Picking up the dropped ball

Well, guess I kinda let this go for a bit, didn't I?! As you can tell, we are still alive; we got back home safe and sound on the 31st, after our very brief time in Madrid. We also spent two nights in Toledo - that is still one of my favorite places and we did some good shopping there. But it seems as though LOTS of other people have discovered our favorite places - what's up with October being the "off" season?! So many crowds! In Madrid, we tried to go to a museum (not the Prado; it's across the street and has a funny-sounding hyphenated name), but it was closed on Mondays. We wandered around and did last-minute souvenir shopping, then had a very nice meal at our hotel, except that we didn't get some of what we ordered - our waiter's English was not as good as the food. We stayed at a hotel near the airport that said they had parking, but Bill wouldn't fit through the gate, so we had a few anxious moments trying to find parking near the hotel so we could meet up with the Amsterdam owner for him to take it back. (I hope he and his wife appreciated the holiday; I'm sure the 1 euro per kilometre from Madrid to Amsterdam we paid covered expenses quite nicely.) Amongst all his other many accomplishments, Don actually managed to parallel park an RV - wow! And now we've been home for a bit and I've had time to think about things. I can say that I wouldn't want to do this again; it was so much effort before and during the trip and was quite expensive. I'm not sure that we really enjoyed ourselves enough of the time for it to be worth it. I'm glad we did it so that we won't wonder what it would have been like, but definitely I will travel differently next time. Still, what a grand opportunity, and how lucky we are to have been able to do this. Thanks to everyone for your interest and support. Nils has promised to post a slide show of lots more pictures. Please, Sweden family, stay in touch! Meeting you all was so wonderful.

When in Sevilla, use the Wi-fi

Hi all...found a wi-fi signal at our campground near Sevilla, so I am posting a couple of pictures. Nils and I are on the ferry from Italy to Barcelona. Don is in front of one of his favorite places from 25 years ago when he lived in Rota; do you think his hair has changed after 25 years? So has the town, but at least the hardware store is still there!

Other than that, nothing much new to report. We had a horse & buggy ride around a small bit of the city this evening, and Don and I had delicious tapas. We will be leaving tomorrow (Saturday) to go north, either for Toledo or maybe Segovia instead. Only 3 more nights with Bill the campervan, then it's the Best Western at the Madrid airport, and then...our own beds at home. Oh joy!
Goran, thank you for letting us know about Hannah's good surgery outcome; that is such happy news! And Kerstin, now that you've told me I shouldn't have too much Sangria, I find I've developed quite a thirst! heh heh!! Okay, talk to you later - either here or in person.

Italy to Spain

Let´s see, where did I leave off...? Oh yes, we were in Rome. Well, now we are in Spain; have been since Saturday. We met some nice girls on our campground bus (Hi nice girls from California/Camping Tiber! Thanks for the tip about the ferry!) who told us how they came on a ferry from Barcelona to Civitavechia - that´s probably spelled wrong, and FYI it´s a port city just north of Rome - but anyway we looked into it and decided that the savings in time, gas and toll roads was worth the rather expensive 19 hours on the boat. So that meant we didn´t "have" to drive north through the French Riviera, which was actually okay because all we really wanted to do was get to Spain. And it turned out to be quite nice and relaxing, so was well worth it. And now we can say we´ve been on a Mediterranean cruise, along with everything else. ;)
We spent a day in Barcelona and then drove west to Granada, toured the Alhambra, then back on the road to Rota (near Jerez de la Frontera), where Don and I lived when we were first married. Obviously the place has changed quite a bit in 25 years, but we managed to find a few familiar sites walking around the town. The Naval Base rules have changed and we aren´t allowed on, so we have to settle for staying in town. We are at a strange campground just at the edge of town where I swear we seem to be the only inhabitants, besides the young man at reception and two adorable six-month-old kittens who are very excited to have us for company. It´s going to be hard to leave them behind...
We will leave here tomorrow and spend a day in Sevilla, then Toledo, then Madrid where we will turn in the campervan - "Bill" - and come home. Kerstin, you knucklehead, please be careful!!! Kerstin and Ingrid, I never did get a chance to mail your Swedish stuff; I hope it is still okay. I think we will probably just buy another suitcase and check it and bring it with us. KRL - whew some big changes eh? Maybe jet lag will be the least of my problems when I get back ;) ! We are missing home and everyone there, but I for one am sad that the trip is coming to end. Once again, we are not able to post a picture, but between Nils and Don we probably have several thousand to put together for a pretty decent slideshow when we can catch our breath. Okay, so don´t know when/if I´ll be posting again. You all take care, and we´ll be seeing you soon. ¡Adios! KAT

So much to tell, so little time

Sorry it has been a while since the last posting. We are once again having to pay?!? for internet time, so no access to laptop and pictures right now. We are in Rome since last night (Tues) and a hard and expensive day of driving from Venice. Since the last post, we spent two nights in Garmisch on the military base there and had a nice dose of America for a bit. Thanks to Kathryn and Howard for showing us around! The Edelweiss Inn is where Nils will work if he can get hired. Unfortunately, the hiring guy was not around while we were there, but now Nils has some names to drop and knows of some actual job openings, so is pursuing the options more vigorously. It will be a nice place to visit him if he can get hired! It is beautiful, and we were mostly lucky with the weather. We drove from there to Venice - also beautiful - and as I said are now in Rome. We arrived at St. Peters just in time to catch the last of the Popes Wednesday audience, had some lunch and a crowded, quickish tour of the Vatican museums and Sistine Chapel - really beautiful!! - before arriving at the Basilica just in time for Mass at the chapel of the chair of Peter and gorgeous Holy Spirit window. Then we saw the Coliseum lit up for the evening and called it a night at the campground restaurant, with Alan even paying! What a great day!! The days are warm here but the nights are cold. How is the weather there? Two weeks left - we are starting to get homesick I think. See you all later. KAT

Guten tag!

Ho Hum...another day, another country. :) Doris, did I spell above right (not counting if there are any weird little symbol thingys to go above the letters)? We crossed the French border yesterday (Thurs) & entered Germany at Freidburg; we are just barely in Germany as the Swiss border is only a few kilometers away, but they want a lot of money to drive on their autobahns, plus they don't use Euro, so I think we will skip it. Anyway, we left Paris and drove south just a bit to Chartres for the magnificent cathedral there. Tweet, I lit a candle to St. Therese for you and have a pic of it. Then we only made it to a toll booth parking area just south west of Paris for the night as we could find no campgrounds. Also the express roads run roughly north/south into Paris and we were trying to get east to Germany, so the going was slow. But last night we stayed in a proper campground and had a proper dinner and hot showers. YAY! So today (Fri) we will try to get to Garmisch, to the military post there to mail some things home and for Nils to see if he can get the job he wants. We will try to squeeze in a visit to one of Ludwigs castles, then it's south to Italy. ~K

A post NOT from Karen

So I (and many, MANY pleading looks from my mother) thought that the blog needed an update from a different voice. Here ya go.

You've all read what we have done so far so I'll pick up from there.

DAY 1~

We'll start with the Louvre. Shnikeys...! I pretty much don't need to see anything old or famous again. They had so many famous paintings/sculptures/old stuff that I made the rule that unless it was REALLY famous (think Venus de Milo) or REALLY old (3000 years) I would only pay it a cursory glance. We stayed for 5 hours and saw maybe 1/3 of what they had. They need to share so other museums can have it and other people can see it without being exhasted.

Next stop, Champs-Eleesy (shaun-zal-ee-zay, blame the french) a touristy walk past a bunch of the uber expensive shops in Paris. Nice enough, Hagan-Daaz had it's own bar. The road leads to the Arc de Triumph, we got there just in time to see them renew the flame that burns at the French Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

DAY 2~

We got a bit of a later start today so it was a quick trip through Notre Dame de Paris. Wow. When the French build a church, they don't mess around. I can't describe it so I'll have to show pictures later. It was amazing.

After Notre Dame we all took a walk through the Latin Quarter, I haven't seen that many bookshops in one place EVER. It would have been trouble if I could have read the french. We ended the day on the elevator (well, in the LINE for the elevator) to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Paris' buildings are so close together, I didn't realize how dense the city was until I was above it.

I think that's enough for now. I'll leave something for my mom to post about. Miss everybody! Choir, I know you all are doing well and practicing lots, right? Do you have a replacement yet? No word from Germany, but since we're here I think I'll drop in tommorrow and see if I can't make some waves. ;) Thank you SO MUCH Caroline and I am really sorry I left the music in such a mess. Sorting it was the next thing on my to do list, but then we were on a plane and it was rather a moot issue. I hope you've found everything, if you have any questions let me know. See you all in November!

-N

Along the banks of the Seine

This will be a quick post because the keyboard is wacky: Also no access to our pic database; but will show something when using laptop. Got to Amsterdam fine & dandy, picked up RV and had an interesting visit to a coffeeshop...Visited Rijksmuseum & could have touched any number of Rembrandts with my fingertip if I wasnt afraid of getting arrested. Last night we tried to find our campground near Versailles...bad news! Signs & traffic not as friendly as the north country. Still we made our escape to a truck stop and found another in the town of Maison Lafitte. I think we will stay a few days to enjoy Paris & catch our breath. KRL enjoy the free food &Unshelved entertainment! Love receiving your comments; IBM we did hear about wolves in Sweden will tell you at home. Pat I forget to ask about my goldfish; r they ok? See you all in a bit: KAT

Airplane strike!?!

Well, as usual things turned out okay. But we had a bit of a scare when my cousin Goran told us that SAS ground crew were planning to strike beginning Oct. 5 if they couldn't reach an agreement. Our flight to Amsterdam was scheduled for that morning. With his help, we had made plans to go to an airport in Karlstad and maybe from there to Oslo to make sure we could get to Amsterdam to pick up the RV in time. But then we wake up Wednesday morning to a note from Goran that tells us everything is okay and we can go to Stockholm as planned. (Thanks for everything, Goran!) So we did go to Stockholm ... in the pouring rain. I had wanted to visit an open air museum called Skansen, where they have reconstructed old houses and people dress and work as they did hundreds of years ago. But with the confusion about where to go and the bad weather, we ended up instead at the Vasa museum. The Vasa was an old warship that sank in Stockholm harbor shortly after being launched (one of the few times Swedish engineering did not go so well, and anyhow it was built by some Dutchmen, so...). It was almost perfectly preserved in the muck and ooze in the harbor until they brought it up in the late 50's and have created this fascinating museum about it. And now we are in the last hotel room we will need for a while, since tomorrow (Thur) we will pick up our campervan and begin part two (or maybe part twenty?) of the trip.
The picture this time is from Kristinehamn; Nils is playing the organ in the big town church because our cousin Goran asked the caretaker if we could see it and he (the caretaker) took us everywhere around the church, including letting Nils play. It was sooo cool! I think this is the church my father and mother were married in in 1943 or 44. I have such a wonderful family in Sweden and everyone was so kind. Halsning til Orsa and Kristinehamn familian fran Don, Karen, Nils och Alan - this is probably bad Swedish, but I think you know how I mean to say hello and thank you again for your attention and caring for us.
Well, it is late and we have to be up in a few hours for our flight. So until next time... wish I could get someone else to write a little something, but not so far. ~K

In Sweden

We have been in Orsa, Sweden for 2 days now and I think we might have gained 10 pounds each...at least. Here is a family portrait...Lili, Ake, Kerstin, Don, Nils, Karen Alan. Ake is my cousin on my father's side & is married to Lili, a woman who cooks up a storm. We have had 3 squares plus "kaffe och bulle" (coffee and pastries) each day and now my pants fit a little more snugly. We have even had moose (hunted by Ake) and horse meat at some meals. Kerstin is another cousin who lived with Karen's family for a time in the 60's. We will really miss the delicious food when we move on. **Kerstin O. and Bibi - I am sending mesmor in a tube, and Salubrin spray, along with some Lackerol and one tube of Senaps mustard as soon as I can get to a post office. *** KRL - I missed sending the postcard from Ireland; maybe I can get it sent this week from Sweden or Amsterdam. Ake and Lili have been so good to us. We hope to find some Svensson family (Karen's moms side) tomorrow. I will hope to post from Stockholm next. It is so good to be with family here; I wish we could stay much longer. But now we are in touch and hope to have lots more visits in the future. Bye for now. ~K

P.S. Keep the comments coming - we really enjoy them!!

Ireland Castle

I'm a little behind, so I will do this in two posts. This is a picture of Ross Castle, which is the 500+ year old castle we stayed in outside of Dublin. Don and I stayed in the upstairs tower bedroom - the highest room in the house. The castle is supposedly haunted, though we didn't have any scary encounters. It has several bedrooms and typically on a weekend we would have had to share the place with one or more other groups, but since it was midweek we had the whole place to ourselves. The caretaker is the niece of the Canadian man who owns it and she lives on a farm some kilometers away; so we really were there all on our own. It is hard to explain what it is like to stay in a place that old and legendary. Alan took a 40-minute video walking all through, so we will have to save that somewhere for people who are interested. It was seriously cool! Then we had to hurry back to Dublin airport (the last of having to drive on the wrong side of the road! YAY!) to catch our flight to Stockholm. Next post "fran Sverige." ~K

From Dublin, via York

Well, we lost a post somewhere in there. It was up briefly, but when we tried to add a picture it went away!? The post was from York to tell you how lovely it was there. The Minster (big cathedral) is amazing. We drove to Manchester that evening and stayed at a hotel near the airport in order to catch our flight to Dublin. We've been here two days are are on the way to pick up a rental car and drive out to our castle rooms for a stay in the Irish countryside before catching a plane to Stockholm tomorrow am (Friday). Pretty much everyone here says to get out of Dublin to see Ireland. Poor Don has to keep up the wrong-side driving though.

A note to let those who send comments know -- we are the only ones who will see your name. All the public sees is how many comments have been posted. So it's okay to post as "other" rather than anonymous. Or put your name with your post, because otherwise we don't have any way but guessing to know who the comments are from. And by the way, we love getting them. It's very cheering to know the blog is being read.

KRL - I'm sending a postcard. Keep an eye out in a week or two. ~K

Long Post, sorry!

Haven’t had a chance to post for a bit. We are in York today, the 25^th. We spent our last days in London at the Tower (in the pouring rain), had fish ‘n chips for lunch, then walked what seemed a mile through subway tunnels to get to St. Paul’s just too late to get in before evensong preparations. So then we fought London rush hour human traffic to make our way to the British Library an hour before closing; fabulous, but we needed more time there. Next day, we went to the Victoria & Albert museum in the morning; again, an amazing place with much more to see than we could possibly do in the 3 hours we had. Picked up the rental car Saturday afternoon and had a very tense time finding our way away from Heathrow on THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD! Don is amazing though and we have survived and only been honked at twice. We found our way to Avebury, which is another ancient stone placement site like Stonehenge, but not as showy. Also, not as touristy according to my reading, and you can walk right amongst the stones which you can’t at Stonehenge. We were actually planning to go to Stonehenge, but when we found ourselves on the right road for Avebury, we decided to go there for easiness sake. It was fun too as we happened to get there shortly before sunset. I don’t know if it was because it was the weekend right after the fall equinox or just because it was the weekend, but there was a group arriving with robes and musical instruments and, in one case, a guy with deer antlers on his helmet. Kind of fun, but we decided to move on. Originally, I had planned for us to visit Cambridge, but it was too late to go that far. But we weren’t far from Oxford, so we tried to find a room, and tried and tried. No luck. We ended up at a Days Inn and even that was full, but they sent us up the highway to a rest stop near Stratford on Avon and another Days Inn and we ate Burger King!? for dinner. There are very nice rest stops in England. But these roundabouts can be a bit scary if you’re trying to read the signs and not get hit or be hit by others. Also, people park in the middle of the road if they feel like it. Anyhoo, after a very brief drive through Stratford, we settled on going into the Cotswolds, to Chipping Campden. Had lunch in a lovely little tea shop in the High Street and then a walk through the sheep pastures on the public rights of way. The weather has been quite nice for us, except at the Tower of London. Then back on the highway to make our way to York. We decided to do the highway rest stop thing again because the driving really is hard on Don and they are convenient and cheaper for a family of four. We made it as far as Mansfield before getting stuck in a traffic jam behind a several car pile-up and fire. So we are in a slightly nicer room in another rest stop on the M1 and will hopefully have a good day in York today before heading to Manchester and flying out early to Dublin tomorrow (Tues). See you later, or rather, cheerio!

Welcome from W. Kensington/London

Good morning (cheerio)! We had a seriously exhausting day yesterday; but we are here and I think ready to go. Rainbow, it is 8 hours ahead here. :) Thanks to family for the breathing advice. I will try to remember, but I am blonde after all. Saw Parliament, London Eye, Westminster Abbey last night (all from the outside). Will try to get inside some places today, (British Library, Tower of London) plus some shopping. We have pictures, but no chance to download just now. Hope to soon. Love, K

The beginning

Today's the day we leave. Things are mostly done, sorta. We are kinda packed. Let's just say we've been a sterling example of how NOT to prepare for an extended vacation! See you on the other side of the water...(in Bremerton, that means over in Seattle, but now for us it means across the Atlantic...woohoo!). ~K

Mom's Not-So-Silent Scream

I'm starting to hit the wall. There's been so much pressure to finish the stuff with the house and the paperwork, the laundry's piled up, no one's had a nice meal in a couple of weeks, I worry about the dog and I'm not getting enough sleep. I ran a 4-way stop tonight that I use every day -- thanks to guardian angels and the person in the car who didn't just go, even though he could have. I've got to settle down...most of the booking is done and what isn't can be handled when we get there. We have some very cool stuff arranged, and time to do cool stuff that isn't arranged. Work has been very mellow, and Don is able to work on the house full-time right now. So, I know it'll all be good, but meantime ... AAHHH!!! So speaking of not getting enought sleep, what am I still doing up at flippin' midnite?! Goodnight -- the one week countdown begins! ~K

15 days. I hope we survive.

Hey all, this would be Nils. I just wanted to ask everyone to please pray for us. Stress levels are high as we try to finish painting our house before we leave (we may just make it. just.) and there is not enough time for a chill pill. SO, pray for us please because we may be to busy to pray for ourselves.



WooHoo, can't wait................!

Just practicing

So here we go, we've got two weeks and 4 days until we leave for Europe. Trying out this blog spot to see if it will work for keeping in touch. Pray for us!