25/07 - Berlin to Gothenburg - up bright and early for taxi to airport - arrived 10:00, Mart there to pick us up and take us to our studio apartment. Small but OK for what we need. Crazy door lock - couldn't work out how to open it from inside for a few minutes, Then a walk down the street looking for a SIM card. Ended up walking right downtown, maybe a couple kms. Got the card then a text from Lara while having a sushi. Met for coffee and then met up with Marcus and Carmen for a drink in the park - found out then that Carmen pregnant again. A walk around the city markets area with various berries bought by Lara, Marta, Carmen and Marcus. Lara has been having a great time with spa this morning and being driven around by Brigitta and Linda since she was here. Marcus and Carmen having a great time with Ruut & Margaretha. Then a hop on hop off cruise for the oldies and long walk back to the apartment, via a supermarket for supplies, about 5:15. Ruut picked us up at 6:00 for dinner at Mart's place tonight for international visitors attending the Klanberck reunion tomorrow - Mai & Renno from Estonia, Mary-Liis from Canada, the Klanberck group from Australia and both cousins plus Brigitta and Margaretha. Dinner was local seafood - prawns and crabs - plus a bean salad and bread. Very, very tasty! Cab home about 11:00. Great night. I got in some Estonian practice with Mai and Renno. Maybe a little basic but understandable. Mai also produced a bundle of old family photos I had not seen before just before that cab arrived and we will follow that up more tomorrow.

Photos: The Klanberck contingent having drinks during afternoon, river cruise, low bridge, seafood dinner and cousin Mart with 4th cousin Renno, cousin Mary-Liis and 2nd cousin Mai.

26/07 - Gothenburg - beautiful day - mid 20s - spent an hour on the phone looking to rent a car for tomorrow but non available, all rental cars in Gothenburg booked out until next week. Meanwhile Marta battled instructions to locate our laundry downstairs [and found it in the end]. Coffee down the street at 10:30 then sightseeing walk to town. Back around 12:30 for sushi lunch before Mart picked us up for the reunion events, starting with the historic tramcar tour [http://www.ringlinien.org/hyrsparvagn/] through the city and environs for two hours, followed by drinks and general mingling at Skansen Lejonet (http://www.skansenlejonet.se/valkommen.aspx) - a small castle on a hilltop - and then dinner. Very well organised - big table that seated all, with excellent reindeer entre and main course, and Swedish meatbals, as much as you could eat - white and red wines, sweets and wide selection of after dinner wines, cognacs and liqueurs from Sweden and Estonia. Short talk by all cousins about their respective families and overhead displays of old photos and movies. Surprising, this included a movie of Marta, my parents and myself taken by Mart the first time he visited Australia [1967]. Cousin Mai also had a bunch of old photos I had not seen and Renno will be uploading those so we can access whatever we like. All in all a great night. The feeling seemed to be that this should become a regular event every 2-4 years, with the next one in Australia or Estonia. Ruut also said that he would lend us his Skoda Octavia for our drive around some Sweden family-related sights tomorrow with Lara, Marcus and Carmen. Cab home about 11:00. A memorable night for all. Great feast. Great company. Great mingling.

Photos: Random candid shots of tram ride and evening plus group photo of all there.

27/07 - Gothenburg - another great day in mid-20s. Borrowed Ruut's Skoda Octavia for a run to Backasgogs with Lara, Marcus and Carmen to see where I lived from 1943-1948. Carmen too tired and ill this morning to make it so just the four of us. Ruut picked up Lara at Mart's place and dropped the car around at 8:30. We followed him back to his place to pick up some maps and were soon on our way.
    Following his directions we immediately ran against a situation that was different to what he described and due to one way streets etc ended up driving around a few blocks to end up at our starting point and trying again. Still no luck so pulled up to get a coffee and try to establish where were were. Street names displayed not always the same as shown on the map or listed in the directory. Really handy! With Lara now the chief navigator while I drove we finally made it out of town but the wrong turn to freeway saw us heading for Oslo instead of Malmo and it took a few kms before we were able to return to Gothenburg and start all over again but at a different location.
    Anyway, then out and such a relief for all to be on the right road, especially Lara as she is leaving tonight and needs to be at airport by 18:00 and our destination is some 330 kms away. With the agro of getting out of town I'd forgotten stage 2 of Ruut's instructions which was to turn off at Halmstad, about half way to Malmo. Anyway, we saw a lot of Swedish villages and countryside. :-) Pulling into a service station on the outskirts of Malmo we discovered the error when I called Ruut and he said "What are you doing in Malmo?" 100 kms to Kristiansted to get back on track meant we were now about 2 hrs behind schedule, having to drive a triangular route instead of direct.
    Finally to Backasgogs, a chat with reception who told me about the reconstruction in the 50s and demolition of old workers' cottages, a look around, a few photos and back into the car. There had been a lot of changes since I was last there in 1948 and the house in which we lived was no longer there. Then back into the car and to Mart's place at 17:15. The car had been really great and I am VERY impressed with it - smooth, powerful, economical, quiet and very comfortable. Mart had a meal waiting for us and at 18:00 Birgitta took Lara to the airport. When we took the car back to Ruut's at around 19:00, he and Margaretta also had a meal ready for us. Couldn't refuse so ended up with two delicious dinners tonight. Then a 30 mins walk home through the city. Bruce Springsteen concert on tonight so throngs of people heading for the stadium [last visit by Bruce in 1989 had over 67,000 attending] and Springsteen music blaring everywhere.
    On reviewing my photos and movies later, I found where we had lived. The lady at reception had been wrong. Our family lived WITHIN the castle compound, not outside like the manager and workers these days. Bugger! So close. Could have got in and had a good look at where we lived after all. So near but yet so far.

Photo: The white building at left is inside the quadrangle opposite our entry, where we lived and the higher one in corner I think was where guests stayed.

Photos: Gate to rear lawn and garden and rear of the building, and inside, near the entry to the castle, where I remember the "Lord of the Manor" getting a servant to get me sweets.

28/07 - Gothenburg - woke up to rain, which continued well into the night. Still fairly warm though at around 20. Quiet day. Washing for Marta this morning then coffee down the road. Less than luke warm - won't be back there. Then a walk down and around the downtown area for about for hours, finishing up with sushi again for lunch. Sushoi here is diferent to Australia - no rolls - you buy by the piece - 10 bitar, 6 bitar etc - and get misso soup starter and tea to follow as part of the deal. A snooze and bit of TV [movies here are in their original language with Swedish sub-titles] so great to watch UK/US movies. The Olympics with focus on the Swedish contingent, womens soccer and handball today, an open air singing show from Stockholm and the last episode of Back to Cranbrook were the entertainment this afternoon. Then a walk downtown in the rain again at 6:30 to join Marcus, Carmen, Ruut and Margartha for dinner at the Swea Hof restaurant [in the hotel where Bruce Springsteen is reputed to be staying tonight]. Very nice indeed. Marcus shouted. It had finished raining by the time we left so we walked back home. Marta went to bed while I watched Hide & Seek with Robert de Niro until 1:00. Another great movie started after that but I was too tired so went to bed.

Photos: The group at dinner and the entree Ruut and I had, much larger than anticipated.

Photos: A nearby church on our way back and our small but adequate studio apartment.

29/07 - Gothenburg - looks like we may be back to winter - grey skies - coolish, becoming colder during the day - people still in t-shirts and shorts though, even in cold, sharp winds. We noticed this last time in Gothenburg too. Walked down the street at 9:30 looking for The Coffee Shop, which Marta had been told makes good coffee. All coffees we have had to date have been luke warm, even when we asked for extra hot. [One cafe responded to this by asking if we meant "burnt". Hmmm... and still made it like a warm glass of milk.] Hardly anything open at that hour and few around until about 11:00 soended up all the way downtown before getting a coffee, taking snapshots along the way. Then a walk to the museum area the other side of town before getting back around 2:00 and sushi just down the street for lunch. Quiet afternoon and shared an el cheapo pizza for dinner. A bit of Olympics then on TV and another good movie. Retired after 11:00, after a fairly quiet day.

Photos: Fairly empty Gothenburg street scenes on a lazy overcast Sunday morning.

Photos: Coffee downtown, Linnesgatan [our main road to downtown], church on way back and quick el cheapo pizza dinner tonight
[yes, looks like winter but it's really summer :-)].

30/07 - Gothenburg - cold and wet. Ruut & Margaretha picked us up at 10:30 for a drive to their summer house on Orust, an island north of Gothenburg, about 75 minute drive. Ruut usually stays here from April to Sept each year, with Margaretha here for June/July. That was followed by a seafood lunch at a waterside restaurant at Skarhamn, on nearby Tjorn island. The islands are connected by bridges to each other and to the mainland. Mussel soup for the others and a herring entree for me with Mackril mains for all. Very nice. Called in to a large shopping centre on the outskirts of Gothenburg on way back to buy some luggage scales and US power adapter. Back around five and a l ater a light Bratwurst and bun dinner while watching Olympics swimming. Marta's knee is starting to play up again. Needs pain killers. Too much walking for too long.

Photos: Ruut's summer house at Orust.

Photos: Typical seaside village on the islands, the plaque for our restaurant and the herring entree.

31/07 - Gothenburg - last day - cold but sunny. Even most Swedes are wearing jackets and coats today. Final day. Coffee at Starbucks to get a hot coffee at last. Then Mart picked us up at 11:15 to take us to the lookout over Gothenburg and then to Gunnebo House [gunneboslott.se] for a light lunch before visiting my old home at Anneberg. What a surprise - new owner [since 2006] was there and delighted to meet us and swap histories about the house. She had traced it back to 1850 and she is now running a hostel [kungsbackavandrarhem.se/index.asp] there. We lived on the top floor [LH side in the photo on the web site] in a one room flat with kitchen and bathroom. That has all now been changed, modernised and new partitions added. Turns out that she [Mirja] originates from an area bounded by Finland, Estonia and Russia where they spoke their own dialect, that her parents had become friendly with Mart's parents and learned Estonina to communicate with them and that she remembered Mart, like an old friend. Her eyes lit up when she saw him. Mart hadn't spoken to her for 35 years. Small world. Then a quick look around Linda's magnificent home nearby before settling down to another feast of local crabs and prawns with a nice a couple of bottles of white wine to finish off our final night. Birgitta had left this morning with her twin to get her golf clubs somewhere in the country and not back until tomorrow afternoon so just Mart and us. Tomorrow starts at 4:15!

Photos: Gunnebo, our lunch location near Gothenburg, and my old digs at Anneberg, with Mirja, Mart & Marta.

Photos: Final seafood snack with Mart and up, up and away, en route to Washington, DC.

Next... Washington DC

<