Monday, August 31, 2026

8/31 Malmo Kungsarken Park

 This was a lovely park with a lake with many birds and a few ducks.  It was quite close to the mall and within walking distance of Lia's school.


A Pegasus Statue.


We saw these safety measures everywhere.  Three different ways to rescue you from the water!





This is the back of a "castle" which is currently a museum.


I took this photo just to show the windmill across the water.

Then we stopped at a cafe for Fika. 

The word is the word for coffee backwards!  I had a very lovely dense chocolate cake.



Alexis saw this tree which seemed to have different leaves at the very top.  The trunk seems to be two trees.  Next we headed towards the pretty part of Malmo Old  Town.  I will do this in a new post since blogger can't seem to download the photos here.










8/31 Malmo Scenic Viewpoints

 This morning we 4 adults went to two different viewpoints.  The girls have school.  We will meet with Lia the high schooler who has a big break over the noon hour for lunch.

We first drove to the Bridge Viewpoint.  This is the bridge between Copenhagen and Malmo and connects Denmark to Sweden.  It is also known as the most expensive bridge in Europe.  Which means the fees for crossing the bridge are the most expensive.


That is Copenhagen in the distance.  We have had a break from the rain.



The sun is peaking out and shining on the bridge here.

On to the beach viewpoint.

Alexis trying out the rings.

A view of the Twisted Torso in Malmo.

We walked to the end of this pier.  There was one couple who took a dip into the water - Went under once and then got out, dried off, dressed and left!

We were not interested in getting in the water - more sensible people as it is cold.



It is not raining - but also very little sun.

We next drove to Lia's high school and picked her up for lunch.  We drove a short ways to a mall that had a food court.  Two had Poki bowls, 2 had hamburgers and one had Chinese food.

We then walked to a park close by.  See next post.




8/28 Traveling on to Sweden

 On Friday we had another early flight to catch.  We flew from Warsaw to Helsinki and then Helsinki to Copenhagen.  We made it fine with only a slight delay.  At the Copenhagen airport we took a bus transport to the Rental Car location to pick up our car.

This is where things were wrong.  The back of the bus had no place to put your luggage.  So Michael stood in the open space between the bus and the back extension that had a few more seats.  There was one seat in the open area that I took.  Also with us was a young British family with 4 kids under about 6 - the youngest in a stroller.  We made comments to each other about how fast the bus driver was going as we tried to keep control of all of our luggage.  The driver just seemed to be going faster and faster.

Suddenly he put the brakes on hard - everything went flying.  I managed to knock over the camera bag so it stayed pretty much put.  I felt like I was going to fly off the seat and slam into the floor. I watched the stroller pass in front of me.  I couldn't grab it.  I had visions of having another experience of broken bones in Sweden.  Thankfully I still have my Swedish medical number!  I grabbed my backpack - but still slammed my right shoulder against the other side of the bench. Michael got control of the two large suitcases and extra bag seemingly intact.  I don't know how the young father did it but he managed to reach for the stroller with one hand and control his suitcase with the other.  Shortly after I heard a child crying - it was his daughter - she had somehow hurt her throat.  Now the father is quietly furious.  He manages to get the phone number to put in a complaint and does so.

The rest of our journey to Malmo was uneventful.  Rob was waiting to help us get our luggage into their house.  After we are settled in, we have a meal of French picnic.  Michael and I are very tired and go to bed a little early.


THE WEEKEND

The weather forecast is for rain, rain and more rain.  So the weekend may be spent in the house.  We did manage to walk to the grocery store in the morning.  In the afternoon Michael drove the family and himself to COSTCO while I stayed at the house to work on my blog.  Alexis cooked a chicken in cream sauce on pasta per Michael's directions.  It was fantastic.  All ages ate it enthusiastically.  We all watched a movie in the evening.

Sunday dawned looking the same.  The forecast is to rain, pause, followed by heavy downpour, followed by more rain.  Rob and family managed to do a short run before the heavy downpour.  We had planned to go out for a big lunch.  But after all 4 of them took a shower - it was too late - the hunger crabs had set in.  So everyone just grabbed what they wanted.  

We did go out around 5pm to a restaurant that served Western food.  It turned out it was a sports bar! The food turned to be quite good.  I had Swedish meatballs with boiled potatoes which I really enjoyed.  Michael had mussels and frites he thought quite good.  There were a couple of Caesar salads and one risotto.  The Sports Bar atmosphere was quite boisterous - and only one startling incident of large cheering when someone scored a goal - It was football - or in the US - soccer.


8/29/2026 A Sad Interlude

 While my posts here on the blog have mostly been travel posts - this tragedy happened while traveling so I guess it is part of my travel journey.

My brother Gerry had a motorcycle accident on 7/31 - he was hit by a deer.  It was very serious and originally we didn't think he was going to survive the accident.  But he did. When we left for Europe on 8/24 he seemed to be in a good place and improving a little bit each day.  He took a turn for the worse and suddenly died from complications last Thursday (8/27) - complications that almost always follow when someone cannot move off his back and has internal damage. 

His funeral will be Sept 6 in Ohio - I will not be going.  I have written up a short elegy to be read by someone else at the service.  I will post it here after the event.  

Sunday, August 30, 2026

8/27 An Afternoon Adventure

 We were revived after our naps and ready to go out again and hopefully to catch the golden light of late afternoon.  We were also looking for a little more street food.  We headed back to Old Town as we had seen places that sold things through windows in shops off the street that looked like street food.


Yes - the light was nice.


But still deep shadows.


A random side streets.

We did not go into any of the churches  today.





I did end up getting an artisanal ice cream cone before we left Old Town.  But Michael's mood for a hot dog type of snack seemed to disappear - though there were many places we could have gotten it.

St. Hyacinth's Church


Then we wandered into New Town.

St. Kazimierz Church


The buildings are a little more modern.

or more of the same.


Church of St. Francis






We did go into this church: Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.



We then headed further down that street to what looked like a lookout viewpoint.  Many people were headed that way.


Maria Klodowska-Curie

This statue is the first thing we came upon.  I had read about it - but never looked up where it was.  So great to actually find it.

The view point overlooked a park - and far in the back - the Vistula River.


And this street scene on our way back home.

Where this sign on the sidewalk indicated the location of one of the original walls of the Jewish Ghetto in Warsaw.