Whew! We arrived back at home yesterday (Thursday)about 2:00 p.m., and it feels good. The trip was wonderful, but exhausting. We crammed a lot of action into the last few days, and the flight home was predictably long and tedious, so last night's return to the familiar pillow and bed felt like a great relief.
Before heading for home we were able to visit our friend Jerker at his cabin on the island of Oland. We left Stockholm and the Gilbertsons early Sunday morning and rode a bus for five hours south to Kalmar where we crossed the long bridge to the narrow island and headed north for another hour to Sodvik where Jerker met us. Oland is more than a 100 miles long and only 10 miles wide, and is Sweden's hidden vacation treasure. Only 25,000 people live on the island, but ten times more than that vacation here. Sandy island beaches attract Swedes, Danes, Germans and all kinds of international guests looking for the bliss of warm (relatively) water and sunshine. Nature walks, historical ruins, lighthouses, woods, and fertile farmland together provide the island's guests with great views and options for activities. From Sunday evening through Tuesday morning we traveled the island from north to south to see the sights. Ancient stone walls and windmills remain in place to remind visitors of the island's past. Eketor, a reconstructed fortress with roots back to the 4th century, was a great place to see. At Borgholm we saw the King's summer residence, but he must have been at work back in the palace. On Tuesday morning we drove back to the mainland to visit two tourist areas in the state of Smaland--the glass manufacturing center (we toured through the factory at Kosta Boda) and the Immigrant's Center in Vaxjo. We even spent some time in the town of Ljuder, a village made famous by Swedish author Wilhelm Moberg. Moberg wrote an important series of books about the period of the mid-1840's to early 1900's when fully one fourth of Sweden's citizens left the country, most of them for the US, and the people he writes of in these historical novels left behind their homes and families in Ljuder.
Jerker has been such a good friend and tour guide for us, but we had to leave him to board the train in Vaxjo to get back to Stockholm to catch our early morning flight back home. On Wednesday we flew first to London where we waited three hours to catch our flight to Houston--a confusing destination, but it was the US airport closest to Seattle that our frequent flier miles could get us to. We arrived in Houston's heat and humidity at 7:00 p.m. and were sound asleep in our hotel by 8:30. On Thursday we arrived in Seattle and were welcomed by 56 degree, cloudy weather, and it felt good. We enjoyed so much Swedish sunshine for so many days that it was ok to feel cool weather again. In our motel in Houston we had fallen asleep so quickly because we no longer had Northern Europe's midnight sun lightening the windows. 30 days of almost no darkness can be disorienting to those of us who know the Pacific Northwest's rainy, dark winters.
We are at home safe and sound and healthy after more than 30 days away and thankful for the opportunity to travel. The Swedish saying on the front of our house says it well--"Away is good; home is best." Our trip enabled us to celebrate a traditional Swedish Midsummer with Swedish friends in a small community--a great privilege. We were able to enjoy a cruise with friends we have known for more than 40 years, and with them we visited new, exciting locations in Russia, Estonia, and Poland. And we enjoyed more time with them staying in the exchange homes they arranged for in Copenhagen and Stockholm. In good company we have explored and learned about the world we live in. And we are thankful.
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