                                                            Lots of apartments

We noticed that rainbow colored flags were flying down the street. Guess what was going on. The LGBTQ Festival was in full swing. (LGBTQ = Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Trans, Queer)....Yes that is what they call themselves. We came to a park where the celebrations was in full swing.... there were quite a few sights....real eye brow raisers. One was dancing with hardly anything on to a fast beat of music and boy did she/he shake her/ his bare booty. Larry took a picture, but the backside movement made the shot fuzzzzy; hence, no pix here.

We noticed that most of the crowd was the younger generation so we headed back to the condo with some second thoughts about being about today.

Day 3

Today was partly cloudy and cool again. We walked downtown to go to the Rainbow Parade, the final event of the Rainbow Festival.

A couple thousand people marched in the parade... old and  young....there was a little bit of every age. Some parts of the parade were organized with music and costumes while others were just a large group of people marching in support of the cause. Some rode in the back of large trucks and the multicolored rainbow flags were being waved everywhere.

During the evening  we took a walk up to the highest building in Gothenberg....a hotel with a restaurant on top. The yummy shrimp sandwiches were being served and we took some shots of the skyline. Because the sunset is somewhere between 10:30 and 11:00pm, we did not get a sunset shot. The sky remains white for quite a long time after the sun sets and it is light again around 4:00am in the morning. Makes for a long day if you rise when it is light and stay up until its dark.

                                                23 floors up  to the views of the city below

Day 4

It was gray and cloudy and it did rain a little during the day, but the sun came out in the late afternoon.We took  a great walk to the canal and harbor. Stores and shops lined the main street. We boarded an old tall sailboat (1906) that had been turned into a hotel in the harbor. What a unique idea! We took the elevator up to the fourth floor and went strolling on the deck that had a bar and restaurant outside.

Several parks are spaced throughout the city

Most parks or squares have a  statue or fountain.

The Canal

Bicycles were available for renting all over the city.

Gothenburg had both biking and walking paths.

Tall sail ship, The Viking was built in 1906....106 years old.

Up on the top deck

A painting of the Viking in its heyday.

Fountain in the park

Flowers at another square

Day 5

Maria had the day off and wanted to take us to Marstrand Island, one of the northern islands from Gothenburg.  She drove by at 10:30am and we headed north for about 40 minutes passing the IKEA and Volvo Factory on the way. We passed through lots of forest and then some meadows and farm land.

We came up on a small village where we caught the ferry to cross a small harbor with lots of sailboats and motor boats.

Upon the hill was a hugh stone building called the Carlsten Fortress built in 1600's.

Although the sun was shining, it was cool and breezey. We meandered through the streets where shops lined the waterfront. We ended up at the top of the hill at the fortress and entered to find many school children inside on a fieldtrip.

Once inside we found that Carl X of Sweden  built the fortress  because he saw the importance of the harbor. It was first built of wood but soon was replaced with stones and started in 1658 and  completed in 1860. Prisoners were used to build it and it did have as many as 232 prisoners in 1854.

In 1907 the Swedish Navy  begain to train military boys here until  1937.

This was the oldest and  most originial fortress that we have ever visited. The views from the top were awesome!

the homes had beautiful gardens with flowering lilacs, poppies, and geraniums.

This place is bustling during the summer. Visitors come here for vacations to enjoy the sun on the rocky clifts.

Swedes proudly fly their flags everywhere.

We arrived back in the city to traffic and lots of cars exiting early....they were able to leave work early because tomorrow is a  National Holiday.

Day 6

The last day in Sweden we did laundry, caught up on emails, and rested up for our trip to Helsinli, Finland at 9:10 am. We enjoyed a great walk up to the top of the hill of Gothenburg and returned eager to start a new adventure  in the morning.

Sweden will remind us of cable cars, buses, sidewalk cafes, tall apartment  buildings, alternative life styles, evergreens, quaint seaside villages with rocky coastlines, and our friendly exchange hostess, Maria.