Møns Klint Spontaneity

On Friday, Chad woke up and said, "What could we do today if I didn't go into work?"  Well, we drove into the city to the distribution center at the church and then, at around 10:30, decided to drive to Møns Klint for the day.  We ran to the local store and bought some snacks and headed out on our way.
This was my 3rd trip down here and Chad's 5th.  We started out on a nice hike up the hill that Chad had gone on a while ago.  It gave a great view of the surrounding area.  We decided to take an unknown trail down the back.  It was a great walk through the forested area, but we were really unsure where we would come out at.

 Picking Wild Raspberries.

 Cow Photo Bomb!

 We headed over to the cliffs.  They are so pretty.  Instead of taking the usual stairs down, we walked along the cliff top for about 1.2 km and then took a different set of stairs down.  It was great, hardly any other people and just as picturesque! 

 Looking for fossils.

 Chad posing for a picture and then getting a little wet!

 Lots of stairs!  The picture don't show that these stairs are super steep, almost more of  ladder.

 On our way back along the cliff rim we came across this snake.  We nearly stepped on it and I have to admit that there was a considerable amount of screaming.  I don't think Chad screamed, but he definitely jumped.  Although he denies it, he definitely jumped!  Haha!  It seems that we had heard several times that there were no snakes in Denmark, but this was definitely a snake....in Denmark.

It was such a fun spur of the moment trip!  We got back super late and everyone was really tired, but very happy!

Bike ride to the Sea

A friend of ours puts together a fund-raising bike ride every year to raise money for Pedal Away Parkinsons.  We participated in it a couple of times before moving here, I even won a bike at the giveaway!  This year we decided to go on a bike ride to lend our support from across the ocean.  We had planned out a 10 mile ride to the beach and back, but it ended up being closer to 15 miles.  Although all the kids ride two-wheelers now, we decided with such a long trip, it would be better to have the little ones in the trailer. 

 We handed off the camera to Lexi and Noah for part of the ride, here are a few pictures they took. =)

 Hahahaha!

 The ride was very beautiful, taking us through fields, by cattle pens, on dirt roads, it was a lot of fun!

 This cow was very friendly, letting us pet it and feed it. 

 Up and over a bridge.

 We made it to the beach for lunch, cooked some hot dogs on the grill.

 The beach was quite crowded and yucky today.  Funny thing though, these were the only 2 pictures we took of the sea.  The water was a dark brown/yellowish color and stinky!  Very gross, but quite refreshing on a hot day.

Road Trip Sweden

My friend Alaina's brother came to visit this month and they planned a trip to Sweden and invited me along.  It was mostly to the same area I visited a couple of years ago, but I loved it there and was super excited to go back!

 Varberg Fortress.  This was build in 1287-1300, wow, so old!  It was hard to get any really great pictures of the entire fortification.  But, we enjoyed walking around it.

 This statue was quite life-like looking until you got around 15 feet away.  Not even sure why it was there or what it's story was.

 It's a hobbit hole!

 Riding the ferry to Marstrand.  Very crowded.

 The view from Carlsten Fortress is so amazing!  I never imagined that there were a series of archipelago's like this in Sweden.  So picturesque!  The fortress dates back to 1658 and was a very important location because of the ice-free port.  It was used mainly as a prison and actually remained in military use until the 1990's! 

 The fortress is not a ruin, but also not furnished.  You can tell there are a lot of areas that are unsafe and they continue to fix things up to make it so that you can walk through the halls and corridors. Seriously, such an awesome place!  There are all kinds of winding stairs, narrow hallways, windowless rooms, etc. 

  Some of the history here is pretty dark, it was a prison!  We read about 3 prisoners that were kept in solitary confinement for 5 years!  They only had 1 visitor, once a year from a priest.  Two of the men died before their time was up and the 3rd went insane.  Apparently he clawed his fingers bloody on the window frame and then drew on the walls with the blood and you can still see it.  We were pretty creeped out being in that particular room!  It's so sad, the things people have done to other people through the ages. 

 This was a secret passageway under the grounds all the way to the opposite tower.  It was so fun to walk through, we went twice! 

 Arrow slits to shoot right down on anyone coming up the stairs.

 We came across this baby bird in one of the rooms.  It really startled us.  We hope it made it's way back to it's mommy.

 The fortress had all kinds of awesome, old doors.

 Drawbridge!

 After touring the fortress, we decided to walk down to the sea.  Wow, what a beautiful walk.  We didn't do this last time I was there and I'm so glad we got to do it this time.  It was so amazing! 

 I could have explored this area all day!

 We decided to end the day by visiting Bohus Fortress, built in 1308.  We spent a lot of time here when I came a couple of years ago and to this day, it remains one of my most favorite spots in Europe.  I love ruins and this one was just so picturesque.  I didn't think I would get the chance to visit here again, so  you can imagine my disappointment when we got there and they were closed!!!!  They were doing a summer play and closed early.  We had checked the closing time and everything, so it was pretty disappointing.  We walked around the outside for a little while.  It's very beautiful driving into the area and seeing it sitting there on the hill.  But, as they say, the beauty lies within.  Maybe someday I'll get to go there again.  Who knows.

 So, we headed out for one more stop along the way home.  We stopped by Tjolöholm castle.  It's really just a large country manor house, built in 1898, but very beautiful nonetheless.  I could totally live here! =)

 It was such a fun trip!  I was so glad Alaina invited me!