This morning Katie and I got up early to get her to the train station. Michael and Lena were about to start a week's vacation, so they had to put in a full day's work, so their oldest son Andreas brought us to the train station. Katie had three train connections to make to try to make it back in time for Tom's last soccer game of the season. It would have been so nice to have her here one more day so we could drive up to Lake Siljan where the towns of Rättvik and Leksand are--probably, in my opinion, the most beautiful part of Sweden. This area is truly why the province of Dalarna is known as "the heart of Sweden." There is also the Dalahorse factories I would have liked for her to see, too. She made the train in time, so Andreas took me back to Michael's and went back to sleep.
We had planned to travel to Uppsala today to see the town of the university where I studied Ethnology in 1973-4, but we asked Michael if we could stay another day just to have a day to wind down, relax, and take a break from sightseeing. Well, we slept in until almost 1:30! It is amazing what tricks this lightness outside does. I was up late writing the blog last night, and at 3:00 a.m. the sun was starting to rise. There truly was only about 2 hours of almost complete darkness. Actually, I don't think at this time of year up here in Dalarna it is ever as dark as what we would normally describe as a dark night.
After "breakfast" about 2:00, we decided on a little adventure. We took a bus to Cupola, which is a dome shaped shopping mall, apparently the first shopping mall built in Sweden years ago with 80 stores.
We did some personal and souvenir shopping and even took a coffee break and a stop to feed the ever-hungry Robby at McDonald's.
The mall was packed with Peace and Love concert goers who were taking a break from the bands and looking for a bit of cover because it began to rain. What we didn't know then (Michael informed us at dinner) is that this is also a "paycheck weekend," when most of the Swedes are paid, too. So, that added to the crowds. Carina bought her third pair of Swedish shoes, and I stocked up on Pippi Långstrump bedding and Dala-horses. Robby peeked in a few electronics stores but is looking for a store that sells Apple computer games--very hard to find.
We waited ages for the bus back and had apparently just missed one and walked home from the bus stop in rain. Michael and Lena fixed us a fabulous smörgåsbord type of dinner--salmon, Swedish meatballs, sausages, salad, veggies, and more.
We spent the rest of the evening drinking coffee, filling in more "holes" in the family tree, looking at the Sjölunden Swedish camp website (Sofia may be interested in working there), and looking at amazing pictures of their family's 3 week vacation in Thailand last November. Great day to regroup and re-energize for a trip to Stockholm tomorrow.
By the way, Carina has started her own blog! To check it out, click the following URL (if that works) or copy and paste the URL here into your browser: http://web.mac.com/lwallenberg/iWeb/Site/Welcome.html
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