On The Down Hill Slide!

TGIF and Happy Halloween!

This will be my 2nd update for the day:-(. We made it to Copenhagen and internet access wasn't free so I just purchased an hour to check email, send some emails and update the blog. I ran out of time and it didn't even give me a warning it just didn't save my entry. That really bites!

Anyway, we landed in Copenhagen around 4:00. We are staying at the airport and our plans were to go downtown and see a bit of the city. We are too tired! We will just purchase some postcards. We fly out at 12:20 and arrive in Newark at 4:15. (Remember the time difference!) Our flight will be 9 hours long. I think I will just take some drugs and hopefully sleep a lot! We have a layover in NJ and leave at 8:00 getting into Knoxville at 10:18!

I am ready to get HOME. 17 days is enough. I am ready to talk on my cell phone and see my boys! I am sure Tristian and Tyler more so Tyler will have a great time tonight Trick or Treating. I hate that we are going to miss it but there will be others I'm sure.

I am going to sign off now to make sure that I don't loose this update too! I will talk to everyone soon!

Blessed!

Robin

It's a SMALL World After All!

NOW UPDATED WITH PICTURES AND 1 LAST PARAGRAPH*******


Hello from one tired woman!

I bet we have walked 10 miles today if we have walked 1! Traffic here is more of a mess today because of a protest that has to do with public schools becoming private or having to pay for public school and something about research funding. Anyway today 100,000 people marched from place to place all around the city so our idea of taking the bus was quickly deflated! So we walked to the Coliseum taking in all of the sites in between.

Our first stop was at the Trevi Fountain where we met a lady from Montgomery AL. We got to talking and it was amazing the things we had in common. We also met some folks from NC at the Hard Rock Cafe. So it is a small world! (Pictures at the Trevi Fountain)




Here are some sights that we saw today just to name a few: Piazza Venezia, Imperial Forums, Julius Caesar's Forum, Constantine Triumph Arch, and the Pantheon. I know that doesn't sound like a lot but trust me it is!

Constantine Triumph Arch



The Pope @ St. Peter's Square

Piazza Venezia


Pantheon





We have made a ton of pictures so I will continue to post after we get home. Just FYI, if you double click on the pictures they will enlarge. History is every where you look here. We have seen some indescribable things that are thousands of years old. Things are so massive that the pictures just don't do it justice. One fact that just amazed me is 40,000 people go through the Vatican Museum A DAY. Just imagine the wear and tear on the floors? But they are in perfect condition because they are marble.

On a side note, I find it very interesting that we have seen several posters campaigning for Obama. What does that say when all of these foreign countries want him to be our President???

Anyway, I promise pictures soon.

Blessed!

Robin

WOW!!

Hello Everyone,

Tonight's update will be a quick one I think! I am "dog" tired! We got up at 6:00 had breakfast at 7:00 got on a bus at 8:00 and returned back to the hotel at 6:30 tonight. We walked miles today and saw so much my mind can hardly take it all in. It is now 11:00 p.m. here and we just got back to our room from going on a little adventure to retrieve our camera (that's another story) and we grabbed some dinner while out.

We have met some wonderful people. Today we met folks from CO, TX, VA, AL and Australia and that was just the people we could understand. Oh, and while eating dinner tonight we met a wonderful couple from.............SWEDEN! I now have a collection of email address so we can stay connected. Technology is amazing.

Today we covered a lot of ground and I have a blister on my big toe to prove it. We started off with the Vatican museum at Vatican City continued to the Sistine Chapel, St Peter's Square (where we saw the Pope as he gave a message and blessing) and made some other stops. This afternoon the main attraction was the Catacombs. Everywhere you look there is history. With things dating back to 600BC it is just amazing!

I will have Dennis post some pictures in the morning. We only have 1 day left so we will hit the ground running tomorrow. There is a 95% chance of rain tomorrow so please pray for good weather.

Happy Birthday Daddy!
Love you,

Blessed,
Robin

When in Rome...............

Hello From Rome,

I can tell you right off the bat that this is one place I could never live! Traffic oh my! New York has nothing on this city! I don't think there is enough drugs or money for me to drive in this city! Even Dennis feels the same way! On our way from the airport to our hotel it was so amazing that Dennis actually got out the video camera and filmed some of it.

Our driver said that the saying is there are 3 million people in cars and another million on cycles and I think they were all on our route to the hotel. It is hard to explain, they just drive everywhere. They pass you on the left side driving right into oncoming traffic, they pass you on the right, they cut in front of your car, you name it and they do it. They are OUT of CONTROL! They basically do what they want and drive where ever they want. Anyway maybe you get the picture???

Our flight was on time but it took us FOREVER to get our luggage! Then the ride to the hotel so it was after 3:15 before we ever made it to our room. I was going on a banana and a croissant roll from 6:15 this morning so I was starving. We hit a pizza place just up the street. Making sure to watch out for traffic on the sidewalk as we went along. I'm telling you I was almost afraid to cross the street! No joke! My nerves were shot! Anyway the food was great. We caught a buffet before they closed so we got to try several different things.

It is now pouring down rain and we are wiped out. We are going to book a couple of tours for tomorrow for Vatican City and some other places. That will take up most of the day. I have tried to check email but evidently aol is down. I will try again later.

Happy Birthday to Jason today. And I had intended to wish Alta a happy birthday yesterday but forgot so here is your 1 minute of fame! This is the official birthday week in my family.
Love and miss everyone!
Check back later for pictures!

Blessed!
Robin

Monday Monday!

Hey Everybody!

We have arrived at our final destination here in Sweden. We made it back to the big city of Gothenberg and the Volvo Factory Delivery Center. We only made 1 detour today so that was wonderful! Tonights stay is AMAZING! It is a modern spa resort. We have a terrace and a view of the city.

It is such a nice place the Taxi Driver said to Dennis that only high roller and tycoons stay here! Dennis laughed and told me that we were neither. I have a massage scheduled for 6:40 and we Dennis and I are going to get in the 7 different spas after that.

It has been a long day! Dennis is snoring away right now. We leave for the airport at 5:00 in the morning. So hopefully I will get a good nights sleep.

We got a text message from Jessica last night and Tristian now has 2 teeth! He will have a mouth full by the time we get home! Well I guess the next time we "talk" it will be from Rome. Take care and I hope you have a wonderful Monday!

Blessed!

Robin

A Rainy Sunday!

Today is Sunday and it was a rainy gray day as far as the weather was concerned. We did get an extra hour of sleep so now we are only 5 hours ahead of you unless you are on Alabama time and then it is 6! Speaking of ALABAMA all I have to say is ROLL TIDE! We didn't listen to any of the game. I woke up at 12:45 Knoxville time and knew that the game was over and I just decided to go back to sleep as it would be time to get up shortly. When it was time to get up I checked the score 1st thing. What can I say except for I think our season basketball tickets should arrive any day now! Bruce Pearl should be even more excited because I think most of his games should be sellouts now!

Anyway enough of sports talk. Dennis added a better picture of the hotel that we stayed at last night. It was in Kalmar which is a nice town by the Baltic Sea. Our hotel was 300 meters for a great castle with a moat, draw bridge and all! It is called none other than Kalmar Castle. We had to leave before the gift shop opened but we took some pictures out side before we froze to death! It was raining and the wind was blowing in right off the sea.




The above picture was taken in the center court yard it really was a massive place. After we walked around and got wet we drove around to the other side of the "block" so that we could get this picture.



I hate that the light pole had to be in the picture but we just couldn't get around it :-) You can tell from this picture just how grey of a day we had.

We then when to two glass factories. The last one was Kosta and it so reminded me of how the original Boaz Outlets started out. We saw some absolutely beautiful pieces! We shopped for a couple of hours and then we headed off to our destination of Toftaholm Harrgard. Since we where short an hour of daylight and it was raining it was very dark when we arrive. We think it is a great place since we have an ice machine right outside our door! The kitchen was closed but they had a cold plate waiting for us.

It was really good. We have re-organized our luggage getting ready for our plane travel again. Tuesday morning will start EARLY as our plane leaves at 7:30 on our way to ROME. We are getting pretty excited about what should be better /warmer weather. And yes, we have had the top down on my car. Several times in fact! We had to put a large suitcase in the back seat so we had to put the top down just to get in in!

Well, I am going to sign off for tonight. It is only 9:00 p.m. but it feels like it is midnight! We head back to Gothenburg tomorrow (2 hour drive). We will drop my car off and then have them take us to the resort. I think a swedish massage is in my near future! I hope everyone has a great Monday and we will check in tomorrow.

Blessed!

Robin

It's Saturday!

Hey There Everyone,

Let me start this update with some pictures from Friday.

The above is the "main house" where we checked in and breakfast and dinner was served. This is the house where our suite was.
And here we are at dinner last night. I think I have already talked about the meal. It was good!


Today we have spent a LOT of time in the car! It's a good thing we started out earlier this morning because we didn't get to the 1st glass area until 3:00. Things close at 4:00. We made one stop and looked at a couple of stores and then we headed off to our final destination of Kalmar. It is a nice little town. We are 300 meters from a huge castle. It was too dark when we got out so we will add pictures tomorrow. We are staying in the Slott Hotel tonight. It is nice and small. The bathroom is like a small closet but hey we could have had bigger but it was on the 3rd floor and there is no elevator so we chose the 1st floor! Here is a beautiful piece of art we did manage to see. And then there is the hotel.





Tonight we are on our own for dinner so we walked to the town square and found a nice little Italian restaurant. I had lasagna and Dennis had spaghetti with mussels, shrimp and some other seafood. It was all very good.


I must say that one of the hard things about this trip is missing football games on tv! Especially today when Alabama will play Tennessee tonight at 7:45 which is 1:45 A.M. here! I haven't been getting the greatest sleep so who knows I may just have to listen over the internet. Another thing that has really surprised us has been all of the interest in the election over here. I actually saw a guy with a Obama button on the other day. It is in all of the headlines and on the BBC news almost constantley. Early voting and the whole nine yards.

Tomorrow we will head out "early" to make the most of the 3 glass factory stops. I have talked with the lady at the front desk and she has given me the scoop. The first one opens at 10:00 and it is about 40 minutes away. Tomorrow night we are still traveling south (I think) and we should wind up in Thofoholm. On Monday we will travel back to Gothenburg where we will drop our luggage off at the SPA and then drop my car off at the factory. They will then bring us back to the spa. I think a swedish massage might just be in my future!

Anyway, I need to run for now. I need to check in with the front desk because earlier she thought that the time was to change tonight. If so we get an extra hour of sleep! Dennis has had no problem sleeping on this trip! He is laying on the bed now just snoring away! Anyway, thanks for all of your prayers as we have been away. If you don't mind, please add Tristians childcare to the list. Jessica found out yesterday that his current sitter will only be keeping him until November 7th. So we need to find other care. Child care is such an issue with Jessica's schedule she only needs care on M, T (10ish to 6ish) and Friday 9ish to 6ish. She is off on Wed and Thursday and Jimmy picks the kids up when he gets off work. At daycare centers part-time schedules don't exist that we can find because they have to "hold" a spot open for him when he is there. So if you don't mind to make this a matter of prayer we would greatly apprecitate it!

Go BAMA!
Blessed!
Robin

2nd Post of the Day!

Hey There Again,

The weather is cold windy and rainy today. Our place for today is close to the water so we did take a little walk with the umbrella just to see what it was all about. I think dinner tonight will be good. On the menu among other things there is steak and something I think will be close to Lobster Bisque. The lady had a hard time translating some of the things and said that it will be soup with lobster so I choose to think bisque.

Tomorrow, we start out on our Kingdom of Glass portion of our trip. It will involve shopping so I am looking forward to it. Amazingly enough the beds at every place we have stayed have been very comfortable. I seem to wake up every morning around 3:00 and have a hard time going back to sleep. Maybe this will pass we all know I need my beauty sleep!

Dennis and I are proud of ourselves and our driving and direction skills! Other than the first day of driving back to the hotel, we have found our way quite nicely. We are missing everyone a lot! You know sometimes it is the little things that I take for granted. Things like Cottonelle TP (or Non-John Wayne TP) ice in your beverage, it doesn't even matter if it is crushed or cube! And drinking glasses that are big enough to get more than 3 ozs in! Not to mention the meter system!

Anyway, we are having a great time. I will have Dennis load up some pictures and post them a little latter.

Thanks for all your emails or comments! We read everyone 1!

Blessed

Robin

A New Day!

Happy Friday (or at least that is what day I think it is!)

We have arrived at our destination for today. It is a neat little place and is smaller than the other 2 that we have stayed. It is called Aspa Herrgard. We have tv and good internet connection. I wrote a nice long update last night but the wireless connection was poor so I lost it all and it was late so we just turned in to get ready for today.

Thursday we stayed at a castle called B something Slott. (I can't remember how to spell it and all the information is in the car.) It was in the middle of nowhere! But it was pretty! It took us about 2 hours to get there from Wednesday's place. Our suite had tall windows and a big screen TV (which made up for the bad internet connect I guess).





It was sunny when we got there and as the day when along it turned gray. They had this stuff bear at the entrance and then a huge stuffed wolf laying under the grand piano.


Dinner was wonderful! The best yet! We had 5 courses that included Rainbow Trout, a pumpkin potato pasta with a cream sauce to die for, a wonderful dark chocolate dessert and then a selection of local cheese. I went hatless last night for dinner last night.

Looks good uh?

I am going to log off for now and update a little later. Now that I have great internet access it shouldn't be a problem.

Check back before you head out for the weekend!

Blessed

Robin

A GREAT DAY!

Hello Everyone!

We have had our best day yet! It was sunny for our drive to Thorghog Castle. It actually snowed here last night and the pink roses are still in bloom. Thus the picture below.
(If you double click on the pictures I think that it should enlarge it.)

This place is beautiful! President George Bush (the 1st one) has stayed here along with 4 other Presidents. For dinner we started with Duck Pate' and yes I tried it. Then claim soup with scallops and claims. I tried it, it was good but very rich. The main course was duck breast with fried potato & pumpkin. It also included asparagus, cabbage and onion. The potato pumpkin was very good. I tried the duck but ............ I don't think I will be ordering it off the menu in the future! But now for the best part dessert!!!!!!

A wonderful mini chocolate cake with hot chocolate in the center and strawberry ice cream too die FOR!

Anyway, we hiked to a waterfall that is here on site this afternoon, I fell on the way back but hey we all no that I have enough padding! After the waterfall or RobinFall we walked down to the castle. It started to rain and then we saw a double rainbow. I will close tonight with pictures. We are having a wonderful time but missing EVERYONE! I don't know about this 17 days!

We have met some wonderful people and even some people from Raleigh NC. Tonight we had dinner with a wonderful Swedish couple, very interesting. But we still miss you all!






Blessed!

Robin

A Quick One

Hey Everybody,

Today was a good day all things considered! We over slept (11:45) missed breakfast, it was cold and raining but hey................ We made some lemonade! We ordered cereal from room service and hit the streets walking.

We went to the Gothenborg City Museum which was very interesting and spent the rest of the afternoon walking around town. We had a wonderful dinner at Jensen's and we actually had water with ice AND lemon! (Oh the little things that make life grand!) We walked around and saw a group from Korea playing drums and then it started to rain so we headed back to the hotel.

We actually got to watch New Adventures of Old Christine and House tonight. I know I know, we watch too much TV but hey you just try going cold turkey with TV, Cell Phone and even conversations with others in English and you would be happy about a little TV too!

Anyway, tomorrow we start our great Castle and Manor adventure to Thorskogs Slott. I will post some pictures soon.

Good Day or Good Night!
Blessed and feeling better!

Robin

P.S. My stomach issues are better but it seems as if my bronchus is trying to return.

Finally Some Pictures

Good Afternoon Everyone!

It is 7:11 pm here. By the way did you know that there are 7/11 Stores in Sweden? Anyway, today was an exciting day. The day I got my car! Our day started out early since we got out of bed at 6:30 that is 12:30 "Tennessee" time. Volvo picked us up at 8:30. We were first in line to get our car. It really is a exciting process! Here are some pictures.









Yes, we actually made it back to the hotel with some help or maybe not with a gps. I made some wrong turns and it had to "recalculate" several times. Dennis was the co-pilot and we did make it without hurting each other. :-)

The weather here today hasn't been wonderful! It was cold, windy and raining this morning when we left. On our way back it was just very grey with a brisk wind. We checked out the local "mall" for some people watching and of course some shopping. I only purchased a neat hat and a scarf. Speaking of a hat my hair has it a growing "spurt" and it also seems to be turning to a "prettier" color of something. Maybe black??

Anyway, if you don't mind, please say a prayer for me. My stomach is not feeling well all of the sudden so I am praying that I am not getting what Dennis had! Tomorrow is a "free" day so we will be spending it around the city. The following is a picture of me getting on the train Sunday for our 4 hour ride.


Well I need to go now. Thanks for following along! I will try to update again before "morning".

Blessed!
Robin

Robin

Vacation is for Rest?

Hello from our hotel room in Stockholm. Unfortunately that is where we have been from most of the day. Dennis is under the weather. He was sick most of the night and has slept most of the day. We did get out and walk around some tonight but he had to come back to the room again.

I think this is the most sleep I have gotten without my chemo cocktail's help ever! We are listen to the Alabama game via the internet. It will be 1 a.m. when TN's game starts so I think we will just find out the score in the morning.

Since I don't have any exciting stories today I thought I would share a few things that I have discovered on this trip. There is not Diet Coke in Sweden................ it is Coke Light. I know I think that I would have had to cut the trip short if there was no Coke Light!

To buy any type of drug, even "Advil" you must go to the Pharmacy. Ibuprofen comes in 400 mg(?) We made a trip this evening.

Dennis wanted some crackers or something like that and they were nowhere to be found. I didn't even find "water crackers" or peanut butter snack crackers.

The Swedish people appear to be a very cold natured bunch! Yes it is cool here but they are bundled up with scarves, hats, gloves and boots. You would think it was below freezing.

Well I think I will turn in. We need to get up at 7:00 so that we can catch the train @ 11:00. We are going to try to see some of Stockholm before we leave. The train ride will take 4-5 hours so it should be interesting.

On a side note as we were listening to the game, they started talking about the starting time for the TN game next week. Guess what they said "Alabama time" I just had to laugh and point that out to Dennis. Alabama just made a huge stop on 4th and inches!

Leave us a comment or email me at RGF1998@aol.com.

Go Bama Beat Rebels!
They've GOT to FINISH!
Blessed!

Robin

Do You Know What Time it is?

It is some where in the neighborhood of 8:00 p.m. here. We ventured out and got some dinner or maybe you might call it lunch. They served breakfast this morning in the plane but it was yogurt (I don't like) orange juice and a hot roll. I had the roll and juice and called it done. Who knows maybe I might just loose some weight on this trip. I say that before I think about all of the amazing desserts I saw while out today.

We went to what I would call Stockholm's version of the food court at the mall. There was even a Cajun place that featured a Tennessee Bearnaise sauce really. We stopped at the 7 Eleven at the train station on the way back and saw a funny sign it was referring to the lottery but it said
"Full Fart" I just had to laugh! Dennis is laying here beside me snoring or I would have him add some pictures. I will make him take care of it tomorrow.

We are going to take a Hop On Hop Off bus tour tomorrow so that should be fun. We will be quite the train riders by the time we get home. We are taking the train to Gotenburg on Sunday and it will be a 4 hour ride. We should get to see a lot of the country.

I will end this post with a funny story or at least it is funny now. When we got on the train at the airport both Dennis and I were to take care of our luggage. Remember we have 2 suitcases each plus a computer bag, purse and bag. Anyway, we made sure we were getting on the right train and I was the first to get on. I was struggling with putting my bags in the rack and getting out of the way so Dennis gets on and takes over the task. Well, when we get off the train 20 minutes later Dennis only had his small carryone bag. Before the train took off I was like Honey get your big bag! He gets back on and his bag is no where to be seen. Now there were only 6 other people in our car and I was like why would some one take Dennis' bag?? After all some people we have seen are very small (skinny) and I was thinking boy will they get a surprise when they open that suit case. It was all of Dennis' clothes except for 1 pair of jeans, shoes, shirt and all of his underwear :-). Anyway the good Lord was looking at for us because we went to the information/ticket office, they called and the suitcase was at the train station where we got on. We just wanted 20 minutes and some nice lady brought it to us. Both Dennis and I laughed and said Thank you Lord! We didn't know where we would find any "big boy" clothes!

Jessica called this afternoon and Tristian has his first tooth! Both Jessica and Tyler were sick Thursday night so Tyler couldn't go to the pumpkin patch today :-( Grandmother and Granddaddy were looking forward to it I know.

Anyway, I need to turn in. I hope everyone has a great weekend and I will update tomorrow!

Blessed!
Robin

We're Here!

Good Afternoon from Stockholm!

We arrived here this morning at 7:00. After a 20 min train ride and a minor scare we made it to our hotel which is right by the train station. They had our room ready so we checked in and proceed to take a long nap. It is now 3:00 in the afternoon and we are off to see some sites. I will post more details later.

I just wanted to let you know that the hillbilly has arrived safely in Stockholm.

Have a wonderful Friday!
Robin

And We're Off!

Hey Everybody,

We are currently in the Windy City waiting for our 4:25 p.m. flight. So far the only excitement has been trying to make sure that our lugage was under 50 pounds. I came in at 48.5 and Dennis was over at 52 lbs. That is what he gets for preaching @ me about watching the weight! :-) We have been through Security several times now so I think we have the taking our shoes off down pat. When I did log on to the blog it was in swedish, maybe that can count for some excitement too?

I've had several people who wanted to know more of the how's and why's of our trip so for all those questions here are some of the answers. Most everyone is aware of my health, and the status of my legal case. I had decided a while back (May) that I wanted and needed a new car. The BMW is great but now that Tristian is here Nana needed a bigger car or at least one with a back seat. I knew that I wanted a hard top convertible so we were checking them out and stopped by Clayton Volvo. We met the nicest guy named Nort who was more than willing to talk with us even after the store had closed. He told us to come back the next day and we would take one for a spin. We did and I liked the car a lot. Me being the bean counter I am asked about the pricing "best deal"offer and Nort told us about the overseas delievery program. Volvo is flying us round trip, putting us up in a 4 star hotel for 2 nights and we pick up MY car at the factory on Monday. We will tour the plant, have lunch and learn all the bells and whistles of my car and then we are off to drive around Sweden for a week. We purchased a couple of tour packages, one of which we will stay in Castles and Mannors as we travel to the different towns.

On Monday the 27th we will drop my car back at the plant, they will ship it back to the USA and Dennis and I will continue on our BIG adventure to Rome where we are staying 3 nights and 4 1/2 days. Then we go to Copenhagen for Friday/night and we will head back on Saturday morning.

I would say we got a SWEET deal! If you are interested just give Nort a call. I would highly recommend it!

The flight over is 8+ hours and Sweden is 6 hours ahead so we will arrive at 7:30 a.m. Friday morning local time. I am sure jet lag will cause something else to lag on me! Anyway I am so excited! The hillbilly goes to Europe. Please follow along and we should be able to update from Stockholm (Friday & Saturday) and then we are taking the train to Gothenburg Sunday afternoon. Once we leave Gothenburg the access maybe spotty so we will just see.

Leave us a message so we will know if anyone is out there!

Love!
Robin

Counting Down

One week from tomorrow we will be on our way! I can't believe that we are actually going to Sweden and Rome and that we will actually be gone 2+ weeks! There are so many things to take care of and lets not forget packing. I think the trick will be layering because of the different temps. Sweden will welcome us with temps in the high 40's low 50's and then Rome will be in the low 70's. With that being said don't you think layering is the only way to go? But wait a minute.......... what about the weight limit on luggage and the extra baggage charges!

And all of this for a car!! I know it will be a tough job but hey someone needs to do it and I am glad it is going to be me. It is getting late and I need my beauty sleep so I will sign off for now. Please stop by again next week. We look forward to sharing our trip with you.

God is Good All the Time!
Robin for "us"

Getting started

Just want everyone to know that we are looking forward to our trip to Sweden very much. So much that we want everyone to be able to keep up with us while we are there. We will be leaving on Oct. the 16th. We hope to post daily happenings as well as pictures. We will be posting lots of other things as well as we learn more about what we are doing. I'm sure Robin will keep you updated on her treatment progress and I will throw an occasional recipe at ya. And I'm sure pictures of the grand kids will make for some classic oohs & aahs. We hpe everyone enjoys our blog.