Weekend of January 28-30

On Friday Courtney and I picked Colton up at school, it was "super hero day" and they had a bake sale. We got waffles with whipped cream and chocolate, among other things and headed for the sea. The picture on the left is from this day it was COLD but beautiful. You can walk to this from our house we took the bus this day. The ocean was frozen for a long way then you could see a line and movement where it wasn't frozen any more. It looked like surf with sand except it was all ice!!

On Saturday (the middle picture) we went to Copenhagen. We drove over the Orsund bridge it was a $56 toll one way then had a very hard time parking. We will take the train next time. Learning as we go. After we got there the town was AMAZING!! We started at City Hall Square (Radhuspladsen) saw the Hans Christian Anderson Statue and Tivoli Gardens (closed until warmer weather). We wandered around City Hall, absolutely amazing inside. Then we headed to the Stroget a pedestrian street with shops on both sides. We took a side steet to Papa's where we had pizza for lunch. Then back to the Stroget. The highlight for Colton was the Lego store where he got to spend his Christmas money. We stopped on another square and ate a Danish and hot chocolate at Norden's. Then headed to Nyhvn (New Haven) and around to the Opera House and Christianborg Palace. We didn't get to go in or see much of this because it got too late. We will be back!! We ate at Hard Rock Cafe for dinner and headed home. It was only about 45 min. from our house. I will put all the pics on Facebook.

On sunday (pic on right) Colton, Mike and I walked to Sibbarp Park, back to the Baltic Sea. The weather was warmer and the ocean was much more thawed out. Still amazing!!

Catching up to move forward.

OK life is finally slowing down and I will do a "quick" catch up and then try to do weekly posts. Our first weekend trip was to Vaxjo (Tek-Kwah) and Kosta they are in SouthEast Sweden about 3 hours away and we went by car. Got there Saturday 1/22 and went to the House of Emigrants museum , The Swedish glass museum, a cathedral (a little to new agey for me and went to Vaxjo Town Park where we walked around a frozen lake. (Colton's favorite part!!)

The next morning we got up and drove to Kosta. This region of Sweden is known as the "kingdom of crystal" there are many glass shops in this area. Kosta has one of the largest and most well known. Kosta Boda which is the oldest of the "glasbruks". We started at the new art hotel, which was beautiful, Colton played the piano and we "toured" on our own. This we headed to the glassblowing "hot shop". This was our favorite part!! We saw them actually make it. We then did some shopping and headed back home. The Picture on the left is Colton in the exhibit hall in the hot shop and the one on the right is Mike at the frozen lake. I am going to post all of the pics on facebook and the narrative on here.

We Are Officially Here!!

I don't have pics yet but decided to update the blog. Mike, Courtney and Colton arrived on 1/29, I ended up staying an extra week at home because we sold our house unexpectedly (it wasn't even listed) and I had to move us out. They had to be here to get their visas and tax numbers before 1/1. They got to spend New Years Eve in Sweden. I heard the fireworks were crazy and they could see tons from the house. Mike said the neighbor was outside in a tux at midnight shooting off fireworks in the street!! CRAZY- I hope to be in on those festivities next year. Colton loved the snow- about 18 inches on the ground when they got here.

I arrived 1/6 in a snowstorm. It was beautiful-SNOW was everywhere-white and fluffy!! Courtney had the kitchen all set up she had been cooking every night. They were all glad to see me but they were doing great without me!!

Colton started school on 1/10 (Monday) he really liked it. I took some mistakes and studying to get the buses figured out! Courtney was a big help!!

So, our stuff came 1/14 and we are all settled in now. We were supposed to get broadband in the house yesterday, however that didn't work out. They said in the next 3 days but we will see. The other issue is the dryer is not working- I am working on getting that fixed today. We just don't use the microwave because everytime you do it blows a fuse in the other part of the house. I missed this excitement, but we just avoid it now.

We are going on our first excursion this weekend!! To southeast Sweden- Vaxjo, and Kalmar- it is called glass county. Hope to update and have pictures from the weekend.

Here are some pictures from around town that we saw over the weekend. The top picture is the library it is a new library built onto the old. The middle picture is the Malmo castle or fortress it has a museum into and 2 museums across the street. We decided not to tour it but to wait for Courtney & Colton. It has a beautiful park around it called king's park. The bottom one is the famous turning torso building- notice the sky in this picture this is a "normal" Malmo sky.

The Weekend

Decided to stay here in Malmo for the weekend. I got to see the other side of town, do some shopping and actually had a GREAT time. Friday we got our visas stamped in our passports and registered for our tax ID number. It was snowing when we got up and then sleeted, rained most of the day then at night it snowed again. Here it is SNOWING big fluffy flakes but you can't really see it coming down only on our coats.

We went to the coolest place last night for dinner. It was called Saint Marcus Vinkullare - Which means St. Marks Wine Cellar. It was below the street you walked in and went downstairs it was a twisty wine cellar it looked so old! The food was delicious, the top picture is Mike Creme Brulee.

These are some more pictures around town. Little "parks" are hidden all over with beautiful flowers even in November!! The top one is just a building, not sure what it is just AMAZING!!