Things have started off very auspiciously for our

Scandinavian trip.  Starting at 2:30pm yesterday, we managed to successfully connect one bus (to the airport), two flights (to Iceland then to Copenhagen), a train to Sweden, and a bus to the seaside.  We succeeded in wrangling all our baggage into one checked bag (a large backpack), and five “personal items”, in order to avoid the

Triumphant arrival in Ahus

outrageous baggage fees charged by Play Airlines.  (We were a little nervous about the personal items, but we all managed, with some difficulty, to shove them into the sizing check slot.  Jury is still out on whether we’ll be able to pull this off again for the trip home.)  A mere 20 hours of so after leaving our house, we were stepping off the bus in Ahus.  The sun was shining and the air was crisp and cool.

We’re in Ahus visiting our dear friend (and Lanie’s violin teacher) Louise, who grew up here and is back visiting for the summer.  She and her parents have already, in the span of less than a day, given us a tremendous amount of delicious food and warm hospitality.  Louise has much to show us and is not one to let the grass grow under her feet, so after a quick welcome meal she showed us to the five bikes that

Church tour with Jurgen

she’d managed to borrow from neighbors, and we set off to explore the town.  After a long travel day, it was wonderful riding through the sunshine on the picturesque, bike-friendly streets.  (The biking presented a bit of difficulty for vertically-challenged Lanie, but she soon became a pro at getting the bike started even when her feet couldn’t reach the ground.)

Louise’s family has lived her for generations, and she had a story to tell about almost every building we passed.  We

Absolut Home

got a behind-the scenes tour of the town’s church, which dates from 1160, from Louise’s friend Jurgen.  We saw the harbor front, and the town square, and the Absolut Factory, which is right in the center of town.  (Alas, there were no English language tours that met our schedule.)  We saw the ancient ruins in the middle of town, which the enterprising Ahusians have turned into an open air cafe.  We went to one of the three beaches in town, and walked out on a long, long pier and dipped our toes (only our toes) in the frigid water — frigid even by our NH standards, though there were a few brave swimmers.  (Zoe considered going for a swim.  She was deterred not by the water temperature, but by the multitude of jellyfish that floated through the lagoon.  Louise thought they weren’t the stinging kind, but was not totally positive about it.)  We located our quaint B&B, right near the waterfront, and got ourselves checked in.  After a night on the plane with very little sleep, we really didn’t think we’d still be going strong at this point, but Louise is a bundle of energy and fortunately it proved to be contagious.

Having squeezed in pretty much everything we could for the

Meatball production

day, we headed back to the Kandles’ house for dinner.  Louise and her mother spent all day yesterday preparing a Swedish meatball feast, and everything was delicious.  We all ate way too much.  SInce it was now after 9pm, Louise decided we’d have to hold off on the Swedish yard games, but it’s good to have something to look forward to tomorrow.