We had a leisurely morning; nowhere we had to be early today! After breakfast we commenced with the cleaning activities. Clearing out the refrigerator, stripping beds, cleaning bathrooms etc. We have coffee and some fruit, crackers, butter and Silver Shred for breakfast in the am. (Silver Shred I am going to miss!)
We left out our clothing for tomorrow and set to the task of fitting all of our stuff (no pun intended) back into our bags along with the "extra" that we had acquired on the way! No easy task believe me! We had both packed, we thought, lightly for our three week trip. We each had one carry on bag plus our backpacks with camera equipment etc. Thank goodness for the zip out feature on our Rick Steve's carry on bags; we knew we would need to check them on the way home! Still, what were we thinking when we made those purchases that seemed so meager at the time?! A few hours later, with a delicate blend of art, science and brute force we had our bags ready to go. Toiletries could be added to the top of the bags in the morning successfully.
It was a lovely day but I had a huge blister on my little toe and didn't think I could handle the walk around town. Robin went out for her last Uppsala outing while I worked on catching up on the blog and my emails anxiously anticipating the Thai food she was picking up for dinner.
When Robin arrived back at the house, much to my delight and surprise, she had Chris in tow! I couldn't believe he was up and about after having had surgery the day before! Eros soon arrived too, with a bottle of wine and gifts for Robin and I. It was so sweet and touching!
Robin had been going crazy over the Moomins since arriving in Sweden. I had never heard of them, but Robin, being of Scandinavian decent had grown up with the books and was overcome with nostalgia over them. I learned about the characters from Robin and Eros and ended up buying some books for my grandchildren. Moomins are fairy tale characters created by Swedish-Finn writer and illustrator Tove Jansson. They look a bit like hippopotamus' and are nature loving, tolerant creatures.
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| Robin and Moominpapa |
The gift Eros brought to Robin was a stuffed Moominpappa about 12 inches tall. Robin lost her mind! She was so excited! All I could wonder was where he was going to ride on the way home! (He and his hat arrived back to the US just fine!) For me, Eros had chosen a lovely shell necklace from Namibia. I wore it home!
The night before Chris' surgery, they had invited Robin and I over for Fika (fee-ka , similar to a coffee break with little eats) and a viewing of their pictures from Namibia the year before. It was such a nice evening and I am determined to visit Namibia after seeing their pictures and hearing their stories. The necklace was a perfect gift for me!
We drank the bottle of wine, ate the Thai food and had a good visit. The next morning they picked us up at 6:30 am and drove us to the airport. They came in and made sure we were ticketed and cued up before leaving us. I can't say enough nice things about these two guys!
The trip home was long and uneventful. We had to go through customs in Frankfurt so we have a stamp on our passports from Germany even though all we saw of it was the airport terminal! (By the way, the only country that required us to remove our shoes was the US!) We arrived in Sacramento to blistering 107 degree temperatures. Bruce arrived fairly promptly with the car a/c turned up high and a cold bottle of water for each of us. Robin went immediately to bed (about 9:00 pm) and I was out by 10:30. We both got up about 4:30 am! It will take a few days to readjust!
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