The Grand Tour

While driving down us i-80 in western Iowa, we stumbled across the lovely town of Elk Horn, which is a Danish American town established in the mid 1800s. It is home to oldest Danish immigrant structure in the United States. This rustic windmill was purchased from a small town in Denmark, disassembled, shipped across the Atlantic, and reassembled here in western Iowa. The population of the town has extensive Danish ancestry and wanted to bring a piece of their homeland back to the United states with them. It is a wonderful stop to hop out and stretch your legs from the trek down the Iowa countryside. They also have a small Danish American museum, and the next town over has a replica of the famous little mermaid statue. Although we didn't get to see that as wanted to be sensitive to our cat, who was waiting on the car to continue our trip.

Since you weirdos seemed to love our last hot dog post so much, have another one. We found this stand at a small airport outside London. I think it speaks for itself.

These escape rooms were all fun and unique experiences and we deeply recommend them to anyone who would love a thrilling themed puzzle game. Don’t get too stressed about losing, as that is all part of the thrill and challange. Plus, the staff are all wonderfully nice and will provide hints throughout the game of you get stuck, and will show you the answers and workings of the rooms should your time run out.

Ye old Trip to Jerusalem in Nottingham! This quaint pub claims to be the oldest inn in England! I don't know how true that is, but I do know the food was good, the atmosphere rustic, and the beer cold. What more could you want in a British pub? It's clear that the Trip has undergone renovations since its founding. It boasts out door seating, as well as a spacious two floor interior, featuring both traditional bar room seating as well as cozy nooks in place of no longer used features. We sat at a table in the former bread oven, now a hollowed out cave where rough stone walls met brick ones. If your in the area, the Trip is a great place to checkout for unique drinking and dining. It is clearly targeting tourists, and is placed near Nottingham castle. However, tourist places aren't all bad, and we certainly enjoyed this one!

Breakfast on a Swedish train.

We climbed the Sir Walter Scott monument today, the worlds tallest monument to a writer. The views of Edinburgh are beautiful, but the spiral stair cases are treacherous, especially if your someone with bad knees who is claustrophobic and afraid of heights - like Mary is. Still, even she admitted it was worth it, though only once she was back on solid ground!

Ghost bus London! We both love kookie, kitschy, scary attractions. The Necrobus in London fit the bill perfectly. This was an hour and a half of ghost tour via bus, set in a beautifully redone double decker. To up the excitement, the tour guides put on a hauntingly good show! They told us stories of London's haunted past as we drove by, while using actors and practical effects on the bus to place us in our own ghost story!

Food round up! Here's some of the tasty things we have eaten thus far. Row 1: a Chinese place near where we are staying in Stockholm Row 2: steak and ale pie and sticky toffy pudding at the Sherlock Holmes pub in London Row 3: leek and potato soup at Stirling castle Row 4: the special at the 27 in Inverness Row 5: lunch at the Vasa museum, Stockholm

The Kitty Cafe in Nottingham! We couldn't help but stop for lunch when we saw this place. The food was delicious at this Kickstarter founded cafe, and the cats were even sweeter! All the cats were up for adoption, and the cafe is associated with a local cat rescue. They are rescued, treated for any diseases they may have, socialized at the cafe, and then available to adopt for free. This lovely little place runs on the proceeds from their food, donations, and a "friends of" program. In exchange for the cats all they ask is a loving forever home. This was a really great stop for Erik and I. We have been missing our cat, Salem, something terrible. It's not the same as being at home with our kitten, but getting to interact with cats was lovely nonetheless. The food didn't seem terribly expensive, it was what we were paying at other inexpensive restaurants. We booked a table for an hour, and that was plenty of time to cuddle kittens, drink pots of flowering tea, and eat a lovely lunch!

"Point to a spot on the map, I'll drive anywhere you want to go." We had just gotten into our rental car, and Erik said one of the most romantic things possible. So, we drove to Nottingham. Road trips, vagabonds, and love. Note: as wonderful as this was, I don't recommend it. We got into Nottingham late, and had hell finding a hotel. Plan more than 6 hours ahead, it will save on money and stress. Still, in the moment, it couldn't have been any better.

Finally, the language of the road is markedly different here. In the states, we are used to a flash of a car’s high beams only being used to insinuate that another drivers lights are either not on, or too high. Here, the blinking of high beams seems to be in common practice. Most notably when cars are approaching to pass you on the right in the high way, and also directly after you pass them on the highway. At first we were nervous that we were doing something heinously wrong with our driving, but we have observed this over time, with other drivers interacting with each other, and not just us.

Celebrating the fourth in London. Yes, I am ashamed of myself.

Going to see Billy Idol in Stockholm has been in our plans for a long time. Practically from the first moment we logged online and searched "events in Stockholm." The show was at the perfect time, and the perfect place - the Stockholm tivoli, a place Erik wanted to visit already. And I mean, who doesn't love a good rock show? Well, apparently our fellow attendants to this show, that's who. I concede, that is a very biased and unfair statement, after all, who am I to say what enjoying music looks like in another individual. But never the less, due to a desire for beer, we wound up far from the stage, and off to the right. Not a great place to watch Billy Idol rock the fuck out, but it still should have been a fine place to enjoy some excellent live music. Only, the crowd around us was dead still, dead silent, and dead boring. I wasn't expecting a mosh pit, but it felt like we were attending a funeral. This could be due to cultural differences between the USA and Sweden, or due to the fact that the crowd around us were all north of forty. Regardless, we ended up leaving early - and it was no fault of Billy's. All in all, it was a worthwhile concert. I got to hear some of the old hits I came for, danced a bit with myself and all that, got a t-shirt, had fun, and did get to see one of my favorite 80s rockers. In retrospect, we probably should have expected the slightly disappointing crowd. On the other hand, the night that ensued was equally fun - filled with drinking, conversation, and laughter - so leaving early wasn't a bad thing at all.

So, one of the largest culture shocks that we came across this far in this trip comes not from language barriers or other human interactions, but from some of the basic infrastructure differences that we were not expecting to handle, coming from the states. Here, I am referring to the fact that the public restrooms in Stockholm cost 5 kroner (around 8.2 kroner to the US dollar) to use. Thus far, we have been chiefly functioning with cards connected to our bank accounts. This way, we don't need to bother with accidently withdrawing too much or too little cash to use at any given occasion. These restrooms, unfortunately, do not accet any form of digital currency. Luckly, no disasters have happened on account of this, though it taught us a valuable lesson about always having small change in hand. In some contexts, no amount of plastic money or paper bills are worth nearly as much as the singular coin that these machines exclusively accept.  

Laundry day.

Whisky sour at the Tweed Bar in Stockholm.