Genealogy Day

Tami and Wynn went on a sojourn of their own and traveled to her great grand father’s village of Skillinge and connected to her 12.5 percent heritage. Luckily Wynn inherited the navigational gene (Tami headed for the bus instead of the train to start the trip).

According to Tami “Skillinge is an old, quaint fishing village where they felt at home- country mice that they are.”

I spent most of the morning in the Malmo library, where much to my surprise, everything was in Swedish – go figure. But I was able to find a detailed map book and found most of the cities listed on my genealogy chart, not to mention the correct Swedish spelling of names mangled over a couple of generations of Ameriglish.

After some help from the hotel front desk staff via some non-English speaking cousins, I spoke with my third cousin once removed or maybe twice removed, not sure yet – we are still trying to figure that out. It was interesting to realize that there is an alternative universe of folks my grand parents left behind... More once Marie Perrson emails me back.

A Right Civilized Town

The part of Malmo we are staying in "feels" the most Swedish yet. Meaning, we are staying in a hotel on a cobblestone street with lots of bars right outside our door. I find this wonderfully civilized.

We rode our bikes around the oldest part of town and down to the beach and then walked down a dock built over clear North Sea water out to a restaurant. Wynn went looking for the back door out to the fishing platform and much to his chagrin, he opened the wrong door and entered a private nudist sunbathing dock. More pictures later.

Sveriges nationaldag - June 6th

We arrived in Malmo to a band welcoming us and dozens of blond Swedish teenagers waving yellow and blue streamers. Of course it helped that it is National Day, previously known as svenska flaggans dag - a day American tourists ride bikes with Swedish flags flying.

Nya Elfsborg

Or Fort Alvsborg, or Elfsborg Castle, or Really Old Thing that Tami Wanted to See. I did not fully understand the significance of the fort nor its place in history. But Tami had her 1/12th Swedish heart set on it - so we jumped on the ferry and took a lovely cruise to the mouth of Göta Älv river which is the outlet to North Atlantic. What is striking is the 21st century cargo terminal across to one side and a national park to the other.

Feskekôrka

The Fish Church, an indoor fish market in Goteborg... built by a guy with a sense of humor.

Designed to look like the Church of Fish, this place was worthy of worshiping. Fish as long as the eye can see. Opened in 1874 and smelling the same ever since. Tami just did not get it, but did get a good shot of two American parishioners worshiping in this most delicious temple.

Sleeping Under the Bridge

Tonight we are sleeping under a bridge to show Wynn how to rough it in Europe. Tami has been regaling Wynn with "when I was your age I had to sleep standing up on a train using my Eurail pass..." and Wynn listens to each story patiently.

So tonight we are staying under a bridge to show Wynn how to stay cheap... yup right under a bridge, or rather - a hotel under a bridge. Here is a five-hour sunset view from the window of the Novotel Hotel.

Wecome till Göteborg

It was a long train ride from Stockholm to Goteborg... a few track delays, fire on the train, and a broken signal made for an extra two hours... lucky that Goteborg was still in Sweden. It seems poor Goteborg has been tossed around back and forth from Sweden to Norway to Denmark and of course those pesky want-to-rule-the-world Germans took a turn as well. For now, Goteborg is in Sweden and so are we.

Upon arrival we took a water taxi to the center of town whereby Wynn and Tami promptly decided to lock themselves into a tiny gondola together called the "Wheel of Gothenborg," - as if a six-hour train ride was not enough time to bond.

By the way, Goteborg is spelled Gothenburg and Goteborg and Goteburg and Go:teborg... any which way, we are safe and sound in the city of many spellings.

Look for Wynn and Tami in gondola #4 of "The Wheel..." If you zoom in you can see Tami screaming "let me out" - in English, which if she would have calmed down an took the time to translate, should have yelled "Släpp ut mig!"

The Historic Canal Tour

Hopped on a tour boat for a beautiful morning cruise of one of the many canals in Stockholm. Very historic, very informative, very... OK, so it was a very slow moving boat, low in the water, circling Kungsholmen, and Tami wanted to go on it.

For the real Disney aficionado's from my generation, it was a nice "B" ticket, not an "E" ticket. But we are ALL very happy we took the historic canal tour as a family. Sitting with our translating headsets on... hearing where ABBA had their first recording studio... yes very historic indeed.

(The moored boats were beautiful and Wynn did find a houseboat he wants to buy.)

Smaka På Stockholm

We are going to miss the royal wedding at the end of the month, but we are here in time for Smaka På Stockholm or "Taste of Stockholm" or translated more correctly, "Richard is in Herring Heaven."

We watched the Swedish version of Iron Chef and the chef on stage left, Crister Svantesson was obviously the favorite son... he was making lingonberry grilled halibut on creamed potatoes, or more perfectly translated as "Richard' Idea of Heaven on a Plate."

Anyway, the Vaccinium vitis-idaea or lingonberry or cowberry, or foxberry, or quailberry, or mountain cranberry, or red whortleberry or... as my mother said every Christmas; "Paul, go get some of the Swedish berries in a jar" played an important part of the competition. It is like a politician kissing a baby during election time - toss in a lingonberry and you win.

The "Every Day" Palace

Drottningholms slott är ett kungligt lustslott beläget i Drottningholm på Lovön i Mälaren. Sedan 1981 är Drottningholms slott kungafamiljens officiella bostad. Kungafamiljen är bosatt i slottets södra länga.

Drottningholms slott är den svenska stormaktstidens förnämsta slottsbyggnad och ett världsarv. Slottet fick sitt namn redan 1580, under Johan III:s tid. Han lät här bygga ett stenhus åt sin drottning Katarina Jagellonica. Slottsparken är till stora delar öppen för besökare året om.

Wynn is the prince on the left.

Gamla stan

Gamla stan, (translated, means "a really big old house built on water owned by the King and Queen") is home to the King and Queen, well not home any longer, they moved to a place that is not sinking - they are smart. Anyway, the "stan" as it is not called, is home to the Royal Palace or Kungliga slottet as Google likes to translate it and it is the quintessential European city within a city. Except that it is in Scandinavia and the people were really nice, the streets clean, and no one tried to pick Wynn's pocket, or pick the back of his knee cap, if you get my drift.

Anyway the food amazing, the museums fun, and the changing of the guard crowded with Italian tourists saying skuss-sa, skus-sa as they walked in front of everyone else standing behind the rope. Well they were not saying anything, just stepping on toes, the "skuss-sa" part was me being polite and giving them credit for what must have been in their hearts.

Speaking of hearts, there is a royal wedding in a few weeks, HRH Princess Victoria (Princess V to her American friends) is marrying a commoner... gotta love this country. I mean... he is a regular guy, although he is a professional weight lifter, so he is a buff regular guy, but it just gives every working-stiff hope to become a prince some day.

And another word about working-stiffs - the most amazing job in all of Sweden, the guy who reads the schedule of the King and Queen each day. I bet his shoe allowance is more than most folks make in a year. He seemed really happy at his job.