Post 150 - Wandering Sweden - Part 2

      We headed north along the coast, and stopped for a National Park. It was all fogged in, but we could only imagine what beautiful sights we would have seen. We must find a B&B tonight, rumor had it they were cheaper. Barbara's rented cell phone, one we could also call home with, was messed up. One could barely hear. Plus, the ladies at the B&B's were speaking only partial English, so we didn't have very good directions, but we got a town name. We walked into a service station, manned by a good looking tall, blonde young man, of course, and he found it quickly on his computer, and printed us off a map. We drove right to it. The lady at the farm was in her 70's, very nice. She even lowered her price into our budget range, when she saw us. (Clean, well groomed.)

      She told us thousands of Swedes, during the 1800's were running out of land. Farming was the way they lived, and after you divide a farm half a dozen ways just so many times, something's gotta give. Hearing about homestead land in America, these now well off people, looking toward their children and grand children's future, sold it all, and went. We heard many stories along that line, and they all had some things in common. They went to the north, with climate similar to here, (70 degrees in the summer) and they were adapted to the cold. They all told of visiting their kin in America, with nary a story about a return visit. I guess most of us Americans just like to stay home, like my family did, when they got settled. And, they already knew what Sweden looked like. When they showed the first homes of the emigrants, it was invariably a small log cabin in the wilderness, beset by Indian raiders. Those older folks gave up an awful lot, leaving this beautiful land so their offspring would have room to expand later.

      Our room was fine, shower in the basement. The lady came in later with half a five gallon bucket full of mushrooms she had picked. This was a good year, with a lot of rain. She made a great mushroom quiche. That was a wonderful little farm, full of loaded fruit trees and weird looking cattle.

      On the road, The mushrooms had a quick effect on Barbara, and she quickly needed a bathroom. Excuse me, a toilet. That's the word here. Anyway, the sign showed a cafe was ahead, but I located a nice, wooded pull out for her, just in case. The cafe was closed, so I quickly ran back to that nice little pull out, with a well worn path into the thick woods. Barbara was hesitant, but I told her to get use to it, I expected many more little woods paths in our future. And many didn't have the nice woods, just open both doors on one side, make our own toilet. At least, three sides of one. Cuts down the chances of peekers 75%.

      We got word there was a convent stay ahead, and who could resist spending a night with the nuns? But the hotel was behind the convent, with no chance to talk to the nuns, and $200 +. Now, seeing a nun was not worth that much, and we had already talked to the nun trying to rent us a stay, so we settled for that and forged on.

      We found if we put the phone on speaker, one could actually hear. Not just that tinny rattle. So we found a little B&B, $120, and booked it for two days, to rest up and wash clothes.

      Heading on north, we were bound for Stockholm. A big city, and I dreaded it. My fears were well justified. We made 3 loops through the city trying to follow directions to a ship in the harbor made into a hostel, then wandered around lost for a while, knowing nothing about the road signs with those long, strange words, or the customs of the road. Many people tried to help us learn, with their hand signals and honking, but I'm a slow learner. We finally found a road north, and got out of there.

      Many miles north, we found a hotel, looks about like $80. but no, $217. Free breakfast, and we were experts at turning a free breakfast into a meal that would last all day. It also had internet.

      Up for the big breakfast early, we thought we were too early, because the dining room was absolutely silent. When we opened the door, it was filled with at least 100 construction workers, absolutely silent, eating with not even any crunching sounds. These are really quiet, civilized people. In the US, that many construction workers in one room would have at least two or three fist fights going, along with a ton of loud swear words. Perfect gentlemen.

Continued.      Thanks for reading!  Heading for the Gillum Reunion today. Maybe I can get a story out of that. I can guarantee you, you will NOT find a large group of Gillums eating with nary a sound! I may need ear plugs!:)