Schoonover Farm Blog

Sweden Trip Day 7, Start of the Reunion

Posted on August 2, 2019 by Donna

So we started of in Umeå with our first true Swedish breakfast.

Then we walked with our luggage for over one mile to what we thought was central station since this is where we departed the train and our tickets said central station. Well, it turns out this was Östra station. So we then walked over another mile with our luggage to Central Station. We met a kind woman after 0.5 miles who spoke no English but between her body language and my limited Swedish we walked together and found the bus station we were supposed to be at. Via Facebook messenger I was able to alert my cousin Kyle of the correct station and we met there. Here is the bus we got on.

There were lovely scenes along the way including farmhouses , saunas ( which I never got s photo of), sheep ( in the far pasture of one photo), and lakes.

When we arrived in Vindeln we had to walk 1/2 mile with out luggage to our hotel. But there were sights along the way including a Swedish hearse , vintage American cars, and a robotic mower ( like a Roomba).

Then we arrived at the reunion hotel.

There they had posted a local newspaper article of my great aunts and uncles from their visit in 1973. It brought tears to my eyes.

We had a nice Swedish lunch,

family members kept arriving and then Daniel Nilsson made the announcements to start the reunion.

We started with games,

Then dinner,

And then more games.

There was a lot of story telling and old photo sharing as well. It was so nice to have so many of the family together from Sweden, Canada and the USA. My night ended with my daily phone call home to my husband, sharing the events of both our days.

I am so looking forward to tomorrow with spending more time getting to know more about my relatives.

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Sweden Trip Day 6, Traveling to Umeå

Posted on August 1, 2019 by Donna

Today was a travel day from Visby to Umeå. The day started with getting up at 5:00 to catch the ferry. Here is our view from the boat most of the 3.5 hour trip.

Then we drove quickly to Stockholm, dropped the rental car off and then rushed to the train station. We made it in time, and this is our train car.

It was a 7 hour train ride. We read, I knitted, and we ate.

We went though many Swedish towns along the way. Unfortunately the windows were difficult to see through. Here is a portion of Gävle where the Yule Goat is constructed from straw each Christmas season.

There were some views of lakes and the Baltic Sea periodically.

Finally we made it to Umeå. We had to walk 1 mile with our luggage to our hotel. I did see this Swedish alphabet on the way.

We made it to our hotel.

It was a long day. We travelled about half the length of Sweden today. We are enjoying a Swedish version of an Old Fashioned and then heading to bed.

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Sweden Trip Day 5 Gotland

Posted on July 31, 2019 by Donna

So today we got to explore the island of Gotland. It started off by preparing a picnic lunch with Vasterbotten cheese.

The we headed south to check out the western coastline there.

There are old windmills there that you can check out.

And there are Gotland sheep grazing everywhere.

This is what the churches in the countryside looked like.

Then we drove to the southern tip to check out the view.

This is a thatched roof building in the area that you can checked out the first and second story of.

Then we had lunch on a store slab picnic table.

These are some Gute rams we saw.

Then we headed to a lighthouse on the eastern shore.

Finally we went to check out Visby and its medieval structures.

We went to the Gotland Museum in Visby to learn more about its history. First we learned about picture stones from the fifth to seventh centuries.

We learned about objects buried in Viking funerals.

We learned about the history of the Hanseatic League.

I checked out the medieval basement.

Then we learned about the brutality of the Battle of Visby.

And finally we learned about the stashes of gold and silver from as far back as the Vikings and from as far away as Egypt that are being discovered on Gotland.

We then headed to the liquor store because I wanted to find some punsch. We found that they have rams guarding their gates instead of the stone lions we saw in Stockholm. Plus they have plenty of cider here.