Days 114 to 129 8th June – 23rd June 2017
Photos of our Time in Södra Sandby
A visit of firsts in Södra Sandby. It is our first destination on our unplanned trip to Sweden. The small town of Södra Sandby is the reason for the unplanned visit and a new housesitting experience a first with Trusted Housesitters.
Successfully navigating a new but efficient transport system with a bus – train – bus connection from airport to our destination. Chris is taken with the wireless and USB power ports provided on public transport including suburban buses.
In Lund a tight connection proves relatively easy after help from several local people – firstly a young man, worse for wear, who gives me his ticket number with a humorous exchange while waiting in the rail information queue. A helpful young woman on the transport information has us on a fast run to the platform. Finally a knowledgeable bus driver in Lund who directs us to the right stop. Another first – an embarrassing first – almost everyone we meet effortlessly moves from Swedish to English.
With Google translate in hand we detour to a Swedish supermarket – so many milk forms to choose from! Then we are on the final leg through beautiful green flat land sprinkled with farm houses that tell you that you are in Scandinavia.
We have dinner together and an overnight stay with our lovely new housesit family before they leave on their holiday. We take a breath and find ourselves in a lovely town, in a comfortable and beautiful house, with our two charges – an energy filled puppy and an independent cat.
The first few days are spent catching up with home and beyond, writing, reading, and playing with a lively puppy and the occasional chatty visits from the cat of the house. Navigating supermarkets and preparing meals.
Twice a day we set off on long walks – that never seem long enough to divest our charge of energy – to explore Södra Sandby! An incredible amount of green space and parks between and alongside houses. Within a short time you can find yourself in a nature reserve or in the middle of fields and farms. While it was hard to keep track we tell ourselves we did not cover the same ground twice. Our marker was the tall tower of the medieval church close by.
Finally our evening treat is to curl up on the sofa and watch The Crown. Later we discover the joys of the generously provided Netflix (not possible in our home-town-ludicrously-expensive-Australian WiFi). We gorge ourselves while our young charge sleeps across, between and over us on the sofa. Favourites were Iris – a documentary about Iris Apfel – when I grow up I want to be like Iris. ‘Janis’ – a documentary about Janis (who needs to add Joplin) – reliving our 60s music hero and ‘What Happened Miss Simone’ which lead us to endless discussion about the portrayal of Nina Simone. My thoughts encapsulated much more articulately in an article by Tanya Steele in “The Irresponsibility of ‘What Happened, Miss Simone?’”
It is also a time to forward plan. Our next housesit in Stockholm is confirmed for a week after we leave here so we decide on a little trip to the Swedish Archipelago in between. How do you choose between 30,000 islands? It took a while but we did.
A few days in we discover an engorged tick in amongst the chaotic fur of our puppy – after many attempts at securing puppy long enough to remove it safely we decide it can not be done safely by us. What now! We sift through the information left and call the vet who fortunately again effortlessly shifts from Swedish to English and suggests it is more harmful to remove it than leave it to drop off. After an email check with puppy’s owners this is agreed. It is a reminder that looking after anothers’ pet/s is quite a responsibility.
Eventually we decide to try our first bike ride. My reluctance stemmed from the usual concern – I am short and adult bikes are often too big. So having been given permission to ride any of the bikes available I chose one of the sons’ bikes – along with the helmet – that works and off we go. A ride to a nearby town of Dalby where we can buy wine and delicious pastries. The ride is lovely with bike paths much of the way. Bike seat and I are not compatible and my butt is agony – a little glass of wine at the end is the impetus to keep going!
Having achieved one bike ride, and having read about a local farmers market – Sularpsfarmen we set out to find it. After tense moments and questions about each others navigational ability we finally find the market-cum-nursery-cum-grocery. At the entrance stands a gnarled stumpy olive tree which a young man tells is 250 years old and brought out from Greece. We have to curtail our buying to what will fit on the bike but we do manage a few treats.
After our first trip to Lund we decided once was not enough. Throughout our stay we took several trips to Lund – SEE. We had set ourselves a 4 hour away limit so prior to leaving we worked out bus timetables and what we would visit – worked a treat and our puppy charge seemed to manage this just fine.
A delight as we walked back from the bus was seeing three ducks crossing the road – on a pedestrian crossing – Abbey Road style. And neither of us could reach our cameras in time.
Finally it is all over. Our family return bronzed and happy after a holiday. A final wonderful conversation filled dinner with jokes about where puppy will sleep tonight! Yes of course we were deserted but a final licking, jumping, visit in the morning! And we say Good-bye wondering how you can feel like family after such a short time.
At the station we jokingly contemplate that maybe we cannot keep doing this or we will have a huge family all over the world!!!
