We headed east towards Vaxjo and started stopping into the glass shops along the way. We stopped at Orrefors and Kosta Boda, and then a number of smaller ones too.
I had hoped to find something really neat in this area as I had found one in Italy that I loved and that is now is in our living room. To be honest though, nothing really struck us. There were lots of beautiful pieces, and lots of beautiful glassware...and there was lots of very strange things too (glass vaginas and dildos! that was a strange shop!), but nothing that Dave and I loved enough to bring home unfortunately.
When we stopped at Kosta Boda, we decided that Dave would take the girls to the Moose Museum nearby instead. We thought this would be a neat thing for them as there are millions of Moose in Sweden and they say that the Swedes have a love hate relationship towards them...the hunters love them and drivers hate them. Apparently on average 80 of them get hit a day on the roads. Made for some white knuckle driving for us as they are big animals. So Dave takes them to this museum and Rob went along with them. Apparently it was quite the sight. Not only were there moose to see live, but they had a number of stuffed displays too...one of them being a moose that was hit by a car. I don't have the picture, Rob does, of this stuffed moose of the hood of a car...anyways, poor Cadence, it was all she could talk about..."mommy, there was this dead moose that had been hit by a car"...it took us some time to get her to agree that it had not been real. yikes! For the record, Dave and Rob both liked it and the girls did like seeing the moose, so it was a worthwhile stop in the end and definitely good for a laugh and for some photos ops.
It was a nice drive for sure, but for some reason the main highway was alluding us so we were often stuck behind people for long stretches of time on this 2 lane highway.
We arrived in Linkoping around 7:30-8ish and had a heck of a time trying to find our hotel...firstly it was in a car free zone (but finally we figured out that you just ignored those signs) and the other thing was that we had booked at the Radisson, but just that day it had switched to Elite Hotels so the sign was gone making it even harder to find!
The Elite Stora Hotel was right ont he main square though, and it was beautiful. It was a little tired for sure, but amazingly grand. The lady was nice enough to upgrade Dave and I to a business class room and so we had a huge bedroom suite.
We decompressed a little before hitting up the square. The main squares here are electric...they are full of huge sections of tables and chairs with large umbrellas over them, they have heaters and blankets and are always packed with people. It is really a neat way to enjoy the city and the outdoors. Vancouver could really step it up on the number of outdoor eating opportunities.
We at at a tandoori restaurant and I swear it was the best meal that I've had in ages let alone on the trip....it was abslutely fantastic. A number of us had the tandoori chicken with bulgar...yum!
The other interesting thing about this town was that there were thousands of birds on the roofs and then all of a sudden, they would all take off and swoop and sail around the square the roof tops before settling down again and starting the process all over again. It was beautifula and spooky at the same time. The girls were absolutely fascinated by it.
After dinner I took the girls to bed as my back has been giving me some trouble, we watched some tinkerbell before going to sleep. Not sure what time Dave crawled in from being out with the boys...don't want to know really!
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