World War 1 Monuments in Northern France

We flew from Nykopping to Beauvais near Paris on Ryanair - a discount airline which had very strict baggage limits. It was LOTS of fun having to weigh everything we had in the process of packing up (note the sarcasm). We rented a car at the airport and then drove north toward Belgium. Before leaving Canada, my Aunt Jane had given us a package of information about two of her dad's uncles who had fought and died in WWI and been buried in northern France. It had been our plan since getting that information to search out their graves. Since Vimy was also in the same area, we wanted to see the Canadian monument there as well. We managed to find the Wailly Orchard Cemetary and the grave of Newman Hall Campbell. The following pictures were taken there.(You can click on the pictures to zoom in and see the inscriptions better). The cemetary was small, but immaculate - obviously well cared for. We wrote in the visitors book and found Aunt Jane's comments from 2003 on the first page. I have included both a picture of the grave we came to see as well as a picture of the grave of an unknown soldier - there were a number of these - which we found particularly moving.





We headed on toward the cemetary at Villers where the other brother Colin Stanley was buried. Unfortunately, we didn't find the cemetary before dark although we did find the town of Villers. But as we drove around, we did find the Canadian Vimy Ridge monument which was being prepared for the Easter day ceremony. We arrived as the sun prepared to go down and a storm approached. The white monument was spectacular in that light and the bitter wind almost took our breath away. It gave us an appreciation for what the soldiers had endured on that ridge.

Touring Stockholm

We spent a couple of days wandering around Stockholm. The first picture shows the royal palace from across the water at dusk. The picture below is in the old town. It shows the view from the place we ate lunch. Dates on the buildings across the square were from the 1600s. There is a hotchocolate shop on the ground floor of the red building

One of the highlights of our visit to Stockholm was seeing the changing of the guards at the royal palace. This drum band was a part of that process and was very impressive. We all watched for the whole show despite cold fingers and toes.

We stayed in a hostel on an island across the water from the palace. Here we are on the bridge to that island with the palace in the background. The hostel itself was a neat old building. We stayed in a room on the top floor and had a great view of the harbour. If we had come in the summer, the hostel also has a boat that moors out front on which guests can stay. The last picture on the page shows that hostel -

Globen arena in Stockholm

Of course going to Stockholm would not have been complete without checking out the Globen arena - Stockholm's famous globe shaped arena. Luckily for us Djurgarden was playing one of their last games of the season while we were in town. Magnus managed to find some tickets for this game, and we had a wonderful evening with him watching a very exciting game (Djurgarden won in overtime).

Uppsala

Sport lov is like spring break - a week off in the spring for the kids to go skiing or enjoy the outdoors. We decided to go to Stockholm since it was our last chance to check that area out before leaving the country. We spent a couple of days in Uppsala (north of Stockholm) where we stayed with J's sister and her family. Here are a few pictures from Uppsala.

Stöpafors Kvarnen

This kvarn was about 3 km from our house in Sweden. It produces a specialty product: skrädmjöl, a roasted oat flour. This is the only product produced by this antique working mill since oats are gluten free and grinding other grains here would contaminate this gluten free product (there are many people in Sweden living with Celiac's disease). The miller also has another, even older, mill across the lake where he grinds grains containing gluten. The grains he grinds are all grown locally and sold locally. In a world where food travels 1000s of kms from producer to consumer, he can brag that his travels 7 - quite impressive!

Making plans to leave

Planning for the trip home - 3 weeks in Europe and then another month making our way home from Miami - took longer than expected. K spent huge amounts of time on the internet checking all the European options as well as trying to figure out the best way to get our stuff home. Thank goodness we will meet up with K's parents and his sister's family in Florida. They have most of the plans for our time together there.

The boys check out the Swedish Rally

One stage of the Swedish rally took place right across the lake from Stopafors, so the boys and K decided to go check it out with H and J from down the road - H had grown up over there, and new where to go. The following pictures were taken. Hopefully one of the boys wiil come back and add some more details about this experience.