P.S. I do have a whole gallery of photos of Martina. Unfortunately there are just too many and I can't be bothered loading them so please make sure you see them when I get home. There are some real keepers in them!
Puss och kram,
Alice
xo
Thursday, July 12, 2007
The Final Installment of Pictures from The Stockholm Adventures
So now for the Photos of Martina and I
1. Ahhh me in the hotel room just after I'd found out my bag had been stolen. yes my eyes are a little red and yes a few tears were shed!
2. The final car journey home and Martina got a little bored so started experimenting with the camera and what she would look like with an icy-pole stick in her mouth.
3. Martina and I at one of our many coffee stops along the way. I think this was on our way to Ludvika but I'm not too sure.
4. Me at the Mariatorget lookout. Why not have a photo of just me??? It's not like the view from the lookout was awesome!!!
5. Martina and I posing at the Mariatorget lookout. I decided to pose as Martina is never normal in any of the photos we have of her, and trust me, there are heaps of them.
Hope you're enjoying my photos and blogs as much as I enjoy writing them. (Be aware I have now probably spent 5 hours doing these so you'd better be enjoying them ;-) !!! ) Will be seeing you in just over a week (my how time flies). Hope you are all well.
Puss och kram,
Alice
xo
The Stockholm Adventures 3rd Installment of Pictures
The Stockholm Adventures 3rd Installment of Pictures
1. The view of Stockholm looking out to the right from the Mariatorget lookout.
2. This is a church in Stockholm. I just thought it would make a cool photo but I don't actually know which church it is.
3. In this picture you can see the King's castle. The church spire on the left hand side of the picture is the King's church and the green roof on both sides of the church is the roofof the King's Castle.
4. The view of Stockholm looking out to the left from the Mariatorget lookout.
5. The King's church.
6. The marching band involved in the changing of the guards ceremony. This band is involved in over 400 performances each year!!!
7. The new and old guards stand opposite each other in the middle of the court yard for most of the ceremony.
8. The sexy men, and women, in uniform. These guards march around changing over all the guards at the posts around the castle.
9. A famous pub in Gamla Stan where a famous Swedish poet and songwriter Bellman used to go for a beer.
Puss och kram,
Alice
xo
The Stockholm Adventures 2nd Installment of Pictures
The Stockholm Adventures 2nd Installment of Pictures
1. This is in Gamla Stan (the Old City). The red and yellow buildings are a really nice cafe where we had coffee and cake one day. They made the best white chocolate cheesecake I've ever had!!!
2. The King's Slott (castle). It is still used today by the royal family however it isn't their permanent place of residence.
3. The Parliament buildings which are right near the castle and are themselves quite spectacular.
4. Martina and I in Gamla Stan wandering the city streets looking at all the shops. It is a major tourist area and the shops definitely reflect that.
5. Kungsträdgården (the Kings Garden). Martina and I were taking a rest whilst Åsa visited the bank.
Puss och kram,
Alice
xo
The Stockholm Adventures 1st Installment of Pictures
The Stockholm Adventures 1st Installment of Pictures
1. Läckö Slott (castle) which was the castle of Magnus de la Gardie from the 16th century.
2. This is Dalhalla where we went to see the Björn Skifts performance. See it really is a hole in the ground!
3. Another Picture from Dalhalla with a view of the stage, which is surrounded by water!
4. This is the mansion I was telling you about where Åsa's mum grew up and where Åsa spent her summers as a child growing up. It is really a gorgeous house.
5. This was the house where Åsa's mother spent the first 10 years of her life growing up.
Puss och kram,
Alice
xo
The Stockholm Adventure
Hej Hej,
Ok so I have so much to tell you about my week long trip to Stockholm so let me begin from the beginning.
After packing the car and driving out of the driveway at about 11.30am last Wednesday morning we firstly had to make two quick stops before we could get on our way. Firstly we had to drop of Pontus at his friends house with whom he´d be going to the Handball Tournament, which he would be playing in, with. When we arrived there, Pontus was unfortunately not feeling 100%, far from and so it was decided we would take him round to Lars work and maybe leave him there. So off we went. We arrived at Lars work, dropping off his golf clubs, but it seemed Pontus was not going to last to well there so it was decided we would take him back home. So about an hour after we left we were back home again. Quick trip! We dropped off Pontus and Åsa made sure he was ok before we left for the second time that day. This time, we would actually make it out of Gothenburg.
We were making our way to Karlstad, a town on the edge of Lake Vänern, which is the largest lake in Sweden. On our way we made a stop at Läckö castle. It is a 17th century castle that was lived in by Magnus de la Gardie, some famous Swede from that time It was really beautiful, look for the photo! We then reached Karlstad at about 10pm and we spent Wednesday night and Thursday night at Åsa's sister, Jenny's house. Wednesday morning I was able to get a shopping fix when we headed into town then Wednesday night jenny, Åsa, Martina, Hampus (the dog) and I packed up the car and made our way to Sunne where I experienced my first production in a huge barn. On the way though we made a stop at a warehouse which was housing the work of a current Swedish artist Lars Lerin, very interesting artwork. I even have a few prints of some of his work. When we arrived in Sunne we made our way to this huge barn just on the outskirts of the town. I have never seen such a huge barn before, and it was even painted the red colour like barns in the movies! The performance we saw was of an adaption of one of a famous Swedish writer, Selma Lagerlöf's books called Herregård Sägnen. The performance was really enjoyable despite the fact that I couldn't understand what they were saying, but thanks to Jenny who gave me a brief synopsis of the story, I could follow what was going on.
Friday we made our way to where we were spending the night at a hostel. Shortly after we arrived at the hostel we unpacked and then headed off for more of my education in Swedish culture. That night we went to see a performance by a famous Swedish singer, Björn Skifts at Dalhalla, which for those of you who don't know is this huge quarry which has been adapted into a stage and hundreds of seats. Make sure you check out the photo. The concert was lots of fun, with him singing a range of jazz songs in the first half, all of which were in Swedish so I had no idea what he was singing about, but then his second half he sang his own songs, which the majority were in English. He reminded me of a kind of Swedish John Farnham and Martina and I were amoung the very few people under the age of 50. The concert was lots of fun though and despite the fact that the stage is all outdoors and there was a great possibility of rain, the Gods must have been in the mood to be kind as we did not get even a drop of rain!
Saturday we headed to Ludvika, which was where Åsa's mum and even Åsa herself spent time growing up. We visited the mansion, and I mean mansion, where Åsa's mum grew up, which was owned by her grandparents, and even Åsa herself spent her summers there with all her other cousins. It was a absolutely amazing place, so big and so lovely. Unfortunately they had to sell the house a few years ago as it was just to expensive to keep. We also visited the cemetery where Åsa's grandparents are buried. That night we were kindly put up by Åsa's cousin Anna. Luckily they had a huge house as there was Martina, Åsa and I, Anna and her husband (whose name I never caught), their children Fredrik, Ulrika and Sophia, Sophia's husband (don't know his name either) and their daughter Emmy (she was absolutely adorable) and Ulrika's husband (name also unknown) and their daughter Sara (also a cutie). Both the girls were only about 2 years old and so provided some entertainment for the rest of us. So it was definitely a full house! But lots of fun.
Then Sunday...I will never forget Sunday!! Sunday we were headed for Hässelby, in the outer suburbs of Stockholm. We were to stay in a hotel that night then head into Stockholm City for the following to nights. So we arrived at our hotel in Hässelby at around 5pm and as we were all pretty stuffed went straight to our room leaving all our stuff in the car with the intention to come straight back down. Well a call from Lars informed us that the Wimbledon final was currently happening and it was a great game, it was very close between Nadal and Federer, so Martina the tennis lover turned on the game. After about 30 mins I decided I was bored and would go down and get my bag and the newspaper which I was doing the Sudoku in from the car. So down I went and when I reached the car I searched the back seat but could not find my bag. Thinking I must have taken it to the room I locked up the car and was about to head back when I noticed the front drivers window did not have any glass...a little strange. In a panic I ran back to the room to see if my bag was there, a sinking feeling was quickly coming over me however. When I got to the room I couldn't find my bag!!!! Yes we had had our car broken into and my bag stolen. Inside was my camera, wallet and phone. So then came the numerous phone calls to the police, home to my parents so they could cancel my credit and key cards as well as my sim card in my phone, and Lars who happened to ring to talk about the tennis in the middle of it all. So it was a nice welcome to Stockholm!!! At least we managed to get a free one bedroom room for me, free of charge, as there was three of us stuffed into this one tiny room with two single beds a a mattress that looked like you'd fall straight through it.
That night we ventured into Stockholm to Gamla Stan (the old city). There we wandered around for a while and treated ourselves to a comfort ice-cream. (They even have red bull ice-cream here, which I just had to try and was actually pretty good). We got back to the hotel at about 12am and pretty much hit the hay. It's amazing how excitement such as a robbery wears you out so much.
So now I'm up to Monday. After dropping off the car to get the window replaced, we caught a taxi into the city to our next hotel, Långholmen, which used to be the old jail. We left our luggage there as it was too early to check in and headed for the city. We spent most of the day walking around visiting different parts of the city. We visited the Royal Apartments in King's castle, which like all castles, are amazing but way to big for one family!! and I can't remember what else we did, but when we came back to the hotel at about 6pm, we spent about an hour there just chilling out then headed to a local Spanish restaurant for dinner before coming back and just piling into bed and watching TV.
Tuesday was similar. We headed into the city and back to the castle to see the Crown Jewels and the changing of the guards, which at times, is very entertaining (particularly their running and their shuffling!). Then Martina and I headed off to see the Vasa museum while Åsa went to pick up the car. The Vasa museum was amazing. Its a museum which houses the only complete ship from the 16th century, which on its maiden voyage capsized and sank, due to the ballast not balancing the ship properly, back in the 16th century. It then wasn't until the 1950's when it was recovered and retrieved from the sea bed and it was 333year later that it resurfaced. A lot of repairs were then done to restore the ship and catalog everything that came from the ship. So it now stands in the museum so it is really quite an amazing site. We then met Åsa at Rosendal, which is a place where the use only organic and homegrown goods (you'd love it there mum!!) where we had some tea, coffee and cake. We then made our way to Skansen, which is where they film the show Allsång, which is a sing along where artists are invited to sing, and there's a huge crowd (kind of like Carols by Candlelight!) however we were pretty tired and Martina's ankle wasn't doing so well so we didn't go in. Instead we began making our way slowly back to the hotel. On the way though we stopped of at Mariatorget where you can get a pretty amazing view of Stockholm and in the park there were heaps of people playing bocce. They even had a viewing stand set up at on playing spot! So we had a drink there then headed to a restaurant for dinner before heading back to the hotel.
Wednesday we made our way once again into Gamla Stan for breakfast before heading to the Moderna Museum to have a look at some artwork from the 20th century. It was pretty cool. Then we grabbed some lunch before making the 6hr drive back home. So we actually came home a day before we were expected, but it was nice to sleep in my bed here and get a good nights sleep.
So now it's Thursday and we have the day here then tomorrow we head off for Norway to visit Martina's relatives. the trip to Stockholm was amazing and I have to say Stockholm definitely lives up to its reputation of being one of the most beautiful capitals in Europe. I think it's because it's built on lots of islands so there's so many rivers in the city. I don't think I've seen as much rain in my life though. We managed to get only 3 days of sun for the entire week, the rest of the time it was raining or drizzling but the trip was still fun, despite the loss of my stuff.
Oh and I'm going to boast a bit here so sorry everyone....GO THE CATS!!!!!! How awesome are they!!!! Nine wins in a row. And trust it to be while I'm over here. Lets just hope they have another win this weekend against the Pies!!! (sorry Liz and Fran!)
So that's about all from me. I'm going to try and update some photos now so will hopefully have a few installments of them on my blog very soon. I'll update this on my return from Norway and then I'll be in my last week :'-( It has gone so fast and I still have so much to do here in Gothenburg before I leave.
Hope you are all well. And I'm very disappointed that now one is leaving me comments. I feel so unloved!!! Just kidding. But please do leave me comments or email me because I want to keep up with everyone back home or wherever else you may be. Missing you all and will be seeing you soon.
Puss och Kram,
Alice
xoxoxoxoxo
Ok so I have so much to tell you about my week long trip to Stockholm so let me begin from the beginning.
After packing the car and driving out of the driveway at about 11.30am last Wednesday morning we firstly had to make two quick stops before we could get on our way. Firstly we had to drop of Pontus at his friends house with whom he´d be going to the Handball Tournament, which he would be playing in, with. When we arrived there, Pontus was unfortunately not feeling 100%, far from and so it was decided we would take him round to Lars work and maybe leave him there. So off we went. We arrived at Lars work, dropping off his golf clubs, but it seemed Pontus was not going to last to well there so it was decided we would take him back home. So about an hour after we left we were back home again. Quick trip! We dropped off Pontus and Åsa made sure he was ok before we left for the second time that day. This time, we would actually make it out of Gothenburg.
We were making our way to Karlstad, a town on the edge of Lake Vänern, which is the largest lake in Sweden. On our way we made a stop at Läckö castle. It is a 17th century castle that was lived in by Magnus de la Gardie, some famous Swede from that time It was really beautiful, look for the photo! We then reached Karlstad at about 10pm and we spent Wednesday night and Thursday night at Åsa's sister, Jenny's house. Wednesday morning I was able to get a shopping fix when we headed into town then Wednesday night jenny, Åsa, Martina, Hampus (the dog) and I packed up the car and made our way to Sunne where I experienced my first production in a huge barn. On the way though we made a stop at a warehouse which was housing the work of a current Swedish artist Lars Lerin, very interesting artwork. I even have a few prints of some of his work. When we arrived in Sunne we made our way to this huge barn just on the outskirts of the town. I have never seen such a huge barn before, and it was even painted the red colour like barns in the movies! The performance we saw was of an adaption of one of a famous Swedish writer, Selma Lagerlöf's books called Herregård Sägnen. The performance was really enjoyable despite the fact that I couldn't understand what they were saying, but thanks to Jenny who gave me a brief synopsis of the story, I could follow what was going on.
Friday we made our way to where we were spending the night at a hostel. Shortly after we arrived at the hostel we unpacked and then headed off for more of my education in Swedish culture. That night we went to see a performance by a famous Swedish singer, Björn Skifts at Dalhalla, which for those of you who don't know is this huge quarry which has been adapted into a stage and hundreds of seats. Make sure you check out the photo. The concert was lots of fun, with him singing a range of jazz songs in the first half, all of which were in Swedish so I had no idea what he was singing about, but then his second half he sang his own songs, which the majority were in English. He reminded me of a kind of Swedish John Farnham and Martina and I were amoung the very few people under the age of 50. The concert was lots of fun though and despite the fact that the stage is all outdoors and there was a great possibility of rain, the Gods must have been in the mood to be kind as we did not get even a drop of rain!
Saturday we headed to Ludvika, which was where Åsa's mum and even Åsa herself spent time growing up. We visited the mansion, and I mean mansion, where Åsa's mum grew up, which was owned by her grandparents, and even Åsa herself spent her summers there with all her other cousins. It was a absolutely amazing place, so big and so lovely. Unfortunately they had to sell the house a few years ago as it was just to expensive to keep. We also visited the cemetery where Åsa's grandparents are buried. That night we were kindly put up by Åsa's cousin Anna. Luckily they had a huge house as there was Martina, Åsa and I, Anna and her husband (whose name I never caught), their children Fredrik, Ulrika and Sophia, Sophia's husband (don't know his name either) and their daughter Emmy (she was absolutely adorable) and Ulrika's husband (name also unknown) and their daughter Sara (also a cutie). Both the girls were only about 2 years old and so provided some entertainment for the rest of us. So it was definitely a full house! But lots of fun.
Then Sunday...I will never forget Sunday!! Sunday we were headed for Hässelby, in the outer suburbs of Stockholm. We were to stay in a hotel that night then head into Stockholm City for the following to nights. So we arrived at our hotel in Hässelby at around 5pm and as we were all pretty stuffed went straight to our room leaving all our stuff in the car with the intention to come straight back down. Well a call from Lars informed us that the Wimbledon final was currently happening and it was a great game, it was very close between Nadal and Federer, so Martina the tennis lover turned on the game. After about 30 mins I decided I was bored and would go down and get my bag and the newspaper which I was doing the Sudoku in from the car. So down I went and when I reached the car I searched the back seat but could not find my bag. Thinking I must have taken it to the room I locked up the car and was about to head back when I noticed the front drivers window did not have any glass...a little strange. In a panic I ran back to the room to see if my bag was there, a sinking feeling was quickly coming over me however. When I got to the room I couldn't find my bag!!!! Yes we had had our car broken into and my bag stolen. Inside was my camera, wallet and phone. So then came the numerous phone calls to the police, home to my parents so they could cancel my credit and key cards as well as my sim card in my phone, and Lars who happened to ring to talk about the tennis in the middle of it all. So it was a nice welcome to Stockholm!!! At least we managed to get a free one bedroom room for me, free of charge, as there was three of us stuffed into this one tiny room with two single beds a a mattress that looked like you'd fall straight through it.
That night we ventured into Stockholm to Gamla Stan (the old city). There we wandered around for a while and treated ourselves to a comfort ice-cream. (They even have red bull ice-cream here, which I just had to try and was actually pretty good). We got back to the hotel at about 12am and pretty much hit the hay. It's amazing how excitement such as a robbery wears you out so much.
So now I'm up to Monday. After dropping off the car to get the window replaced, we caught a taxi into the city to our next hotel, Långholmen, which used to be the old jail. We left our luggage there as it was too early to check in and headed for the city. We spent most of the day walking around visiting different parts of the city. We visited the Royal Apartments in King's castle, which like all castles, are amazing but way to big for one family!! and I can't remember what else we did, but when we came back to the hotel at about 6pm, we spent about an hour there just chilling out then headed to a local Spanish restaurant for dinner before coming back and just piling into bed and watching TV.
Tuesday was similar. We headed into the city and back to the castle to see the Crown Jewels and the changing of the guards, which at times, is very entertaining (particularly their running and their shuffling!). Then Martina and I headed off to see the Vasa museum while Åsa went to pick up the car. The Vasa museum was amazing. Its a museum which houses the only complete ship from the 16th century, which on its maiden voyage capsized and sank, due to the ballast not balancing the ship properly, back in the 16th century. It then wasn't until the 1950's when it was recovered and retrieved from the sea bed and it was 333year later that it resurfaced. A lot of repairs were then done to restore the ship and catalog everything that came from the ship. So it now stands in the museum so it is really quite an amazing site. We then met Åsa at Rosendal, which is a place where the use only organic and homegrown goods (you'd love it there mum!!) where we had some tea, coffee and cake. We then made our way to Skansen, which is where they film the show Allsång, which is a sing along where artists are invited to sing, and there's a huge crowd (kind of like Carols by Candlelight!) however we were pretty tired and Martina's ankle wasn't doing so well so we didn't go in. Instead we began making our way slowly back to the hotel. On the way though we stopped of at Mariatorget where you can get a pretty amazing view of Stockholm and in the park there were heaps of people playing bocce. They even had a viewing stand set up at on playing spot! So we had a drink there then headed to a restaurant for dinner before heading back to the hotel.
Wednesday we made our way once again into Gamla Stan for breakfast before heading to the Moderna Museum to have a look at some artwork from the 20th century. It was pretty cool. Then we grabbed some lunch before making the 6hr drive back home. So we actually came home a day before we were expected, but it was nice to sleep in my bed here and get a good nights sleep.
So now it's Thursday and we have the day here then tomorrow we head off for Norway to visit Martina's relatives. the trip to Stockholm was amazing and I have to say Stockholm definitely lives up to its reputation of being one of the most beautiful capitals in Europe. I think it's because it's built on lots of islands so there's so many rivers in the city. I don't think I've seen as much rain in my life though. We managed to get only 3 days of sun for the entire week, the rest of the time it was raining or drizzling but the trip was still fun, despite the loss of my stuff.
Oh and I'm going to boast a bit here so sorry everyone....GO THE CATS!!!!!! How awesome are they!!!! Nine wins in a row. And trust it to be while I'm over here. Lets just hope they have another win this weekend against the Pies!!! (sorry Liz and Fran!)
So that's about all from me. I'm going to try and update some photos now so will hopefully have a few installments of them on my blog very soon. I'll update this on my return from Norway and then I'll be in my last week :'-( It has gone so fast and I still have so much to do here in Gothenburg before I leave.
Hope you are all well. And I'm very disappointed that now one is leaving me comments. I feel so unloved!!! Just kidding. But please do leave me comments or email me because I want to keep up with everyone back home or wherever else you may be. Missing you all and will be seeing you soon.
Puss och Kram,
Alice
xoxoxoxoxo
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