Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Sweden and more

Brett says:

The formatting is pretty rough on the post and I was unable to do pictures for the last few days. Hopefully we'll have internet again soon!


Betty Says:

Greetings again!

Here’s a short summary and some pictures to catch you up on our Scandinavian part of the trip.
June 23-This night was the closing ceremony for the games. Since it was Swedish Midsummers Eve we were treated to traditional Swedish dancers and fiddle music. Soon we were invited to dance around the Maypole with them!!





June 24-Drove most of the day to Bergen, Norway. Beautiful scenery through the mountains. Lots of sheep, waterfalls, and tunnels. Warmly welcomed by Cherise’s relatives, Ingvard, Rhoda, and Sarah into their home overlooking a fjord. They are amazing people!




June 25-Ingvard took us to the Stortvedt part of town (Cherise’s last name) to show us where her family members lived before emigrating. There’s a big church, school, nursing home, and farm that bear the family name today. We took the funicular up the mountain to overlook the city-beautiful view. Wandered around the city and tasted whale in the fish market. Ingvard is a professor, counselor, and motivational speaker. We got to go with him on a boat in the harbor as he gave one of his talks. Rhoda is a professional singer originally from Kenya. Sarah has just finished her training to be a teacher.







June 26-This was my day to see the fjords, one of my requests for the trip. They are beautiful. We stopped at several spectacular waterfalls as well. Spent the night in a camping cabin with grass growing on the roof, a common sight in Norway. All five of us tucked in quite nicely






June 27-A big driving day as we came all the way to the Stockholm area to spend time with Lisbeth. Her grandmother and my greatgrandmother were sisters. We’ve visited her before in ‘72 and ‘78 and she came with her family to see us in ‘81. Other family members from both sides of the ocean have visited each other also so the relationship is strong and special. It was wonderful to see her again but miss Henry who died 12 years ago. Lisbeth speaks very good English and is so knowledgeable about so many things. Her hospitality and welcoming spirit are superb!




June 28-Relaxing morning and traditional breakfast with hard bread, cheese, fish eggs, etc. Around 11:30 Cissi, Lisbeth’s daughter came with her husband, Anders, and son, Christoffer. Cissi came to see us in ‘78 and ‘81. She brought pictures of her trips so we had fun reminiscing. The afternoon and evening were spent with much visiting and enjoying being together. They live on the island of Gotland so have to take a ferry to go anywhere else.




June 29-Our family plus Cherise took the subway and tram to Skansen, the first open air museum in Europe. We wandered through the historic buildings and watched demonstrations on glassblowing, flat bread baking, etc. Very nice and warm day. For supper we went to visit Hans and Annalie Hellman and their 3 children in Bromma. Hans was with Grant in Stockholm when 9/11 happened and he tells the story just as Grant does. Fun time getting to know them better and he took us to Drottingholm Palace, the official home for the Swedish royal family.
June 30-We five headed back downtown to Gamla Stan, the old city. Narrow, winding cobblestone streets, squares, and churches. A highlight was the changing of the guard complete with a concert from the military band. Brett and Randel went to see the Vasa, a 1628 ship that sank in the harbor but was brought up in the 60s. Lizbeth fixed a salmon supper and we enjoyed another wonderful evening together. She is so amazing.







July 1-Brett and I made a quick trip back to the downtown and Gamla Stan to finish up some souvenir shopping. Around noon we left and drove to Toppmyra which is near Dalby near Uppsala. I explained how Toppmrya is the farm of my ancestors in an earlier post. We were so warmly greeted by the Hellman family. Our first couple of hours were trying to understand Swedish from Evald and Clary. For supper we went to their son, Claes’ house. (Hans, mentioned before, is their other son.) It is a wonderful home he has built himself but sadly his wife, Anna, died of cancer within a few weeks of when they moved in. Evald’s sister, Eivor, and her daughter, Eva, came to help with the cooking and translating. Both Eva and Claus were invaluable for that!!






July 2-Randel and Claes took Cherise to the airport at 5:30 am. Our dear Swedish friends took us to Castle Wik. The farmers around had to work for him a certain number of days a year. We were able to get inside and learn more about its history. The highlight was climbing up a medieval staircase that led from the basement (near the dungeon) up to the 4th floor-narrow, dark, and winding!! Relaxing afternoon. Great food. A very special walk led by Claes through the farm-wooded and farmland-to the big lake it borders. The lake goes all the way to Stockholm and Claes skated it this past winter. He showed us a burial mound. It’s a beautiful farm!










July 3-I already wrote about attending the Dalby church. After lunch we said good-bye to the Hellmans and drove to Uppsala where we saw the Domkyrka. Lisbeth and Henry were married there 50 years ago last Friday. Then back to Lisbeth’s and felt like we were coming home. She said she’d been longing for us. So sweet.




July 4-Repacked and said our good-byes to Lisbeth. I do think she’ll come to see us-we hope so! Drove south along Lake Vattern and stopped at Granna to get polka-gris candy. Found an out of the way campground by a lake. Hoped to see moose but no luck. Nice picnic on the dock. Sang “Stars and Stripes Forever” to celebrate.

July 5-Way in the south of Sweden is the land called Skane. That’s where my father’s mother’s parents, Nels and Elise (where we got our Elise’s name) Johnson emigrated from. We found their little community of Ostra Vemmenhog and the big church there. We’d been there in 72 and 78 but a new find this time for the gravestone for Nels’ father, Jons Andersson. The church was having a service at 2 so we were invited to stay. When we said we would eat our picnic lunch first the two church wardens set up a table and chairs for us right outside the church door complete with tablecloth and flowers! We made up the majority of the congregation for the short service. Afterwards we all sang “Children of the Heavenly Father” together in Swedish and the priest gave us a Swedish psalm book to help us learn Swedish before we come back. We felt so warmly welcomed. Another lakeside spot for the evening to camp in Denmark.



July 6-This was a driving day to arrive in Leipzig, Germany by evening. The part of Germany that was under communist rule certain looks drab compared to the rest of Europe that we’ve seen but there is construction going on. Lots of empty buildings with graffiti all over. Again pretty close to a lake for our campspot.
July 7-We did Leipzig in the morning. This was the place Brett wanted to come for two reasons. The city was important in the 30 Years War and Swedish Gustav Adolphus was killed there in his attempt to help establish Protestantism. Brett had studied up on the war so had interesting facts for us. But more so it was the place where Bach did most of his music writing as cantor at St Thomas Church from 1723-1750. We toured the church and the Bach museum. Then on to the Czech republic to explore the place of Randel’s mother’s heritage. Found a campground south of Prague.

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