Scandinavia Day 13 Ronneby Eringsboda Vaxjo Gotenburg

Day 13 included lots of small stops between Ronneby and Gothenburg.  We found the cemetary where I am pretty sure my great great grandmother is buried along with other relatives.  We also stopped in a glass factory, visited an emmigration museum in Vaxjo and finally made it to Gothenburg

The day started with a good breakfast at our B&B

Then it was time to leave Ronneby and search the surrounding area

First stop was this gigantic cemetery near the Ronneby airport.  I think some relatives might be buried here but there was no map or information.  We did find lots of graves from the right time, but not names I recognized

This is another church that some family probably attended

Then we drove through Backaryd on the way to Eringsboda.  There is a picture of some relatives there in like the 1970's

The Backayrd church

The road the Eringsboda was very rural but had lots of great scenery like this

Eringsboda!

The Eringsboda church and cemetery

This would be my great grandfather's brother's family who all lived and died in the area

Lincoln loved running around the graves

Inside the church my great great grandparents got married in and my great grandfather was baptized in

The organ

Up front

And this is most likely my great great grandmother's grave

One last view of the church

Then we drove to the Kosta glass company.  After a 20 min wait in the car for the rain to stop and to let Lincoln nap we went into the outlet mall

In the mall we had lunch at the cafe.  Zach again had swedish meatballs

Then we found the Kosta outlet store to look for some souviners

The Kosta glass company started in 1742

We went on the floor to see some of the glasses being made by hand

After a walk back to the car we were off to Vaxjo to see Duluth's sister city and the emmigration museum

There was so much information about the midwest!  Twin Cities, Gustavus, central and northern Minnesota all got mentioned

There was even a thing on the Greyhound museum my grandpa used to volunteer at

Then there was a strange art exhibit called Try Swedish

Next we did a very short walk around town and saw some of the lake

The Vaxjo church

Another Espresso House so Lincoln could get his strawberry frapino.  I swear most of his calories are from that on this trip.  At least he is eating and drinking something!

We walked through the Vaxjo train station

And then after a nearly 3 hour drive we arrived in Gothenburg.  Here is the main cultural area as we drove through

And our apartment was great!  Lots of room and in a good location.  Parking was a bit of an issue though

We had stopped to buy dinner at the coop on the way in.  Lincoln was willing to chow down on meat and cheese and we finally got more veggetables in our salad.

As it was a late night already (we got in at 8:30!) we quickly got Lincoln to bed, planned the next day and were off to sleep ourselves.

Tomorrow we explore Gothenburg

Scandinavia Day 12 Gotland Kalmar Ronneby

Day 12 of our trip started on Gotland island and ended in Ronneby where my great grandfather emigrated from. We also stopped at Kalmar to see the castle and town on the way.  

It was a very early morning.  We had to be in line for the ferry no later than 7 am.  So no breakfast in the room, just a quick packing and off we went

Loading onto the car ferry

This ferry was way less busy and we got breakfast pretty quickly

Lincoln enjoyed the playroom for quite a while

Coming into mainland Sweden

And we were off the boat!

First stop was after about 45 min in Kalmar also on the coast.  We went to the Kalmar castle which is a renaissance castle that has lots of programs for kids

Lincoln managed to fall asleep on our short walk into the castle.  We had to wake him up to get his hot dog

We had lunch in the castle cafe.  It was actually pretty good.  I had cherry roasted salmon and Zach had swedish meatballs

Lincoln got to ride a horse in the courtyard while we waited for the english tour

We missed the tour starting but managed to find it after about 10 min in the Queen's bedroom.  Notice all the noses are chopped off on her bed

Lincoln was really nuts for this tour.  He was running wildly all over the place so we traded who watched him and who got to hear the tour

Very cool wood art in the King's room

The 15th century chapel

Lincoln got to play king

They also had a really cool Van Gogh exhibit.  It was in a big meeting hall and included all sorts of Van Gogh paintings set to music and projected around the room

Then Lincoln went to the kids area and got knighted!

View of the castle from the gardens

Quick stop on the ramparts on the way out (it was really windy as a storm was coming through)

Next we walked into town to see a few sights and get some coffee

The Kalmar Cathedral

One of the older houses we found (1600 something)

Espresso House to the rescue.  Lincoln not so patiently waiting for his strawberry faprino

Happy kid in the car because he got his strawberry drink

After driving through a few small storms and 1.5 hours later we were in Ronneby.  We stayed at Davids Kulle B and B which was very nice

The family room had a bunk bed fort that Lincoln enjoyed

After doing some research we walked up to the church.  It is a 13th century church and one of the few things that survived a bad fire in the 1800's

I corraled Lincoln for a photo.  There is a pretty good chance that some of my relatives went to this church or at least came sometime for big events.

Next we walked through town on a lovely river stroll to our dinner

We had pretty good pizza and beer.  When we arrived we were the only ones there but it was starting to fill up as we left.

The semi pro local soccer team was playing as we walked back to our B&B

Seems like an important building near the river plus it had lovely gardens

View of town as we walked back

After getting Lincoln to bed we did a little more research for searching family graves in the morning and then we were also off to bed.  Tomorrow we look for family graves and then continue onto Gotenburg stopping in Vaxjo