A weekend for us sisters

Around ten the long train trip finally ended and she got a short time together with her sister's family. Training for show jumping with one of the Shetland ponies was on the schedule for her niece, nice to watch how easily she handled the horse.
Then a 2½-hour car ride to Gothenburg was next and we two sisters had some time for private conversation, really nice after living so far apart for a couple of years.
During the evening we "moved in" on the ship Gratitude together with four other participants and nine crew members. The boat were going to be our home for the long weekend.
We introduced ourselves and sailed some hours before we harbored an island. During the dinner the chief on board had prepared, we all started to know each other.

Gratitude is a 23.7 m long English fishing cutter built in 1903, but nowadays a sailing ship for crew and sailing school participants.
(Picture from the website of the Sailing school of the Swedish sailing club).






Something that struck Maria when she came to the southern parts of Sweden was how much greener it was everywhere. Not so strange considering the fact that the snow melted a month earlier than up in the north. Also several flowers were in bloom already, like the Forget-me-not and the lilacs ("syren") we saw a lot during the weekend.