Best Western Star Hotel Dalarna

Hello from Uppsala, Sweden!

As in, the second to last stop on our tour! We are here until Tuesday morning, take a ferry to Finland until Saturday morning, and return to Uppsala on Saturday night. We are here until December 17th.

When I head for home.

I'm having mixed emotions. Everyone is. Do I want to return home? Yeah! I can't wait! Again I ask... do I want to return home? No! That means the tour is over! Do I want the ...

Sen frukost och förmiddagspromenad genom Falun i ny jakt på iPhoneladdare till bilen - samma nesliga resultat som tidigare. Tyvärr var även det utmärkta antikvariatet stängt så vi fick alla trösta oss på Bagarstugan brevid Falu koppargruva (v ...

... a friend who I met last year in Stockholm (he is also one of the organisers), greets us. We eat a hearty and warming goulash, then go to the milonga. We are at La Divina Tango Maratona, 44 hours of virtually non-stop tango. There is a little ceremony at the beginning and all the international guests are introduced - I'm the first being from Australia - then we each light candles inside a metal frame with a plastic bag around it (like a miniature hot air balloon ...

Jessi's wedding! Before we got to the church we had to buy kris new shoes as he only brought his trainers and they would not really go with he suit! The wedding was great and Jessi looked beautiful. Learned some Swedish traditions, for example if the bride goes to the bathroom all the girls can run and kiss the groom and the other way round!

We headed back to Uppsala that night to make dinner and go to a Birthday Party for one of Becky's friends. The next morning we started by going to Gamla Uppsala. This was the old center of Uppsala with burial mounds, a museum, a church, and an open air museum with farm buildings ...

Taking a series of buses from the Skavsta airport, we went to Stockholm and then to Uppsala. The crazy part was that even though it was midnight, it was still light outside for the walk to Becky's place. We slept in a bit and took our time getting started on our tour around Uppsala. Unfortunately, it was rainy out so we took a bus to the local IKEA and I got the full experience with Swedish meatballs and lingonberry. It was still raining when we ...

... in a huge bell tower equipped with bells from Holland. We learned that the very largest bell is called the "big and mean bell" and that the very smallest bell is called the "thumb bell" (which does rhyme with dumb bell but I really don't know what that has to do with anything??? :-) The bell tower can be played by hand or by computer. The man who first played it was so excited to play that he was playing very vigorously on the levers ...

Today, April 27, Madelen had arranged for a massage for me at 1 pm so she hurried home and took a long lunch to take me to the massage and to take Marvin to get some Swedish kronas so we could start spending money in Sweden!!! Mona, Madelen's mother, took us to a very old mill that has been turned into a restaurant. We had coffee (yes, I actually drank coffee, probably for the first time in 30 years. I had milk ...

We have made it to Vasteras to Madelen's flat safe and sound. Tis good to sleep in a bed instead of the plane and Heathrow airport!!!! It will be a good visit. Have met the black cat who thinks he should be ruling our bedroom. I wonder who will win!

I made it to Sweden safely and with all of my luggage - yay :) It was tough to stay awake for my 4 hour layover in London because it was from 2am to 6am Michigan time. They don't tell you what gate your plane is leaving from until the last minute, so you have to watch for your flight on a screen and then rush off to the correct gate. We ...