Come on baby make it Styrsö good…

While my friend LisafromAfrica was visiting us all the way from Zimbabwe, we took a trip out to the archipelago island of Styrsö. At first glance it seemed that no cars were allowed on the small island, and that the only modes of transport were bikes, mopeds, and golf carts. We saw many people on motorized (!!) versions of my beloved bakfiets, mostly older gents hauling building supplies and the like. The majority of the mopeds were standard issue – people didn’t get too creative with them – but I did find one that cracked me up. Check it out:

I just can’t get into this one. Maybe it’s the motorized aspect, maybe it’s the DIY-ish pallet box for cargo, I don’t know. What do you think: yay or nay?

I can’t help myself…

All this silly talk about these idiots is starting to get to me. I really have lost it, I think. I might have even started to obsess. Check it out:

 

How do you say “Oops!” in Swedish??

Today Sara took me to the mall in downtown Gothenburg for a girls’ day.  Sara and Grace, our visitor from Florida, had taken the bus many time so this was Sara’s turn to teach me the route.  As we were waiting for the bus to arrive, I noticed that some idiots had tagged the interior walls of the bus stop with gold graffiti. In English. With the F word and something even worse. So there I am, waiting for the bus, when it hits me. My daughter has the same initials of the person who wrote this graffiti. Her friend Grace has the same initials of the other person. Yep, busted.  We know what Sara will be cleaning tomorrow – too bad Grace has already gone home.

Not funny!

You know how much I love the Dutch bicycle culture and all of the cool ways that Dutch families without cars transport their children, pets, and gear. I am a huge fan of the bakfiets (cargo bikes) and I especially love the clever ways people adapt them for their needs. But this is taking it a bit too far.

image: http://www.bakfiets-en-meer.nl/

They’re not all 6 foot tall models? Really?

I had imagined that all the women in Sweden would be blond, 6 feet tall, skinny, and gorgeous. They would all look like Elsa Sylvan (yeah, that’s her in the picture). Well, after spending a day at Liseberg amusement park, I’m no longer so worried about getting into my bathing suit.  You know those carnival games where you try to hit a target and win a huge stuffed animal?   Well in Sweden, you don’t win stuffed animals, you win…get this…enormous candy bars! People were carrying around giant Toblerone bars and Sara’s favorite Kex bars, and I thought it was so weird. These ultra-skinny Swedes surely aren’t going to be eating all this chocolate…are they?

 

image: theworldsbestever.com

Going a little crazy in Germany

The cheapest way to get from Madrid to Gothenburg was on Ryan Air, and the only way to do it without having to sleep at the airport was to divide the trip into two parts and spend the night somewhere. We decided to stop over in Frankfurt, Germany, partly because it was the most cost effective way to go, and partly because we could have one day in a new country. Rather than staying next to the tiny Hahn airport, we did a bit of research and found a little village called Traben-Trarbach along the Mosel river that looked rather promising. It didn’t disappoint. Traben-Trarbach is nestled in a valley along the beautiful Mosel and decorated with Art Nouveau architecture (reminiscent of Ålesund, remember?) and quaint buildings from the Belle Époque. OK, I didn’t really know what architecture from the Belle Époque was, either, so I looked it up. Think gilded, fancy, and European looking. Our hotel, the Trabener-Hof, was really authentic and had fantastic, American-style hospitality that even surprised me: specially arranged beds for the kids, gummy bears on the pillows, lots of complimentary bottled water, personalized place cards at the breakfast table, you name it.  We’ll definitely be going back to this special place when we have more time to spend there. We were expecting that German food wouldn’t be very good, but we had a delicious meal at a place recommended by the hotel and we ate ourselves silly. Here’s the proof, in case you thought I was exaggerating, which I never do, by the way.

 

 

Back from vacation, y’all!

So do you like my Britney Spears impression? There is this really funny isolated vocal track of Britney live in concert, where she is lip synching so her live mic is turned down, and all these assholes on the web are arguing about how she can’t sing and whatever. I’d like to see any one of them star in a 2 hour, highly athletic dance show, or, even better, get off their computers for an hour and walk around the block, but that’s not the point. The funny part is at the end, when she is talking to the assistants. Did y’all see the sailors and all the Air Force people waivin? It was so beautiful, y’all.  Anyway, I’m back now so you won’t have to miss out on my fascinating updates and anecdotes any more. Stay tuned, y’all!

Syghtseeing in Paris…

Wednesday in the park with Sam…

 

Today was the first day in a while that the winding wasn’t blowing wildly, so Jon, Sam, and I were anxious to get back on our bikes and ride around. Sara and Mom were still lounging in bed when we were ready to leave, so they stayed home and did their own thing. Ahem. We rode to Middelburg (no, I’m not over my crush) and went back to a small park we’d biked through a while back. Jon and I immediately started goofing around on all the playground equipment and I think we had a better time than Sam did!

 

Paarden me!

So you know by now that Gapinge is a rural town of about 300 people, a bunch of horses, tons of sheep, dozens of chickens, and, well, you get the idea. So as we were biking back from the grocery store in neighboring Serooskerke this afternoon, I was glad I had the camera so I could grab a couple shots of my favorite local sign: push button to cross. Everybody knows these buttons: push to change the traffic light in your favor so you can cross the street. Around here, though, it’s not so simple. There are so many cyclists that the button is set up on a post that you bike up to, not walk up to, with a little picture of a guy on a bike. That’s cute and different, but what really cracks me up is for the people neither on foot nor on bikes. Check this one out!

What’s wrong with Jon???

Jon looks absolutely miserable in this picture. WTF!

Really? Come on, really??

It’s come to my attention that some of my readers don’t…well…understand my post below about the license plate. If you’re one of those people, and I’m not judging, you can click here for a definition of Priapus. Oh, and one other thing. I lied. Of course I’m judging you.

Look! A painted view! Click on the picture to enlarge.