Visit by Jeanne

I was so lucky that my ‘twin-cousin’ Jeanne Stockmann from the Netherlands came to visit us in Gothenburg. Jeanne and I share a special bond, because we were born only 8 days apart, Jeanne being the older one, and we were baptised together in the Catholic church of Verlingsbeek in the Netherlands with Jeanne’s parents Carl and Mieke becoming my godfather and godmother. Plus we both got French names, Jeanne and Gabrielle, named after French heroines :-). Jeanne is the main reason I speak some Dutch from the summer vacations spent in my childhood at her parents’ place in Verlingsbeek. In turned out that playing with other kids was the best way to learn another language. Anyway, I’m so happy that Jeanne decided to come here for a couple of days to keep me with good company and improve my Dutch skills. We got a fantastic tour the first day in the company of friend Sture and his motorboat (see cover photo) taking us out to the Gothenburg archipelago. The weather was just beautiful, although a bit windy in open sea, so I’m happy we decided not to bring the dogs. We first went to Kungsö, then Vrångö and finally Donsö, where we went for a walk before enjoying a nice lunch at the harbour. The second day was spent at the Botanical Garden in Gothenburg. This was one of the really warm days, so I must admit that we went from bench to bench in the shade to drink some water and cool down. Nevertheless, it was worth a visit and I love the variety of Japanese trees we saw on the way. Some of them were really beautiful. The third and final day, Jeanne went downtown and to visit the Gothenburg Stadsmuseum while we stayed at home in the garden in the shade as this was another hot day. Hereby almost everyone from the closest family in the Netherlands have been to visit us in our Landala house. Great, much appreciated!