Christmas in October

The excitement this week was that our sea shipment arrived. It is funny to pack stuff up and then not see it for two months.  Well, and to be honest, we didn't even really pack it.  We are indebted to a good friend who supervised the moving crew for us so that T could avoid one more international trip.  Since we are renting a fully furnished house, we just brought over some odds and ends to make us feel more at home and items that are expensive to buy here.  Most things with plugs had to stay home-- wrong power-- but we did bring several computers and our printer.  (Ah, to have a printer and scanner again.  :-)) The only furniture we shipped was our dining room table and chairs (simply because we missed them) and our bed.  Oh how we love our nice American queen-sized bed!! Of course, due to the craziness of the pack and move, there are things we didn't ship and wished we had and some things that we wonder why we shipped, but we've survived with what he had here for two months so anything that came now was a bonus. 

If you haven't done an international move.  Here is what the moving van looks like.  Since we didn't need to bring too much, we had a 20 foot sea crate (I can only imagine how huge the 40 foot one would have looked on our little street) and it was only 1/3 to 1/2 full.

The sea container showed up fairly early.  I wasn't sure what to say when the truckers asked me where to put it. They plopped it down on the side of the road.

They had it boarded up tight where the boxes ended to keep things from shifting around during transit.  All the boxes are thicker than usual and the furniture and bikes were wrapped in thick cardboard blankets.

We are still trying to decide how to arrange a few things, but most of the boxes and debris are cleared away now.  The kids were excited to get the rest of their toys, I was happy to get more clothes (I'd only brought one suitcase full with me) and we were all happy to see the winter coats-- it is getting cold enough to need them.

I think the most anticpated items were the bikes.  At first we'd thought of just buying bikes once we got here, but when we shopped online for them we found they were much more expensive than in the states.  We bought an old used bike for M soon after arriving in Sweden (and it cost about $200) since it is her daily vehicle but the rest of us had been stuck with walking.  We spent Saturday equipping M's American bike to be a true Swedish bike.  That meant adding fenders, a package rack, a basket, lights, a lock and a bell.  We bought the bike just before moving here and were glad that we'd gone for a high quality road style bike.  It had holes in all the right places to add the accesssories.  We're not sure how much we'll be able to add to the rest of the bikes (standard US mountain bikes).  We don't ride ours as often or in as varied weather anyways.  The used Swedish bike was handed down to G.  He chose it over the bikes we'd brought from the US since it was a little smaller and was already equipped with accessories.  He is excited to be biking to school this week.  He really missed having a bike during soccer season-- all the boys drive to and from practice on their bikes. 

M's bike after the Swedish accessorizing

Since we were all excited to have bikes, Saturday afternoon we rode down to town to do a little shopping.  It is so much easier (and cheaper) to park a car than a bike in the city center.  Then since it was a beautiful day, we decided to take the scenic route home.  We rode the Linnerunden, a nice trail throught the wetlands of Kristianstad (Vattenriket).  We were able to see the ruins of a Lillo castle-- built in the 1200s.  We will have to go there again.  You can usually borrow a key to give yourself a tour of the interior, but they were having electrical issues this weekend and not allowing anyone in. 

A walking/biking bridge across the Helgean.

You could see the stone foundations of outbuildings around the castle.

Lillo Borgruin-- originally the castle had another story and the traditional nordic shape but it was destroyed when Sweden took over the area and only the first floor remained.  A modern roof was added to protect the interior and allow museum exhibits there.

Odds and ends....

We saw this beautiful sunset over the wetlands while driving the other night

Common restroom door lock-- you pull the handle up or down.  The color in the window above tells you whether it is locked or unlocked.

G complained that my round about picture in an earlier post looked like nothing and suggested I use an aerial view courtesy of Google.  Here you can see the two round abouts I drive through when I drive to the big grocery store (like a Super Walmart :-))

Malmo

We were in the mood for another road trip before winter fully comes.  As I researched things to see within a short drive, I found that many tourist attractions in Sweden are only open in the summer.  By October, most of the attractions have shut down.  That's too bad because we've actually been having lovely weather. Anyway, we decided to drive over to Malmo (there should be a funny o at the end of that--the official name sounds like er--but this computer doesn't have the Swedish keyboard installed yet.) Malmo is the third largest city in Sweden and about an hour and a half from where we live.  It is right across the sound from Copenhagen, Denmark.

Our first stop in Malmo, was at The American Store.  M had heard from classmates that you could buy Poptarts there, so we had to check it out.  So the following pictures give you an idea of typical American foods that you don't generally find in a Swedish grocery store. 

Poptarts-- the reason for our visit



Rather than powder drink mixes, you can buy a concentrated liquid called saft that you dilute with water,. You can buy pudding but I haven't found jello.



Haven't seen frosting or chocolate chips in your normal stores.  Luckily frosting is easy to make and their baking chocolate is really yummy---you just have to chop it up.

I haven't found any sort of graham crackers here.  :-(

After looking at the prices--everything in the store cost about $10 a shot-- we decided we didn't miss American food all that much.  There was no way I was going to pay $10 for a graham cracker crust or a small box of Teddy Grahams.  :-) We did splurge on one box of poptarts and one can of pumpkin (for Thanksgiving next month).  Our other thought, after looking at the contents of the store, was no wonder Americans tend to be overweight.  :-)

Typical street scene.  No, we didn't hit the McDonald's. Fast food is expensive here!

City square

We brought cinnamon rolls for lunch and sat in the square to eat them.  Then it was on to the Malmo Museer-- a complex of museums built around an Renaissance castle, Malmohus.

Crossing the bridge into the entrance of Malmohus

Malmohus has a defense tower like this on each corner.

Looking out at the bridge and moat from a castle window

The castle and attached buildings hold a number of different types of museum exhibits.  There is a big natural history section with taxidermied animals, an aquarium and fossils.  There is a section on archaelogy. Because it is in the old castle, the layout is very twisty and turny.  We hurried through the above sections wanting to get to the history of the castle. 

A cool model of old Malmo

Decorative wood pieces from old buildings

Like most fortresses in southern Sweden, Malmohus changed hands a few times in the wars between Sweden and Denmark in the 1600s.

Inside one of the corner towers

 

From the circular towers, canons could shoot out in most every direction

The royal hall



Bed in the King's Chamber



Detail of the bed's headboard

They had a number of furniture pieces with gorgeous inlaid wood designs

By the time we'd seen this much of the museum, the boys were ready to move on to one of the other museums in the complex-- the technology museum.  So we parted ways and sent them off to looks at planes, trains, boats and automobiles, while the women visited the art exhibits. Then we joined back up at the technology museum and played with the science experiments together.

They had rooms set up showing furniture of various time periods.

Southern Sweden is known for its excellent glasswork

A fun photography exhbit



One of the biggest attractions at the technology museum-- an old submarine that you were able to crawl around inside.  It looks much bigger on the outside than it feels on the inside-- you literally had to crawl.

You see different makes of cars and planes at European museums.

We all had fun playing with the hands-on science experiments.  This is someone's hair magnified.

The Museums were a good deal-- 30 SEK (about $5)  for adults, free for kids 15 and under-- admitted you to all the museums.  And we never even made it to the photography museum or the old wind mill and gardens.  Winter hours were only from 12-4 and we ran out of time long before we ran out of things to see.