Notes from Hades

The next day, we spent most of it at Skansen. Skansen is a large outdoor park founded by someone who saw traditional rural Swedish life dying out and who wanted to preserve it. He moved traditional buildings, like farmhouses and barns, from the countryside onto one of Stockholm's islands, which had been traditionally set aside as the King's garden. Skansen includes a zoo and an aquarium. The boys saw demonstrations of glassblowing and pastry baking, they got to card and spin wool as well as see lots of native Swedish animals. They thoroughly enjoyed it.

The next day was museum day. We started out at the Vasa Museum. The Vasa was a ship launched in 1620. It was the first warship of its day with two gun decks – around 40 total guns. As a result, it was quite top heavy, and on its maiden voyage, it sank in the outer harbor. In the 1960s, the wreck was raised, moved, and a museum was built around it. Due to the brackish water where it sank, it was in a remarkable state of preservation, and the museum is designed to maintain that preservation, with low lighting and careful humidity controls. There is a lot to see at the museum, and the boys enjoyed it as well. They've always been pretty good about museums, despite their young age. After the Vasa, we went to a place called Junibacken, which is a museum dedicated to Swedish children's stories, the most famous of which is Pippi Longstocking. There were a couple of play areas there, where the boys could run around and burn off some energy, which was nice. After that, it was fairly late, and we spent a little time at the Nordiska Museum, where we saw displays of traditional Swedish seasonal decorations and food.

The next day, we took a train to Skővde, where we rented a car and drove to a small village called Eggby. There we stayed at a farmhouse. The owners had taken part of their barn and converted it to a small cottage, which was quite nice. A couple of hours after we arrived, the boys got to bottle-feed some lambs. The lambs were older, on the verge of being weaned, but the boys really enjoyed feeding them.

On the following day, we drove out to Läckő Sllott, a small castle on Lake Vanern. It was a royal property, but essentially run by a baron who was a fiend of Gustav II Adolf. He retained it during the regency of Queen Kristina after Gustav's death at the battle of Lutzen during the Thirty Years War. It is in a great state of preservation, and is quite pretty. One of the interior rooms has murals commemorating the various battles fought during the Thirty Years War, while another commemorates the people involved in the drafting of the Treaty of Westphalia, which ended that war.

That evening, Celeste was able to get back in touch with the cousin we visited two years earlier when we were in Sweden. So, the next day we spent with her. It was a pleasant, mostly low-key day. We started out with a tour of a few local manor houses. We couldn't go inside them, because they were all actual residences, but we drove past them and looked. We drove up a nearby hill, which in the winter is a ski run, and were we got a wonderful view of the surrounding countryside. We then went back to her house, where we partook of a traditional Swedish summer lunch of boiled potatos, hard boiled eggs, pickled mackerel, cheese, and bread, with vanilla ice cream and fresh lingonberries for dessert. After that, we went into a nearby town called Lidkőping, where Celeste did a little gift shopping. The drama of the day was provided by the horses that Celeste's cousin Siv had out in the field behind her house. The horses weren't hers, but she hires out the pasture for horses. These were new horses, and they got out, probably looking for the apples that were falling off the nearby trees just out of their reach. After one of them knocked her down (and she's 80 years old), and nearly kicked me in the chest, we contacted the owner, and he was able to get them under control and back in the pasture.

The next day it was the train back to Stockholm and the same hotel we stayed in the first part of the trip. We had one more full day there, and we made the most of it. First, we took a tour of the Stadhuset, or city hall. This is the same place that Celeste and I went to dinner at two years before, when the city hosted the UN/CEFACT Forum. All attendees at the Forum were invited, and we were served a buffet dinner in the Gold Room, where the dancing takes place after the Nobel dinner. After the tour, we went to lunch, and then visted the Nobel museum. It had been slightly redone since we were there the last time, and one section had been devoted to a children's activity center. They had magnetic balls that represented different atoms, so you could build various molecules, as well as displays about the various topics on which the Nobel prizes are presented.

The next day we bid farewell to Stockholm and flew to Vienna. Here, my sister-in-law Karen was going to join us, to help look after the boys and give Celeste and I some alone time. We rented an apartment for the week, which gave us more space with lest cost than a hotel. We got in late in the afternoon, and simply settled in. We spent the next morning taking a bus tour of the city, then in the afternoon, toured the Spanish Riding School. The Lipizzaners were not there at the time, it was there summer vacation, but there were a few new four-year old stallions in the stables getting acclimatized. One of which kept scratching its tail against the bars of the stall, which got the boys giggling, which in turn caused our tour guide to crack up. We met up with Karen for dinner that evening.

During the week, I was working, but the family continued to see the sights of Vienna. One of the favorite things of the boys was the Natural History Muesum, which contained dinosaur bones and crystals – two of their favorite things. Tuesday evening, we all went to the House of Music, which is an interesting place with a lot of interactive exhibits around sound and music. The following Saturday, we went to Schőnbrunn Palace, which was the summer palace of the Hapsburgs. It is a huge place with expansive gardens, which is most closely associated with two particular Hapsburgs. The first was Maria Theresa, who presided over the Austrian Empire during the mid eighteenth century. She brought many Enlightenment ideals to the governance of Austria, which is commemorated by a grand arch called the Gloriette which is on a hill behind the palace. The other Hapsburg closely associated is Franz Joseph I, the penultimate Kaiser of Austria. We saw a demonstration of apple strudel making, and went through the hedge mazes and the privy garden on the grounds. Overall, a very enjoyable day.

The next day was our last day in Vienna. Celeste, the boys, and I went to the Vienna Technical Museum while Karen went to church. The museum had lots of hands-on exhibits on science and technology, and we could have spent much more time there than we did, but we had agreed to meet up with Karen at 2:00pm. We met up with her, had lunch, and walked back to our appartment.

Overall, the boys were excellent travelers. They want to do it again, but we have to save up money and airline miles before that happens. I am really glad that my job offers me the opportunity to do this, which is something that I didn't have the opportunity to do when I was their age.

In other news, congratulations to Andy Lewis, who has won Gaspode, the Puerto Rico game. I will start Basset next issue.

The next deadline is Monday, September 21 at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time. PLEASE NOTE THE NON-STANDARD DEADLINE! Please do not call or fax orders after 10:00 p.m. Pacific time. My wife and I tend to retire early. Also, if you want to fax in orders, call first. We hang up on unannounced faxes.

Game Openings

Hunter. Silverton. Will start after Terrier ends. Have Dave Partridge, Michael Longdin, Ward Narhi, Cary Nichols, Bill Scharf, and Dave Hooton. This game is full.

Dogbreath. History of the World. Have Chris Geggus, Dave Partridge, Andy Lewis, Kevin Wilson, Dave Anderson, will take up to 2 more.

Basset. Outpost. Will start after Hound ends. Have Andy York, Cary Nichols, Dave Partridge, Dave Hooton, Eric Brosius, Andy Lewis, Michael Lowrey, and Kevin Wilson will take up to 2 more.
Will start next issue with however many are signed up!

Bolognese. Machiavelli. Gunboat. This game will start after the next Machiavelli game ends. Have 5, will take up to 3 more.

Boston Terrier. New World. This will use the exploration variant, plus the Non-Player Nations variant in the event I get less than 6 players. Have Andy York, Andy Lewis, Dave Partridge, Bob Robles, and Dave Hood, will take up to 1 more.

Purebred. Machiavelli. This game will start after the second Machiavelli game ends. Have Ward Narhi, Bob Robles, Pasquale Giovine, Dave Partridge, and Walt O'Hara, will take up to 3 more.

Wish List

Industrial Waste. Have Andy York and Dave Partridge, will take up to 2 more.

Silverton. Will start after Hunter ends. Have Eric Brosius, Dave Partridge, Dave Hooton, will take up to 3 more.

Kremlin. Will start after Pateel ends. Have Walt O'Hara. Will take up to 5 more.

Seavarers of Catan. Have Chris Geggus, Dave Partridge, Dave Hooton. Will take up to 3 more.

Outpost. Will start after Basset ends. Have Eric Brosius, will take up to 9 more.

Goa. Will take up to 4.

Puerto Rico. Will take up to 5.

In general, game ownership is recommended, but not required.

Note that a subscription to S.O.B. is not required to play in a game run by flier, but that a game fee will be charged to non-subbers.