The Lindahl News: Abroad Edition

After eating breakfast at our hotel, the group headed out for more exploration of Stockholm. Imagine my surprise when someone rushed up to me on the streets of Stockholm...and I knew this someone!  The young woman in the turquoise hat is Anne Clausen Anderson.  She is the same age as our son, John, and is from our home church in Libertyville.  Presently, Anne and her family are living in Stockholm while Petey is on the staff of Immanuelkyrkan in Stockholm. Of course, a quick snapshot needed to be taken as proof of this serendipitous moment! Then we headed in separate directions: she to her Dr. appointment and us to the Vasa Museum . Actually, Wes and I and two others students had already been here so we chose to visit the nearby The Nordic Museum is dedicated to the past and present culture history - folk, people and nation - of Sweden. I loved it, especially, for the costumes, hats, mittens and needlework. And great big 'ol Gustav Vasa in the Stora ...

Early in the morning on Monday, December 3rd, Wes and I traveled with students via bus to Stockholm.  This time our group was smaller than usual as only the College Line American students took this trip. By now, we have seen what this group is like - they are wonderful students, to be sure.  They show up when and where they are supposed to show up, they are a group who genuinely seem to care for/about each other and flexibility appears not to be a problem.   Once we got to our hotel (Yay! A hotel, not a hostel for these two geezers - a complete bathroom in our room!), we quickly dropped off our baggage and headed to Gamla Stan .  We were meeting up with our tour guide, George, at 3:00.  As you can see by the following pictures, darkness was coming earlier each day. I wanted to get a quick shot of our group before the sun was totally gone. I love you guys! George met us in Stortorget - the oldest square in Stockholm. How fun is it to see a Ju...

See the look on our faces?  It's just lovely to see our daughter and two oldest grand-daughters when they fly to Stockholm from Chicago! Anne was brave to travel with E and M as Dad stayed behind with their youngest daughter, H. Upon pickup from the airport, we drove to Stockholm to look for a parking garage. As E is a reader, she noticed the P-Hus (parking garage) and we all had a good laugh!  Add to this that enter is infart and exit is utfart ...oh, my! We were all cracking up...jet lag made everything even that more hilarious.   Once we calmed down, we walked to nearby Gamla Stan. This is the old part of Stockholm and it is so charming with cobblestone streets, cute shops and old buildings.  The girls had heard so much about fika , and it was time to dive right in to this most charming of all Swedish customs!  This was a fika-to-end-all-fikas as we let the girls pick anything they wanted as well as hot cocoa for some and ...