More notes only. This blog is really glithcy about some content, so I've had to delete some sections to get it to save without it crashing to an error page. Seriously, the word "names" triggered it.
Day 1 = Thu 19 Dec
- Last Scandic breakfast
- They were so awesome catering for Carl's allergies
- Train to Örebro
- Faced backwards so listened to Star Guitar
- Yet again the backpack showed its value
- Saw the Swedish countryside change from Skånes broadleaf forests to the pine'n'birch of the rest of the country.
- Also saw a moose.
- People hogging 6-seaters
- Örebro
- Met by Anders, Agnete and Annika
- Cellar dwelling
- Very low ceilings
- Had to walk like a monk in prayer for a week
- Jul lights everywhere
- Coop (Coop-a-doop)
- Ärtsoppa
- Köttbullar for Carl
Day 2 = Fri 20 Dec
- Carl's birthday.
- I took a walk to the castle, the kids needed a rest morning.
- Bit frustrating that we flew tham halfway around the world to sit in the bedroom and watch YouTube, but hopefully they'll get out more after a rest.
- Beautiful blue skies after some rainy days.
- Castle is still gorgeous.
- Also went to the supermarkets (ICA and Coop)
- Ice in the puddles
- LL Cool J = "Look Left! Cool, Ja?"
- Dragged Carl outside
- He discovered how slippery ice is, but didn't fall over.
- Off to Anders and Agnetes for fika and then on to Anna's for (Carl-friendly) tacos
- Anders showed us a book of sketches by Eero
- Tapestry of Finafallet by Chris
- Tacos by Anna, with extra loving care for Carl
Day 3 = Sat 21 Dec
- Winter Solstice
- Sunrise about 9:45
- Sunset about 3:15
- Trip to Finafallet and/or Skogalund
- Split up in cars, I was with Anna and Magnus
- Snow started (on ground) just north of Örebro
- Skogalund
- Sledding
- Carl finally mastered turning, after ending up in the trees a few times
- Fika
- Snowball fight
- Finafallet
- More snow
- Snowmen - snow was too dry in Skogalund but perfectly damp in Finafallet for rolling big snowballs
- Silence of snowy forestsWalk back to car (burned off some fika)
- Drive home
- Lovely Swedish lights
- Traditional chevrons and stars in windows
- More strings of fairly lights than 2008, though all in tasteful warm yellow
- Same in town too
- So gorgeous
- Homemade smögåsbord at home
- SVT Play recommendations
Day 4 = Sun 22 Dec
- Walk to Örebro Castle
- Through town, Drottninggatan to Stortorget then on to Slott
- Castle looking good, but a bit cloudier and water in Svartån was muddy rather than tea-coloured.
- Museum in castle, but will ha ve to come back for it.
- Castle built in 12th century to guard the bridge (bro) over the gravel banks (öre), which is a strategic bottleneck through the region of Närke between Svealand (north-east) and Götaland (south). Turned into a Rennaissance palace in 1500s under the Vasa family, and then became a prison. Renovated in 1900s with plaster removed from walls in an historically-misguided romantic nnotion of what a castle should look like, which nonetheless turned it into a very charming stonework castle.
- Walk to Wadkoping
- Erica spoiling for a meltdown.
- Bored -> silly -> agressive -> finally provoked into tears -> sulk -> done
- Anyway, Wadkoping kinda ruined
- Magnustaxi to Anna and Magnus's for fika with Martin.
- Carl - "Taxi mycket"
- Met Emma's cousin Martin and his daughted Julia
- They drove 2 hrs from Linköping
- Martin works in AI, an we had an interesting discussion about chunking AI
Day 5 = Mon 23 Dec
- Rest day
- Emma and Erica went to lunch at Castle Cafe and then to light candles at Siri and Kalle's grave
- Afternoon walk to castle to see lights in Stortåget and around town
- The night before Julafton, so pretty quiet
- Picked up some things from ICA
- Came out and it was snowing!
Day 6 = Tue 24 Dec
- Julafton (Xmas Eve).
- Today is Julafton (Xmas Eve), which is the main day of celebration with family (I think Juldagen [Xmas Day] is traditionally reserved for church). And we woke up this morning to a light frosting of snow on the ground. So we got our White Xmas after all (or a close enough approximation that we're happy to call it so - tomorrow is a warm 7C, so it won't last)!
- Snow still outside
- Went out for a quick play
- Hands quite cold in gloves, might need to look for better gloves or under-gloves (if that's a thing)
- Put on all my layers (5 top and 4 bottom) and went for a walk around the block. Seemed warm enough, hopefully good enough for Rovaniemi.
- Hands not so cold when body was warmer, maybe that's a thing?
- Off to Xmas lunch at Anna and Magnus's
- Annika and Mattias and Leo
- Tasty Julöl from supermarket (and midstrength IPA)
- Lunch
- Took great care of Carl
- Meatballs, sausages, hand-picked kantarel, potatoes
- Huge ball of cheese
- Jonsons, Vasterbotten pie, Kantarel quiche, pickled herring, deviled eggs?
- Kalle Anka
- Visit from Santa
- Anders was out but met him on the stairs
- Presents
- Kids took turns being Santa
- Dessert
- Julklappar game
- Home
- Maccas for Erica and my own QP meal made from meatballs, cheese, pickles, senaps, ketchup and bread
Day 7 = Wed 25 Dec
- Juldagen
- Xmas video chat with Mum and Dad
- Xmas morning here, Xmas evening there
- Ravgången
- Annika picked us up.
- Walk to lake with Annika, Mattias, Leo, Anders, Jack, Chris and us
- Anna told us not to throw stones on the lake near the picnic area, but OK later on.
- We walked to where there were lots of stones already on the ice and so kids and I threw stones on to hear the weird "pew" sound.
- Ice was a bit melted with layer of water on top, so sound wasn't as crisp as 2008.
- Still got told off by a Swede. Förlåt!
- The reason is that stone on the ice get frozen in place when it refreezes and skaters will run into them.
Day 8 = Thu 26 Dec
- Annandag Jul
- Ice skating for kids
- Local rink where Jack skates
- Borrowed skates from Jack
- Reindeer to hold onto
- Carl did surprisingly well
- Skated with the reindeer and later without
- Kneepads really helped since he could fall on his knees easily for safety or a rest
- Now he reckons he wants to go ice skating back home "once a month".
- Erica also had fun.
- Magnus offered me his skates but alas they didn't fit (much to Emma's relief).
- Ice hockey
- Örebro HK vs Skellefteå AIK
- Örebro are red and white (blood and ice)
- Skellefteå were yellow and black
- Granny called them "the Bumblebees"
- Emma's cousin's son Gustav is one of the star players for the local Örebro HK team in the Swedish Hockey League
- Met Suzanne and Anders B before the match (Gustav's parents), and yet another beautiful blonde Backström child (Gustav's daughter Bianca)
- We'll see them tomorrow for lunch, but they sat in the team box tonight.
- Fun atmos
- Örebro came out through an inflatable replica of Örebro Castle.
- Not many teams have a literal bouncy castle.
- Heavy metal/hard rock in the lead up
- Very chilled music in the breaks
- Result
- Skellefteå 4 - 2 Örebro
- Örebro scored first, but Skellefteå equalised, and then >ed, and then >>ed.
- Skellefteå needed the win more because they have a crappy 1960s town centre without any castles.
- Just kidding, we went there in 2008 and it seemed nice enough.
- Interesting to see another culture doing its thing for itself.
Day 9 = Fri 27 Dec
- Lunch at Suzanne's
- Drive out with Anders past Ramsberg to see Emma's grandparents' grave
- Anders pointed out the graves (and stories) of many relatives
- It turns out that many of his extended Finnish family moved to the area from Finland in the late 1940s from Roveniemi.
- This could well be a result of the Germans flattening Rovaniemi (and its economy) at the end of WW2 in the Lapland War, mixed with a desire for a better standard of living.
- Winter War (1939-40) - Soviet Russia tries to steal Finland back from the Finns (after Finnish independence in 1917), captures Karelia.
- Continuation War (1941-43) - Finland tries to retake Karelia, makes some gains but loses them in the peace. Accidentally ends up on the German side.
- Lapland War - Finland tried to expel Germans from their territory as part of the peace with Russia in the Continuation War, Germans destroy Rovaniemi as they depart.
- Drive to Suzanne's place in Allmänningbo
- More memories for Anders
- Grimsö
- Wildlife Research Station
- Work colleague from 20 years ago went on a trip to join his girlfriend who was working at a Swedish research station and wrote a blog. Looked up the blog and realised it was the same Grimsö, small world!
- Arrived at lovely big farmhouse of Emma's cousin Suzanne and her husband Anders B.
- Erica asked if Swedes have only 3 monikers, because everyone seems to be called Anders, Magnus or Mattias.
- Suzanne's daughter Lina and her kids were there too
- As well as Annika, Magnus, Jack and Chris in the other car
- Lovely lunch of roast älg (moose) that Anders B had killed with his hunting club (they have over 5 members)
- Succulent, a bit like roast beef and not at all tough or gamey like I remember reindeer being (though I'll let you know if I have any reindeer in Finland).
- You can't buy moose in the shops, you have to know someone who hunts it (and there are strict quotas), so this was quite a treat.
- Good conversation across two tables (kitchen and dining rooms)
- Ended up with all the Aussies in one room, so at desert we went into the other room to talk to Lina, but she'd had the same idea so we'd just swapped rooms.
- So I went in and hung with Andersarna and listened to them have a conversation in Swedish.
- I can speak more Swedish than I can understand (same in English, I'm better at talking than listening)
- I could understand about 20% of what was being said. It was a bit like swimming just out of my depth at the beach.
- Then someone asked me if I was understanding and I confessed the above and then talked for a bit (in Swedish) about how I can speak Swedish all day but only understand a little. They said they had the opposite, that they can understand more English than they can speak.
- Men jag pratade Svenska! And they either understood me or were too polite to tell me that I was talking gibberish.
- Long drive home in the darkness of 4.30pm. Really great day.
- Suzanne has a big, beautiful house and a big beautiful family.
- Wonderful to be invited into one of the many beautiful Swedish farmhouses we'd passed on the drives out of Örebro.
Day 10 = Sat 28 Dec
- Svampen
- First to Anders and Agnetes to look through some sketches of Emma's Dad that Anders rescued (with permission) when he visited Australia in the 80s.
- And to say Hej då to Agnete.
- Walk to Svampen past vårt littet lägenhet from 2008.
- Up Svampen to see the view
- They're building a new water tower to the south that the locals are already calling the "Piss Pot".
- Lovely view of town, Hjämaren and Kilsbergen, the line of hills to the west.
- Nice buffet lunch at restaurant at the top.
- No.7 Bus to town for shopping
- Castle shop
- Very disappointing, no T-shirts or castle knickknacks.
- Just weird kids castle stuff like dragons, princesses, knights etc.
- Kids insisted on buying toy swords that will no doubt be hard to pack and transport (and ignored the slightly smaller wooden swords).
- Shopping for warmer gloves for Rovaniemi
- Keep getting cold hands
- I got some lady's jogging gloves to go under my main gloves
- Everyone else (and me) got Gortex ski gloves
- Also neck/face warmers
- Clas Ohlsson
- Food containers and cooler bag for Carl's food
- Final visit from Annika
Day 11 = Sun 29 Dec
- Train to Stockholm
- Said our 'Hej då's to Anders, Anna and Jack
- On the train - usual fight for luggage space
- Seated next to rando Swede so popped mask on
- Lovely scenery of Malardalen and headwaters of Malaren
- Especially Västerås ("Vesteraws") with its industrial port on the lake
- Lots of fields - breadbasket of old Svealand
