Ok, I don't think there will be enough time to do any more blogging, and besides, not much happened today, we decided to take it easy on our last day in Sweden so that we'll be all ready to go back to the old routine.
Congratulations to our grand winner, Mrs Passero who came in from nowhere like an underdog :) I sense there are genuine Swedish fish in her future.
As for all our other contestants, there will be prizes all around. Not as fancy as the grand prize of course, but I am sure no one will be disappointed.
That is, if the plane makes it... :)
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Bethel visit
Wednesday:
For now I have no pictures, we forgot our camera in the apartment. I'll see if that changes when Micah wakes up.
For once, everyone got going almost on time, so we made it to Bethel just a few minutes late. My dad's old Bethel-buddy was waiting for us, and his wife was going to give the tour.
Sweden used to have their own printery, but it ended up getting moved (Question: Where did the printing of the magazines get moved?) because Swedish tax-laws turned Swedish Bethelites into the most expensive Bethelites in the world. Now the family consists of only 80 and many of those are really old. Talking about really old. They had a museum showing off some of the old equipment they used for printing the magazines, and the oldest looking one was the machine my dad used to work on when he lived at Bethel... I said they should make a wax figure of him to stand next to it.
We had lunch with the Bethel family, and got to see some old friends that we haven't met for years. It was nice to catch up a bit, and funny to see how some have gotten old... but then again, so have we. :)
There is a really nice gazebo outside of the Bethel home where they have a pond full of goldfish and a fire-heated brick pizza-oven.
After lunch we drove to Örebro, which is a bigger city about 30 minutes away from Nora. There we met with Sanna, Sam's sister and her kid for some adventure miniature golf. They had a pretty cool course made up of different landmarks around the city.
Sam ended up winning, finishing right on par, with the rest of us trailing in more or less successful ways.
We decided to eat some Chinese, but ended up in a Thai
restaurant, which was actually awesome. It was a buffet, but all the meat and vegetables were raw, so you brought them up to the cooks, and you got to watch them make it. Everyone loved it. Sam even found an elephant to ride on. The only downside to the place was the waiter... or waitress... well you get the idea. I think we ended up deciding that it was just a male with make-up and a pony-tail.
Back at the apartment most everyone fell into a food-induced coma, but my sisters and I played a game of Carcassonne, a board game that was a bunch of fun.
Time is running out...
For now I have no pictures, we forgot our camera in the apartment. I'll see if that changes when Micah wakes up.
For once, everyone got going almost on time, so we made it to Bethel just a few minutes late. My dad's old Bethel-buddy was waiting for us, and his wife was going to give the tour.
Sweden used to have their own printery, but it ended up getting moved (Question: Where did the printing of the magazines get moved?) because Swedish tax-laws turned Swedish Bethelites into the most expensive Bethelites in the world. Now the family consists of only 80 and many of those are really old. Talking about really old. They had a museum showing off some of the old equipment they used for printing the magazines, and the oldest looking one was the machine my dad used to work on when he lived at Bethel... I said they should make a wax figure of him to stand next to it.
We had lunch with the Bethel family, and got to see some old friends that we haven't met for years. It was nice to catch up a bit, and funny to see how some have gotten old... but then again, so have we. :)
There is a really nice gazebo outside of the Bethel home where they have a pond full of goldfish and a fire-heated brick pizza-oven.After lunch we drove to Örebro, which is a bigger city about 30 minutes away from Nora. There we met with Sanna, Sam's sister and her kid for some adventure miniature golf. They had a pretty cool course made up of different landmarks around the city.
Sam ended up winning, finishing right on par, with the rest of us trailing in more or less successful ways.We decided to eat some Chinese, but ended up in a Thai
restaurant, which was actually awesome. It was a buffet, but all the meat and vegetables were raw, so you brought them up to the cooks, and you got to watch them make it. Everyone loved it. Sam even found an elephant to ride on. The only downside to the place was the waiter... or waitress... well you get the idea. I think we ended up deciding that it was just a male with make-up and a pony-tail.
Back at the apartment most everyone fell into a food-induced coma, but my sisters and I played a game of Carcassonne, a board game that was a bunch of fun.
Time is running out...
Seeing the sights
Late, again...
Tuesday:
Nora is a really old-fashioned town, most roads are cobble-stone, and they have stores selling random knick-knacks on every corner, which of course the girls loved. We had planned to go out in service, but the problem is coordinating a big crew of random people. We ended up getting out really late, and not staying out too long, but we had a good time, mostly doing return-visits and also some street witnessing. I tried leaving a tract with a Finnish lady, but she told me her eyes were too bad to read, and I couldn't stay around to read it to her, so she got off easy.
After a quick lunch, Sam brought us out to a mountain in the middle
of nowhere where they have a nice spot for a great view. He even had some binoculars for us to use to see the sights.
Since Micah has been complaining I only put pictures of him on here where he looks silly, I'll put a nice one on...
On the way down the mountain we took
some pictures of this restaurant where I'm sure Jon would enjoy stopping for breaks. It looks like it's just up his alley.
Nora has a veteran railway for tourists to travel. They have all kinds
of locomotives standing around, which I thought was kind of cool, but Hannah got bored and decided to end it right there.
Kathryn was trying to pose hanging off of one of the locomotives, but she had some kind of balance issues, so
her posing turned into swinging mostly.
Back at the apartment, we ordered pizza, and everyone ate to their hearts content. They had some interesting options. Hannah got one with kebab meat, garlic sauce, lettuce, tomato, cucumber and FRIES. It looked like the most unhealthy pizza I had ever seen, and I wasn't too impressed with the flavor, but she liked it. There was also a nacho one, where they had a bunch of nacho chips standing up on top of the pizza. I was intrigued, but too chicken to try it :)
I just had taco-spiced chicken with jalapenos.
Today's question: When did the railway used as a museum in Nora open, and what was special about it?
Tuesday:
Nora is a really old-fashioned town, most roads are cobble-stone, and they have stores selling random knick-knacks on every corner, which of course the girls loved. We had planned to go out in service, but the problem is coordinating a big crew of random people. We ended up getting out really late, and not staying out too long, but we had a good time, mostly doing return-visits and also some street witnessing. I tried leaving a tract with a Finnish lady, but she told me her eyes were too bad to read, and I couldn't stay around to read it to her, so she got off easy.
After a quick lunch, Sam brought us out to a mountain in the middle
of nowhere where they have a nice spot for a great view. He even had some binoculars for us to use to see the sights.Since Micah has been complaining I only put pictures of him on here where he looks silly, I'll put a nice one on...
On the way down the mountain we took
some pictures of this restaurant where I'm sure Jon would enjoy stopping for breaks. It looks like it's just up his alley.Nora has a veteran railway for tourists to travel. They have all kinds
of locomotives standing around, which I thought was kind of cool, but Hannah got bored and decided to end it right there.Kathryn was trying to pose hanging off of one of the locomotives, but she had some kind of balance issues, so
her posing turned into swinging mostly.Back at the apartment, we ordered pizza, and everyone ate to their hearts content. They had some interesting options. Hannah got one with kebab meat, garlic sauce, lettuce, tomato, cucumber and FRIES. It looked like the most unhealthy pizza I had ever seen, and I wasn't too impressed with the flavor, but she liked it. There was also a nacho one, where they had a bunch of nacho chips standing up on top of the pizza. I was intrigued, but too chicken to try it :)
I just had taco-spiced chicken with jalapenos.Today's question: When did the railway used as a museum in Nora open, and what was special about it?
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Nora
Sorry about the layout of this days blog, I didn't have any pics of my own really, and using Micah's from his website got them all over the place.
We woke up semi-refreshed and ready for some adventure. There is a place we have been telling Kristine about where you can swim in an abandoned Lime-mine, and she wanted to go there today. It is in a beautiful spot, but the weather wasn't as good as we were hoping. We still drove out there, and walked up into the forest where the lake is.
There were no people at all at the lake, so we had an idea of how cold it would be, only it was a bit worse than we thought :)
We actually braved the cold water, and the sharp pebbles on the lake floor, and after you lost all
feeling in your body from the cold, it was quite nice.
We also climbed up on top of the ladder that leads to the cliffs surrounding the lake to get a nice view of the whole thing.
After we made it back and got warmed up, we went for a stroll through the streets of Nora. The girls found all kinds of little stores where they picked up trinkets and junk. :)
We ended the evening with a cozy bbq in the backyard.
For today's question: Each Landskap (you'll have to look that one up, I'm too tired :) in Sweden has a flower. What Landskap is Nora in, and what flower is the Landskaps flower?
We woke up semi-refreshed and ready for some adventure. There is a place we have been telling Kristine about where you can swim in an abandoned Lime-mine, and she wanted to go there today. It is in a beautiful spot, but the weather wasn't as good as we were hoping. We still drove out there, and walked up into the forest where the lake is.There were no people at all at the lake, so we had an idea of how cold it would be, only it was a bit worse than we thought :)
We actually braved the cold water, and the sharp pebbles on the lake floor, and after you lost all
feeling in your body from the cold, it was quite nice.We also climbed up on top of the ladder that leads to the cliffs surrounding the lake to get a nice view of the whole thing.
After we made it back and got warmed up, we went for a stroll through the streets of Nora. The girls found all kinds of little stores where they picked up trinkets and junk. :)
We ended the evening with a cozy bbq in the backyard.
For today's question: Each Landskap (you'll have to look that one up, I'm too tired :) in Sweden has a flower. What Landskap is Nora in, and what flower is the Landskaps flower?
Monday, August 16, 2010
Travel again
So we had to spend a day driving again... it was getting old, so we decided to take a very leisurely drive with plenty of stops... or should I say, someones bladder decided that, I won't say any names because she gets really cranky when I make fun of her.
We started our trip with breakfast at my cousin Ola's place. He has a beautiful place that he designed all by himself, and it has all the bells and whistles in it. The area in which he built it has a limitation on how big the buildings can be, so most houses have kind of a square shape to them, but they put their bedroom and a gigantic bathroom underground, the kitchen on the ground floor and the living room on the top floor, so the place has all the space you need, and it's gorgeous.
We had a brunch of sorts. Ola's neighbors are opening up an ice-cream store, so they have a professional ice-cream maker and a fast freezer that they let him use, so he made some raspberry and blueberry ice-cream for us to have with Swedish pancakes (you'll recognize them as crêpes)
You'll notice that Micah entered something similar to a religious fervor when the table was spread... but we all dug in 
with a healthy appetite and felt a little disgusted with ourselves afterward for finishing everything so quickly. :)
We headed up the road north for 3 hours or so and made it to Gränna. It's a small scenic town on the shore of Sweden's second largest lake (Question: What is the name of the lake, and what is the name of the largest lake that is right next door?)
We got a little bit of rain, and we didn't get the windshield wipers fixed yet,
so here's a picture of me trying to find an exit with pouring rain and no wipers...
Gränna is famous for its polkagrisar. We didn't bring the camera, so head over to Micah's pix to check it out. If you forgot it, the address is It is a kind of peppermint candy-canes that they manufacture right in front of you in many stores there. We decided to stroll the streets for a while, and then we ate our dinner there. Dad was in a rush (what's new? :) and headed North ahead of us, only to get stuck in a traffic jam for an hour, so we ended up checking out a ruin that is on the cliff face right above the town of Gränna.
(Bonus Question: What is the name of the building, and why was it built? 5 points for first correct answer!)
The view from there was beautiful, if it only had some more walls and windows we'd move in.
You could almost imagine a fair maiden, sitting on the windowsill, looking out over the lake for her young prince.
We backtracked a bit to take the scenic route on a road going through Gränna and avoided the whole traffic jam. We ended up getting to Nora where my sister Bitja lives and where we're spending the last few day's of our vacation... it's getting close to the end :(
We started our trip with breakfast at my cousin Ola's place. He has a beautiful place that he designed all by himself, and it has all the bells and whistles in it. The area in which he built it has a limitation on how big the buildings can be, so most houses have kind of a square shape to them, but they put their bedroom and a gigantic bathroom underground, the kitchen on the ground floor and the living room on the top floor, so the place has all the space you need, and it's gorgeous.
We had a brunch of sorts. Ola's neighbors are opening up an ice-cream store, so they have a professional ice-cream maker and a fast freezer that they let him use, so he made some raspberry and blueberry ice-cream for us to have with Swedish pancakes (you'll recognize them as crêpes)
You'll notice that Micah entered something similar to a religious fervor when the table was spread... but we all dug in 
with a healthy appetite and felt a little disgusted with ourselves afterward for finishing everything so quickly. :)We headed up the road north for 3 hours or so and made it to Gränna. It's a small scenic town on the shore of Sweden's second largest lake (Question: What is the name of the lake, and what is the name of the largest lake that is right next door?)
We got a little bit of rain, and we didn't get the windshield wipers fixed yet,
so here's a picture of me trying to find an exit with pouring rain and no wipers...Gränna is famous for its polkagrisar. We didn't bring the camera, so head over to Micah's pix to check it out. If you forgot it, the address is It is a kind of peppermint candy-canes that they manufacture right in front of you in many stores there. We decided to stroll the streets for a while, and then we ate our dinner there. Dad was in a rush (what's new? :) and headed North ahead of us, only to get stuck in a traffic jam for an hour, so we ended up checking out a ruin that is on the cliff face right above the town of Gränna.
(Bonus Question: What is the name of the building, and why was it built? 5 points for first correct answer!)The view from there was beautiful, if it only had some more walls and windows we'd move in.
You could almost imagine a fair maiden, sitting on the windowsill, looking out over the lake for her young prince.We backtracked a bit to take the scenic route on a road going through Gränna and avoided the whole traffic jam. We ended up getting to Nora where my sister Bitja lives and where we're spending the last few day's of our vacation... it's getting close to the end :(
Sunday, August 15, 2010
København #2
Saturday:
We had a breakfast that was falling over the edges of the table. So much stuff, and so little time to eat it all. Kirsten is such a gracious hostess, much unlike her local Amsterdam namesake...
We were going to go to the local English congregation for the meeting, since we probably wouldn't get anything out of the Spanish meeting that the Jackmans go to,
and it was convenient since they both meet in the same hall at the same time. We got them to pose for a nice picture inside of the Hall.
The plan was to see some more sights in Kopenhagen during the day, but time ended up running away from us, so we only had time for a hot-dog from one of the local stands (great dogs by the way :) (Question: What is the danish word for a hot dog in a bun?) and then some ice-cream from a shop called parad-is (which is danish for paradise, and at the same time it means parade-ice... they're pretty funny them Danes :)
The meeting was interesting, since there are all kinds of accents going on at the same time. Filipino, Danish, Irish (he conducted the watchtower... funny guy :) Swedish (that was me and my sisters :) Upstate NY (Yall know who that is) and some that were just plain weird. The congregation was very active, and I'm sure they could use a young couple from the states to help out :)
The Kingdom Hall they meet in is very beautiful. Very bright and clean.
There are 2 full size auditoriums on top of each other, one smaller one on top that seated about 40-50 and then a mini one in the basement that John said was used as an auxiliary classroom before, but a lot of the foreign brothers said they felt like they were in prison when they were there, so they stopped using it.
We spent the evening after the meeting getting soaked, as the rain started pouring really heavy. Fortunately our plans just consisted of traveling to a restaurant called riz-raz, which was pretty close to the bus-stop going from the hall.
We still had time to get wet to the bone, but we were all laughing anyways.
The food was more aimed at the female crowd it seems, since Micah and I weren't as wowed as the ladies were. They had a buffet with all vegetarian things that we all tried, and the food was good, but personally I didn't think it was anything special.
After saying our farewells to the Jackmans, we headed back to the train and then the ferry for a pretty late return to our house in Helsingborg, and the longed for bed.
We had a breakfast that was falling over the edges of the table. So much stuff, and so little time to eat it all. Kirsten is such a gracious hostess, much unlike her local Amsterdam namesake...
We were going to go to the local English congregation for the meeting, since we probably wouldn't get anything out of the Spanish meeting that the Jackmans go to,
and it was convenient since they both meet in the same hall at the same time. We got them to pose for a nice picture inside of the Hall.The plan was to see some more sights in Kopenhagen during the day, but time ended up running away from us, so we only had time for a hot-dog from one of the local stands (great dogs by the way :) (Question: What is the danish word for a hot dog in a bun?) and then some ice-cream from a shop called parad-is (which is danish for paradise, and at the same time it means parade-ice... they're pretty funny them Danes :)
The meeting was interesting, since there are all kinds of accents going on at the same time. Filipino, Danish, Irish (he conducted the watchtower... funny guy :) Swedish (that was me and my sisters :) Upstate NY (Yall know who that is) and some that were just plain weird. The congregation was very active, and I'm sure they could use a young couple from the states to help out :)
The Kingdom Hall they meet in is very beautiful. Very bright and clean.
There are 2 full size auditoriums on top of each other, one smaller one on top that seated about 40-50 and then a mini one in the basement that John said was used as an auxiliary classroom before, but a lot of the foreign brothers said they felt like they were in prison when they were there, so they stopped using it.
We spent the evening after the meeting getting soaked, as the rain started pouring really heavy. Fortunately our plans just consisted of traveling to a restaurant called riz-raz, which was pretty close to the bus-stop going from the hall.
We still had time to get wet to the bone, but we were all laughing anyways.
The food was more aimed at the female crowd it seems, since Micah and I weren't as wowed as the ladies were. They had a buffet with all vegetarian things that we all tried, and the food was good, but personally I didn't think it was anything special.After saying our farewells to the Jackmans, we headed back to the train and then the ferry for a pretty late return to our house in Helsingborg, and the longed for bed.
København #1
I've fallen Behind again... here comes the updates.
Friday:
We were going to meet some old friends of Kathryn's family today, the Jackmans. They have been in Bethel, Gilead and other stuff together, and they're a really nice couple. They just made us come stay with them, so we started the morning with travel across the watery border to Denmark.
There is a bridge across, but it's actually cheaper to cross on a ferry, so that's what we went for.
The ride only takes 20 minutes, and they have a tax-free shop on board, so it's worth the risk of nausea :)
After an hour or so on the train, (and quite a bit of confusion about what tickets to get and what train to take) we actually made it there.
We took a picture of one of the neighbor houses, because we figured Karin would like their garden.
Kirsten had prepared a mound of lunch-meat and bread for us, and everything was delicious.
After that we headed over to Copenhagen central for a guided tour by John, our host.
First he took us on a boat tour around the canals in the city, where we could see all the sites. There were some very beautiful buildings, and they all had stories.
They had a naval anniversary, and ships from all around the world were there. One of them was this Italian school vessel. (Question: If you notice the name of the ship, there is the name of a person on there. Who was he? If you have to look it up, please admit it so I can give you negative points instead.)
After the boat returned, John walked us around town a bit more so we could see some things that you couldn't catch from the boat. On example was this church with a well known name on it. Apparently Kristian IV was a very religious king, and he built many buildings in Copenhagen, many of which had Jehovah's name on them.
He also built a round observatory tower in which you could drive all the way to the top with your chariot. We had to walk all the way, but we're in great shape (besides me having a knee that hurts, and Micah being worn out by Kristine's cousins.)
It was worth all the trouble, because the view from up there is amazing.
After my parents left us (my dad has a phobia about sleeping in places where he hasn't been or something... don't ask me to explain) we headed back to the Jackmans for a delicious meat loaf with plenty of fixings. We all stuffed ourselves silly.
Friday:
We were going to meet some old friends of Kathryn's family today, the Jackmans. They have been in Bethel, Gilead and other stuff together, and they're a really nice couple. They just made us come stay with them, so we started the morning with travel across the watery border to Denmark.
There is a bridge across, but it's actually cheaper to cross on a ferry, so that's what we went for.
The ride only takes 20 minutes, and they have a tax-free shop on board, so it's worth the risk of nausea :)
After an hour or so on the train, (and quite a bit of confusion about what tickets to get and what train to take) we actually made it there.We took a picture of one of the neighbor houses, because we figured Karin would like their garden.
Kirsten had prepared a mound of lunch-meat and bread for us, and everything was delicious.
After that we headed over to Copenhagen central for a guided tour by John, our host.First he took us on a boat tour around the canals in the city, where we could see all the sites. There were some very beautiful buildings, and they all had stories.
They had a naval anniversary, and ships from all around the world were there. One of them was this Italian school vessel. (Question: If you notice the name of the ship, there is the name of a person on there. Who was he? If you have to look it up, please admit it so I can give you negative points instead.)
After the boat returned, John walked us around town a bit more so we could see some things that you couldn't catch from the boat. On example was this church with a well known name on it. Apparently Kristian IV was a very religious king, and he built many buildings in Copenhagen, many of which had Jehovah's name on them.He also built a round observatory tower in which you could drive all the way to the top with your chariot. We had to walk all the way, but we're in great shape (besides me having a knee that hurts, and Micah being worn out by Kristine's cousins.)
It was worth all the trouble, because the view from up there is amazing.
After my parents left us (my dad has a phobia about sleeping in places where he hasn't been or something... don't ask me to explain) we headed back to the Jackmans for a delicious meat loaf with plenty of fixings. We all stuffed ourselves silly.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)