apple juice

We’re now in Paris! The week in Spain flew by, with beautiful, sunny and hot days spent in Madrid and then on the southern coast. The internet connections were spotty, so no chances to upload any pictures last week (I’ll get to that in a second, check the flickr).

One of the highlights of the Spain adventure was a trip to an organic olive oil farm. The farm has been in existence for 100 years, passed from generation to generation. They have converted to a completely organic manufacturing process, use solar power for all their electricity, burn olive pits for heat, and use other bits as compost. Really cool! (I have a whole sequence of pics from there)

So now we’re in Paris for 6 days, then to Iceland and then home! The trip is coming to a close so fast its hard to believe, but we have a lot left to do. We’re off today to try and get a guided tour of the Louvre, which is staggeringly large, and perhaps we’ll see Notre Dame today as well.

I’ll try to get another update in before we get home. I’m going to upload a few pictures and then get off the computer!

well, so much for blogging our adventures on a regular basis- we’ve just had too much to do!

everything is going great though and once we get to spain I should be able to upload a few photos from the trip so far.

We’re currently in the town of nynäshamn in the southern archipelago of stockholm. we just arrived by boat from the island of utö, also in the southern archipelago.

by the way, the word for archipelago is even harder to pronounce in swedish.

i’ll post another update soon, hopefully from a computer with an actual keyboard! (this one has an onscreen-touchscreen keyboard!)

We’re all packed, ready for the flight out. We had one last good American breakfast. Bacon, eggs, pancakes, hash browns. The grease is oozing out of my pores.

I’ll never forget the time Bert and I went camping with the Swedes in the arctic circle. We were told to pack food for the trip, and Bert and I thought, bacon?

We scoured the local market for some bacon–

“Is this bacon? The pork product?”

“I don’t know, looks like it…”

“Will it stay cold?”

“We’re going to the arctic circle!”

“Oh yeah”

So we packed our bacon, drove hours and hours north, and shivered ourselves to sleep in the howling arctic winds.

The next morning, as we groggily awoke, (hours after the swedes, it seemed), we unpacked the frying pan and tossed in the bacon.

Pandemonium erupted from swedish contingent. “What is that, bacon?” They said. “That is a dinner meal!” “Why did you pack bacon all the way up here?” they wondered aloud.  Pictures were taken, additional mockery ensued, but as we made our way up the mountain, wondering exactly how far a “swedish mile” is, bellies full of yummy, yummy bacon, we were content with our breakfast selection.