MOC 9 Jan 11 Story
jam-on-toast, Jan 13, 2021
- Description:
- Kit used is Winter Stories by Sahlin Designs.
Journalihg: - 688 words give a take a few alterations.
For our first skiing trip with the boys we went to Sälen, Sweden. I had wanted to go the Austria but 'we can go there anytime' and so we decided to go some place exotic. Bo had mentioned there was this great place about 40 miles from Stockholm, where winter is picture perfect and slopes are family friendly. And so the perfect trip was planned. Drive to Helsinki, take the ferry to Stockholm and pick Josef and Honza up at the airport. Spend the rest of the day sightseeing – Vasa Museum and then a pizza. Lazy morning and then head out to Sälen – check-in was not until 4 pm and it was just a 40-mile drive – even if we get lost of the way (remember 2003 was BEFORE SatNav and Waze) we reckoned it can’t be more than 100 km. Everything went according to plan. A buffet dinner on Viking line with shrimps galore and a glass of wine with a romantic view over the Baltic – we couldn’t really see anything, it was pitch dark, but we knew the sea was there. We picked the boys up ad checked into our hotel. Admired the mighty warship and roamed the streets in search of a good pizza place. The perfect combination of the panned and the spontaneous. Lord of the Rings had just been released and so we decided to go to the movies the next morning before we set out for the mountains. Once again, it was just a 40-mile drive. The next morning too went without a hitch. We went grocery shopping in the morning, the boys loved the film, then a quick Subway and at 2 pm were all ready to hit the road. Bo had instructed us which direction we should be going and apparently it was a pretty straightforward drive, so we weren’t particularly worried. It wasn’t until after we had been driving for about 40 minutes and had long left the city that I started wondering why there were no signs to Sälen. After all, 40 miles can’t possibly be THAT long. We decided to give it another 10 minutes, but finally had to pull up at a petrol station and buy a map. Yeah, that’s how unprepared we were. I remember spreading the map of Sweden on my lap looking for Sälen in the vicinity of where we were, and failing that having to refer to the index at the back of the map. Sälen was in quadrant A6 or something while Stockholm was in E1. What??? Incredulously, I placed my fingertip about a meter away from our current location. And then I glanced at the scale and realized… 1 Swedish mile is 10 km. We were in for a 400 km drive… along narrow country – and later mountain - roads that were so windy the speed limit was set at 80 kmh most of the way. Which would have been perfect had we been able to drive that fast. But it seemed the whole of Sweden was heading for Sälen that day and we soon found ourselves joining the snaking caravan doing a steady 60 kmh. It was Saturday, the check in/check out day. To spice things up, it started snowing about half way there and before long our windscreen wipers could barely cope with the blizzard all around us. It was a miserable journey and by the time we got to the cottage we were cranky and starving. Naturally, we didn’t get to see the place until the next morning. It WAS picture perfect and super wintery. The mountains weren't the Alps - no mountains are - but winter was exactly what it was supposed to be like: snow everywhere and trees covered in hoarfrost, 15 degrees below zero and blindingly blue sky.
nhudao, KarenB and SeattleSheri like this.
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- Category:
- Month of Challenges 9
- Uploaded By:
- jam-on-toast
- Date:
- Jan 13, 2021
- View Count:
- 432
- Comment Count:
- 4
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