Sleep tight!

If you don't have an IKEA near you, I'm sorry, But the one near us is right around the corner from a very nice hotel  - not the kind where they rent rooms by the hour! - and so you could come to Baltimore, check into the Hampton Inn or the Paris Hilton Garden Inn and spend some time at IKEA shopping for furniture and home doodads. And when you're packing for your big trip, you won't need to bring your own umlaut  ¨ . They have plenty of them there. The umlaut  ¨ is that double dot that appears over some European vowels, such as FLÄRDFULL, the Swedish term for "vain." In fact, as you tour IKEA, you will see more new letters than the post office delivers in a single day!

And should a blizzard pop up as you meander through the acres of bookshelves, tea pitchers, beds, light bulbs, and potted plants, don't worry! You can just bunk in there, if they do things here as they do in Denmark...

Last week, northern Denmark got a foot of snow piled up around its knees. The roads were icy, the trains were shut down, the flights did not fly.  And in the town of Aalborg, shoppers and staffers at their IKEA started to realize that going home was not in the cards that night. 

Six customers, two dozen some employees and some people from a neighboring toy store made IKEA their home for the night. Michelle Barrett, who works in the toy store, told the story to the local public radio broadcasting outlet, DR.

“We just laughed at the situation, because we will probably not experience it again,” Barrett said.

Mr and Mrs Bangsgaard, all tucked in

Wednesday's storm was the biggest snow deal in Denmark since 2018.  (I figured they would get a whole lot of snow in a Nordic country, but it looks like that's not the case. It was the first day of December, and already, they got 20 percent of their average December snowfall.

Every child can remember worrying that they'd have to sleep in their elementary school if a sudden winter blast locked down their town.  But what could be better than an IKEA? I mean, they have good food and drinks and blankets and beds. I'm not sure about toothbrushes and dentifrice, but who knows?

Store manager Peter Elmose, never one to miss out on a possible future sale, says he told the Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet that he encouraged everyone to “pick the exact bed they always have wanted to try.”

So the happy campers hunkered down, watching TV and chowing down on stuffed pork and risalamande, a Danish rice pudding Christmas treat, and enjoying hot cocoa.

For a late-night tuck-in, Mr. Elmose strolled around the floors singing good-night songs. And in the morning came hot coffee and fresh-baked cinnamon rolls.

One of the stranded customers, Erik Bangsgaard, told Ekstra Bladet that he was impressed: “It was fantastic considering the circumstances.”

So there's your winter vacation! See you soon!