After deciding that the summer of 1997 was a good time for the trip, and that the three weeks between the end Spring Quarter at Ohio State University, and the beginning of Diana's job as Director of the Japanese English Teachers' Summer Program was the best time to go, we had to do some serious planning. The first questions were pretty fundamental. Where in Sweden did we want to go? How would we get around in Sweden? Where would we stay? And where would we eat?
So, we picked up some books about Sweden, searched the internet, and paid a visit to our Travel Agent to get some more information. The guide books indicated that hotels and restaurants in Sweden were fairly expensive. Of course this is completely dependent on the exchange rate between Swedish kronor and US dollars. A couple of years ago it was about 6 kronors per dollar, but when we went it was 7.6 kronors per dollar, a little better than the guide books reported. One nice thing about having a computer connected to the internet is that it is easy to determine the current exchange rates.
Sweden is a long country similar in size and shape to California, but there are big differences. Sweden is much farther north than California, and Sweden has only a little more than eight million people. About eighty percent of the people live in the southern twenty five percent of the country. The north extends beyond the Arctic Circle, and is covered by mountains, forests, and lakes. Trying to see very much of such a large country was not going to be possible in only three weeks.
Len was very interested in seeing the home turf of his many Swedish ancestors. His father's father's home was near Sundsvall which is about half way up and along the east coast of the country. Just north of Sundsvall begins the Höga Kusten (the High Coast), with lots of beautiful scenery and very few towns. Len's mother's mother's home was Tvååker, which is in southern Sweden along the west coast. Len got a map and marked the places he did not want to miss.
In doing research on Sweden, Len read as many books about Sweden (written in English) that he could find. Then one day Diana came home from a garage sale with a copy of The Wonderful Adventures of Nils Holgersson written by Selma Lagerloff, the Nobel Prize winning Swedish author. This book is about a boy who was put under a spell by an elf, and was made very small. He rode on the back of the farmyard Goosy Gander, who joined with Aka, the leader of a flock of wild geese, and traveled all over Sweden, having great adventures along the way. The book was written to teach Swedish children about Swedish geography, and Len found it just the thing to help in planning the trip. Connecting the marks Len had made on the map created a path that was surprisingly close to the path followed by Nils. Another surprising coincidence was that Selma Lagerloff was descended from Johannes Rudbeckius, making her another of Len's distant cousins.
There are several choices for flying to Sweden. The two big Swedish airports are in Stockholm and Gothenberg (Göteborg). Other choices are Oslo, Norway, and Copenhagen Denmark. Since Copenhagen is an easy ferry ride to Malmö in southern Sweden, we decided to fly to and from Copenhagen.
The big loop on the map started in southern Sweden, went up through Stockholm to Sundsvall, over through the folk district around Lake Siljan, and back south. The question was, how would we follow this path?
Public transportation in Sweden is reported to be good with lots of choices between air, train, and bus connections. We considered a train-car rental combination pass that allows something like 9 days of train travel and 4 days of car rental in a three week period. Len had nightmares about moving suitcases and heavy bags of glassware and souvenirs on and off of trains and buses. We thought about renting a car and staying in hotels and/or bed and breakfast places, but that would require making lots of reservations and sticking to a tight schedule.
When we lived in Colorado, we owned a pickup truck with a camper for traveling around the Rocky Mountains. Len liked the idea of the flexibility provided by traveling in such a vehicle. So, we again called on our email friend Mats for advice and information. He located a place in Malmö that rented such vehicles. After exchanging a few faxes with "Holiday Rent," a deal was made. Electronic funds exchanged through the bank provided the means for paying the deposit and rental charges for the husbil (house car). This also answered the questions of where to stay and where to eat.
Now we were committed. The plane tickets were in hand; we had the outline of a schedule. We knew where we were going, and when we had to be in different places to complete the trip on schedule. Now came the step that made all of the difference between getting the normal nice tourist view of Sweden, and getting a real inside look at the country. Len made a copy of our rough schedule of when we would be where, and sent it by email to his internet connections. Many of the friendly Swedes responded by offering to show us around their part of the country when we were in the area, and provided phone numbers and good advice about things to see along the way.
