Ha! Bonus entry!

Mer and I had about thirty minutes this morning when we were packed up and ready to go, but not even by Riordan Time was it time to leave yet. So we walked over to the Uppsala Cathedral and got to encounter it before tour groups arrived. There were maybe ten of us in this huge space, and it was very peaceful. I was again reminded that the Reformation took a different form in the Swedish church: there were decorations all over, there were places to light candles, and there was even a reliquary of the bones of a Swedish king in a box that looked to be made of silver. There was a tomb of a Catholic queen who married the Protestant king and got the equivalent of a pre-nup agreement that she could remain Catholic and have a few priests around. Getting reminded of the really beautiful cathedral was a fine way to spend a half hour.

We returned the car and breezed through the airport, with our successfully using a self-check-in kiosk for the first time ever; usually, we get to the end of the process and it tells us to see an agent. And so here I sit, blogging in front of my gate with only two and a half hours to go.

A couple more points I forgot to mention:
– On the ecology front, the Swedes LOVE bikes. There are bike lanes everywhere, including next to farm fields in the middle of nowhere. While this is great for cities to cut down on commuting cars, it does create hazards for the clueless American tourist who is walking everywhere. The bike lanes are always marked, but not always in the same way, and sometimes they’re shared with pedestrians, and sometimes not. And there’s a ton of bike traffic to be aware of. It made walking an exercise in alertness. It also made it more difficult to drive, since sometimes bike lanes were so wide as to look like a road lane to turn on, and I also had to be alert for cars, crossing pedestrians, and bikes all over the place. Again, overall it’s a good problem to have, but I never did quite get used to it.
– Our rental car was a Kia. Before she even saw the car, Meredith announced she had named it already. “Ike!” she replied to my asking what. “Ike! It’s a Kia! Ike-Kia! We’re in Sweden! Get it?” My wife is witty and wanted to make sure I didn’t miss it.