Sweden is big but very stylish

Whoever tells you that modern flying is like riding on a bus is only telling half the truth. If you're used to catching a bus at 7.00 a.m. in the morning it is, if you have to arrive two hours before the bus comes to take your shoes off and be xrayed it is and finally if your bus reaches your destination and has to bump on to the road and shreek to a halt it is! Other than the end it was a wonderful journey and actually quite comfortable.
Come to think of our final destination wasn't that exotic; Goteburg's second airport: a shed and coldestwindIave ever felt. Hovever we were glad to be met by Magnus a Prison chaplain who was on maternity leave. He never properly explained why he was the one designated to meet us. He proved a great host explaining the intricasies of Swedish faith and life. He also took us on a long drive to Skara and back for a visit. On th journey w heard about how restrictive the Swedes were about alchohol. You have to be over twenty ot buy it to take away but eighteen if you buy it in a pub. You can only buy it from special government shops. All of which made me think about our current debate at home and whether we should take a scandinavian approach to the problem.
Skara was interesting because as well as being virtually deserted, wierd on Saturday afternoon it was also dominated by cobled streets whch were home to both cars and people, inother words shared space. it seemed to work well but here were very few cars there.
Apart from that it was impresive to see the standard of quadruple glazing and to note the fact that most houses were heated either by a heat pump or geothermal. It was very warm inside in stark contrast to the outside.
As to whether the Swedish church is involved in regeneration more of that tomorrow as it's hard to process all that we are being told. For now by some random act of kindness I am now staying in the very Grand Hotel in Boras in the biggest room I have see in a long time.
Very stylish, very minimalist but no kettle.
Bring back Travelodge.