Next stop--Helsingborg to see relatives such as Olivia, Catherine, Gunnel, and Gosta.
Åsa had to work this morning, so we said goodbye early
and had a rather sleepy morning and then a great breakfast made by David.
We are really loving the Swedish breakfasts with musli and filmjölk and Carina's favorite Nutella on toast. She wants to smuggle in a jar of Nutella when we fly home, and I some filmjölk, and Robby, well . . . of course! O'Boy!
David accompanied us on the bus to the train station to make sure we got where we needed to be, and once again it was gray skies all day and rain. We found out that the latest Harry Potter film premieres in Sweden the night before we leave. We wondered whether it would alos be playing in Copenhagen where we'll be July 13th.
Sweden has had so much rain lately that many train and bus schedules have been interrupted, and there have actually been cars stuck in huge puddles, and one person who actually drowned. Apparently, there was a huge rock concert in Denmark that has been disastrous because of the rain.
Pictures in the media have likened it to Woodstock. In the train station, I noticed this ad for the daily paper, Aftonbladet. It says that the meterologists predict that July will from now on be very sunny. Ha!Robby and I passed the time in the train playing our repetoire of card games, and once again, we were fortunate not have to change seats all the way to Helsingborg, our destination 3 hours away even though people all around us had to move every so often. We arrived in Ramlösa, a suburb of Helsingborg, around 4:30. Sven, my distant cousin Rose-Marie's husband, picked us up at the train station, and we set off for their house. Rose-Marie and Katherine's (her sister) grandmother and my grandma Elsie were sisters. I first met them when I was nine and traveled to Sweden with Grandma Elsie in 1963. I have so many fond memories of both of them from playing in their lekstuga (play house) when I was little to trips to visit them and their mother and grandmother with Dad, Mom, Chris, and Scott in 1967, to sleeping on Rose-Marie and Sven's kitchen floor in 1973 when an old boyfriend and I traveled together in Sweden to our most recent family trips to Sweden as a family in 2002 and spending a real Swedish midsommar with them at Katherine's in 2006.
We had fika and soon Rose-Marie's sister Katherine arrived with their mother, Gunnell and husband Gösta, and Katherine's two children Edvin and Olivia. We had an amazing dinner of salmon and Swedish meatballs. Robby, Edvin, and Rose-Marie and Sven's son Joakim disappeared for the rest of the night to play video games
while the rest of us caught up on old times. We stayed up late looking at pictures on my iPod projected onto their TV of Grandma Elsie and their grandma Dorothy in the 1930's and of us girls when we were little. They had burned the home movies Gösta had taken in 1967 of our family's visit to Gunnell and Gösta's house. It was really fun to visit with them, and right in the middle of the visit Scott called! Katie got home just fine, Sherry had visited the doctor and found out a due date for the new Wallenberg baby coming (Jan. 31st), and he got a chance to visit with Gunnell and Rose-Marie on the phone--serendipity. 
We spent the rest of the evening chatting about travels, Sjölunden, and living with teenagers and common frustrations such as screen time, sibling rivalries, teasing as well as where Boise, Arizona, Bemidji, Landskrona, and Hven were located.
We certainly have a lot in common the world over when it comes to some of these topics. It feels great to be here!
No comments:
Post a Comment