Great report! We know the search for a way to charge the gameboy. We were in Italy for 2 weeks this summer and the Gameboy never charged. Friends of ours from the UK suggested we try the shaver outlet at our hotel in London and thank goodness it worked. The Gameboys charged for London and the flight home. We'd love to visit Sweeden sometime, so its good to know the Gameboys won't charge. Our boys are 6y and 9y.
Have a great trip,
Travelatte

travelatte, thanks for the tip on the gameboy charger! This trip is becoming the hunt for the gameboy charger although it gives Mr. Sprin something to do when we stop to shop.

Thanks for everyone's encouragement, we are having a great time and I'll post our Visby conclusion soon.

Visby continued

I think our boys (and us) have finally acclimatized, or else they are so tired they’ve given up. This is the first night they go to sleep quickly, like they do at home. It’s great since we’re in a hotel and we can sit in the garden, enjoy a Wisby Pils, brewed on the island, and gaze at the church ruin.

We woke up to beautiful blue skies, a change from Stockholm where our first three days were overcast. After breakfast we charged up to the wall to walk on them, but who knew the Visby wall is not like the York or Rothenburg walls, there is no walking on them, just alongside them. This detail didn’t bother us and we went around fighting dragons and other enemies, making Visby safe. Outside the wall is much warmer in the morning, but inside has that great view.

We stopped for coffee and snacks somewhere close to the Osterport. I am usually completely anal about knowing where we are on the map, but we were having so much fun that I slipped and of course don’t know where we ended up. It was just a summer spot selling breakfast and lunch with outdoor tables in a courtyard overlooking the town and the sea. Again, it was magnificent and we stayed a long time enjoying the morning. The kids had opened a lego xpod on the ferry and they carried them in their pockets today pulling them out at each stop to build new things.

Grandma toured the art museum while I shopped and the boys worked on legos in the museum’s forecourt. It is a small museum but she enjoyed it and they had a nice little shop. We decided against the history museum, too pretty a day. We ate lunch in the St. Hans café. They sell sandwiches and some hot lunches with tables set among the ruins of St. Hans church. The food was good and the atmosphere wonderful and the kids could explore while we ordered.

More Visby

After lunch we got our car and headed out to explore some of Gotland Island and a good thing since those gameboys hadn’t been played for over 24 hours. We had a list of potteries and decided to head south to visit some. We were most impressed with Etelhem pottery near the village of Etelhem. It is the oldest pottery on Gotland and their pots are both whimsical and well-potted. That they had a poster celebrating North Carolina pottery, where we honed our interest in ceramics, also helped. Both grandma and I loaded up, and we have 3 days of pottery touring scheduled our last week as well, hope we can carry it all! Thank goodness those children didn’t look up once to see the landscape or even the old windmill where we stopped to take pictures.

We wound back to Tofta Strand, a sandy beach south of Visby. It was windy and late afternoon, the beach was deserted. It was an ok beach, a long walk from the carpark, we heard that Åminne was a nicer beach, but sometimes you have to go where the pottery is. The boys enjoyed themselves (water still cold, and wind didn’t help) and got some icecream, obviously it is not THAT cold.

Drove back to Visby and parked at the Osterport and walked into town for dinner. We bumbled into Köpmannen II and had our first really good meal. The boys shared a pizza and our wonderful waiter split it for them. We had catfish with a yogurt sauce and potatoes and beans; Mr. Sprin got lamb which was extra tender and tasty. Too bad it was our last evening since we all said we would eat here again.

On the way back there is a large toy store by the gate. While we are browsing Mr. Sprin asks the clerk about chargers, sort of his multicultural icebreaker. The clerk sells him a charger for some other game system assuring him that it is a little known fact these work on gameboys. Naturally when we get to our hotel the charger does not fit a gameboy. It is 9:05 and we assume the store is closed. Mr. Sprin rushes to the hotel desk and the clerk is just great. She tells him the store is indeed closed but she will return it for him tomorrow (we are booked on an early ferry) and immediately gives him his money back, in cash. Did I mention that the St. Clemens Hotel on Visby is VERY nice?!

We loved Gotland and especially Visby. All of us said we will return here and spend longer next time. Just looking at the wall as we walked into dinner was breath taking, it is easy to see why it is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Wonderful trip report!
If you plan to go to Uppsala one of these days, be sure to walk around on the University Campus! It's the beginning of the academic year and it's just full of students and freshman initiations and stuff. Really fun to watch.

We left Visby on the 8:50 a.m. ferry. We waited until early July to make our reservations and the later ferries were all full. This time we sailed on the larger boat, the SF 1500. There are different classes of seats on this boat, including private rooms. We had not specified a class and were seated in the unreserved seats in the restaurant. There seems to be a frenzy boarding ferries with people grabbing seats and getting food like they haven’t eaten in days. We were able to get seats together by a window. This ferry went fast and we docked at noon.

At the ferry terminal in Nynashamn there is a strip of small shops, cafes and restaurants. We decide on seafood for lunch and purchase a feast at the Nynashamn Rökeriet, a fish market with some sandwiches. It is right by the water and they have tables in front. We purchased salmon, mackerel, octopus salad, prawns in dill, bread, cheese and some authentic Virginia peanuts. The Rökeriet supplies plates and silverware. It was so tasty and fun ordering the different items we bought more to take home for dinner.

It was nice to return to our home outside Stockholm after our “vacation” on Visby. We took a walk around town, washed clothes and then spread out our banquet. This time we had more salmon, crayfish, a small lobster, and herring. It is crayfish season in Sweden and these are the first we’ve eaten. Yum!

sprin2

This is so interesting and I look forward to future postings.

I have been trying to think of things to take to pass the time on the plane in October for my 5 year old grandson but did not think he was old enough for comics. Which comics do 5 year old boys like.

Thanks.
Sandy

I think our 5 year old likes comics because he has an older brother, although maybe he likes them cause they have lots of pictures to read. I like the older ones like Casper and Richie Rich, but we tend to find the darker ones like Batman and Spiderman at Target and our local comics store.

He also likes to do weaving cards, and read and the Crayola Color Wonder kits are very fun. Good luck and I'm so glad you like the reports.

We go to Uppsala today, Stardust, thanks for the tip.

Uppsala

While it has been overcast at our house since we arrived, we woke to our first real rainy day. As we drove north to Uppsala the drizzle changed to a steady rain. At the outskirts of Uppsala we passed an IKEA and we all sang out to stop. It was probably out of habit as we visit our local IKEA on rainy, winter days at home. The boys happily went into the kids’ area to enjoy 30 minutes of the ball pit and tv while we wandered through the store. Most of the inventory was the same as in DC. After retrieving the boys, who looked very happy in the kids’ area, we had snacks and headed on to Gamla Uppsala.

Gamla Uppsala is the site of some large burial mounds from the Viking period. It is also an important site in the early history of Christianity in Sweden. The museum is new and very well done, with English text throughout. There is a hands-on room for kids and they were also making cardboard swords and helmets, and demonstrating how to make chain mail. The interpretation is excellent, probably because it is such a new museum, there are some neat artefacts, and there is a large window to view the mounds. We spent a long time in the museum.

We had lunch in the less expensive café at the Odinsborg Restaurant next door to the museum. It serves traditional Swedish fare – meatballs, salmon, shrimp salad – and was very good. The restaurant also looked very nice.

After our lunch we peeked in the church and then walked around the mounds. The boys had a great time and didn’t notice the rain. I told them the story of St. Eric (an early Swedish king) and they loved it, especially the part where he is beheaded. Grandma opted out of the walk and had a cup of tea at the museum’s snack area. There is a pottery next door and we browsed there before heading into new Uppsala.

We did not have a map of parking areas and our Swedish (or lack thereof) was challenged trying to read the parking meters. We were not ticketed or towed so I guess we did ok. I hate driving into a town with no idea of where to park though. The sun was shining by this point and Uppsala is a very pretty town on either side of the Fyris River. We visited the cathedral and the smaller Holy Trinity church, walked around the castle and university. At drink time we settled into the Yacht Club, one of the many places on the river. It was ok, the waiter was very nice. We had burgers and enjoyed the view. We sat outside and they had their heaters on to keep us warm.

Oh, and the best part of the day – Mr. Sprin found a charger, so now those gameboys are fired up and ready to go!

Bravo for charged Gameboys...I know how wonderful that can be.

Travelatte

Sprin2 -

I'm enjoying your report!

This morning just as Grandma was trying to make us her famous Rachel Ray boiled eggs the cultural differences in our appliances brought breakfast to a grinding halt – we couldn’t turn on the stove! Of course we had enjoyed boiled eggs a couple days before, and had used the oven, so we were confident that the stove worked. Well, we consulted the instructions from our hosts and found nothing about secret power switches (they had let us in on the trick to opening the stove—use a knife to pop the latch). We checked the fuses, which look like something out of the old Dr. Who series. So, we resorted to another technology (email) and wrote our hosts in Virginia and off we went for another day of touring.

Later that day (which was in many ways a quest), Grandma figured out that you had to turn on both the power knob (next to the oven control) and then turn on the individual burner. The Swedish people emailed that the power knob acts as a sort of child lock and they never use it. I guess it was in the on position when they left and we had turned it off and didn’t know to turn it back on.

Today we tried to go see the Viking city of Birka, I’ll report on that later.

I never knew ovens or stoves could be so complicated, yikes!!
Sounds like you all are still having a lovely time though. What a wonderful experience for your children

Texas Aggie, me neither! This was our first stove mishap after numerous rentals throughout Europe. As we are continually reminded travel is an adventure.

I've enjoyed your posts as well, we're another pizza loving family!

Sprin, reading your report is like reading a magazine - can't wait to get the next issue!!

The Quest for Birka or Our Wild Birka Boat Chase…

After visiting Gamla Uppsala we thought we would cruise out to the Viking city of Birka on an island in Lake Mälaren. It, and the neighbouring site of Hovgården, are another of Sweden’s world heritage sites. Armed with a good map of the surrounding islands we thought we would drive and take a boat from Rastaholm, rather than from Stockholm (we explained to Grandma that there are no roads to Birka). According to the web there are regular trips on a 100 person boat from Rastaholm.

Birka was a trading city, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe during the Viking age. Neighboring Hovgåarden was the site of the king’s residence. I read the book about Birka last night so I am full of Birka facts.

Another reason for driving to the Ekero Islands was to drop Grandma off at Drottningholm, the home of the Swedish royal family (and another world heritage site). I think she’d had her fill of Viking sites yesterday. After figuring out a meeting place at Drottningholm and getting her oriented, we found the marina in tiny Rastaholm. There was in fact a sign (in Swedish) with the times for the Birka boat and luckily one at noon. The dock is next to a pretty restaurant, Rastaholms Värdshus, which unfortunately did not open until noon. We amused ourselves for 20 minutes and began to wonder--where was the Birka boat?

Shortly before noon two other parties, a family from London and a Swedish couple, walked up waiting for the boat as well. After a couple of minutes when the boat didn’t appear the Swedish couple read the sign again and said the boat only comes on weekends in August. Bummer. We knew a boat sailed daily from Adelsö, farther out the islands. None of us had the times for that boat so we all ran to our cars and raced there.

A free ferry from Munsö services Adelsö every 30 minutes. It was fun to ride on this and the boys poked their heads up from the gameboys for a moment to check it out and to inquire about snacks or lunch. The café at the ferry landing was closed and the restaurant in Rastaholm hadn’t had any snacks. I think it shocked them that we weren’t getting out and that the crossing was only 5 minutes. We had just been on the big ferry to Visby.

Adelsö is just a short drive from the ferry and parking for the boat is well marked. It is a quarter mile or so walk down to the dock and we met our English friends on the way. Unfortunately there is only one boat at 11:30 to Birka from this spot.

All was not lost since we were at Hovgärden and we were able to walk around that site, but there is a museum at Birka that we had hoped to visit. We hiked back to the car and made the next ferry. There is a nice pottery about a mile from the Munsö ferry, set back in an old farm.

We decided the day at least deserved a nice lunch so after checking out the large golf club and hotel at Skytteholm we headed back to Rastaholms Vardhus for a wonderful meal! The restaurant is full of wood, as is so much of Sweden, with a beautiful painted ceiling and an expansive deck overlooking the lake. The service was excellent and our food some of the best yet. I had a fish stew with a tomato base. It had crayfish and a white fish and lots of vegetables. John had a white fish with broccoli, beets and potatoes and a brown sauce. The boys had a hamburger which they loved. Just gazing at the water and watching the boats made up for our poor planning. We had a tic tac toe championship while waiting for lunch and it seems that I am the family champ.

If you haven't already visited, you might like the Vasa Museum in Stockholm. It houses the Vasa, an early 17th century ship which sank in the harbor on it's maiden voyage out of Stockholm. I took an English language tour of the ship a few years ago, and it was one of the best descriptions of the rigors of pre-modern shipboard life that I've heard. And I think your kids would enjoy it.

sprin2

Thanks for your tips about the comics and where to purchase. I am going to give them a try with our 5 year old grandson.

Is there a secret to Rachel Ray's hard boiled eggs?

Enjoyed your comments about the stove. Keep including those little differences. Please tell us more about the house you are living in and the local shops.

Sandy

This is one fabulous trip report! Thank you so much for sharing your adventures with all of us.

Birka continued

Our lunch was lovely but we couldn't linger as we were already late for getting Grandma. She enjoyed Drottningholm, but frankly prefers Buckingham. It was such a pretty afternoon we decided to find a beach. We drove to Stenhamra on Färingsö and to the little beach there, Stockbybadet. The beach is sandy and there is a nice rectangular jetty with a raised area for jumping. Out in the lake there is a tall jumping platform and there is a rope swing tied to a tree over the water. There were lots of kids swimming and the boys had a good time here. There are some swings, a changing area and icecream stand, although it was closed. We mostly laid in the grass and enjoyed the late afternoon.

We drove home and decided to try our Chinese – Thai restaurant. We walked down and ordered take-away. While waiting we popped into the grocery and then headed home. The restaurant is run by a Thai and the menu was about evenly split between Thai and Chinese. It was quite tasty. We love to get Asian food in Europe because it is always slightly different. The spring rolls were very small an we had 5 to an order. They were especially tasty. We also got a chicken in basil which came with many vegetables and a thicker sauce than we expected.

Tomorrow we head to Stockholm!