First Kristianstad

Almhult is a the home to the world famous Ikea as well as Carl Linnaeus. Starting off the vocational day on Thursday May 14th we meet up in the parking lot at IKEA 9:00am. We met our tour guide, a high ranking VP of operations in Sweden, for a tour of the new item showroom floor. Pictures were forbidden but I will share that their style and creativity is fantastic. They have created a showroom similar to their world ...

Just wanted to send off an update. I am in a town called Karlskrona, just arrived about 6 hours ago from Tingsryd. But please allow me to back up and tell you a bit about Tingsryd, located in the South Eastern region of Sweden. This small town is made up a picturesque lakes, tall birch pine and oak trees, as well as a powerful Rotary group, 30 members strong. Upon ...

... we think they were used for grinding grain. A few of them are of the more modern Dutch type where the sails are attached to a cap that rotates into the wind. (We have also seen lots of modern electricity-producing windmills in Sweden, both in the ocean and on land.)<br><br>We drove back over the bridge and started the return to Malmo. We drove along the coast and through farm lands. A ...

... our first transfer to the new city of Älmhult, the home of the famous biologist Carl von Linne (responsible for the plant taxonomy system in use today) and IKEA headquarters (visiting on Thursday). Now we are at home with our new host families and are getting to know the new rural setting of this beautiful region. We look forward to uploading more pics and news to share with you soon! God natt for now, Beth

... the famous Oresund Bridge through Malmo and 90 minutes after boarding the train, we were in Almhult. Lewis met the weary travelers at the station and walked us a couple of blocks to his house. Over the next few days, we walked and biked around Almhult, the surrounding area including Lake Möckeln and the old village of Röhult. We coaxed Lewis away from his Master's thesis long enough to take the whole crew out to the ...

... train to Copenhagen for a couple days. We explored the city a bit, took the harbor cruise and saw a movie. Back in Sweden, the kids went to stay with Henrik's parents and the four of us took off for southern Sweden. We enjoyed the rural country, stopped at an apple orchard, toured a castle, went hiking and ate some yummy food. The weather wasn't as nice as we were hoping (no swimming), but nevertheless it was ...

Our last day in Sweden we packed our stuff, and drove with Inka towards Karslkrona, where the ferry was going to take us to the Polish port town of Gdynia. On the way to Karlskrona we stopped of at another couple of historical towns, and also on a strawberry field to enjoy the freshest strawberries possible.

We arrived in Kristianstad Sweden on Monday June 11, 2007 in the early evening. We enjoyed a very pleasant walk from the train station to Inka's house and surprised her with our arrival 2 days earlier. From the moment we arrived we loved the weather as the temperature was in the mid 20's, clean spring fresh dry air. After months of hot and humid and weeks of pollution in China this was certainly what the doctor ordered. Inka was in great spirits despite ...

... to the pound. Having classed this trip as a "seeing family" one, I did startlingly little proper research. Very bad.). Then spent my money on chocolate! After a very smooth ride over surprisingly flat and waterlogged countryside, on a very busy train, I reached Kristianstad. Founded in the 1600s by a King Christian of Denmark who liked to found cities and name them after himself, it's a provincial town of some 30,000 ...

We drove back to Malmo, waited for our plane, and waited, till it said final security check for our flight. We'd missed it. Stupid We bought a ticket for the next day and bedded down for the night. The airport was quite comfortable, the others went to sleep, me and Andy went for a sledge around the airport, actually it was great though the forest, we broke Meeschs sledge. Finally we got back.