billbauer

The Volvo has now arrived in port at Gothenburg, Sweden.  It's only a few miles from where we dropped the car off a little over a week ago but it is a necessary step in the process.  The car has been booked on the Atlantic Cartier ship for its voyage across the pond.  It is scheduled to depart Gothenburg on September 25th, be in Liverpool on October 1st, be in Halifax on October 12th, be in New York on October 14th and arrive in Baltimore on October 16th.  For those keeping track, and I am, that is five weeks following drop off.  From there it needs to be "port processed", essentially imported into the USA as a used car, which it is.  From Baltimore it will be transported overland by truck.  From what I understand, it takes about a week once it is on a truck.  So we might be looking at right around Halloween for the car to arrive in St. Paul (seven weeks following drop off).  Then the dealer needs to do some "dealer installed options", hitch, remote start, prote

We have safely arrived home after a very successful trip. We dropped off the car at the Volvo Factory Delivery Center (FDC) early Wednesday morning.  It was a bittersweet moment to be sure.  While we enjoyed our time with the car and we know that it needs to be shipped to get to the US, nevertheless we would have preferred to just keep driving.  Bev has reminded me several times already that I don't have many of the safety features contained in the Volvo.  I'll have to "make do" with the Audi for several weeks. According to the car's odometer, we put on 891 miles in the five days that we had the car.  Interestingly (to probably only me),  Garmin, which we had on virtually the entire time that we were in the car, logged 925 miles.  I don't think that we backed up 34 miles to account for the difference, or even 17 miles assuming that Garmin logged both directions. The FDC again warmly welcomed us and completed the minimal but necessary paperwork in just a

This morning we checked out of the Kulturstallet B&B outside of Ystad.  It was a wonderful room but not a night with wonderful sleep.  We are both still suffering a little from colds acquired before we left the USA.  We had a great breakfast of freshly baked rolls, soft boiled eggs, cold cuts & cheese brought to our room where we could eat in our bathrobes.  Well, if the truth be known, we didn't even don the bathrobes.  Nuff said. Since Bev said that yesterday's pictures didn't do the B&B justice: We're packing up. To show you how isolated the B&B is: This is not a driveway.  This is a street in Sweden: In sunshine again this morning instead of yesterday's rain, we head back into Ystad: and find a farmer's market: with an abundance of lingenberries: We then head west (past Malmo) and north back to Goteborg in order to deliver our car for shipping first thing in the morning.  We have forsaken our stay in Hoganas for a (v

Today we woke up in sunshine in Kalmar and ended the day in rain.  I guess that it had to happen sometime.  We really have had absolutely gorgeous weather.  We can't complain. After breakfast, we headed back to Kosta to shop the Kosta Boda and Orrefors factory stores with better shopping ideas after our initial foray yesterday.  Most everything is expensive in Sweden; except electronics, we are told.  We are prepared to walk into Macy's after we get back and see that we could have purchased the same item at home at a lower price.  We'll see.  We did save the 20% Swedish VAT which almost offset the shipping and insurance.  Still, it is fun to pick out something and have it show up back home later. Then, upon further consideration, we decided to continue our initially planned excursion to Ystad after all.  Our drive started in the forests and ended in "Sweden's breadbasket" with the richest soil in Sweden.  It looks very much like Iowa but without all of tho

Today we head on to the east coast of Sweden.  The countryside is still mostly forested with a few lakes.  Sweden has an area called Glasriket (Kingdom of Crystal) where about twelve well known glass studios, e.g., Kosta, Boda, Orrefors, have factories and stores within a area of 20 to 30 kilometers.  Many of the factories are open for viewing and demonstrations. Our first stop is Kosta Boda (actually two separate factories, this is Kosta): We just walk into the factory.  There are no guides, no safety glasses, no restraining rails.  OSHA would not like this.  Guys with molten glass balls on sticks walk around and past us as we stand in the way observing and taking pictures.  Today four guys are making crystal rabbits in assembly line fashion.  A finished example is on the table, foreground, below.  They go for $300 each in the gift shop.  Don't expect one in your Christmas stocking. And, of course, in Sweden we make the obligatory stop in the kaffe shop (including

We watched the sleepy village of Fjallbacka wake up this morning.  The Volvo looks right at home in "downtown" Fjallbacka.  OK, it may be a little bigger than some of the other cars. After breakfast today we visited the Vitlycke Museum in nearby Tanumshede containing displays from the Bronze Age and many Bronze Age hieroglyphs in their original environment: Then it was half way across the country (east-west is a lot easier than north-south) through farming country with lots of farm machinery on the road and up into the wooded central forests with rivers and lakes looking very Minnesota-like.  We pause overnight at the very nice Hestraviken resort and restaurant where we partook in another Swedish meal: Oh, the car.  There does seem to be a car in some of the pictures.  Yes, the car is a central focus of the trip.  It has worked flawlessly so far although I did notice in the news today that it may have already been recalled (computer glitch)!  I am a

Today was pick up the new Volvo XC60 day.  After breakfast at the hotel, we were again picked up by a Volvo driver and this time driven to the Volvo Factory Delivery Center in nearby Torslanda, home to the main Volvo factory. After a very brief paperwork exchange (brief because we had already paid for the car in the USA), our new Volvo was "revealed" to us ala HGTV: After being given a "tour" of the new car, we were treated to a Swedish meatball lunch and a tour of the Volvo factory: After which, we're off on the independent portion of our Swedish trip, first spending Friday night in the picturesque Swedish west coast town of Fjallbacka, home of Camilla Lackberg, crime novelist, and former home of Ingrid Bergman: Friday night dinner has to be fish & chips (and seafood casserole) at a harbor side table at Cafe Bryggan: Our stop tonight is the Stora Hotellet, location of many events in Lackberg's latest novel: The view from the balcon

Today was explore Goteborg day AND catch up on sleep and recuperate day.  The latter was more important.  We managed to sleep until after 9AM local after retiring between 8PM and 9PM local.  Welcome and much needed sleep.  We actually probably would have slept later but breakfast in our hotel stops serving at 10AM.  Then after more recuperation in our room after breakfast, we finally got going around noon. We toured the city by train (wheeled) and by boat (Paddan) through the city canals and out into the harbor.  The bridges over the canals were low and, on one bridge, we actually had to get out of our seats, sit on the floor (really!) and duck our heads.  Here are some of the highlights. Goteborg Opera House: Famous (to someone) office building designed to look like a tube of lipstick: Food market with Bev at the olive shop:  The shop owner was not happy with my fondness (not!) of olives. The somewhat famous fish market: The Haga section of town, aka the Greenwich