Last of Scotland

How to wrap up the Scotland visit?

Did I see all the sites of the area?  Did I try all of the Scottish delicacies?  Did I get the feel of all the different areas?  Did I get all the bargains?

No.  But:  I saw the cities, old and new; the sea coast; and the countryside.  I tried the shortbread, the haggis, the ecklefechan tart, mild and strong cheese, the local cider, fish on the waterfront, the ploughman's lunch, scones, beef and ale pie, and rabbit at Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant.  I spoke to locals on the bus, listened to a number of guides on the buses, walked through the botanical garden, strolled around the seashore, and spoke to guides at local attractions.  I found a dress for a wedding, scarves, colouring books, socks.

How wonderful that there is still lots of Edinburgh left for me to come and explore should the opportunity present itself.

Today's picture is of Rhonda and me in front of a lion statue in St. Andrew's square.  It is carved out of the red sandstone that is so typical of buildings of the area.  The picture shows that sharing a good experience, makes it truly memorable.

Scottish coastline

This morning we found the Enterprise car rental and set off in our trusty black Corsa.  To Rhonda's surprise, it was a standard, but she found her form very quickly and we were heading north across the Forth bridge and then east to the picturesque coast she had visited about 15 years ago.

The sea coast is wonderful: we picked our way through a rock beach to the tidal pools, we wandered into a little coffee shop where there was a local business development meeting in progress, we visited a few little harbours where the fishing boats were already in for the day and cleaned up, we had fish at the Wee Chippy, recommended to us as the best place on the coast, we walked along the sea wall and smelled the salt air, we delighted in the gardens hung on the hillsides down to the water and we had afternoon coffee on an ocean terrace.  There was a bit of rain while we were driving, but not enough to stop us.

A lovely day -- thanks Rhonda for the great driving and tour!

Scottish history lesson

The second day of our special ticket found us with two attractions left -- Edinburgh Castle and the Palace of Holyrood House.  Thank you, hop on, hop off buses with a guide to tell us about every street and special house.

High on a 350 million year old volcanic rock, sits Edinburgh Castle.  We walked through the castle and took in some of the regimental museums featured there as well as the memorial to the fallen of the first and second world war.  The one significant historic room in the castle was the room where Mary, Queen of Scots gave birth to James.

Lunch was at The Last Drop pub -- no, that doesn't refer to drink being good to the last drop, it is a comment on the public gallows which were in the square next to the pub.

The Palace of Holyrood House is still a Royal residence when the Queen comes to Scotland -- which she will do this week and therefore, after Tuesday, it will be closed to the public to prepare for the annual garden party. The marquis are already being set up for the 8,000 invited guests.  I don't think we are on the list, but we will be gone by then and could not, regrettably, attend.  It is a lovely building with the main rooms done in calm greens -- which is the Queen's favourite colour.

We lucked into mostly dry weather with the heavy rains coming while we were inside.  Another lovely day exploring Scotland.  Here's the palace at Holyrood House.

Hail Britannia

The Royal Edinburgh Ticket gets you discounted entrance to the Castle, Holyrood Palace, and the royal yacht Britannia.  The first two are slated for tomorrow and the last one we did today.

En route to the boat, we also stopped to see the Royal Botanic gardens while the forecast rain was still holding off.  It's a lovely spot with magnificent trees thanks to the maritime climate.  It has 10 glass houses for temperate and tropical plants, but outside is magnificent.  The season for rhododendrons is just past, but a few blossoms still linger, and the blue poppies were spectacular.  Then, it was on to the boat.

After the decommissioning of the yacht in 1997, several cities bid for the right to become the berth place and Edinburgh was chosen.  The boat is moored just opposite the cruise ship dock in Leith at the mouth of the firth of Forth.  It is beside a large mall, in fact, the entrance to the yacht is from the 3rd level of the mall by a glassed walkway.  The tour of the boat is fantastic with each visitor getting a wand to listen to about 30 stations each with their own narration.  One starts at the top of the boat and works down from the bridge, through the crews quarters, through the royal half of the ship and finally down to the engine room.  It is maintained in meticulous condition as the royals left it with many of the queen's articles remaining on board.  Suffice to say, tea on the yacht was a must.  The queen certainly travelled in style!

Royal Highland Show

The arrival in Edinburgh yesterday was right according to plan.  Found the building with the apartment and Rhonda arrived moments later.  We are staying downtown on the third floor of a building on a pedestrian only street.  It is filled with pubs and other shops and the noise of glass bottles clinking together in recycling went on late into the night.  We have two bedrooms, a nice living room, bathroom and an eat-in kitchen with stove, microwave, frig.  All the comforts of home under the roof of this building with skylights that open for ventilation.  It is furnished with lots of old silver plate decorative stuff.  Quite a nice spot.

This weekend is the Royal Highland Show -- the biggest agriculture show in Scotland.  And the display of farm machinery is larger than I have ever seen anywhere.  Big machines, little machines, everything from cattle hauling trailers to the latest little robot grass mower from John Deere.  However, in the homecraft division of sewing, knitting, quilting, our little Rockton fair has it beat hands down.  I don't know if people here are doing less or if it is too difficult for people to bring in entries for judging. There was no lack of shopping under tents or in some of the buildings and bargains to be had!  And, I tried haggis, neeps and tatties for lunch -- not bad.

The very convenient bus system took us out to the show and returned us about 8 hours later (buses running from downtown here every 10 minutes).  We were quite tired and after picking up a few dinner items, climbed back to our apartment and are making an early evening.

No sad goodbye

First, let me correct an omission and show a picture of Jennie -- the lovely mom to the new little Tova Elise (who is one month old today).  She has made me feel incredibly welcome in their home, walked me all through town, helped with technical computer and phone difficulties, showed me the possible daycares for little one, endlessly explained and answered all my questions about Sweden, Swedish language, Swedish geography, translated in stores and markets and socially, and even indulged my fanaticism for cheese.

One fabulous lady -- all the while still recovering from a difficult birth.  Thanks so much for all you have done , Jenn.

Today has been my last day in Sweden.  I am sure the fact that it is a vacation spot with now 3 added benefits has something to do with the fact that I truly enjoy this spot, but it is a wonderful place to live.  I shall miss the culture that cycles to work, shop and play on bicycle paths along highways, under major roads, and with their own traffic lights.  I shall miss the simple joys of walking on lovely paths in the woods just 3 minutes out of the door.  I shall miss the sea just down the road.  I shall miss the lovely sourdough at Epi.  I shall miss the cafe culture of stopping and smelling the roses (or the cardamom buns) along the way.  And you might well ask why I don't live at home more this way -- I will try.  But I will still miss Richard, Jennie and Tova Elise.

Tomorrow morning it is off to Edinburgh.

What's new, Buenos Aires?

Well, I guess it should be  "What's new, Stockholm?" And like Evita, little Tova Elise took the big city by storm, (well, sort of).  Anyway, it was her first trip on a train and the first time to the big city.  She took it all in stride and came back with a successfully complete passport application and on her way to becoming a recognized Canadian citizen.

Meanwhile I walked along the water, sat and had some lunch by the fountain in the park, and shopped in the big city stores.  Actually, Gavle has a very good selection of retail possibilities and so there is not that much need to go elsewhere.  Rich and Jenn did get their new tent in the big city and so they are ready to take the little one camping.  She loves being outside -- it always seems to calm her -- and so will be delighted to live outdoors.  Not quite sure when they will take the first trip, but I'm sure it won't be too long.

When we got back to Gavle (about 5 pm) it was such a nice day that we decided to go for a walk at Hobgo and have dinner at the fabulous restaurant which is associated with the natural area.  Neither the walk nor the meal disappointed anyone and little Miss slept through all 4 of our courses before she awoke and asked for her dessert.

Familiar history

Modern Times have their advantages and disadvantages.  It is great that Jennie and Tova Elise will be able to travel to Canada in August, but little one needs a passport.  It must be a Canadian passport as her parents are Canadian and have not been official persons in Sweden long enough for her to get a Swedish passport.  So, as you recall, last week we had the adventure of getting the prescribed photo taken, and on Monday, we headed to a farm south east of Gavle (about 50 km) where the only person who meets the criteria for being able to sign that photo as a guarantor, lives.  This is a lady police person who does multisports and has known Richard and Jennie for the required 2 years.  She recently moved their to live with a coast guard guy -- he being the 5th generation to live on the family farm.

The farm's location is typical of the Swedish landscape -- mostly evergreen forest with cleared fields in which there are usually outcroppings of granite.  Jimmy told me that his parents used to have a mixed farm with cows, pigs, horses and chickens.  The only animals now are the 3 month old puppy (already 20 kg on his way to 40) and the cat who torments him and he chases.  The barns are mostly filled with split wood which heats the house -- not in a direct fire way as in Canada, but using hot water.  Across the driveway from the farmhouse is a building which contains the furnace and boiler, the pipes for heat and hot water run under the driveway into the house.  I knew this was the usual practice in town as Rich and Jenn get their hot water and heating through hot water from the town's boiler and underground pipes, but certainly didn't think that it would be used for individual houses out in the countryside.  Jimmy cuts wood in his forests, pulls the logs to the barn area with his ATV and then cuts and splits before filling about 40 cubic meters of space with firewood.  This last him about 2 years and he rotates between two buildings so that the wood has a chance to dry for a year before it is burned.

So, instead of animals, he has a nice wood workshop in the barn (planer, bandsaw, etc,with vacuum system for dust collection) which is mainly used in his boat restoration.  The main part of the one barn houses a 12 m. wooden boat which he has been working on for about 5 years.  He thinks in about 2 more years he will have it ready to go into the water.  It will sleep 4 or 5 people and be just like a floating cottage.  His main job has been to remove the plastic hull which was put over aging wood below the waterline and replace the old mahogany with new local evergreen boards.  The boat was built in 1948 and has had a history as a party boat for the military and then for a company and its guests.

The buildings with their rock foundations felt very familiar, reminding me of the early buildings which were on the farm where I grew up when we moved there in 1960.  Ours, however, were not the typical Swedish red -- probably because we didn't have iron mines close by where the waste provided a stain/paint which was used to protect the wood of houses, barns, etc.

We had a lovely salad lunch and rhubarb crisp for dessert.  Great Swedish hospitality and the necessary photo was signed.

Tova Elise is showing off how tall she is 56.6 cm and up to 4250 gm.  

Bits and Bites

I don't have an overall theme for today's blog but just some bits.

The weather -- we go through sunshine, cloud, rain (sometimes all three at once) -- today has been excellent for drying paint.  The other day I sanded the baseboards for the upstairs office, main bedroom, and basement bathroom.  Today, they were painted in the carport.  The breezes were warm and thus the paint on the first ones was dry by the time I finished the last.  But the second coat had to wait until after the day's adventure:  Ikea.

The Ikea in this area is about 10 km west of Gavle in the town of Valbo.  It is set up like other Ikeas I have visited (Canada, German), but there are a few extra Swedish items, especially in the Ikea Family section.  And, at this time of year, they do a Summer Buffet, characteristic of the midsummer celebrations here in Sweden.  That is mostly sill (herring) in different preparations, some of the crisp breads and cheese, eggs with caviar, gravad lax (cold cured salmon), potato salad and beet salad, Jannson's frestele (scallopped potatoes with anchiovies), boiled potatoes, meatballs, roast beef, and cheese pie.  I realized it was a textural thing with me and my hesitation with herring, but having it on the crispy breads made that just fine and so I appreciated the flavours.  There was a pleasant rhubarb tart and an impressive chocolate tart with vanilla sauce.  Delicious all and with Jennie's Ikea Family card, just 99 kr.

Socks -- I love socks and one of my favourites comes from Ahlens, so I have already bought 4 more pairs in fun colours to add to my collection.  I think it is wonderful that one can find familiar and new items in another culture that one can appreciate.  Have you ever had Brown Norwegian Cheese?  I had not until last Sunday's party and Magnus brought it.  I found it at the local store and hope to get some back to Canada with me.

The days seem long -- thanks to the approximately 20 hours of light.  It is dark(ish) about midnight but then by 2:30 am it is light again.  So, one is motivated to work on projects much later than at home.  That was the second coat of paint on the baseboards and scraping of the balcony off Rich and Jenn's bedroom, all after we got back from Ikea.

Little Miss Tova Elise -- the last two days she has begun focussing much more and crossing her eyes much less.  When you talk to her, she is so attentive.  Guess I should say only significant things so she doesn't think me an idiot right from the start.

Cottage country

So, Richard, Jennie and Tova were invited to a birthday party for Liv turning 5 -- I was invited too but Liv had cousins and grandparents coming all of whom speak Swedish so I figured I would be a fifth wheel -- and the day promised to be sun with clouds and 19 (even according to the Norwegian weather forecast which is usually quite pessimistic but often the most accurate).  What is a lady to do to pass the time -- cycle, of course.

I borrowed Jennie's town bike -- one of the three bikes in the carport, there are 6 in the garage along with the 9 pairs of skis-- and Richard adjusted the setting for the internal shifting in the back hub so that all 3 gears worked fine.  I had picked up a cycling map the other day at the tourist bureau in town, and it showed a route north and east to the coast where I have not been in any of my previous visits.  An interesting part of the cyclepath was along a railway track that spanned a bay on a causeway.  How considerate to make it cyclist friendly.  It connected with a beautiful paved path following along beside the coastal road, but slightly separated in most areas.

I stopped at Engeltofta -- think old-fashioned lodge on the water -- and drank a coffee on their dock.  It is just off the entrance to the Gavle harbour and though it is cottage country along the shore north, there are lighthouses, buoy markers and large ships to the south.  Continuing north I came to Bonan where I checked out their lighthouse and finally to Utvalnas.  These last two communities are lovely areas where the former rich folk had summer houses with servant quarters.  Not shabby!  There are now small cottages interspersed with the big old buildings, but almost everything is the traditional deep red or yellow wooden board and batten siding.  The shore is very rocky with only a few small stony beaches.  Already there are lots of sailboats and motorboats enjoying the fine weather.  There is very little commercial in this area, so it was a good thing that I had picked up something at the bakery on the way out of town.

So, today's Tova Elise picture is her chilling out with her Dad last evening. Her hair is definitely growing in length and thickness.

Gavle Goat

Wikipedia informed me that the first giant Christmas Goat in Gavle was the brainchild of an advertising man in 1966, but it also related that the tradition of a goat  had possibly pre-Christian origins where the god Thor was pulled across the heavens in his chariot by two goats.  Now, goats may be very common on the hillsides in Scandinavia, but I think that I would have picked reindeer -- they can't possibly be more obstinate than goats.

In any case, Gavle embraced the Christmas goat (which brought presents) in a big way, erecting the straw goat each year.  In its history it has been burned about half the time, but it is now a major attraction for the city.  And even Ikea in Canada has straw goat ornaments to hang on the tree.

But, it is not Christmas and there is no huge straw goat on the square in front of the library, but Gavle has not abandoned its love of the goat.  There are small goats -- about 1.5 m tall all around the town, painted by sponsoring businesses or organizations.  The one by Goat Square is done up as if made of straw, but the others seem to be vying for title of "wildest".

Miss Tova Elise (in the pram asleep) didn't have any comment, yet, as to preference.  She had just come from the photographer getting her passport photo taken.  That was an adventure, but Jennie tried the 'hand under the clothes' trick and was successful.

No bad weather.....

There is a Swedish saying "There is no bad weather, only bad clothes."  Today put that to the test.  It was raining virtually all day, sometimes quite heavily.  However, without significant wind, the umbrella was adequate to keep me quite dry on my exploring/shopping trip into town.  I had (cleverly) brought sport sandals and today they were perfect in the puddles and rain,

 the weather not being cold.  Interesting to observe was the variety of ways the locals deal with the rain -- ponchos which cover rider and bicycle, full rain suits, umbrellas and heels, nothing at all.  The common thread is that life does not stop -- graduate girls were decked out in their white dresses and sailor hats under umbrellas as they drove around on the back of the convertibles, the flower sellers were under their big umbrellas in the town square, the moms with babies in strollers (and toddlers on a little rolling platform hooked onto the back axle of the stroller) were making their usual rounds, the city workers in full fluorescent lime rain suits were planting the fuchsia standards in the town park.

And Miss Tova Elise took the opportunity of the gray day to sleep -- virtually all day, in her little Pingu nest.  Obviously she is doing everything right -- she has gained one kilo and 4.2 cm in her 3 weeks and 4 days since birth.

Distinctively Swedish

When I was here with Kieran last summer, we focused on similarities and differences between Sweden and Canada.  So I shall continue to highlight some of those that I stumble upon.

Yesterday I started on a little project involving baseboards.  The first step was to remove the nails from the pieces which will be painted and then replaced.  Nails -- you think you know nails? Well, these fasteners are square or even rectangular, have bumps on them like warts or ridges that run the full length of the nail.  Some have heads that I would associate with nails and one is a strange fold-over item.  Jennie suspects it dates from the building of the house in the 1930s.

We think that recycling is a North American impetus -- rethink.  In the garage are 7 containers for fine paper, plastic, boxboard/cardboard, coloured glass, clear glass, metal/foil and batteries.  Some of these containers are 35 years old pre-dating the previous owners of the house.  It is the home owners responsibility to take all these separate containers to the local recycling depot where there are large blue dumpsters for each category.  And, of course, there is organics, which are put into nice little brown paper bags provided free at the grocery store. They are collected by the city from the brown bin that lives in the carport.  Garbage is collected biweekly.  Home owners can choose the size of container for garbage and compost that they wish to have.

And,  the lowly seagull.  Here it is just as territorial -- the bird in the picture put on an amazing sight and sound display when two others attempted to scout his territory, but a seemingly more elegant bird with its black head and tail feathers, and the red on the beak.  It has a most unusual waddle to its walk, so no elegance there -- just a common scavenger gull.

Your Tova picture of the day is with Daddy, who has just come home from graduating his class and needs a little chill time.

Jennie's garden -- June 8

One of the things that I find particularly delightful (after miss Tova Elise, of course) is playing in Jennie's garden.  I had the opportunity last year when we were here and it is so nice to come back and see how things are developing this year.

Besides the newly dug veggie garden (sporting tomato and pepper plants lovingly grown indoors, as well as some seeded areas yet to sprout), there is a recent garden along the fence with 4 blueberry bushes.  These already are showing flowers promising some of the blue delicacies to be sampled (do you hear that bunnies? -- blueberry plants which actually get to produce blueberries!!).  The raspberry patch is already in bud and has been expanded a little toward the house -- and away from the apple tree at the back of the property.  There is something wonderful about the promise of fruit (and vegetables) as the result of planning and tilling and pruning and weeding.  I guess reward for labour is a basic human experience, that, if we get too far away from it, causes not only societal problems but personal dissatisfaction as well.  Meaningful work --  staking tomato plants, pulling out grass, pruning dead rose and raspberry stems, watering when it hasn't rained, notwithstanding the stinging nettles and rose thorns -- makes for contentment.  And there is a high contentment index here, for me and for Richard and Jennie.  Wonderful that life has afforded that opportunity.

Had hoped to get a picture of Tova in the garden, but that will have to wait.  Check out the baby tomatoes!

Hemlingby June 7

First!  Happy Birthday to my little girl!

We had a lovely day both weatherwise and activity.  After a leisurely start we headed off to buy Richard is belated birthday present, a kitchen stand mixer -- a Scandinavian brand which, as we have just tested, works beautifully.

Then it was on to lunch at Hemlingby where Richard runs hill repeats.  We did not.  Instead we sat out under the trees and had our soup buffet.  Yes it was fabulous.  Then it was a nice 5 km walk on the trails associated with this outdoor center.  The evergreens all had their soft, light-green tips, there were a few wild strawberries in bloom, and the scent of the sun on the needles of the trees and the carpet, was delightful.  Little Miss loves the outdoors and there were only little cooing sounds for the whole adventure.

Today's picture is soup buffet for everyone.

The Reason!

The reason for this trip is Tova Elise who is a sweet tempered little one with a headfull of dark hair with highlights.  She loves the stroller and movement of any kind.  She is very attentive to sounds but still quite cross-eyed.  She has grown 3 cm since her birth 2.5 weeks ago and put on 650 gms in 2 weeks.  Thriving!!

Both plane segments arrived early and even the train was into Gavle ahead of schedule.

We walked home balancing the suitcase (22kg) on Richard's army bike. It was Swedish National day and so the park was full of families and sunbathers (25 degrees!).  We met 3 groups of kids who knew Richard and their teacher -- even the girl who shares Tova's name.

A delightful meeting of my granddaughter!  Rotate your head as I can't figure out how to rotate the picture.

C34 June 5

Maybe all the flights to Amsterdam leave from this gate or this area, because it looks very familiar from just a month ago.  I guess you are a frequent flyer when you know where the electricity plugs are and which ones are working and which are not.  Even the people pushing bank accounts/credit cards are still here.  Even this computer was familiar with the wifi connection.

I contemplate the changes in air travel in just my short experience.  Of course the hand written, 6 carbon copy tickets have gone, but even etickets are no longer necessary.  I just put my passport into the check-in kiosk and they knew all about my trip and issued the boarding passes for both legs of this journey.  And I haven't even got a smartphone yet.

While in line to drop off my baggage, the KLM rep was offering everyone a special deal to use the lounge -- a far cry from the exclusive hallowed sanctuary of yesteryear.  And there weren't any takers.

Travelling alone -- not a scary prospect but quite a pleasant thought.  I enjoy my companions on other trips, but I also like the freedom of worrying just about me.  I am SO looking forward to the platform in Gavle tomorrow where I meet little miss Tova Elise!