Bryan

This summer we had our first visitor from the US, Bryan Chakoumakos. He had a meeting to attend in Denmark, so we insisted he train over to visit us in Lund. Just for reference, Bryan is Claudia's husband.

We tried to walk around Lund some, but it was rainy and about 60 degrees, so we grabbed a beer while we waited for the bus.

Then we headed back to our house where Chris cooked a super tasty Italian meal. We had an awesome night! It was so much fun to hang out with a friend from home.

While Bryan was here he talked about how the weather was just like in Maine where he grew up. We have a flower bed out back that we couldn't get anything to grow in and he said we should plant some lettuce. So we did.

It worked!! And we are happy...

Thanks Bryan!!

Charlie's a good helper

I have an excellent beauty consultant. Who could get ready without a Charlie?

The King and I

Our second day began with some breakfast and a trip to the South mountain. The South mountain is a taller mountain than the North mountain and it too offers some great views. The South mountain has downhill skiing in the winter. When we reached the top of the mountain we walked to the starting gate for the downhill slalom and took in the views.

We headed back to the house for some lunch and changed our clothes and headed downtown. Like some other cities, Sundsvall has adopted an animal mascot to represent its city. Sundsvall chose the dragon as their mascot and a friend of Magnus' started creating the dragon sculptures all over town. She asked local businesses to sponsor each sculpture so the dragons are all themed. See if you can figure them out.

After we walked through the center of town we stopped for some FIKA in a pretty cool spot. There was a small coffee shop and a library, and it used to be where 4 buildings came together on the street. They decided to enclose the corner and turn it into a pretty cool family center. You can still see the street signs on the sides of the building.

After FIKA it was time to go and see the king. The king and queen of Sweden were on a tour of the county this particular week and Sundsvall was a stop on their list. We headed to get a spot so we could see them walk into the center of town and address the crowd. Pretty cool experience.

We headed back to the house for a lovely dinner. Pork medallions with fresh chanterelle sauce and scalloped potatoes. For dessert we had ice cream and homemade fresh berry sauce. Det var jätte bra!!

Båstad

During lunch at work one day I was sitting with all Swedes.  They were discussing their plans for summer holiday and a craft festival came up.  I asked for details and decided to go.  It was in Båstad (an å sounds like a long o).  This was the furthest north we had been so far and it seemed easy enough to get to by train.  The neighbors across the street knew we had been planning to go, and were nice enough to get us a map and show us where the festival would be in town.

It was another beautiful day, so I dressed the part while I could.  We had 3 weeks of sun and 80 degrees this summer. While it seemed like we should have had 3 months of that weather to me, everyone assured us that it was the nicest summer in 10 years.  I guess we were just lucky.

It was your average craft festival.  Looked like most I've been to.  People and tents everywhere.

You may notice three guys in this pic are wearing capris.  All men of all ages wear capris here, but oddly enough you don't really see women wearing them.

The festival was on the coast, so that was nice.  I was excited to be out and about.

Chris was excited to be in the ice cream line!

There were crafts of all sorts.

Yard Ornaments

Glass Work

Wool Critters

Interesting Somethings...

Wool Stools