Last weekend we went to the Nostalgia Festival in Ronneby, a couple hours away. We went there last year and found it quite pleasant. This year we took it a step further by spending the night and attending the following day’s activities in Karlskrona. Both my husband and daughter love cars. My husband loves all sorts of cars, but my daughter is partial to 1950’s American cars with fins, the bigger the better. There were plenty of cars with fins, older cars, muscle cars, performance cars, and unusual cars. There were also mopeds, motorcycles, camping trailers, and even some trucks. (Pictured, the mid-life crisis club.)
Some of the finest specimens were brought up on stage and their owners were interviewed. The owners were often in period costume with all the appropriate accessories. Some even had matching camping trailers completely decked out like time capsules on wheels.
There was also entertainment in the form of a band that impersonated Elvis, Roy Orbison, and Jerry Lee Lewis. They were really quite good. My daughter wore the poodle skirt that my mother made for her, and she danced to the music and talked to the other (mostly older) people in costume.
The weather was beautiful—sunny and in the upper 70’s. Unfortunately we weren’t so well prepared for this since we’d believed the forecasts for low 70’s and very windy. We got a bit hot and sweaty, but we had a nice time.
We spent the night at a 60’s style motel in Karlskrona. We’d stayed there a year ago when we spent a few days in Karlskrona with my mom and stepfather. It’s simple and not particularly attractive (by today’s standards) but it gets the job done for a reasonable price. It impressed me that the entire place seems to be run by one woman. It’s weird to come to the reception area and find it locked, but if you can read the sign and call the number, she comes from wherever she’s making up the rooms.
We went into town for dinner and found a nice Italian restaurant. The food was very good, but we were hungry and the service was unbelievably slow. After dinner we went for a short walk then had dessert at an ice cream shop. The serving sizes were enormous. I ordered one flavor (chocolate marzipan), and it turned out to be 7 small scoops which filled a large waffle cone. It was good, but nothing compared to Ben & Jerry’s.
It was 9 PM by the time we made it back to the motel, and we all went straight to bed.
Sunday was even warmer, but the day’s activities were on the waterfront by the naval museum. We watched the cars finish the rally then examined them in the parking lot. My daughter ran around and took pictures with the little digital camera, and then she went and played at the beach. Since we weren’t with her, she was only allowed to go in up to her knees, but she had a lot of fun anyhow.
Besides the cars, all the boat museums were open, and there was an antique boat parade. We weren’t so interested in the boats, but we poked around the museums a bit then headed home mid-afternoon.
About half-way home, we got a flat tire. I imagine that it’s always a surprise, but this doubly so since the tires were only a couple months old. We pulled over immediately, so quickly that we were slowing down by the time I even noticed that there might be something wrong, but the tire was ruined anyhow. We pulled off the highway onto a little dirt road, and my husband changed the tire. Luckily my car has a full sized spare. This was the first time the spare was used, and the air pressure was rather low, but it turns out we were only about half a mile from a gas station where we filled it properly before any damage was done to the spare.
We made it home without further ado, and I’ve been driving on my spare all week. My replacement tire should come today. Take home message: make sure your spare tire is in working order.
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