A night and a day and then another evening. It actually didn't take us long to get to Sweden. It seemed like only a few hours ago I was sending a message to our friend Paul Spencer about our arrival and then there he was waiting outside the airport to pick us up just like he said he would be. Traveling is amazing still, no matter how many times we fly and no matter how many places we go. I might apologize up front for not knowing all of the names of places here in Sweden, and a second apology for spelling and pronunciation of those same names of places (although I don't really have to worry about pronunciations as much as anyone reading them does). So far we've seen only a little bit of Stockholm. Mostly the airport from the inside and a few of the buildings that were lit up at night, and also the traffic tunnels which are actually quite nice. We arrived in Scandinavia well after sunset, flying in from Paris. There's not much to mention about what we saw of France except that we saw more farmland close to the airport than we expected to. It was just a layover and only a means to and end for us on this particular trip. We have been planning this side trip for a while now and are so excited to actually be here. Paul was nice enough to pick us up at the airport so we wouldn't get stuck in the cold waiting for a late running train or bus that would probably take longer than a car ride to get us from Stockholm to Mantorp. I especially liked this idea since it meant some extra time with him. It isn't often we come here and we mean to take advantage of our time as best we can. We experienced the nice smooth highways the country has to offer for about three hours and arrived to a small farm house not far from civilization. Paul has done wonders with his newly remodeled guest house and we feel very much at home. When we first stepped foot inside we were offered a late night smörgåsbord (a meal mostly consisting of open faced sandwich fixings) of Swedish foods including two kinds of fish, fresh bread, and cheese. We retired to the living room where several musical instruments await being played by Paul's children. We sat and talked for several hours with a couple of cold beers (also Swedish of course) before heading off to bed. It's nice to go and see the world and taste some of what it has to offer, but there's something extra special about kicking back and talking with friends. What a perfect first experience in Europe (we don't usually count the time we went to Cyprus even though technically it is in Europe).