Minnesota Visitors

 

 

Our friends from Minnesota, Mike and Mary, made a two night stop at our place during a trip including picking up their new Volvo. A good deal to remember for those who want to buy a new car....free plane tickets, hotel for two nights, limo pick up and delivery of passengers, factory tour with lunch, dog and pony show included! Aside from trying to sell you a trip to Gothenburg on your next purchase, you can also spend time with us as bonus! We treated our friends to a crayfish (from the sea) dinner. Poor Mike got a nice hole in his finger from the pincers of the crayfish! Next day we went touring the quaint fishing villages in the Bohuslan region. The last day, Mary, Hanna and I had a chance to get out shopping while Mike and Mattias took the boat out to the islands around where we live for a photo safari by boat. So happy to see them both!

More later,
Carrie

Gotland Vacation

 

 

 

 

We enjoyed a wonderful time on Gotland with Mattias extended family visiting Carl-Axel and Åsa. Our week was complete with many activities----biking, beaches, eating lamb fresh from the neighbors farm, treating the Swedish folk to their first taste of S'mores to celebrate 4th of July, we drove past several Viking gravesites on the way back from a girl's afternoon out, visited a medieval museum just down the road from Carl Axel's farm; celebrated Eliane's 80th birthday with champagne and a nice meal, relaxing in the sun, playing board games with the girls and their cousins..etc. etc. We really took time to smell the roses, (pun intended as roses were certainly plentiful on the farm and all around the island).

Carrie

Sommarlov

Well, sommarlov, or summer break, really began a few weeks ago when the kids were finished with school but since I've been back in Sweden after my trip to the U.S., the weather has only today felt like summer. Finally, sunshine and blue skies so the girls and I took a trip to the beach. It was still a bit fresh in the water so only Liv went swimming as she loves cooler water. The girls did some crabbing and the usual sand digging before we came back home again. Mattias is suffering from a cold or flu type thing. He picked up some bug from his trip to Florida and has not been well since returning so he did not join us today. After we got back home, Liv was relaxing watching a Hanna Montana video and came to tell us a bird had flown in the house. Sure enough... I wasn't going to touch it so Mattias tried to coax it out. Finally, after banging the windows a few times, the bird found the door. Poor thing sat on the ledge heart just beating wildly and beak open wide--scared to death. Then if flew off. I'd hate to see it collapse on the patio! We don't have window screens in Sweden unless you fashion some up yourself so that is why the bird got in the house in the first place.
We are getting ready for our annual trip to Gotland. This time we'll be joined by brother Jens and family and Grandma Ingrid. We'll take the 5 hour car ride across the country to the East coast and then take the speed ferry for about 3 hours before arriving in Visby. Then we'll hop back in the cars and drive about an hour to south of Hemse. It will be a long day but the girls will have cousins to play with on the ferry so time should go fast. We'll stay on the island for a week which is just perfect. I just checked the weather report (I'm all about weather these days.) and it looks like rain for the first two days at least. Well, there are plenty of things to do on Gotland and since we'll be staying at Mattias' Great Uncle's place, plenty of exploring just around the farm. I'll take pictures!
So it's July and most Swedes are beginning their 4-6 weeks of summer vacation-- Mattias one of them. We are looking forward to many activities on the time off and are looking forward to house guests after we return from Gotland.

More later,
Carrie