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.