Monthly Archives: August 2011

Birthday

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My mother had her 60th birthday today, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! It was a bonus that we could celebrate it with her on our vacation trip to Europe. Since it was her birthday she could decide what to do and she wanted us all to go to Högbo Bruk. So we all went there, Robert riding with Chie and me in our rented Volvo S80 D5.

Once there we walked around in the quite nice weather. To Ulf’s delight they had a Hot Rod show there as well, though the rest of us walked around checking the handicraft and shops. We had a short stop at the glass designer as well, but he recently had a break in so there were almost no glass on display. And our timing was bad so we could not watch him make glass either 🙁 We had to sit down and rest after that surprise 😉

Once rested we continued to Björk & Berries, a Swedish brand that makes soap, lotion and the likes out of Swedish berries and flowers. All things are picked locally around Högbo and Gästrikland. Then it is shipped to France where it is made into perfume oils, and ends up in New York where the perfumer is mixing it into what becomes the flavors of the soaps and lotions in the shop. The soap and lotions are manufactured in Gothenburg.

After lunch at the Högbo Brukshotell we returned back to mo mother’s place in Valbo. There we prepared for dinner. My aunt and her husband were going to visit to celebrate my mother’s birthday. It was nice seeing them again after quite a while, unfortunately I missed one of my cuisines that had returned to Stockholm with her twin daughters just a few days before we came to Valbo.

She got many birthday gifts from all of us. And was quite happy for them 🙂

Valbo

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We spent the morning at my father’s place before once again climbing into our rental car. First stop was at Jimmy, Emma, Oliver and Nova’s place to return somethig they forgot from yesterday’s dinner.

But only Nova was home. Barking as mad when we rang the doorbell. We could see her throughout the kitchen window 🙂

Then we found our way to my mother’s place in Valbo. After a short rest we headed out for a short trip to IKEA and Valbo Köpcentrum, a small collection of stores in Valbo.

We did not find much we wanted except for some cushions for the kitchen table chairs, and some bed blankets and sheets at KungSängen. During this trio we had grown accustom to having our own blankets rather than sharing a big one 🙂



In the afternoon Robert joined from Uppsala. And we had dinner and watched photos streamed from my iPad to their TV using Apple TV (I am hoping Apple will sponsor my blog any day soon now ;-))

Bomhus

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After a few great days in Eh with grandmother and John it was time to move to Gävle. First stop was at my father’s place in Bomhus.

We arrived early in the afternoon and met my father and one of his grandchildren, Nathan. After a while we were joined by my youngest brother Jimmy, his wife Emma, and their kid Oliver (who was like the Duracel rabbit – monkey in Japan).

Later on Nathan’s parents joined us as well, my brother Henrik and his wife Sherry. As did my father’s wife Eva (getting back from her job).

We all had dinner together. At least the adults – the kids were more or less all over the place the whole evening 😉

Since it was 2 years we last visited Sweden we had a lot to catch up on. We talked and had a fun time.

Late in the night we were exhausted and went to our room. And dropped dead in our bed…. Zzzzzzzzz.

Eh…

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Today we lett Amsterdam for Eh, where my grandmother’s summer house is located. Just at the end of a dirt road next to the lake. It is very quiet here and we are usually able to sleep a lot. This time was no exception 🙂



Between sleeping we ate good home cooked food. And read. Both Chie and I have started on Anne Frank’s diary that we bought in Amsterdam. Chie also spent some time playing on her Nintendo DS.



It was a bit cold so most of the time I had a jacket on while sleeping or reading outside. Chie spent a lot of time inside because it was too cold outside 🙂

When we did not eat, sleep, or rest we spent time talking with grandmother and John, and going through pictures of events since we met them the last time, 2 years ago.



It was great to see grandma and John again. And as always we had a fun time and could relax a lot.

Museums, Pot and Naked People

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First thing today we walked 200 meters to enter Anne Frank Huis (house). We were two of the firsts to enter the museum. It was interesting and a lot of emotions thinking about second word war and how innocent people were treated just because a mad guy had some crazy ideas.

After an hour we exited the museum and walk to Spui were we had breakfast at Cafe Hoppe, a 200 years old cafe.

From Spui we walked to the Rijksmuseum were we and a billion other people spent walking around watching famous painters from Holland, like Vermeer and Rembrandt along with important china from Delft. It took us an hour or two to get through it all.

So how do you spend the time after two museum visits? You, of course, visit a third museum. A walking distance away from Rijksmusem is the van Gogh museum. Here we spent more than an hour watching the development of a crazy painter. It seemed like Vincent van Gogh loved to change how he painted a couple of times every year. Some paintings I loved but a lot was just paint on canvas 🙂

A tram ride away from the Van Gogh museum and we were back at the Dam platz. From there we walked to the Red Light District. We saw a lot of Coffeshops and pot. And suddenly there were… Well, naked people in the doorways. It was like one room apartments where the housewife stood in the doorway chatting with whoever passed by.

The only difference was that these “housewives” had almost no clothes on and not only did they try to talk with whoever passed by they tried to lure them into their one room apartment. It was a shocking contrast to the old typical canal buildings and canals that were just around the corner.

In the evening we researched the Trip Advisor to find a good restaurant. We found Brasserie Valming, a five star establishment at the Trip Advisor. When we got there the group at the table next to us said that they had been traveling in Europe for two weeks now and this was by far the best restaurants.

This seemed good 🙂 But unfortunately the experience was only average. The personnel was friendly and service minded enough. But the food was just so so.