Ditt Hotell-Lages Motel Borås

... where Per grows strawberries, carrots, potatoes, chives, even grapes in the green house. And everywhere around there are wild strawberries, raspberries and blueberries. The kids enjoyed walking down the paths and picking and eating berries. For me, this is the Sweden of my memories. Picking berries in the countryside.

Before dinner, we took the kids for ...

... red paint. Eventually we got the two visible sides of the barn painted, only missing a tiny patch due to rain at the end of the week. We went through about 12 bins of paint and managed to cover most of the surrounding ground area, the chickens, and the small dog as well. Oh yeah, and Dan had a paint can drop on him while he was up a ladder and it splashed all over their van. All together, a successful job. While we stayed there ...

We're still a bit uncertain about our Oslo - Gothenburg transportation and I'm wanting to get to the rail / bus station as soon as we can to be assured of exactly how we'll get to Gothenburg. Our host took us to an Oslo suburb station called Sandvika where a train quickly pulled up and in 20 minutes we were at the Oslo Central train station. Then we walked about ten minutes to the bus station and after standing ...

... through this a few times now, we figured that there was something wrong with the train and we had to get a new one. A new train came down the track and parked right in front of the old one, so we got on that... after much waiting, and a few more announcements in Swedish, we got off our new train and back on to the old one (it seemed the train plague was catching) and eventually headed off for Boras 45 min ...

We got up Friday and had breakfast and were on our way to Gothenburg. Chris has cousins there that we were going to meet up with, but we had rented a hotel to stay in. It was a nice little place that had a sauna. I enjoyed soaking up the 200 degree heat after 2 weeks in the cold. Gothenburg is a cool little city. I sampled one of the local favorites ...

I got up at 5:30 am and got ready to leave home at 6:45 am for my flight back to Helsinki and then on to Gothenburg, Sweden where I'll be visiting with a few families until my departure back to the United States on Wednesday through Brussels, Belgium and then on to Chicago and Indianapolis. Airline travel is very expensive in Scandinavia, but I was able to get some amazing deals, but some required connections a bit less than ideal. I have more than a six hour layover in Helsinki. I ...

Leaving in the night. We did decide to leave in the night so we get there and can do some snowboarding on Monday before we get our room. It is a lot of bad news about snowstorm that will hit Sweden and Norway on this night. Is going to be a interesting trip.

It's a weird feeling drinking with your family all night in Sweden. Especially since I have been drinking with them for about 5 or 6 hours now. I still feel like I have gone back to CT and all these Swedes are just here visiting us. This place really is great though, and my relatives have been more than accomodating. I mean who would give up their house and sleep in a camper in the ...

Today began with my first swimming of the trip in the North Sea, I didn't swim in the Mediterranean for some reason. It wasn't nearly as warm as I was promised but it wasn't nearly as cold either (I had mental images of icebergs floating in the distance). I did a little cliff jumping with Brian, and I have to admit that I was scared as a little girl doing it. I'm not very good when it comes to heights. But seeing 12 year old kids ...

As soon as I left Italy I already missed it. I can't believe how hospitable Laura and Fabio were, I really can`t think of a nicer family anywhere in the world. I am forever in your debt. After leaving Milan at 6:30 this morning on my way to Copenhagen I flew over the Alps which was a pretty amazing experience. I landed in Copenhagen at around 8:30 and waiting until after 11 until for my bus. But I didn`t ...