Great Sweden Adventure 2016 - Part III

On Wednesday afternoon, we arrived at the campground to perfect weather. It was mostly sunny, light clouds, and not too hot. We were given the option to pitch in a field by the lake, or in a field by some flags. We chose the flags because the campers between us and the lake would hopefully cut down on some of the wind from the lake. 

We were close by to the service house. The service house was something we have never experienced at a campground. First, there was a baby changing room, a handicap bathroom, and 3 family shower rooms which we used twice to shower our kids. There were also two large rooms that were unisex, each with 4 toilet stalls and 4 shower stalls. Each of these were private rooms that locked individually, and this was completely normal and worked well.

Then there was a dish-washing room, with two large industrial dishwashers that we never used. Then there was a full kitchen, with 2 stoves/oven/sink areas, and then 4 other stoves and microwaves and 2 refrigerators that everyone shared. Plus there was a dining area, with about 5 tables, and a book stand of books that you could use. (Jon was excited to find one in English entitled “To End All Wars” by Ernest Gordon that was amazing- about POW camps along the River Kwai) We ended up cooking and eating almost all of our meals in here due to the weather. It also had a television, and the dining area was full every evening with people watching the Euro Cup.

In this entire house, everyone was fabulous at cleaning up after themselves. In the shower rooms, there were squeegees available so you could clean the water up. The whole house was almost always clean. There was also a rule of no shoes in the bathroom except flip-flops, to try to keep the floors clean, and it worked really well!

After getting the tent set up, we went out to explore the campground. This ended with the kids playing in the lake, and showers following. 

This is how we traveled, with the van loaded as well.

To give you an idea of how far north we were, Motala, Sweden is about the same latitude as Juno, Alaska! It was the weekend before the Summer Solstice. Therefore, there was very little darkness. This created quite the challenge for getting kids to sleep in the tent when they’re use to rolladens in our house. After we did get them to sleep, Jon and I walked down to the lake and watched the beautiful sunset on the lake.

The next day, the morning was beautiful and we made pancakes at the tent, then relaxed around the campground reading while the kids played on the playground and played soccer. Then we went in to Motala to find where Jon would need to go and get his number. There were all kinds of booths and biking merchants set up, selling all of their gear. There was a large playground near the lake that we allowed the kids to play on for about an hour while we waited for the registration to open. Afterwards, we wandered around the campground and let the kids play in the lake. 

Pancake breakfast!

After registering, we found this fun piece or art, and the kids all went for a test drive.

I asked if we could stop at the Antik place in town- Antique. OH MY STARS. I was in heaven. So many old things for such great prices. It was this old barn used as a store, and the entire loft of stuff was full of things. In the words of Hannah: “Oh my goodness mom! You’re going to want to see this! It’s a-MAZ-ing!” And it was. We had a lot of fun browsing, and walked away with a big, rusty cast iron pot for $17 and 3 doilies he gave me for free. I wanted more, but we had no extra room in the van. Next time… Jon will be able to clean the pot up and it’ll be amazing for meat and potatoes or large quantities of rice.

Then we headed to the St. Brigitta Kloister in Vadstena. This use to be a convent (nuns) and monastery (monks) combined. They lived in the same community, but did not see each other or work together. They had a room where they’d meet to discuss important things related to the community, but it was through a grated window where they couldn’t see each other, and there was a drawer or barrel where they’d pass things back and forth without seeing each other. The convent operated in the 1600s, if I remember correctly. Then we viewed the museum, which talked about St. Brigitta, who is one of the Patronesses of Europe, and Elizabeth Hesselblad who was JUST canonized on June 5, 2016. (see the attached photo). The convent has 8 nuns today. I will be honest, if you’re not Catholic, this place is not that interesting, except that the Church is beautiful inside.

The talking room with the gated windows. To the left of Jon, you can see
the drawer similar to how they would pass items back and forth. 

Information about the new Saint.

The Church.

We headed back to the campground, where the kids watched a movie on the laptop while we made dinner-Kraft mac and cheese and Swedish brats. After dinner, the kids finished the movie while Jon and I both read. I will say, I finally finished a book that I started months ago on this vacation, and read half of another one. Then we put the kids to bed, much earlier this time, hoping to have some free time after they got to sleep. After they fell asleep, we both read until we fell asleep.

Friday morning, we ate eggs and leftover brats. Then Jon worked on his bike to make sure it was ready for the big event. Afterwards, we took the kids putt putting for the first time ever. They had a lot of fun trying to learn. This was followed by ice cream and changing in to bathing suits to head to the beach at the lake. Then showers and taking Jon in to Motala for the bike ride, and kids and myself eating dinner at McDonalds- so I could use the to internet to figure out where Mass was over the weekend.

The girls reading while Jon worked on his bike.

Saturday morning, we had instant oatmeal and I cleaned out the van. Then we headed in to Motala to find parking and pick Jon up. We had planned to meet at the church or the playground. He figured he’d be done about 11, but we got there at 10:15. He wasn’t at the church or the playground, so we went to look his name up. He had arrived in Motala one minute prior to us looking up his name! So we ran to the finish line, and he was just coming out of the crowd. He was wiped. Poor guy just wanted to find a spot in the grass to lay down and crash. After he had recovered a bit, we walked to the car and headed back to the campsite. Jon will be doing my first ever guest post about the ride itself.

Jon before the race started with his bike.

The kids, as we sat by the street waiting for daddy to ride by.

Jon riding by! Wahoo! Heya! (that's what everyone was cheering)
Apparently as we started yelling "Hey Daddy!" the others around us started yelling and cheering for him too. :)

The sunset that I captured the night Jon was riding.

So many cyclists!

Just ended. Changed out of his sweaty jacket into a warm sweatshirt and collapsed.

The kids proud of him.

That afternoon, Jon and Beka took a great 3 hour nap in the tent while the older three gained some independence. I let them go to the playground far from our site alone. After naps, Jon took the kids to get ice cream while I took a shower and we headed to the Kloister we had visited the day before to attend Mass. One of the nuns spoke English and was incredibly welcoming. There was no homily, and quite honestly, we were very thankful since it was all in Swedish. Afterwards, we found a restaurant that had the best kabob we have ever had. Please Jesus, let there be a Kabob place in Idaho!

The weather while camping was a vast array. It rained almost every single night, with low, chilly temperatures. We all wore warm jammies and slept in sleeping bags, and were okay. Thankfully, we never needed the small heater we brought. But almost every morning, the sun shined down and quickly warmed the tent up, except for the last morning. It was dry Sunday morning as we packed the van, but everything was damp. We headed back to Kolding, Denmark to spend one short, quick night at the cabin we had stayed in before, before driving home the rest of the way to Germany on Monday.

If you missed it, here's part 1 and part 2. 

Great Sweden Adventure of 2016 - Part 2

After leaving Hamburg, we set out for our cabin in Kolding, Denmark. Booking.com said check in by 6 on Saturday. When we arrived at 5pm, there was no one there, but our key was available through a drop box. Had we known that it didn’t actually matter when we arrived, we wouldn’t have rushed to get there. We had reservations at a mobile home at the camp site.  The mobile home was unavailable for some reason, so they gave us 2 cabins. They emailed us to tell us, but they emailed us on Friday, and we had left already. We were however able to fit in one cabin. It was cozy and intimate but great and we loved it. It had a little loft where two kids slept, a small bedroom where Jon and I slept, and a fold out couch for two kids. A nice small kitchen area as well. The campsite had 4 trampolines and a sandbox that the kids loved.

Our youngest in the loft area of the cabin.

Sunday morning we went to the one Mass at the one Catholic Church in Kolding. This church was attached to a school and was super small. It was sad that this was the only mass within 30 minutes and it was so small.

We stopped at a grocery store on the way back to the campsite which we were surprised to find all stores open on Sunday (unlike in Germany where everything is closed on Sundays). We got some marshmallow yummies as a treat. Then we spent the afternoon playing on trampolines at the camp site, teaching the kids Yahtzee, and just relaxing. The shower in our cabin only had 30 liters of hot water, so we took the kids to the shower house. There was a kids’ shower room, with small showers and a bathtub. They loved getting to shower in there, and it was very convenient.

The next morning we packed up and left, driving to Simlångsdalen, Sweden . We crossed two long bridges which had tolls to cross- €34 and €54. The Oresund Bridge. The one from Copenhagen to Sweden was part tunnel, part bridge. We were suppose to stop in Copenhagen but skipped it because of cold and rain and no warm clothing. We actually had passports checked in to Sweden. This has never happened to us when crossing a border. Some were getting them checked when we were driving in to Denmark, but we did not. When entering at the border, first impressions of Sweden left us skeptical of what the rest of the country would look like. Thankfully, these images were short lived and we began to see Sweden in all of its beauty after we got out of the city.  My husband says it reminds him of Wisconsin farmland.

The bridge we drove over.

We arrived at the cabin in Vinnalt. We stayed in the 3 bedroom cottage. The lodging company sent directions on how to get there and it’s very easy to find with those directions. However, they sent them in Nov, and we had forgotten about them, which created some confusion for us. However, we figured it out with the help of some wonderful people in the village. The cabin was actually two cabins, one slept 4, then a small one that slept 2. It was a very woodsy cabin, with nothing nearby, and 14 small deer heads hanging on the wall. It was fully furnished with plenty of dishes. We ate eggy burritos when we arrived because it was so late, then Aimee and H went in to Halmstad for groceries (25 minute drive). This cabin was the only place with internet. Not having internet most of the time was actually nice in many ways.

The Vinnalt cabin, with the small cabin where the girls slept to the left.

Helping daddy with smores.

Boys cooking. This cabin had a washing machine, so we were able to do laundry mid-trip.

On Tuesday we set up the tent in the yard because it was nice out, and we needed to spray the seams. Then we went in search of duck tape and sweatshirts. Somewhere along the way, Zach lost his sweatshirt and Beka left hers at our friends’. We found H&M and some warmer clothes. Then we went hiking. We ate a picnic in the car on our way to hiking.

As we parked the car, we saw a picture of a guy stealing things out of a car, and it said “Tom… some Swedish words we don’t know.” So Jon told us it said “Tom will steal your shit.” This became hilarious and “Tom will steal your ship” became part of the motto of our trip.

We walked the .8 km to Danska Falls. The hike was so gorgeous, and the waterfall was beyond beautiful. We all had a lot of fun climbing on the rocks in the stream and eating goldfish (from the bag, not the river!). We wanted to swim, but it was way too cold. When we walked in from the car, it said Danska Falls .8 one way, or 1.2 the other with orange and blue dots to mark the trail, so we knew it circled back around. When we left the falls, we continued to follow the orange route (Orange dots on several trees marking the way). After a while, we knew we were not going the right way, as we’d definitely walked more than. 1.2 km. We went to inquire on the map, and realized the ‘map’ beka had was a brochure and not the map! So we felt the trail had to eventually get us back, because we saw it when we first came in.

Our youngest can't take a picture without her tongue sticking out. 

After about an hour of walking, we were out of water. One of the kids had been wearing the water backpack and been drinking it the whole time, while no one else had any! I finally offered up a prayer for a miracle and looked inside the back pack. There was the map. And we were FAR from our car and the orange trail did NOT circle back at all. We were out of water and the kids were exhausted and whining like crazy. We figured out that if we went back a short way, there was a road that would eventually get back to the car. Jon volunteered to run back to the car and come and pick us up. Our wonderful hero ran about 7 km (4.2 miles) in jeans after hiking for 4 hours. It took approximately an hour for him to come back and rescue us while we played in a small field and got eaten by gnats. It was definitely an adventure and one to write home about, but not one I’d like to repeat.

We got a nice 8 pack of thick pork chops for less than $5 and Jon grilled them that night. They were delicious. I made rice and carrots to go with it, then we grilled smores. The next morning, everyone pitched in to take the tent down, pack the van, and clean the cabin.

Extra things I packed that proved very useful- a box of small garbage bags- most places provide one small bag which just lasts through one meal for us. We also packed several wash clothes and handtowels and a few rags. All of which came in very handy. Clorox wipes as well, which we used mostly to wash out the potty chair that was used at random times when the toddler had to go. Tons of snacks/food, many that didn't need ot be refrigerated. We did have to go to the grocery stores, but I had plenty of staples. I don't like spending my vacation grocery shopping. ;-) We also ate out 4x, three of which were McDonalds, only because they had wifi! 

Fun things- Opening my wallet to find dollar, euro, Danish krona, and Swedish Krona. Also, make sure you update your GPS before going. We haven't updated in since 2014 and roads have definitely changed. There are speed cameras all over Sweden. Many times they warn you they're coming, but do be aware.

If you missed it, here's part 1 and part 3.

Great Sweden Adventure of 2016 – Part I

In November 2015, Jon registered to ride in the world’s largest cycling event in terms of combined kilometers of each rider- The VätternRundan . There are 28,000 people that ride 300km- over 8 million kilometers ridden (5.2 million miles). This set in to motion our Great Sweden Adventure of 2016. Following registration, Jon made all of the arrangements for this trip, and did a fabulous job I might add. It would contain a hostel, two cabins, and a tent.

A friend of mine has lived in Hamburg for 3 years, and we had yet to see them. With just a few months left in Germany, and driving right through there, we took the opportunity. They opened their home to us, ate a delicious dinner and had a great time. We both have 4 kids that are almost identical in ages (our oldest are 8 days apart) and they all had so much fun playing together and talking with friends in English- something their kids don’t get very often. It was a true blessing to spend the evening with them.

We then drove to the Airport Hostel that we stayed at. The hostel met our needs for the night and for the price. We had a family room that had 3 bunk beds (6 beds total) and a private shower and toilet. The internet and lift to the 3^rd floor (4^th American floor) did not work, but that was the only negatives. Breakfast was pricey at the hostel, so the next morning, we found a grocery store and got some bananas and muffins for breakfast for what it would have cost 2 of us to eat at the hostel.

Then we headed to the Miniture Wonderland. Before we moved to Germany, Jon use to play this video for our oldest two and promised this was one of the many places we’d go while in Germany. Now that we’ve been here almost 5 years, we still hadn’t gone, so we finally made the trip. It was so fun and amazing. It cost us about €40 because we booked tickets online. We also got there before 9am. I strongly recommend it because the later it got, the more crowded it was and hard for little ones to see. It’s a huge miniature train exhibit. Jon and I were paying close attention to the people to see what they were doing, which had many risqué things like a nude beach, arresting people, peaking Tom, a murder scene, fire, and even a couple engaged in an intimate act. There were also planes that landed and took off at the airport and we all loved watching that. Also, every so often the whole building would slowly go dark and the lights of the cities would go on, and then slowly come back up.

Image of the protests at the Berlin wall- They had an entire exhibit of each
step of the building of the wall to the tearing down.

The murder scene

All of these women climbing out of this tiny 2 person car.

tiny porta potties

After this, I had found information on the Cathedral in Hamburg with a set of Holy Doors for the Year of Mercy. We knew the general direction, so headed toward a steeple. As soon as we walked in, we knew it was not a Catholic Church, so we headed toward another steeple. This time, it was an old Catholic church that was destroyed during WWII and they had left the ruins as a memorial. It was really neat to look at. So then we went toward another steeple thinking “This has to be it.” Our directions said the Domplatz (Dom Square). We finally arrived and were so happy. The church was beautiful outside. Then we walked in, and again, immediately realized it was not a Catholic Church.

We walked outside, so discouraged. There was one more we thought it could be but realized the top of the steeple wasn’t really a cross, but a moon and sun type thing, and knew that wasn’t going to be a Catholic Church either. We later realized that the name of the church had Domplatz in it, but it was not in the domplatz. AHH! Fail on Aimee’s part. I kept telling the kids we were on a pilgrimage to look for the Holy Doors, just like when Mary and Joseph had to travel to Bethlehem when pregnant, but they didn’t buy it. Instead of finding Holy Doors, we did find the Hofbrauhaus and decided to go there for lunch. It wasn’t anything too exciting. Sausages and beer- they only sell schnitzel and hamburgers (Which I wanted in Hamburg!!) Monday through Friday, and it was Saturday.

More to come in Part II and Part III.

Munich - Dachau Concentration Camp and the Deutsches Museum

This past weekend, the Archdiocese of Military Services, along with the Military Council of Catholic Women and the Knights of Columbus, hosted a pilgrimage to Dachau Concentration Camp for the Jubilee Year of Mercy. I have previously been to Dachau, but my husband had not. I felt it was ok to take our children, and I would just prevent them from going to certain areas.

Unfortunately, we left the house much later than we wanted. We only had about an hour and a half to see the grounds, so I quickly gave Jon a tour. We saw the camp prison, the area where they did roll call every morning, and Jon went to the incineration and gas chamber area while the kids and I stayed outside the building and took a seat to rest.

Then we headed to the small chapel owned by the convent on the premises. There we attended a Mass with the Archbishop of AMS, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, and the Episcopal Vicar for Europe and Asia, Bishop Spencer. The Mass was beautiful, with the Knights of Columbus in their full regalia. It was also nice to see a few friends from other areas in Europe as well.

We did not take pictures inside the concentration camp, as it did not feel appropriate.

Outside Dachau, a daddy and his girls

We made plans to spend the night in Munich. After leaving Dachau, we headed to our hotel which was 12 minutes away and figured we'd get food closer. No such luck! There was no food place anywhere near our hotel. I told Jon I saw a restaurant right next to the parking at Dachau, so we headed back. It was greek food. The food was delicious and the staff was wonderful! I definitely recommend this restaurant.

The Restaurant we ate at.

 We spent the night at this hotel. It wasn't anything special, but it was a hotel room with 5 (twin) beds, and we snuck Beka in. It was nothing special, but for price, it worked. The description made it sound like breakfast was free, but it was 7 euro, and I said no thanks. We scrounged some of our food and had yogurt, fruit bars and fruit at the little table in the room for breakfast.

Then we headed out to the Deutsches Museum. This place was a lot of fun. There was a huge astromony area. Our oldest is really enjoying learning about astronomy lately, so I knew he'd love it. The guys planned to attend the planetrium show, but when they got there, they were asked for their ticket. Apparently you had to buy tickets elsewhere, not pay when you walk in. That wasn't mentioned anywhere we saw. Poor boy was very heartbroken.

Aside from that, there was a huge area on ships and we all really enjoyed that. Plus areas on ceramics, machines, mine exhibit, and more. There was a lot more, but we were unable to see everything. A note about the mines- don't do them last. They are long, and if you're at the end of the day, you just want to get out. :)

In front of the river that surrounds the museum

Having a snack at a rest stop

Z with the Sun

Watching a movie about space on the ceiling

In front of the ship (Right after Z was told they couldn't do the planetarium)

This was cool. They have a real boat house like this, and they test the boats in the house. So this had 3 boats that went across the pool, and we got to talk about how they were each different, like how the water was displaced. We were all impressed by it.

Hubby was so excited to find this. This is a lathe, and he use to use one before joining the military.

A super old lathe- I believe it was late 1800s.

Handsome boy growing up too fast.

Quick snack of Mezzo Mix and animal crackers before hitting the road back home.