Mars grand

Today was our tour of the beautiful island of Marstrand. (On the drive out we saw an Ikea, so we had to snap a quick pic.) It was out of this world. The island is typical Sweden, but it is famous for Carlstens fortress. (It was used as a fort to protect southern Sweden and it doubled as a prison). It's been around since the 17th century. It's name indicates that King Carl the X had it built with stones. The building started in 1658 and din't finish for 200 years. Each stone had to be carried by hand to the site. The prisoners held there were the ones providing all of the labor. The views inside and out were amazing. The Norback family took us around for some nice pictures and gave us some background on the brothers there. They also spent some fika time with us. Very nice family. We also received a guided tour of the fortress. Here we took more pictures, learned interesting facts, and found "secret tunnels". :) We also threw in a picture to show the view from one of the prison cells. Upon completing the tour we had lunch and then traversed the island to meet many of the Swedish friends. We met so many who were so loving. Young Jack provided refreshments and many others shared gifts and so forth. We're excited - tomorrow is day one of our convention!