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2018 has been a year of preparation—for 2019 when I join the ranks of the old-old (although that doesn’t officially happen until I cannot make it up Black Mountain). However it is year’s end and here I am—still unprepared. I’ve tried. I have really tried. Climbing up and down the side of that schooner in heavy gear and walking the 10K in the Duke City Marathon. Allotting the reading of history as… Read More
Having family in Norway and Sweden is possibly the nicest thing that’s ever happened to me. I’ve now visited often enough so that the country of Norway and my Norwegian cousins feel like they must have been part of my life always. With my newly discovered Swedish cousins it just gets even better. I’ve mentioned before pondering all of the reasons this extended family pleases me so very much and there are… Read More
The excitement surrounding the meeting of the Swedish cousins is based, in no small part, on my mysterious grandmothers, one Norwegian, one more Swedish than we knew. The grandfathers have been more easily knowable. In the case of Grandpa Neset—I lived next door to him as a child and I was able to find my Norwegian Neset cousins fairly easily. Getting to know them over the years has been enormously interesting and… Read More
(This set of posts comprise an addendum for Time and Place 2015-16, accounting for previous travels and events.) The Scandinavian countries of Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland host a spectacular dance festival (Ice Hot Nordic Dance Platform) every winter, highlighting contemporary dance that is uniquely Nordic. Both the festivals pictured below took place in the winter although I’m not sure the Norwegian one that Kristine Maltrud and I attended was part of… Read More
MORNING AT BENTLEYS; AFTERNOON FERRY TO RIGA There are little blocks of time here and there on every trip that are either wasted spaces or rest stops. It’s whether you’re a glass half-empty or half-full person isn’t it? I’m always trying—and sometimes succeeding—to be the latter…all because mom insisted I read Pollyanna. I booked a day over in Stockholm because the thing I most do not want to do on this trip… Read More
MY STOCKHOLM VIEW. And on the first morning of the third week, I awoke feeling…okay I think. A succinct sentence scrolled across my mind’s eye, ‘Only 28 more mornings until you wake up in that huge bed on 13th Street….’ Gone in a flash though. Stockholm. Best Western Hotel Bentleys on Drottninggaten. I am quite good at picking hotels it seems, while I’m sure there will be the exception, this one is… Read More
The Big 2015 Trip (B15T) involves two or three days in Stockholm. Beth is setting up a ‘food/local cuisine/gastronomic tour for one day. I am researching murder for the other one—hence an evening of the Swedish version of Wallander. I’ve been to Ystad, home of the most famous of fictional Swedish detectives. Everyone knows about the Dragon Girl and Steig Larsson. But Henning Mankell’s books came first and are Still The Best…. Read More