When we travel outside the US, I am always enthralled by the centuries of history and culture that are evident even as modern society encroaches and in many cases overtakes precious remnants of a colorful past. I am thrilled when treasures of ancient history and progressive architecture and inventions of modern era can amicably live … More Touring Malmö and Lund: Blends of Then and Now

After our couple of days refueling in Taby we set off with Kathy and Louis for the last chapter of our Swedish adventure. An extra treat was to meetup with our niece, Kayla, who was starting her post-graduation (from UC Santa Cruz) travels. Kayla will be traveling to a number of Nordic countries as well … More Our Last Leg of Adventure: Malmö

Andrew and I flew back from Lulea – we couldn’t face another overnight train, to be honest.  It was great to be back in Taby, do some laundry, and reunite with Kathy and Louis who had used the few days we were up north to do some heavy Stockholm exploration. When we do these home … More Local Bonding & Some Lazy Exploration

After a great buffet breakfast at Camp Ripan (a complete ‘180’ from the lunch buffet in town) we got onto the four-hour train ride to Luleå – also in the Arctic Circle but much farther south. Luleå is the largest city in Swedish Lapland. The train this time was super modern and very comfortable – … More From Kiruna to Luleå

The next leg of our trip we parted ways with Kathy and Louis so they could explore Stockholm (which we’d done already with the young squad), and we were heading way up north to the Arctic Circle – to Sweden’s Lapland.  Andrew and I decided that since we were headed to a 15-hour overnight train … More The Overnight Train to Kiruna & Mining 101

On our last full day in Gotland we knew we had to take the ferry back to Stockholm from Visby so we said farewell to our hosts in the countryside and rented bikes to explore Visby. Visby has spread out from the central and still very much intact walled city – very reminiscent of walled … More Our Day in Visby

We spent the next day exploring the southern end of Gotland and the recommendations our ferry friends made were spot on. Along the route down the island we happened upon a very unusual grave site (called Gannarve) – a boat shaped set of stones that apparently housed the remains of ancient folks from the area. … More Another Gotland Day: Back in Time and Lots of Birds

We were very lucky to hit stellar weather while on Gotland – and actually aside from a day here and there the weather on our trip overall has been great…Sunny and warm (maybe mid-70’s during the day and 50’s at night) and light breezes when close to water. No complaints. At the recommendation of our … More Exploring Northern Gotland

When we were planning this Swedish adventure we asked a number of people for suggestions of where we should “not miss” along the way. A few – including the family we are exchanged with – mentioned Gotland. Knowing that Stockholm was really an archipelago of connected islands, I suspected that Gotland would be one of … More Off to Gotland

This was the day that Ruthie and the gang headed to Amsterdam on their way ultimately to Brussels and the music festival, Tomorrowland.  We had such a great time with them but we had the arrival of our dear friends from Seattle, Kathy Kline and Louis Holtzman, to look forward to.  Before everyone was mobilized … More Changing of the Guard: Farewell & Hello