Karlstad to Jönköping

Phone calls seem to be the order of the morning as we are on the bus to Jönköping (pronounced Yonshopping) and it was also Lynne's birthday (and Lorna's granddaughter's who is 3 today). So far Happy birthday has been sung twice in English and once in Italian. On the way Morag took the microphone to wake Lynn from her slumbers and Nina gave Lynne a bag of presents from the tour - a scarf, silver curling stone earrings, a huge birthday girl badge in co-ordinated tour colours and a card signed by all  - using our roll call numbers rather than names. We each had a number on our suitcase which is used during roll call when we need to find out who is missing

A buffet lunch was had at 11.30 in the Idas Brygga restaurant on the side of the Gotta Kanal at Karlsborg. There were lots of soldiers there as well. 

After lunch we drove through a huge army barracks - "The Fortress" where the Swedish valuables were kept for safety in WW2.  Now paratroopers are trained there. This was followed by driving the full length of Vättern - a huge lake and the sun came out!

Next we stopped at the Match Museum where we had a fascinating guided tour - had you ever thought about the manufacture of matches and their containers?

There was a very quick stop at our hotel before walking to the ice rink  (5 minutes walk) where our Captain's special select team of  Margaret, Linsey, Nina and Val played Elisabet Mattson, Mia Ingerman, Lena Edman and Lotta Thilen, with the Scottish team winning by a great margin of 13-4. The rest of the ladies played in a Points Challenge scoring a further 4 shots for the tourers.

We were then joined for yet another delicious dinner by Jönköping's Mayor - Mats Grem. The meal included Coal fish and a yummy local speciality of warm baked Ostkraka or cheesecake. 

Mats Grem made a very enthusiastic speech about Jönköping and his Home Township of Huskvarna.  Fiona Macdiarmid made a wonderful thank you speech including some excellent Swedish. (Our tour guide Tita Bergman has been working overtime helping us with our pronunciation and vocabulary).  Mats was presented with a bottle of Glenmorangie and we all received a wonderful gift of a laser pen and USB stick. 

Happy Birthday was sung again to Lynne and our limericks which we had slaved over all day were read out and produced much hilarity. 

By now it was time to walk back to the hotel, another team meeting and then an early bed to recharge the batteries because we would be on the ice early the next day.

Lunch time restaurant

A selection of match boxes