Sweden

Sweden

We had hoped to make it to Sweden several times during our stay in Europe, but never quite made it. We had met some nice people from both Stockholm and Oland that we would like to visit, and had heard about the beautiful country. But also, we never seemed to have enough time...

Then after we delayed our flight out of London, we discovered that Arlo and Kim's family were heading to Sweden near the end of August. By waiting just another two weeks, we could join them!

We didn't do the tourist travel in Sweden. Instead, we looked forward to seeing family, and peaceful relaxation. It was perfect. We got to see not just Kim and Arlo, but also spent some time with her parents (Toby and Laurie), who we had met once before and instantly liked, her uncle John, and her sister Lisa.

Kim's grandfather, Torkel, is a wonderfully kind Swedish gentleman. He has a nice cabin on a lake south of Kungsbacka (which is on the west coast of the southern portion of Sweden, just below Gothenburg). Some of us stayed out at the lake, and a few with Torkel in his city house. We pitched our tent at the lake.

Picture-perfect weather, time with family, and a gorgeous setting. We talked, read books, and swam. A rejuvenating time out.

We stayed a few days after the others, and headed up the coast to camp on Tjorn Island in the sea and spent a little more time soaking in the sun and sights. We passed on any tourist activity, so really don't know much about Gothenburg at all!

We flew on Ryan airlines (for those of you on the west coast of the US, it is the British attempt at emulating Southwest airlines). Unfortunately, to match the excellent low fares, there were a few surprises. Ryan Air doesn't fly into the main airports, but instead operates out of small facilities removed from the cities. Also, the cheap flights either leave so early in the morning or arrive so late at night that the trains no longer connect to the city, so you spend the night in the airport. Sleeping in an airport chair overnight makes us realize we aren't as young as we used to be! Actually it was just fine, except for a few noisy people who seemed to want to party at the airport all night.

Ironically, we didn't meet any of our friends in Sweden, but did catch up with Hanna when we landed back in the U.K.! She was taking a short holiday in London.