An Impromptu Search for Sun in Italy

Funny how a little thread of an idea can grow and morph and take on a life of its own. We started out with the idea that since the kids were out of school, we should go with my husband on his next business trip to Stuttgart, Germany.  Flights looked pricey so we considered driving.  Then we started talking about how once we were that far south, maybe we should continue on to Italy and see Venice.  That started looking like a really long drive and next thing we knew, the business trip to Germany was postponed and airline tickets to Pisa, Italy for a long weekend in Italy were purchased. We were all excited for some real summer weather.



 

 

Malmö-Sturup Airport--the sun finally came out as we took off but
you can see how wet it was from raining all day

We flew Ryan Air which doesn't have the greatest reputation here. It is a discount carrier where you don't get assigned seats, but they do offer some REALLY cheap fares sometimes. Cheap enough that my husband wondered if we dared fly with them. We had to leave on Midsummer's Eve to get the best rate. Since it was so cold and rainy, we didn't feel too bad about that. The airline compensates for the low fares by charging fees for everything-- if you want to check a bag, if you want SMS messages about flight status, if you want them to print your boarding pass, etc. You can pay an extra fee for priority boarding (get on first) or even more for reserved seats (get on first and specific seats). We avoided most of this but did pay the extra fee to reserve seats. We wanted to all sit together and it was nice. We felt like VIPs. We didn't have to stand in the super long lines with everyone else. We sat in the second row both flights and it turns out that they leave rows 3 and 4 empty (for weight distribution issues) so it was like sitting in first class.

 

Waiting for the flight was actually quite entertaining. You had to prove your one carry-on would fit in this little cage thing or you had to pay to check it. And they REALLY mean one carry-on. Any purse, computer, etc. must all go into that one bag. We each had our own backpacks. With a little persuasion, they all passed the test. Then we sat there and watched the show as all our fellow passengers did the same-- little kids having great fun putting their tiny bags in and out 10 times were kind of cute but the hilarious ones were those that just didn't quite fit. One lady wrestled with hers for a good ten minutes before finally managing to force it in. She got a round of applause from all the already checked people when she succeeded. Then there was a group of college kids that all had identical hard shell carry-ons. The hard shells typically fit easily, but these had an accordian-like expansion section in the middle that made them a little too fat. The first girl got hers partially in and then it got stuck. Since the whole group needed to prove that type of bag was small enough, they all set to work trying to shove it all the way in. They were tugging, pushing and pulling and laughing hysterically the whole time. It doesn't help that this thing you have to test in has no weight to it so it comes off the ground as you lift the bag. Finally one of the boys jumped on the suitcase to shove it down. It went down but there was a really nasty crunching sound. We had to wonder what item in her luggage would never be the same again. Then they had to spend another 10 minutes trying to pry it back out. But they were successful and the airline employees let them go without testing the rest of the group.

 

Flying over the Alps



Being on the flight was a little like an infomercial. They try to sell you food, gifts, lottery tickets, bus tickets for your destination, but with headphones on you could zone that all out. And they did successfully get us to Pisa-- 20 minutes early even.

 

Pisa Airport



We'd decided to get a hotel in Florence for the first few days. It is in between Pisa and Venice, the train station there (Firenze S.m. Novella) is a major hub, and the hotel rates were much better than in Venice. We'd planned to take the train from the Pisa airport to Florence but when we walked up to the ticket booth, we learned that there was a train strike that day. Thankfully the one employee working pointed us to shuttle buses outside. Several companies run buses from the airport to Florence so we were able to get on one of those without difficulty for the hour ride. We enjoyed hanging out outside the airport waiting for the bus in the WARM twilight!



Buses to Florence

The sun sets earlier in Italy



All kinds of fun animal sculptures in front of the airport

We got to Florence just as it was getting dark-- around 10 pm. We bought a late dinner at McDonald's at the train station and then found our way to the Alinari Hotel. It's big selling points had been reasonable price and proximity to the train station and it really was close. Just a couple minutes walk up the street. It was an odd building. The hotel sign was outside but there was no door there. We went into a little courtyard and then found a door. Turns out the hotel was just a few floors of the building-- there were stores on the bottom, another hotel and who knows what else. Our hotel was on the 4th floor. Once we found it and were shown our room we were very satisfied. It was quite spacious for a European room-- double bed and two twins and a small table and two chairs and yet still room to walk around. The bathroom was also decent sized. The A/C worked which was important. In the morning, they had a nice breakfast buffet with rolls, pastry, cereal, yogurt, fruit, and the kids' favorite-- cake. Chocolate cake for breakfast!



Our first view of Florence

Our very gold hotel room

We tried to get dressed and ready in a reasonable time in hopes of catching the 8:30 am train to Venice. We got to the station early enough but had trouble buying tickets. Every scenario we plugged in to the self-serve machine-- 1st class, 2nd class, family-- would get us almost there and then say "only 3 tickets available" and kick us out. Ahh! So we gave up on that train and tried the next one-- at 9:20 am-- and had similar problems. We finally got it to say we could have 4 tickets and also picked our return trip for the evening, and then it rejected our credit card when we tried to pay. We were getting a bit frustrated at this point. We tried doing it all again (when it rejected the card, it started all over) and tried cash, but it wouldn't take bills, just coins (not feasible with a multiple 100 euros fare).  My husband went looking for a ticket desk. I found a little help desk and asked there-- turned out most machines did take bills, just not the particular one we had used. We tried one more time at a different machine and were able to feed in our money and get our tickets. Phew! Since we now had time to kill, we went and walked around the outside of Santa Maria Novella-- a large church right by the train station. Then we came back and found our train to Venice.

 

 



Santa Maria Novella



Santa Maria Novella from the side

 

 

 

Close-up of the obelisk in the square--supported on
the backs of turtles

 

A typical train station on our way to Venice

Swedish Summer?

 We learned that in Sweden summer means you can wear a light jacket. There were even a couple of days when we got by with no jacket at all (but only a few).  But on the plus side, you don't get hot very often either. And the things we heard about really long summer days were true.  In June, the sun was rising around 4 am and it didn't get dark until about 11 pm.  That meant the crazy little birds started singing at about 3:30 am every morning. 

 

We celebrated Swedish National Day on June 6. Happy to have a day off work and school, we headed down to town to check out the festivities. There was a very short parade that went from the town square over to Tivoli Park.  Then there was a program--some talks, music and dance numbers-- and car show at the park.  Not too different from a small-town 4th of July or Memorial Day celebration in the US.

Band marching in the parade

Soldiers-- first we've seen of that in Sweden. 

A folk dancing group in traditional Swedish costumes

Watching the program at the band stand. 
My daughter gets credit for this one (and a lot of others)

More at the program

Swedes aren't typically big flag wavers and find
Americans weird in their boisterous patriotism.
This was definitely the most flags we've ever seen here.

June 15th we got to experience Studenten-- the Swedith equivalent to high school graduation. We think it looks a whole lot more fun then the boring US ceremonies with caps, gowns and boring speeches.  No watching while each name is called. The kids have a week or so of dances, parties and other activities.  Then on the last day, they have a luncheon at their school and then they "Run Out!" It is very literally just that.  All their family and friends gather outside their school and they call out each class and that class runs out of the school while the crowd cheers.

Running Out at Soderport Gymnasium.  The signs people are waving usually
have a picture of their kid as a baby or kindergartener. 

They run into trailers decorated by their class and pulled by trucks and tractors.  These "floats" then circle the town a number of times with the students yelling, chanting and blowing whistles.  The various schools in the area stagger their run out so the "parade" goes on throughout the afternoon, with new classes joining and others getting tired and dropping out.  The roads were still open for driving during all this.  My husband got sandwiched among them taking a colleague to the train station. We enjoyed standing on the street corner and watching the mayhem. We hear that when they get tired of circling the streets, most people go home and host a party for family and friends to come congratulate them.

Typical dress for Studenten is a suit for the boys, white dress for the girls. 
Then everyone wears their Studenten hat.

A lot of the wagons were decorated with tree branches.

The graduates had lots of little gifts around their necks.

One interesting thing-- Sweden gymnasiums don't have mascots and school colors and such like an American high school.  So the colors for Studenten are the national colors of Sweden-- blue and yellow everywhere.

We took a little video. It does much better than the pictures at capturing the spirit of the event.

 

The last big holiday in June is Midsummer's Eve.  The day before Midsummer's Eve is also a work holiday and it was actually a beautiful summer day.  We explored Råbelövsjön--one of the closest lakes to our house. We tried to drive all the way around it-- stopping to see various spots along the shore, but dead ended when we hit a nature reserve and had to return the way we'd come.

 

Looking across the lake

Sorry but we can't help but find this sign funny.

 

It was actually warm enough that the kids took off their shoes to wade.

Farms buildings tend to be built in little complexes-- the house
and barns all grouped together around a courtyard.  We've found several
places where a road goes THROUGH one of these old farms-- like here.
Doesn't look much like a road, does it?

This is called Helmershus-- I don't know who Helmer was, but he
had a beautiful, lake-side estate.

After the drive, we couldn't resist a trip down to Åhus for ice cream cones.  They had their town square ready for Midsummer.

A Maypole is traditionally decorated with greenery and flowers
for Midsummer's Eve. 

 

Midsummer's Eve dawned cold and rainy.  We hear that happens a lot.  We were invited to a church barbecue at a beach house in Åhus. People in Sweden are not wimpy when it comes to weather.  Things do not rain out.  So we had our picnic under umbrellas with warm jackets on, enjoying good company if not good weather.  We had a traditional Midsummer meal-- pickled herring, boiled new potatoes with fresh dill and soured cream, meatballs.  Being clueless Americans who didn't know what to bring, we brought potato salad and brownies. We had a flight to catch, so we left after just a few hours.  So we didn't get to see if they decorated a maypole and if so, if anyone danced and sung around it.

Our daughter made a wreath to wear in her hair.  The popcorn
was just temporary fun. She added real flowers on Midummer's Eve.



Hunting Swedish Moose--and Tanks?

Sweden is known for their moose. We're told they have trouble with the German tourists stealing their Moose Crossing signs from the motorways.



But while we'd seen plenty of moose crossing signs, we had not seen any moose.  It didn't seem our stay would be complete without a moose sighting, so we decided to cheat a little.  One Saturday morning we drove over to Ingelbo Moose Park (http://www.ingelbomoose.se/) The couple who owns the park started with just renting some bed and breakfast rooms in their house.  Their guests enjoyed walking in their forest land but always wanted to see moose.  So the owners decided to help them out and bought a few moose.  Now they have a bull and two cows.  The cows have several babies each year which are then sold to other parks when they get old enough.  The moose live in several large fenced areas.  We were lent a pair of binoculars and given some hints on where we may find animals. 

The bull moose was fairly easy to spot. 

 

 

Then we were excited to spot one of the cows with her two little babies nearby. The babies were only a few weeks old.

We took the trails out through the forest to get to the other feeding area--
in hopes of spotting the second cow and her twins. 
It was a beautiful day and it was very quiet and peaceful.

 

A neighboring farm

 

There were a couple of HUGE anthills. 
We didn't ever spot the other moose, but enjoyed the walk anyway.
The moose really do look a lot like a stump or log when laying in the forest.

 

As we came back by the first area, the moose were kind enough to show off more for us. 
The babies were awake and alert now.  Their long ears looked like bunny rabbits.

 

So adorable!

 

Dad Moose was trying to play Hide-and-Seek now, but with limited success.

The gift shop included all things moose.

 

We thought this was the ultimate Swedish item-- a moose-shaped cheese slicer!

 

 

 

 Sweden is not known for their military, but on the way home, we stopped to see the Hässleholms Museum. My husband had seen it many times from the train on his way to and from the airport and had wanted to check it out.   It was full of vehicles-- mostly military. The boys loved it.

 

 

They had several of these mobile bridges.  They were huge. You can see the train going by behind.

 

The place was full of all sorts of tanks and other military vehicles.

Some of the odder things included armored kitchen carts and machine shops.  I hadn't really thought about all the auxiliary equipment an army needs.

 

I don't think I'd want to be transported anywhere on this stretcher!

 

They also had a few examples of other transportation, like this carriage room and a room full of fire equipment.

 We finished the day off with the best fast food in Sweden--hurray for kebab stands.  It was a great day trip.