Lorna Land

When we camp with our RVing buddies back home, we all love to extol the virtues of those stalwart "best friends" of every U.S. RVer: Costco and Trader Joe's.

But there is yet a third "best friend" that many of our RVing pals - especially one of them, and you know who you are :-D - could not live without. Much to the surprise of our friends and the dismay of the specific friend referred to above, Art and I had never, ever, EVER been to this particularly exalted institution.

Until last week, that is.

Yes, we have finally been to...IKEA! And it only took us actually coming to Sweden - the birthplace of IKEA - to finally get us into one.

A little background as to how we at long last found ourselves at an IKEA: as many of you know, when our two week expedition on the National Geographic Explorer came to a close, we headed down to Hamburg, Germany, and picked up a "wee little motorhome" so that we could explore as much of Norway, Denmark and Sweden as we could in the remaining six weeks of our trip.

The motorhome (called a camper van here in Europe) is wonderful and I will be giving you a "tour" of it in a future blog post. But the company we rented it from didn't equip it very well. We drew up a list of stuff that we knew would make our six weeks on the road more enjoyable (for example, a sharp kitchen knife, a broom, some dish drying towels that actually dry dishes and - yes, Gene - a spatula!) and we then wondered where best we could buy these things in Sweden.

Well, doh!  Thankfully, it didn't take us long to come up with the answer, and boy, was I ever excited! Finally, we would earn our IKEA badge!

What follows are a few photos of our adventure there, complete with a visit to their restaurant for kaffe and kanelbulle.

And so, Miss Lorna, our self-proclaimed Queen of IKEA, this one's for you!

This IKEA is in Kalmar, Sweden.

This is the entrance; or - with apologies to Swedes everywhere - where the "gang goes in."

I need a bunch of those...whatever they are.

Hand towels at 2 SEK (Swedish Krona) each...that's $.31 each in U.S. currency!

There's the department I've been looking for!

Lunch time at IKEA

Now THAT'S what I'm talkin' about!
And only $.78 for a cup of good coffee and a traditional Swedish cinnamon bun!

Ah, Lorna's Department!

Extra special deals right before the check out line

All done!

Family and friends know that I can't leave well enough alone. So now for a bit of IKEA trivia (with credit going to the IKEA website)...and some of it really is pretty fascinating!

For example, IKEA was founded in 1943 by a 17 year old boy! Yes, 17! His name was Ingvar Kamprad. IKEA is an acronym that is comprised of Ingvar's initials, the first letter of the farm where he grew up in Sweden (Elmtarvd) and the first initial of his village (Agunnaryd): IKEA!

Ingvar was an astute businessman from the tender age of five when he began selling matches to his neighbors. At the age of seven, he expanded his territory with the help of his bicycle. He then discovered that he could buy matches cheaply and in bulk in Stockholm and then re-sell them individually at a low price...and still make a profit!  This kid showed promise early.

He then diversified his inventory, adding (among other things) flower seeds, pencils and picture frames.  His business then outgrew his ability to make individual sales calls. He began to advertise in local newspapers and the IKEA mail-order business was born.

In 1951, the first IKEA catalog was released, and in 1958, the very first IKEA store opened...in Sweden, of course!  And the rest is - without a doubt - history.   As of October 2010, there were 313 IKEA stores in 38 countries.

Not bad for a kid who started selling matches.

Describing the Indescribable

Dear Family and Friends ---

The most amazing two weeks of my life (Art was pretty impressed, too, but he tends to be a bit more understated than I am ;-D ) came to a close on Saturday, June 11th. The National Geographic Explorer - an incredible ship that had been our home for those two weeks - docked in Longyearben in the Svalbard Archipelago, far north of the Arctic Circle. We said goodbye to her amazing officers, crew and staff, we said goodbye to her dedicated team of naturalists and professional photographers, and we said goodbye to a special group of fellow passengers who we now are honored to call friends. We also had to say goodbye to the unbelievable beauty that is the Svalbard Archipelago. We then walked down the gangplank with a tremendous new respect for our natural world and a great big bunch of new and very precious memories.

Since our disembarkation, we've been on the go, first picking up our "wee little motorhome" in Hamburg, Germany, and then staying for several very special days with Art's cousin Johannes and his wife Mie in Denmark. Art has also been trying to shake a cold caught on the ship which is why you hadn't been seeing any of his new photos. But he's now feeling much better and is back at work on his blog (http://arts-work.blogspot.com).

We are now in Sweden, heading to Stockholm for the Midsummer Holiday (what we call Summer Solstice in the U.S.). Midsummer is a national holiday in Sweden so we are heading to Stockholm's Skansen Museum to take in all the festivities.

But we did want to take some time to get in touch with family and friends back home before we go and play some more.

But in trying to figure out how best to share with you those two weeks on board the National Geographic Explorer, I have come to this conclusion: I don't think I can do it.

And here's why: how does one properly describe the indescribable beauty of the Norwegian fjords? With their towering cliffs, their many magnificent waterfalls, the snow-capped peaks as a background, I felt we had been transported into the most beautiful of fantasy worlds.

And how does one properly describe the jaw-dropping awe of seeing not one, not two, but THREE blue whales – the largest animals on our planet – swimming together, back and forth, just in front of the bow of the ship?

And how does one properly describe the sights AND sounds of hundreds of thousands of nesting sea birds (you read that right...hundreds of thousands, as confirmed by our naturalists), lined up side by side like little soldiers on the multitude of cliff ledges on a rocky island in the middle of the Barents Sea? There were Atlantic Puffins flying so close to the zodiac you could almost stretch your hand out and touch them!

And how does one properly describe the impressive yet humorous walrus? When our zodiac approached one group, all we could see at first was a big brown mound. As they became aware of our presence, one by one they would lift their heads, showing us their incredible tusks. Sensing no threat from our little band of adventurers, they would then give a satisfied snort and settle back down.

And how does one properly describe the spine-tingling thrill of seeing a polar bear in its natural habitat, walking, loping, running, protecting a kill (most probably a seal) from a group of very determined and very brave gulls?

And finally, how in the world does one properly describe the indescribable feeling of looking at a polar bear who is looking right back at you?

So you see, there simply is no way to describe the indescribable.

What I would like to do, instead, is to let Art's photos convey what my words cannot. But do this for me, if you would...as you view Art's memorable photos (to me, anyway), imagine yourself on the bow of the ship. Yes, it is cold, but you are warmly dressed and totally distracted from the cold by what you are seeing. You are accompanied by the ship's other passengers, but no one is saying a word. It is nearly completely silent. All you can hear is the crunching of the ice as the captain moves the ship ever so slowly up the icy fjord.

It is so quiet that you can actually hear the spouting of the blue whales, the snorting of the walruses, the grumble of the polar bear as he chases away a determined little ivory gull. And, of course, you can hear the staccato clicks of over a hundred cameras as they try to capture all these special moments.

I will still be sharing with you some of my impressions of those aspects of our trip on the National Geographic Explorer that I feel I can describe. But for now, all I can say is that this trip went far beyond our expectations and we'll treasure the memories of it for the rest of our lives.

A Blog Post About Why I’ve Not Been Blogging

Dear Family and Friends ---

We've now been in Norway for nine days and on board the National Geographic Explorer for six days. There is SO much to blog about.

So where, you may rightfully ask, are those blog entries?

Well, so far, some of them are on scraps of paper. And many are still in my head. Yes, I know that’s not the way a travel blog is supposed to work. But please consider the following:

Firstly, the internet access on board the ship is very, very iffy. It's all these pesky narrow steep-walled waterfall-covered fern-adorned Norwegian troll-infested fjords. We’ve been traveling deep into many of them and they simply wreak havoc with the ship's satellite internet signal.

And then there are the ever present temptations mercilessly offered by the indefatigable naturalist staff: among other enticements, we’ve kayaked in a calm cove of a fjord, we’ve cruised around a fjord in a zodiac, we’ve taken a zodiac to the shore of a fjord and hiked through birch forests and up to view points where we’ve seen more waterfalls, we’ve listened to talks given by the ship’s naturalists and the National Geographic photographers on board, and we’ve checked out local museums in a couple of towns we have docked at. And then we’ve hung out on the bridge with the captain and his crew. The National Geographic Explorer has a 24/7 open bridge policy and it’s great fun to be up there “helping” steer this amazing ship.

And, of course, there’s the food. And the teas. And the cocktail hours held while the naturalists give a recap of the days’ events.

So you see, it’s really been quite impossible to sit down and write a blog posting or upload photos.

But we hope to make it up to you all soon. Once we’re back in Oslo, on June 11th, we should once again have reliable internet access. And we should have some great tales to share of the Norwegian Arctic and its inhabitants, particularly the polar bears.

So please stay tuned. We thank you for your support and your patience.