HappyWanderer.org

Hi Friends,

Thank you so much for your letters.

We are in Lysekil.  Since the last time I wrote to you, we have made lots of new friends, been to a ship museum where we could look at and walk around on the ships, and gone to a petting zoo and an aquarium.  We have gone rock climbing, hiking, and swimming.  We have collected mussels, gone on a cable ferry, and seen lots of fortresses.  I’m also trying to build a fishing rod.

I hope you are all having fun and am sad to hear that Oliver and Olivia are leaving.  I hope your new schools are very fun and that you make lots of new friends.

Here are the answers to your questions:

1.  I really like living in Sweden.
2.  The cities are all very clean and the islands are rocky.
3.  The little mermaid in Copenhagen is kneeling on a rock facing the harbor entrance.  She has her hair in a braid.
4.  I am learning vocabulary, math, grammar, computers, science, social studies, art and gym.
5.  In Sweden people speak Swedish but know a lot of English.
6.  In Swedish both Hei and Hallo mean “Hello”
7.  In Germany people use different names but your names would stay the same.
8.  When you share a cabin, it is really nice to talk to each other late at night.

Adjø

Karla

Route log since 5/15 (all in Sweden):

5/15-16/08      Kungsö
5/17-20/08      Göteborg (Gothenborg)
5/21/08            Högö
5/22/08            Marstrand ->Koön Island
5/23/08            Kölkerön Island
5/24/08            Tjällsö
5/25/08            Lysekil

Hi Friends,

It is sunny but cold sometimes.  We are in Lysekil, Sweden.  There is an aquarium here with fish and things that live in the water here.  In the petting tank we saw a sea cucumber, star fish, crab and a mermaid’s purse which really came from a shark.  A man was talking in Swedish and a little bit in English so we could learn.  One fish in the aquarium was a huge bluish fish that grows new teeth every year when the old ones are worn down.  It looked scary to me.  On our boat we sometimes see lots of little fish near the dock.  I even found two little starfish one day and lots of mussels.

It is really rocky here.  On the islands there are prickly bushes.  We try not to walk on them so we don’t get prickled.  There are some sandy places and some muddy places, but mostly rocky.  We anchored at a nature reserve.  We got to see rams (daddy sheep) with horns.  They were too scared of us for us to pet them.

The biggest city was Gothenborg.  There was a ship museum.  We went in a submarine.  We pretended we really lived on it. We went on a freighter with a model of a captain.  It was a giant ship.  Another day we went to the zoo and petted the goats.

Today we are going to a library.  We are hoping there will be an English section.  We are also going to bring an English book and look for the same book in Swedish to try to read Swedish.

Is it sunny and warm or cold and rainy?  Have you been finding interesting things or not?

Love, Maria

Hello Friends,

We have made some new friends since the last time I wrote to you.  We have also climbed a lot of rocky islands.  There are many prickly bushes on the rocky islands.  One time we went to a rock where we could tie up our boat on some metal posts, while our boat floated against the rocks in the water.

We have also gone to a ship museum where we got to go on board the ships.  There was even a submarine.  In the submarine there were sound effects to make it sound more real.  The submarine was very small and it looked very crammed to live in it.

Have you been having a good time too?  What have you been learning?  Are there any special things happening?  I hope you are having a good time.  Please write back.

Your friend, Sophie

Boat life is in some ways similar to life at home and in some ways very different.  It is nice to be able to sleep in (until 7:00 or so) if we choose, so long as the girls are not up raising a rucus, which they usually aren’t.  On weekdays, schoolwork usually comes first with sailing starting in the late morning or after lunch.  Sometimes we are too interested in what we are doing to stop and get dinner on the table before 7:00 and thus bedtime here slips later (and later…) for the girls and ourselves.

We do not have the modern conveniences that we had been so used to.  We do not have a car and food shopping is a very different experience.  The whole family walks from the harbor to the food store about once a week with backpacks and bags.  The girls read and play while Michael and I try to figure out what a Hel Cantelope is versus a Dehel Cantelope and which is which and why one costs so much more.  How many Kroner/Kg = how many $/lb again?  What does one substitute for sweet Italian sausage in the recipe?  Which is whipping cream and which is sour cream?  Finally we have everything paid for.  Time to stuff everyones backpacks and bags, walk back to the boat and perform the feat of stowing it all away.

Another appliance missing is a washing machine, let alone a dryer.  The kitchen sink does quite well for an outfit or two at a time although it does use a fair bit of water from our water tanks.  A sunny warm morning means it is a wash day and the lifelines get hung with clothes to dry (undergarments are strung above the table in the main cabin below so that the whole world will not need to admire them – and if you overlook the fact that they are undergarments they almost make it look festive at mealtimes!)

A dishwasher is also not to be had.  Well, yes it is.  It is the one who does not cook.  And it is quite handy that we have three little girls and have three meals a day with three dishracks full of dishes that need drying.

On the other hand with such little floor space, a small broom and dustpan does the job in five minutes.  “Cleaning the house” is not a very large or lengthy task J!  There is no lawn to mow, no garden to weed.  Instead we fill water tanks when in port.

It’s going to be quite an adjustment to be back in a house again!

–Donya

Hi Friends,How was the spring fair?  Did you take any more field trips?  Are you still getting ready for field day?After we left Copenhagen, we stopped once more in Denmark and then went to Sweden.  While we were sailing we could see both Denmark and Sweden.  The next day, our first full day in Sweden, we climbed up and down cliffs and visited a lighthouse.  To climb down one cliff we used a rope.  At the bottom of that cliff we explored a cave which the Vikings probably used.  The next day was really fun.  We went swimming, kayaking, and saw ponies that were on the beach.   That day we also took a long hike on the island.  On May 11th, while we were sailing, we saw porpoises in our wake.  We could hear them breath out when they surfaced.  That evening we rowed and kayaked to an island where seagulls were nesting.  Because they were nesting we had to leave quickly.  Instead we rowed and kayaked to a different beach where we built huge sand castles.  On that beach there were a lot of mosquito larvae.  The next morning we woke up to waves rocking our boat from side to side.  We had to sail out of the cove and to another harbor.  In Varberg we have visited an old castle and museum.  In the castle there was still a moat and we could climb up stairs and see the whole town.  I hope you are having a great time.From, KarlaP.S.  Here is our route log so far:4/18                 Schleimunde, Germany
4/19-20            Bagenkop, Denmark
4/21                 Enehøje, Denmark
4/22                 Onsevig, Denmark
4/23 – 4/24      Vejrø, Denmark
4/25                 Vordingborg, Denmark
4/26                 Kalvehave, Denmark
4/27                 Rødvig, Denmark
4/28 – 4/29      Mosede, Denmark
4/30                 Dragør, Denmark
5/1-5/6            Copenhagen (København), Denmark
5/7                   Humlebæk,Denmark
5/8                   Hoganäs, Sweden
5/9-10              Hallands Vederö, Sweden
5/11                 Stensjö, Sweden
5/12 – 5/13      Varberg, Sweden 

Hello Everybody,

We are now in Sweden.  When we sailed from Denmark to Sweden we could see both countries at once.  The towns in Sweden are like those in Denmark.  The museums still have fun children’s sections where children can do things.  We have seen lots of huge ferry boats.  They take lots of cars and trucks.  Some go to Norway and some go to Denmark.  The coastline is not sandy anymore.  It is very rocky instead.  One time we climbed down between cliffs with the help of a rope and went into a cave.  We went swimming off of Happy Wanderer twice since the last post I sent you.  I even learned how to kayak.  I kayaked from shore all the way back to Happy Wanderer anchored out in a bay.  I’ve been having a great time.  Did you have fun at the spring fair?  Until next week…

Your friend,

Sophie 

Hi friends,

We went to a castle.  There was a moat and we got to see it We saw holes where the guards used to stand.  It was a king’s castle.  It’s called the Varberg castle and we got to go inside.  There were dress-ups and a computer where you could e-mail a picture of yourself and a message.

It has been very warm. One day we hiked around an island and it was very very warm.  That day we learned how to kayak but water got in sometimes and I got a little bit wet.  I went swimming.  I wear a shortie wetsuit and then it isn’t too cold.  We got to build lots of sand castles.  I made a sand castle for a queen and king fairy and a church.  The sand was very wet.

We sail a lot.  It is bumpy and wavy and sometimes it feels cold.  And sometimes it is tippy. Sometimes I get seasick.  Mom reads to us while we are sailing and then we tell her something that we remember from the book about Sweden.  She reads about The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew.  It is a good chapter book.

In the town there are train tracks and we watched a train go by.  It looks a lot different than home.  There is different money.  We see lots of people walking in the town and one day we saw three ducks in a fountain.

We have seen a lot of swans.  We were on an island where there were lots of birds and we saw their nests.  We saw duck eggs and seagull eggs.  The ducks and seagulls were flying all over and making sounds.  We went away quickly so we wouldn’t disturb them.  I am wishing to see an octopus.  There were dolphins.  Some went really close to our boat.

I hope you were excited about the spring fair.

From, Maria

Dear Friends,

Thanks for the e-mail.  It was fun reading it. 

We are in Copenhagen.  There is a museum with two floors with amber rocks.  There were magnifying glasses over amber with insects.  The signs were in English, Danish and German.  Long long ago when trees got cut resin came out.  Insects got stuck in it.  Then the trees got covered by water.  The resin turned into amber.

In a park we saw spinny things like there are at school behind Heritage House.  There were three in a row and Karla Sophie and I didn’t have to take turns.In Denmark there is a queen and there are three guards in front of her palace.  We didn’t see the queen but we  saw the changing of the guard.  The guards did a little parade and we heard their shoes clomp clomp clomp on the cobblestones.  Then they said something and they changed.  The ones on the sidewalk went to where the ones on the street were and those went to the sidewalk.  Then some left. 

We went to a museum and there is a place where children can play with dress-ups and a pretend Viking ship with shields on the sides of it and pretend swords.  Karla, Sophie and I dressed up like Vikings.  The Vikings used their boats and sailed many places. They even sailed to North America and met Indians.  In one place in the museum they have other dress-ups and shoes you can put on.  There is a grocery store with a balance scale for weighing food too. 

Today we are going to Humlebaek.  Soon we will be in Sweden. 

I hope you are having a great time.

Love, Maria

Hello Friends, 

I hope you have been having fun, I have.   We are in Copenhagen, Denmark.  We got to see the changing of the guard at the Queen’s palace.  The palace is not as big as you think it is.  It is like a regular building.  The guards wear big furry hats, blue pants and black shirts.  We also went to see the statue of the Little Mermaid, Denmark’s most famous landmark.  I even got to touch it! There are many fountains in Copenhagen, most of them very big with a statue in the middle. 

We also went up the Rundetorm, a tower with a cobblestone street spiraling up around a column.  From the top we could see the whole city.  When Mzria, Karla and I went down, we ran and ran and ran all the way to the bottom.  Most of the streets in Copenhagen are cobblestone and the buildings don’t have as many stories and are older. 

In a few days we will be in Sweden! Please write to me.  I would like to hear from you. 

Your friend, Sophie

Godday (Hi) Friends, 

We are in Copenhagen.  We have seen the changing of the guard at the Queen’s Palace, the Botanical Gardens, and the statue of the Little Mermaid.  One different thing about Copenhagen is that it has canals along many roads.  We went to a museum that showed amber from over a million years ago.  Amber is made by trees when they got a cut and resin poured out.  Then water covered the forest and the amber hardened.  The weather has been warm and sunny.  Many of the streets are cobblestone.  Everybody rides bicycles instead of using cars.  In another few days we will be in Sweden! 

We have not been fishing yet and there are no man eating sharks in the Baltic because it is not salty enough.  The only wild animals we have seen are birds but we have seen lots of them.  There are ducks and seagulls in the canals and there are a lot of pigeons in the street.  When you live on a boat it is very hard you have to go up stairs to get outside.  The floor space in cabins with berths is about five square feet.  I am sharing a berth with my sister Maria right now.  Since there are three cabins on the boat, my sisters and I will take turns having our own cabins.  We have school at the same table at which we eat.  I have been learning a lot of German in school.  I am also doing a typing program called KAZ.  One scary thing is when there are huge waves and the boat tips over 20 degrees.  I have not touched anything slimy. Figure out the message written in runes.  They were the type of writing the Vikings used. 

Fra (from) Karla