Interesting stuff.

Great pics BP,thanks for bringing us along on tour.
They did a great job preservingthat old ship.
Is one of those young men in the pic your son?
Lumber must be expensive I bet.

Can you smoke in restaurants there ?

What's. Minimum wage there . .30.00 ph

Or the government covers all that ?

How was the food? And did you see any agriculture in your travels?

Again, thanks for sharing pics of your journey

That is very interesting.Never would have known that.Thanks!

Now that right there is great!!

Thanks Carl. I don't have any bearded axes like those, but would like to.

Keith

He’s not in the pic with the cuties w/garlands.
Here he is with a waitress yesterday who originally said “ Nei” to the picture but then reconsidered and came back to pose with him:

No. But chewing tobacco is allowed and a huge percentage of young Swedes indulge in their “snoose”.

I don’t know. It must be pretty decent. Thousands of young music-fest customers shelled out $120 equivalent in Kronors for a three day pass. I see lots of luxury items consumed by the public. ie: big boats, rv’s etc
I’ll ask about minimum wage when I get a chance.

I see Swedish “jordgubbar” (strawberries) for sale in roadside stands but have seen no fields from the road. Commercial farms here in Dalarna have lots of fields dedicated to grains and hay. Also potatoes. Predominant grain looks to be a short stalked barley. From the looks of things yields look to not be as good as what we have in Oregon for the grains.
I did see a 2-3 acre black currant field.

Some of the food is pretty good. They tend to use a lot of creamy sauces. Of course there is McDonalds and kfc too. We often eat at buffets. The fish and shrimp is very good.

When I get a chance I’ll get my kid to send me another pic or two of the Vasa. It was a huge ship that this pic doesn’t do justice to. Also lots of carvings up on the deck and all around. The ship was meant to fight the Poles for control of the Baltic. One of the carvings is of a polish nobleman in a small cage in a prostate position. Pretty funny.

That would be great to see more of the ship. Thank you. Quite a bit of imfo on Wikipedia about the ship if people would care to read it.

Fine looking young man BP.
I see he takes after his Mother,same as my son.

He did get my freckles and wacky sense of humor. His love of the city and complexion thanks to mama. He definitely likes the Swedish gals. As I write (we’re back in Stockholm) he’s texting a waitress he met here last week.

We went in 2015 and had to see all the wife's relatives. Got as far north as Petia. Lots of driving. We flew into Copenhagen and after a couple of days took the train into Sweden because they would not allow the car rental to be returned to another country. It was nice to have the locals show us around and help with reservations. We also hit midsumer.
You should take your kid to Copenhagen. every time I see a 6' tall blond woman we still say 'I bet she is from Denmark'.

FN long hair, LOl
I am bummed I did not did not meet/ reminder you at the NTA in pineville

Brent (lynccattrapper) killed it on the barbecue in his camp

I am half finnish and my uncle there was building a house out what I jokingly called "carbonated concrete" a block that weighted about 5 pound and was pre drilled for wires and plumbing. They were twice the size of our concrete blocks. The roof was bundles of straw tied together with the only problem being birds nesting in them. Did you see anything like that? This was 20 years ago......jk

Well, I'm back now and just to close the thread I will say I had a great time and came away highly impressed with the land of my ancestors. Friendly folks and a very clean and organized country. Saw no homelessness in the bigger cities. Wow!

Here are two final shots from the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm. It had meaning to me as three of four grandparents were either direct immigrants or first generation.