More Monday Fun!!!

Well, after nearly two weeks of sketchy internet, we finally have a good, strong internet connection and can post to our heart' desire. :-) Monday was our first day back in Gothenburg with GORGEOUS weather. We had a couple of nice days while we were in Tjorn (at the summer house) and Tanumshede (at the Vitlycke Museum) but Monday was the first really nice day without any rain and just sunshine. It was nice! about 75 degrees.......anyway here are some photos.....



This is one of the internet cafes that we found in downtown Gothenburg - it was a really nice cafe and while Carl sat blogging I went shopping! He should have never turned me loose - I found shoes.....and I mean SHOES. :-) Hee hee




Carl enjoying the internet and a rest.......

....after our rest we decided to take our "picnic lunch" home and grab our bicyles to ride out to the Botanical Garden.....we originally planned to take a tram out there and just walk around but after some debating we decided to a) drop off the shoes at home that I bought, b) eat our lunch there too, and c) get on our bicycles and head out! We debated whether or not to ride our bikes out there because we were still really sore from our work day at the summer house. We scrapped and sanded and washed the exterior of the house and our hands and arms were very sore. However, the bike ride turned out to be an exceptional idea and we had a great time.....



Me standing next to some of the beautiful flowers in bloom.



Here I am pointing at a giant cabbage. It was HUGE.




Carl on a wooded path as we made our way to the top of the gardens.....to the city overlook....



Carl with the city view behind him :-)



And the day (not to mention entire trip!) would not be complete without one last stop at our favorite cafe (de Matteo) in Victoria Passage.....



(Is that not beautiful or what?!)

First vacation day.

Well, not really. But it feels like it. The weather has been "iffy" to so say the least, but it has finally got better. Actually, it has been REALLY nice and we have done a lot of cool things since we last had reliable internet access.
We went bike riding in Slottskogen (a huge park in central Gothenburg).

We had lunch at the "Fish Church".

We drove out to the summer-house and went on a road-trip up north a bit to a Viking museum in Vitlycke.
There are rock-carvings and ruins there that are 3000 to 8000 (!) years old.

We have lots of nice pictures from that trip but it has to wait.


We also visited a really cool place on Tjorn that is an old Viking settlement but now days are used as a sculpture garden.
It is truly amazing to be able to walk around these giant sculptures in a field in the middle of nowhere, among ruins that are 4000 years old.
The sculptures are by artist from all over the world.
Incredible stuff, and again we have a million pictures from it.

Crabs

Last night, we (well, Grace Ann and Mom and Dad) had some crabs from the sea outside Tjorn. Mom and Dad had bought them earlier straight from the small fishing-boat.
The fishermen calls Mom and Dad in the morning to let them know that they have some crabs, and then the have to hurry to drive over there to pick them up.
Throw them in a big pot with some salt and dill, and that's it. It does not get much fresher than that!


Grace Ann seemed to like it :-P

Worst blog ever...

Well...The lack of internet access sure have an impact on the quality of the blog.
When the wind is blowing just right and the window is open we SOMETIMES have access at home, but most of the time....nothing.
At least we sneak in some 'net time when we stop by one of the many coffee shops down-town....



We visited the World Culture Museum the other day that was both awesome and a disappointment. The museum is incredible cool, but the exhibits were a bit so-so. A great space that seems to be poorly utilized. The "Activism" exhibit was both beautiful and thought-provoking and made it worth the visit.

Of course, we managed to get some coffee drinking in at a cafe' downtown.


...and some more walking around.

Gunnebo

Yesterday we went to a place called Gunnebo, which is a cultural reserve that comprises a country estate consisting of a manor house and gardens along with the surrounding landscape of parkland, farmland, and deciduous woodlands. The entire site, house and gardens, was designed by Carl Wilhelm Carlberg, who was Gothenburg's City Architect. Gunnebo is one of Sweden's foremost examples of a neo-classical country estate. We strolled around the gardens and had lunch at the cafe. The gardens were amazing: there were sections that comprised only herbs and flowers and the herbs were sometimes taller than Carl, there were also sections of only vegetables and some of the property. We'll try to post some photos later, as so far the internet connection has not been strong enough to upload photos. (We've been trying since last night!)



(Fennel Forest)




(Carl's mom, Ingegerd, & Grace Ann are the two small ants in the back right part of the photo above - the vegetation is all herbs and lettuces - AMAZING)




(Ferdinand, Grace Ann & Ingegerd with Gunnebo Slott in the background)








Later that afternoon we went to Catrin and Anders' house. Catrin is Carl's oldest sister. It is still early in the game but we think we may have found the best kanelbulle of our trip. :-)





Aside from eating kanelbullar we had a very nice visit with them, looked at their vacation photos from Turkey (this year) and Croatia (last year).

Important Things that Occurred on 08/08/08

1. The Olympic Games Began

2. We had the first Kanelbulle of our hunt!!!

You may be asking yourself, "was it good?"......and the answer is......

it was not the best one we've had but it was not bad for a start!




3. I also found out that my wedding gown has arrived back in Dallas and I can set an appointment for my first fitting! (Yay!)

4. I found out too that the bridesmaids dresses are being shipped this week! (double yay!)

5. As you may or may not be able to tell from the photo above, someone got married today! (and their get away car was an old fashioned fire truck. Yes, the bride and groom road away in the fire truck and we just happened upon it. Very cute.

Downtown Gothenburg

This photo was taken just across from de Mateo - our favorite cafe in Sweden! I am standing in front of a flower shop that has been closed nearly every trip we've made, with the exception of one day last year and when we returned a couple of days later it was closed for summer holiday. :-)



Here we are waiting for bus 19 to take us home. It was a fun day of shopping and walking around downtown and for some reason, I am not tired AT ALL. (but just wait until tonight! I was awake for hours, tapping Carl, asking, are you awake? are you hungry? I am hungry.) I was very restless but finally after a snack and some ear plugs I was able to get back to sleep. :-)

Posting to the blog is a bit of a crap-shoot....We never know if we are going to get a connection to the internet.


Carl is praying for a strong enough signal to connect to the internet....

Frankfurt Airport

Frankfurt Germany....a 7.5 hour layover. During which we had to get our tickets re-booked due to the fact that they could not issue us our boarding passes for the next leg of our travel. This meant that we had to go through passport control AND security about 5 times....and I am NOT exaggerating. And despite the hassle and each of us getting singled out to be searched (on two separate security checks!) we were able to stay in a good mood. :-)

(You know...There was supposed to be a picture here, but since my parents neighbors have decided to be very selfish and turn off their wide open WiFi Internet connection that I have grown accustomed to over the last 3 years, I now have to siphon the internet from another neighbor that been nice enough to NOT secure his connection (thank you faceless stranger). Problem is...the signal strength is VERY poor so we have to put the laptop in the right spot, stand on one leg, be very quiet and not move around (or something) to get ANY signal at all...and it works, but poorly, for a while.
But, obviously not long enough to upload a picture.
I have to work on this.....
Cheers/ Carl)

Off We Go!!!

Carl is ready to go. He was well packed for the trip, as you can see! His bag was quite heavy (Not!)

Today is The Day!!!

We leave for Sweden (by way of Germany) today at 4:10pm. Bags are packed and we are ready to go! We do not actually arrive in Gothenburg until Wednesday evening (afternoon in Texas!) but check the blog on Thursday or Friday for new posts!

Vi ses snart! (See you soon in Swedish!)

Grace Ann & Carl

Preparing For Our Trip

Just 3 days to go and we'll be off on our 2008 hunt for the best kanelbulle!

Clove is NOT HAPPY. It's HOT. It's HOT. and It IS HOT.

(We'll be back soon stinky)