Arrived in Sweden

The travel to Sweden was pretty uneventful. There was very little sleep on the airplane. I got none and Linnea had about 10-15 minutes total. It was just a long trip and we had just enough time in Iceland to buy some candy. Linnea's ears hurt on the way down in the airplane so we tried buying some gummy bears to help on the flight to Sweden. It didn't.

The real problem was when we landed in Sweden. We got our luggage okay and met up with Farmor and Jan. Then headed to the car rental place. Well, what a surprise there! I had pre-paid for a car through my travel agent so when I got to the counter and they told me there was an extra $400 "Stockholm Congestion" fee, I was quite shocked. It was some sort of daily fee and since we have the car for 41 days, it adds up. I asked if I had to pay it even if I am not driving the car in Stockholm and she said yes. Ugh, great. Fine, I will pay it but now there is a problem with my card. They only take cards with raised numbers and my BECU card is completely flat. Ok, so I have to use my MC but my limit is maxed out and my payment has not gone through yet. Great. Well, Farmor put it on her card but guess what else? I need to pay a $2500 deposit on the car to cover any potential damages! I definitely am not prepared for that either. So, all that goes on Farmor's card but what a pain to have to deal with that.



I am dead tired and don't really want to deal with any of it. We head out to the car and find out that it is too small. We got a Volvo v40 which is supposed to handle 5 people and 1 large and 2 small suitcases. Well, the 5th passenger is a 1/2 seat in the middle and we had 3 bags and a carry on but the carry on didn't fit in the car. There was barely any room in the back. I guess it is my fault for not looking up the car online but the rental said "wagon" but it really is classified as a "hatchback". So, I went back to the office and asked if they had any bigger cars for the same price. They gave me a Ford Focus HGV and it was a little better. I am not sure how we will get home with the 4 of us and 1-2 more pieces of luggage. I guess we shall see.

I drove about halfway to our house when we stopped for dinner in Gavle. Then Jan took over the driving and I slept a little the rest of the way. Linnea fell asleep almost right away after we left the airport. The drive is about 3 hrs total from the airport to Järvsö. I was just glad to be at our house and that everything looked good. Of course, since Linnea slept for a few hours in the car she wasn't ready for bed right away. We didn't get to bed until about 10-10:30 pm but the good thing was I feel asleep right away!