Yeah, english again. Although I still don’t understand everything said to me and crossing the road is kind of like crossing in Amsterdam. Look both ways constantly. At least bicycles hear don’t seem to think running over pedestrians is a great sport. Wayne and Maggie are going to design t-shirts for amsterdam with bike tread running across them with the tread spelling out Amsterdam! Million dollar idea!!!

I find I’ve stopped listening to voices around me just assuming that I won’t understand what’s being said anyway. Our London flat bedroom is right on a busy street and only on the first floor (2nd floor in the U.S.) so we hear lots of conversations, traffic and sirens. I still don’t understand much even when I try. I do try to pick out passing motorcycles by exhaust sound though!

I’m just going to tack on a few pictures I took from the bus our first couple days.

Some kind of naval office? The tour commentary didn’t say what the building housed. But it was on a government street.

Good example of London’s eclectic mix of old and new architecture. Mostly thanks to WWII.

Whoo Hoo! can cross the London Eye off my to do list.

I know we’ve been in London a few days now but takes my some time to process everything we’ve seen and experienced.

Lasting impressions of Sweden-

Total shock on cashiers faces when I didn’t speak Swedish. Lots and lots of clusters of red houses, barns and sheds, lakes, rivers, fascinating fences and for my junior high friends lots of signs announcing farts 🙂

Rock mystery to ad to our sheds on stilts mysteries of central Sweden.

oh, and the mystery of the hobbit holes. We’re guessing a root cellar. These were all over in the mountain area.

Several churches had hedge rows in the cemetry.

Picnic lunch on our way to the airport. If it didn’t get eaten it was getting tossed. Not taking food to London with us!

Quaint and sturdy fencing. Mostly found in historic areas of rural Sweden.

Just pretty 🙂

Special pictures for my friend who spends his days with Junior high kids 🙂

We missed one by a school that said “kinderfart” 😉

We’ve started our vacation from touring! It is really nice not to have any bus reservations, or museums we have to see.

Plus it’s is really beautiful up here. It feels and looks like the Mt. Hood/Mt. Raineer area until you look closer and see the trees aren’t really what ours look like, the buildings are constructed a little different and painted black or red. Not our normal barn red a beautiful deep burgundy red and many of the roofs are “living roofs”. I would like to know what kind of barrier they use under all that moss etc to keep the spring thaw from dripping inside the house.

About 10 days into the trip Maggie got quite homesick but that only lasted a day. Michael seems fine, dramatic sighs from time to time but overall he is engaged and I think enjoying himself. The Viking stuff interests him the most. I was glad to see the British Museum has lots of Viking history too.

Michael hanging out in Stockholm apartment 🙂

Maggie didn’t think the thatched roofs worked well but I thought those buildings were dry and would quite cozy with a fire burning. I didn’t see chimneys though so I expect the Vikings lived with a lot of smoke in the winters. The king had a huge lodge and the rest had smaller huts. I’ve been impressed with the use of stones and wood to prevent mud in main streets clear back to the 900s up to the 1790s. I wonder why that didn’t get brought to America’s wild Wild West or even the early days back east. How much of the original towns used cobble stones? Guess I need to explore the east coast too. Better figure out some way to retire eventually.

For my fellow water snobs – tap water everywhere has been just fine for drinking.

It really does feel a bit like home to be sitting in a timeshare resort with lots of families walking past. The tone of voices (adults and kids) is the same but then I realize I don’t understand what they are saying and there is a bit of an accent of course 😉 The other reason I know we aren’t at home is I can’t understand the washing machine. It’s suppose to be drying the clothes now but instead it’s washing them again. Time for Google translate again – there isn’t much english up here.

Like Maggie noted earlier – we must look Swedish because all of a sudden I have to ask cashiers to talk to me in English.

The ride up hear was beautiful lots of rivers, lakes and Lupine. Unlike at home the wild Lupine hear blooms in pink, white and even variegated colors. I’ll look for some seeds to bring home 🙂

Lupine

My chronic pain issues haven’t been too bad and pain meds are keeping them very manageable. Best of all is remembering to do my Physical Therapy though.

It’s fun to be on vacation where the locals vacation! We went to the grocery store and bought some stuff we’re not sure about. Wayne googled one thing we didn’t take – turns out to be reindeer summer sausage – we’ll have to go back for that!

Sorry this is all such a random brain dump. We’re using the iPad with a key board which is ok but too much effort with out a mouse to move paragraphs around and make this more cohesive.

Feel free to ask questions!

Wow, what a day. I would say we were up with the sun but the sun comes up at 3 am so…
We hopped on a boat this morning and took a two hour trip through the archipelago to Birka- a viking settlement that was abandoned over 1000 years ago.

The city just looks like a field of grass, but bits of the low wall around it and the protective fortress are still visible, as are all of the couple thousand burial mounds. We ate a quick lunch at the island’s restaurant (a delicious genuine Swedish smorgasbord) before we were taken on a guided tour of the island.
And now prepare for a history lesson.
Vikings didn’t have horned helmets- they were made up in the 1800’s to make them look fiercer.
A viking is actually a job title. Vikings were about 1% of the people and they were the ones responsible for raiding/pillaging.
The vikings wouldn’t go to battle if they weren’t positive they could win. Instead, they would trade with them.
Vikings discovered Greenland, Iceland, and Newfoundland during their era (750-1100 AD).
They believed hair held all your power, so everyone had their own special comb.
When they died, their bodies were burned in a boat (with their combs, jewelry, and knife) then covered in stones, and finally buried in dirt, which becomes a burial mound.
Vikings are awesome.

The bumps are the walls of the fortress

Burial mounds

Unfortunately, it rained again today, although there was no thunder and lightning like yesterday. Fortunately, we don’t melt in the rain. After the tour finished at the very top of the island, we ignored the path back down and mountain goat-ed our way down the other side of the island. It was so cool to stand at the top of an island in the middle of a viking fortress and look out over the archipelago. Really beautiful and inspiring.

After clambering our way down, we went over to the small reconstruction of Birka and wandered around. The houses are pre-medieval and therefore extremely un-waterproofed. They also had giant fire pits in the middle of keep everyone warm during the freezing winters. Stockholm is at nearly the same latitude as Anchorage, actually. And Amsterdam is the same as Portland. I thought that was really interesting.

Interesting artwork beside one of the buildings

Dad wandered out onto the ricketiest looking dock I’ve ever seen-

There was an opportunity to cook bread over an open fire, but we didn’t want to stand around and wait our turn in the pouring rain and went to check out the museum.

Model of what part of Birka could have looked like during early spring

Typical cargo ship

All in all an amazing day. Michael made countless Skyrim references and I filled up a memory card.

Strangely, it was on the way back to Stockholm that is really struck me that we were in Sweden. I was sitting at the back of the boat, watching out the huge windows when a little sailboat came through our wake with a Swedish flag flapping behind it.

You can see the boat in the righthand corner, because I was too busy going “Oh. I’m in Sweden” to take a good picture. But that was the glorious view behind the boat, not that you can really tell because of the lighting. Whoops.

We’re not sure what we’re doing tomorrow, so stay tuned.

Also today was cloudy and we there was a chance we had meatballs. He he.

Hello! Time is flying and we can’t keep track of what day it is any more. Feels weird, but we’re having fun.

We were all laughing over tacos at home tonight about how unplanned our trip is, and how weird it is to be eating tacos in Stockholm. Don’t worry we will have meatballs one on one of our nights here. Back to planning – I use to be much more of a planner. When Wayne and I went England 20 years ago, I remember having a multi page daily itinerary for London. I think I’ve found a pretty good balance between extreme planner and just winging it.

Amsterdam thoughts – it was more relaxing than Paris. The architecture was quaint. I loved looking at all the different houses along the canals. Seemed more relaxed but with so many tourists everywhere it was hard to tell. Of course walking past “coffee Houses” while inhaling was likely to cause a relaxed attitude 😉 Along the same lines of Paris – Cheese is still amazing! Old Amsterdam is my favorite cheese and now I can say I actually ate it in Amsterdam.

Stockholm was another culture shock. The words make no sense. I didn’t realize how much of our language is influenced by French and we could often guess at what we were reading. Not here. We rode the hop on-hop off bus today which helped the words start to sound like words instead of just random noises.

Our apartment is actually somebodies home instead of just a rental property so it’s very comfortable, well stocked and has amazing internet. It was built in 1901 so it’s much newer than our Paris apartment but still has lots of character.

Some pictures of Amsterdam

Lots of national excitement about the World Cup! It was bizarre to see plastic streamers with soccer balls attached to historic buildings.

Turtles at the amazing botanical gardens. Yes, i was in a very happy place 🙂

Wayne in his happy place! Flashbacks to Lake Como apartment 🙂

My favorite reading spot in the house boat.

Lions on the base of a lampstand in Amsterdam’s central plaza. Gorgeous details make the whole city beautiful.

Stockholm architecture is much less ornate but colorful. Looks like the buildings are covered with stucco. There are graceful turrets on several buildings. One area they described as being based on Paris architecture. I saw some very basic similarities. Overall, after Paris and Amsterdam I can see why Ikea products look like they do. No nonsense frivolity here yet still a sense of beauty.

Parts of Stockholm are sinking. See the tipping building?

Swedish palace from 1780. The most modern building we saw at the Skansen Museum.

Rune stone (head stone). Lots of similar graphics with celtic art. Which came first?

Modern Coke sign mounted on a very old building. Yeah for Coke’s domination of Europe!!!

Hi! Mom’s turn to share.  Maggie is tired and overwhelmed by the all the art today but I’m sure you will hear from her too.

First some general thoughts so far. All the planning and preparations were well worth it. Our Paris apartment is quirky and fun. It feels like living an episode of House Hunters International! I’ve taken pictures to share 🙂 We’re learning to make do and adapt. It hasn’t been too hard.

Paris is much cleaner, friendlier and safer than I expected. It amuses me that since Italy was my last trip to Europe I keep wanting to say “grazie” and “Scusi”. Now and then I remember to say “Merci” but mostly English and pointing work just fine.

Back to Italy one more time. The cathedrals there were mostly brightly decorated with intricate mosaic designs and lots of glittering gold. Here is mostly amazing carved stone. I’ll have the boys bring back a picture of St. Marks in Venice to compare beside Notre Dame. I agree with Maggie – Notre Dame is my favorite. The Vatican was stunning of course but Notre Dame is more approachable and still impressive.

Okay, onto the Louvre. We got there fairly early and headed straight for the Mona Lisa. Walking into the Italian wing brought back many fond memories of Italy with my family. Maggie sadly didn’t remember anything from seven years ago. Well she did remember Botticelli”s ‘Birth of Venus”, so that’s good. The Mona Lisa is on a large wall hung by herself and high enough to be seen from the hallway. It was bigger than I expected and the colors more vibrant. We got closer than I expected too. Mostly I was happy for Michael to finally see her. He wanted to see her before we went to Italy. We drove by the area in Italy where it is thought daVinci started painting it so that feels like we’ve come full circle now. Michael doesn’t know why he has always been interested in her but now he has finally seen her in real life! Lucky kid, he even appreciates what a privilege that is.

Another surprise was the wide variety of art at the Louvre. We saw an Easter Island head, African art, Northwestern Native American art and Medieval art. The kids noticed paintings where the children looked like adults – really kinda creepy but they learned some art history! Another cool surprise was the area set up like the palace it was originally. Talk about opulent!

The northern masters area showcased how their art used more muted colors and was often rural landscape, farming or village life. Not so huge and dramatic as the French, Spanish and Italians. We were shocked to find they all painted scenes of dead, butchered animals. There were also several that looked like a modern day version of a picture celebrating a days hunting varied game.

Our route through the Louvre finished with Medieval exhibit. Tapestries, tiny carved ivory panels, a crown, a gold sword, tiles. It was quite the jarring juxtaposition to leave that and enter the very modern architecture under the glass pyramid and eat cafe food.

My only complaint is the Louvre only uses French descriptions of the art. I’m pretty sure American museums describe everything in at least two languages. Wayne’s translation app helped on several occasions, as did Maggie’s limited French. If you really care about learning I recommend buying the audio guide. There were some plastic guides in different languages but they never talked about what we were trying to figure out. On a positive note it only cost 12 euros each to get in in and Michael was free!

As I sit here writing this Maggie and Wayne are out exploring more. There was one more bus route we hadn’t taken. Michael and I have seen all we can absorb. I hear all the big city noises and marvel at the gorgeous cathedral when I look up. I hear sirens, voices, children playing and a steady stream of traffic. Much to my amusement I keep finding myself listening for a Ducati to come home 🙂 I guess I feel at home here!

Bye for now, I’ll leave picture posting up to Maggie.

Note from Maggie: Mom said pretty much all there is to say about today. Me and dad spent another few hours on the bus, just observing, taking pictures, and watching the crazy driving. The highlight of my day was convincing someone that I was actually French… for about 30 seconds. I ordered food for me and my dad in French and the server asked a question in rapid French that I could’t understand. So I just stood there and stuttered for a bit until someone translated into English. Now that I think about it, the cashier at the same little cafe only spoke to me in French… 1 and a half people convinced that I’m French! Yes!
Tomorrow morning we get kicked out of the apartment and head over to Amsterdam! Tomorrow I’ll be writing to you from a houseboat on one of the canals. I can’t even believe that’s going to happen.

As you can probably tell, we’ve fixed the internet problem. Pictures from yesterday are now up!