Sweden

We hired a car, and Dad had to drive on the wrong side of the road. He kept hitting the windscreen wipers when he was indicating and Mum was nervous. We hired a Volvo station wagon, V70 diesel - it was a good car. We drove from Stockholm to Jonkoping to stay with Anders and Maria at their house. It was great to see them again - we stayed up until midnight talking. The next day we drove to High Chaparral - the world's wildest west - full of Swedish wanna be cowboys. I was surprised at the number of kids with guns and knives, and the number of people smoking. We enjoyed the train ride, the wild west show and the Indian dance with Indians from the first nations in Canada. I thought it was insensitive that the Swedish kids were shooting at the Indians during the show. We spoke with the Indian with the Eagle mace after the show. Anders is a good cook and we had a good dinner with them when we got home. On Sunday we drove to Stockholm - the capital. We walked around places Dad had seen 25 years ago. On Monday we toured the Palace, the Kronor museum (palace archaeology museum), the treasury (with all the crowns), the chapel and saw the changing of the guards. We were there on a special day because it was a full changeover back to the original Royal Life Guards instead of regular army guards. Then we-drove back to Arlanda to return the car and we stayed at the Radisson Blu hotel, because we had to be up at 4 am to fly to Helsinki in Finland! Via Denmark.