Day 1 at Ronneby started when my friend “Brinck” (not his real name ) picked us up from the airport with his Son, Erik. Brinck took us to Ronneby Brunn, the top resort hotel in Ronneby, which also was about the only accommodation available at this time of year. The room was small, and basic. We had no iron or ironing board and no bath (there was supposed to be a bath). The soap in the shower was in a wall mounted soap dispenser which LittleB wouldn’t touch. It looked like hand wash for public toilets, not soap to put on the body. LittleB was angry because the room was not what she expected, yet we were supposedly paying more per night than our room in Stockholm at the 5 star hotel. We found out when we checked out that we were given a cheap room instead of what LittleB booked. We got a basic room, and in the end paid a cheap price. Whilst a lot of people might be happy to do that, LittleB wants to enjoy her holiday in comfort, and that’s fair enough. The room we got made her feel disappointed.

If cheap also means “nasty”, then it can spoil the holiday a bit, and it sort of did. Also, the room maid came to clean the room early in the morning just before we were going out to breakfast, when LittleB was still dressing. Although the door was locked with a chain (and obviously with people in the room) she continued to try and pull the door open until I removed the chain. She wanted to clean the room, but we were busy. She spoke no English at all, and just stood there passing towels to me through the door. I took the towels, and passed her the used towels from the bathroom, and closed the door. We couldn’t find the “do not disturb” sign, so we notified reception when we went to breakfast, so they could bring a new “do not disturb” sign and put it on the door. When we got back from breakfast the sign was hanging on the door, and we left it there all day so the crazy woman wouldn’t go in there.

I didn’t take photos of the room, but a photo of the lobby, photos of the front entrance and a photo of the rest of the hotel from our hotel window are in a gallery here: [Link]

(Reminder: When viewing photos in my gallery, click the slideshow icon, set the max size to “no limit” and I suggest a speed of 3 seconds per photo)

Ronneby is well known for the Ronneby Brunn resort, but I didn’t photograph it much since we were only there to sleep. You can read the details of the hotel here: [Link] and see a photo of it here: [Link]

With the complaining out of the way, the rest of our Ronneby experience was great, even though the snow that was there before we arrived had mostly melted away.

Brinck showed us around the beautiful park in Ronneby, which one year won the award for most beautiful park in Sweden. I was able to take an obligatory duck shot, in fact many duck photos, and videos too. On the afternoon that we arrived, it was dark and I got a few photos using the camera’s flash while we walked Brinck’s dog through the park. There are some duck photos, we could barely see them, but the flash lit them up. [Link]

At the start of our only full day in Ronneby, we got a guided tour of Ronneby with Brinck, and also his wife, Annika, as we looked at the old late 12th century church which was central to the Ronneby Bloodbath saga in the year 1564. It is a fascinating church, with so much to see, I wish I could spend an hour or so there. Please read this PDF for more info: [Link]

Here are my photos of the church: [Link]

We did some sightseeing around the area of the church. Many of the buildings in this set, though made of wood, are centuries old. [Link]

Here is a video clip of things we saw around Ronneby. (no sound – 57mb)

We moved on to the park where I’d taken photos the night before. Here is the park in daylight: [Link] It looks it’s best in the warmer months, with colourful flowers etc, but this is nice too. I’m sure as I write this, it’s now covered in beautiful snow.

Below is a video clip of the park (no sound – 65mb):

Annika is an amazing cook. We had a very delicious taco pie! Hard to explain, but I’m sure LittleB can explain it well All you need to know from me is that it was delicious, as were her biscuits and other goodies. On a different occasion, we also ate a yummy pasta dish that had salmon in it! I tried Chistmas beer, in fact two different Christmas beers. One was clearly better than the other, and Brinck and I disagreed on which was the better beer. I also drank alcohol free glögg, which I think tastes better than the one with alcohol. I am going to miss glögg, I think it is a very yummy drink. Even if I lived in Sweden though, it’s only sold at Christmas time so I’d miss it there too. What a great drink, I love it!

Brinck’s children are wonderful kids. They loved to teach LittleB how to speak Swedish, I was amazed by how much Swedish LittleB learned in one day with them. We also met Karl-Bertil, Brinck’s dog. Normally animals seem to naturally like me. When we arrived, Karl-Bertil kept growling and barking at me. When he got used to me, things were fine, and we even played a bit of chasey in the afternoon. He loves to be chased through the house, carrying his mutilated stuffed toy. The next day he forgot who I was and was back to growling and barking at me, until he got used to me again.

I had a good time walking in the forest with Karl-Bertil and Brinck, and I have a lot of those forest walk photos in my gallery here: [Link] It was raining lightly during the walk, my camera and video camera got soaked, but survived no problem. It’s the first time I’d ever seen it rain in Sweden, and this was my 3rd trip.

Before we left Ronneby, LittleB bought some Swedish learning books from a bookshop (inspired by her learning over the two days), and I got a crime novel that Brinck recommended so that I could brush up on my own Swedish while sitting on the flight from London to Sydney.

Thanks again to Brinck, and your whole family for giving us the best time of our trip! We’ll be back soon!

At 1:02pm, we boarded the train to Copenhagen, a 3hr 15min journey, which will be the start of my next blog.

That’ll be all.