For her birthday, Dale wanted to kayak all the way around Grinda, about 6 miles. We had rented a two-person kayak the evening before, so we set off in the morning out of the harbor by the marina in a clock-wise direction around the island. I tasted and felt the water: it’s brackish and not … Continue reading →

According to my GPS, as we were leaving Abisko for Kiruna, we apparently passed through the Twilight Zone; or, maybe the ground was subsiding: We spent a little time in Kiruna after we landed at the airport there a few days ago before visiting the Sámi Camp to see the reindeer and then continuing on … Continue reading →

We timed our travels in Northern Scandinavia well with hikes on cool, dry days and driving on rainy days. As you saw, the best weather of all was when we most wanted it: for the vistas from the summit of Mt. Njullá. The weather held for the rest of the day as we hiked south … Continue reading →

Rested and ready after our driving day, we woke early intending to hike as much of Abisko nationalpark as we could in one day. The highest point in the park is the summit of Mt. Njullá at 1,164m (3,820 ft.). In the winter, Njullá is a ski mountain and there’s a single chairlift at 400m … Continue reading →

Can you say “Gearggevággi?” No? How about “Kärkvagge?” Me, neither. Both of those are Sámi for “Stone Valley;” the first is the older way, following by the modern spelling. I think, but don’t know for sure, that they are both pronounced the same. Anyway, I’m going with “Stone Valley,” for reasons you’ll soon understand. Stone … Continue reading →

There’s an annual astronomical event called the summer solstice. I know what it is, and you probably do too, but try as I might, I can’t describe it. I’m a visual thinker and this is one picture that I can’t put into words. It has to do with the axial tilt of the earth and … Continue reading →

Yesterday, we flew from Stockholm to Kiruna in northern Sweden. We arrived in 40° F, rainy weather, picked up our rental car, and, after a quick lunch, drove out to the Sámi Camp to see the reindeer. The Sámi are the indigenous people of the Nordic countries, today numbering about 60,000, one-third of whom live … Continue reading →

Ingvar Kamprad grew up on a farm called Elmtaryd in the parish of Agunnaryd, Småland, in the south of Sweden, where, in 1943 at the age of 17, he opened a mail order business selling pencils, postcards and other small merchandise that he named IKEA, an acronym using the first letters of his name and … Continue reading →

When we lived in Miami, Florida, we sailed or motored a few times to Sands Key, an uninhabited island in Biscayne Bay at the far north end of the Florida Keys. A couple days ago, we took the ferry to the Swedish equivalent, Sandön (“Sand Island”), which lies 30 miles east of Stockholm on the … Continue reading →

Toward the end of this trip we will be biking for 12 days through the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, averaging about 25 miles per day. So earlier this week we decided to take a practice run. We rented bikes in Östermalm, the eastern side of town, intending to ride the perimeter of … Continue reading →

Wonder how I found the time to research and write about so much of Sweden’s history recently? Answer: Laundry Day. The forecast was cold and drizzly and we had been here for 10 days, so we decided to stay in for the day to take care of domestic chores. You might think that doing laundry … Continue reading →

On occassion, I will upload a post before I have thoroughly proof-read it. Unfortunately, as soon as a post is uploaded, WordPress immediately converts and sends it to subscribers to my blog as an email, locked in time as originally written. I can still edit my posts after-the-fact, but most subscribers never see the revised … Continue reading →

It’s not uncommon for us to spend the first week or so on a home exchange playing tourist, that is, visiting all the things tourists visit and riding the public transit to get the lay of the land (Dale says I “imprint” the local map in my subconscious). So, here in Stockholm we purchased a … Continue reading →

We visited Stockholm briefly 12 years ago with Dale’s mother and one of the highlights of that trip for me was a stop at the Vasa Museum. The Vasa was a Swedish warship built between 1626-1628 during Sweden’s imperial phase. It was one of the largest and most heavily armed warships of the age, but … Continue reading →

Following our visit to the Royal Palace – and taking advantage of the fact that most of the crowds were on the other side of the building, awaiting the arrival of the King – we took another look around Gamla stan, the Old City. The streets were much less crowded this time, as you can … Continue reading →

Yesterday, June 6, was National Day here in the Kingdom of Sweden (really, that’s the official name), which mainly seems to be a day of show and display for the Royal Family and, since 2005, an excuse to take a day off from work. I don’t really get this whole royalty business. It’s probably because … Continue reading →

We decided to put off a tour of the Parliament Building until next weekend, but stuck with our plan to avoid the downtown streets and buses, assuming the marathon would be causing gridlock throughout the city. Consequently, we spent the day off the streets by going first underground and then on the water. Stockholm’s metro … Continue reading →

Tomorrow is the annual Stockholm Marathon. Nearly 16,700 runners have signed up. We are not among them. Without knowing it, however, we completed 1/3 of the course today, hiking from our apartment in the Vasastan district down to Gamla stan, literally, the Old City, and back. Yesterday, after morning coffee, we found the grocery store … Continue reading →

We landed safe and sound in Stockholm after a 10.5 hour great-circle route flight over Canada, Greenland, Iceland and Norway spanning 1/5 of the globe’s circumferance. The plane was new and comfortable, but we never seem to sleep when we fly. It was a 30-minute taxi ride from the airport to our home for the … Continue reading →