Summer 2011: From Finish to Start

I thought I should tell you about some of our summer adventures - but I don't know how long my stamina will last for that :)  Thus, we're going to start at the end of the summer and work our way backwards...

August 18-21: Sweden!

Our landlord is Swedish, and about 6 months ago, she invited us to come to Stockholm to visit her little house on the archipelago while she spends 2 months of her summer there.  We booked our tickets a little late, owing to other plans and the cost of flights rising while we fought our typical Thuesen indecisiveness.  In the end, we didn't get to her house, but we met up with her on our first evening in Stockholm, and it was great!  We loved being there - it seems like in general, Brian and I prefer the more northern European cities that we visit.  Clean, organized, cooler temperatures, great food - oh wait, we find great food wherever we go.

First night, we met up with our landlord Catherine, and she took us on a little walking tour of the city.  She tells us all the best things to see & do, and we grab an amazing dinner with her.  No photos :(

Second day, we start our touring, lots of photos to come.

First day we took a 1 hour boat ferry to the island of Voxholm.  As we cruised the archipelago, I couldn't help but feel like I was taking an extended trip through Lake Minnetonka.  Now I understand why we have so many Scandinavians in Minnesota - the landscape is SO similar.

Lots of very cool boats everywhere.  Mark, I thought of you whenever I'd see these!

But when I saw this little guy, it made me miss Dory, our old sailboat.

Someday, we'll have another one, I hope :)

We decided to invest in the museum pass, which gave us 24 hours of free museum entry & public transportation.  We ended up doing 6 different museums, and it was surprisingly fun & enjoyable!  It may have helped that the weather was really crummy so we would have been indoors anyway.

First Museum:  Vassa.  A warship that sunk in the 1600s that they raised from the bay in front of stockholm in the 50's - the Vassa.  Amazingly preserved with a really really cool museum surrounding it.

Dinner the second night there - B had a fish soup, I stuck with Red Deer, Elk, and Reindeer :)  Plus, some local cheese and berries.  Rudolph, thanks.  You were tasty.

Third day, start out at Town hall - the ceiling is like an upside down boat, paying homage to how the Vikings used to meet under their boats to decide matters of importance.

Have you ever watched the Nobel Prize ceremony?  Good, neither have I.  But if you have, you'd recognize this hall as the place where the big banquet takes place every year honoring the prize winners.

Next: National Museum - all things Swedish.  Now, this is cool branding - SAS airlines color swatches & products from the 50s.

We went out for lunch to a local market, and ordered swedish crayfish, a typical meal at this time of year.  Instead, we got these 2 little guys.  Most expensive piece of seafood I've ever eaten.  Lesson learned.  He was tasty, but probably the first and last time for these little mini-lobsters.

Nordic Museum.  Cool building, but not all that interesting for exhibits.  Essentially a good escape from the pouring rain outside.

 I think he's museum-ed out.  But such a champ.

We happened to be in Stockholm for the Swedish Cultural weekend.  Free concerts & events all around the city.

 Cool buildings.  Love the colors.

 Stockholm is right on the water, there were SO many cool boats!

 Third and final night - Lovely sunset.

 And, we finally got our swedish crayfish dinner!  It was tasty :)

 A very romantic evening dinner our last night in Stockholm, with a great view of the water & cityscape.

Last day in Stockholm, we slept in, ate our free hotel breakfast, then walked downtown to enjoy some of the islands & the perfect weather.  We ended up getting coffee on the boat pictured on the right of this photo - AF Chapman, which is a hostel!   You can rent rooms for cheap & stay on the boat.  So cool.

 

 Perfect vacation.

 Our swedish coffee & blueberry pie with vanilla cream.  Oh, my, delicious. We sat on the deck of the boat for an hour, relaxing, swaying with the boat, and taking in the views of the city.   I couldn't think of a better way to end our trip there.

But Brian could think of a better way to end his part of the trip - He had seen these "French Hot Dogs" at kiosks all weekend long, and so we end up getting one as we're heading to the central station.  Essentially a piece of french bread, with a hole in the middle, with ketchup, mustard & a hot dog jammed in it.  He was really pretty excited about it.

We LOVED Stockholm.  We're hoping we can stay another summer and actually get to go up & spend some more time with our awesome landlord at her cute little swedish house next year.  We'll see!