Sunday 21 August

What do you mean no more holiday?

Just a quick update to let you know the rest of our holiday has continued to be relaxing. We haven't really done anything of note, although I did mange to buy a new pair of trainers on an expedition into Carnaby Street on Friday. We have continued to eat well, turkey, fish, lamb and gourmet sausages making up the menu. I even recreated a little of our Devon holiday for Nick by backing a batch of scones, half cheese, half plain, which he ate with raspberry jam and clotted cream. We have watched a couple of movies, done some of a jigsaw and read heaps. We will both be returning to work well rested, calm and feeling happy, which is probably just as well given how long we have to wait for our next major holiday...

Posted by Hayley

Wednesday 17 August

Apparently we weren't nominated this year...

We had booked a 8.50 pm flight out of Stockholm so that we could have a full last day in Sweden's capital. So following another extended, extensive and enjoyable breakfast we headed back to Norrmalm for some more window shopping. Well, actually I managed to do a little more than window shop. I purchased a pair of trousers and managed to make a start on our Christmas shopping. Yes, we will have to be organised this year especially since we have to figure out how to get it all into two suitcases! The shops around this area are lovely and we could have spent quite a lot of money here but restrained ourselves. The place that tempted us the most was a bookbinders. They stock notebooks of various sizes, photo albums, boxes, cards, envelopes and much more. Many of the notebooks and albums are beautifully bound in gorgeous cloth and it was this that nearly came home with us to London. We tried really hard to justify a photo album but couldn't quite convince ourselves in the end. Following this expedition we quickly headed around to Gamla Stan for one last try to find Nick a moose. this time we were successfully and Nick is now the proud owner of a moose/elk cup, we have added 4 moose/elk coasters to our collection and we bought a moose/elk christmas decoration - what fun.

We decided we would like to visit another Stockholm landmark this afternoon so headed to the island of Kungsholm to see the Stadshuset, Stockholm's city hall and home to the Nobel Prize banquet and prize-giving ceremony. It is one of the most distinctive buildings in Stockholm and we had seen sweeping views of it on our previous boot cruises. The building, completed in 1923, consists of 8 million bricks and it was designed to celebrate Stockholm and Sweden. The tower is topped with three golden crowns, the symbol for Sweden. It also contains both inside and outside an extensive collection of Swedish artwork. There are three parts that are open to the public, the tower, the gardens and a guided tour of the interior. We opted to climb the tower for views out over Stockholm.

Having climbed a number of towers in our various travels we were most impressed with this one. You catch a lift to approximately half way up and then the climb begins in an atrium that is filled with miniatures, wax models and sculptures that are used around the building. The largest is a huge man who towers over the room. The climb itself is not too bad. Series of steps are interspersed with sloping alley ways which take much of the work out of climbing. The view at the top is worth the climb. We were very lucky with the weather a beautifully fine day meant we could see for miles in all directions. It was fun to mentally put together the city into one whole and to see the various islands connected by bridges. We did nearly jump out of our skins when the bells began to toll though. We sat for good while looking out at the beauty of the city before deciding to descend to wander a little more around Kungsholm.

We managed to find the main street, no problem, I think there are only about 10 roads on the whole island actually as it is pretty narrow. We wandered the length, well up until the hill we would have had to climb to get to the beach. I presume the beach is not at the top but rather down the other side but we decided not to check this time, maybe next time. By now we had worked up quite a hunger and we decided to head back to the touristy, english menued and Hayley-friendly restaurants in Gamla Stan to catch a late afternoon/early evening dinner. I started as I began with Salmon and Nick went with Pasta, not the most Swedish of dishes but filling. He couldn't resist having a final dessert of blueberry pie with vanilla icecream and ligonberries. So he had a final taste of Sweden too. It was time to head back to the hotel and say good-bye to Sweden.

Our flight was uneventful, if still a little short of catering, and actually managed to deposit us at Heathrow well ahead of schedule. We were safely home by midnight and well and truly ready for bed.

Posted by Hayley

Tuesday 16 August

Here Moosey Moosey...

We awoke this morning to grey skies and wind which was a little disappointing as we had planned an early start and a boat trip out to one of the islands in the archipelago. Looking out the window we remembered how cold it had been on the boat in the wind last year and decided that it might be a little much for us. So, following another excellent breakfast we headed out with our umbrella to peruse the shops in Gamla Stan. We also wanted to visit our little statue friend again to show him we had made it back having rubbed his head. Nick has been jealous of the moose cup I bought last year and has wanted one of his own so this was our prime mission. (We have now learned it is an elk cup as elk rather than moose are native to Europe. However, apparently there isn't much zoological difference moose are bigger and the coats of the two animals are slightly different colours but that is about it.) We also wanted to augment our coaster supply.

We started with a trip to Âhléns which is a department store with the central city's largest supermarket in its basement. Supermarkets are alsways fascinating in other countries and this was no exception. The fish counter alone was amazing, so many different types of fish and seafood. We just wished we had a kitchen to cook it in. The cheese selection and the delicatessen range was also outstanding. You could also get more prosaic items such as toilet paper and household cleaner but these are not nearly so interesting!

We then continued on our way to Gamla Stan. The streets are an eclectic mix of shops, most of them are souvenir shops or restaurants but there are some surprises thrown in including a science fiction bookshop, a second hand toy dealer and a chocolatier. The souvenir shops range in style from the very junky through to beautiful handcrafts. We were fascinated in one crystal shop by the demonstration of vase making that was taking place. The stop had beautiful crystal bowls that would have tempted us if only we had somewhere to display it. We were however a little confused by the different prices quoted for various products, one in American dollars and one in Swedish krona. The dollars price was consistently half the converted krona price, we are not sure what exchange rate they were using but it seemed very generous.

Having walked the length of Vasterlang Gatan and Osterlang Gatan, and popped in on the aforementioned statue, we were still mooseless. So we decided to cut our losses and head for lunch. Having seen the display at Âhléns we decided to opt for a picnic in our room with some of the delicacies from there. So having mosed back there we purchased Rainbow Trout row, cold meats, avacado and bread and made our way back to the room. It was delicious and I thoroughly enjoyed the row even if I couldn't tempt Nick to try even a little bit. I have to admit we had a very lazy afternoon, but we decided the weather was awful and we were on holiday. So we lay back on the VERY comfy bed and watched a couple of DVDs we had brought with us followed by educational TV like My Super Sweet Sixteen, a show that shows how teenage girls in LA celebrate their special birthday, very weird.

We did make the effort to head out for dinner, we even spruced up for it. We decided we would go to an area of town we hadn't previously visited, Norrmalm. The guidebook description says this is the commercial heart of the city, full of shops, offices, restaurants, bars and cinemas. Just the ticket we decided. We ended up at a restaurant called Prinsen which was quite traditional and had a classy clientele (well possibly excluding us). Nick had divine tournedos of beef with potato cake, port wine and mushroom stock and roasted tomato compote. I had steak, boiled potatoes and spinach which wasn't on the menu and confused the waiter a little but was delicious none-the-less. Nick then had a dessert of wild raspberry icecream while I watched and drooled. We walked back to the hotel through the streets and thought that the area could do with a return visit.

Posted by Hayley

Monday 15 August

Can I keep it?

We woke and breakfasted a little earlier this morning before boarding the Metro for Karlaplan. The Stockholm Metro is aparently trying to compete with the Tube for price gouging. The two station trip costing us around £1.80 each. The beautiful weather when we woke persuaded us we should head to Skansen, the oldest open air museum in the world which is located on the island of Djurgården (said Yoor-gorden). Although we were interested to see the museum side of the park what we were most interested in was the zoo that houses mainly Nordic animals. Skansen was founded in 1891 by Artur Hazelius to show visitors how people had lived and worked in different parts of Sweden in times gone by. It now has about 150 historical buildings from all over Sweden. Most of them are from the 18th and 19th centuries and many show how people interacted with the land, so there are a variety of farming buildings and set piece gardens. Other aspects of life such as schooling, shopping and religious life are represented as well.

The park grounds are extensive and we were pleased we had paid the extra 5 SEK for a map. We headed towards the animal enclosures at a leisurely pace stopping to look at various buildings, rune stones and costumed 'locals'. Somehow we ended up at the children's zoo before we hit the larger animals. The animals here were less Nordic and more cute and cuddly. Kittens, guinea pigs, rabbits, tortoises, hedgehogs, ducklings and so on. But, our favourites were the goats. They were the most docile goats I think I have ever met. It was the one enclosure where you could climb in and play with the animals, they did have escape routes if the attention got too much. One goat in particular took rather a liking to me. It pawed me when I paused momentarily from patting it to talk to Nick and then attempted to eat my engagement ring. When it discovered I wasn't too keen on this it began gently licking my arm. Nick said he had to remove me before we bonded for life and I kidnapped it to take home with me.

Following that narrow escape we headed on to the zoo proper. We began at the Wolverines. I didn't really know what a Wolverine was and they were certainly nothing like what I expected from having seen the X-Men movies. These animals are extremely endangered in Sweden with one estimate putting the number surviving in the wild at only around 100. They are part of the same family as weasels though are much larger and move more like a bear. The one we saw seemed a little skittish but that could have just been all the people staring at him. At least he did show himself temporalily which is more than I can say for his neighbours, the wolves. We decided that midday was probably not the best time to see wolves out roaming around and made do with the illustrations instead.

We were luckier in the next section of enclosures. The Lynx, another endangered species in Sweden. There were three kittens and two adults clearly enjoying the sun. One of the adults was lying with her fluffy tummy exposed to the light while her babies rested around her. Next door were some more active bear cubs. Although their mother too was enjoying sunning herself. The cubs on the other hand were taking great delight in climbing trees, digging up roots, playing with each other and chasing the other wildlife in the enclosures including a fox and some birds. One bird repeatedly took its life in its hands as it foraged closer and closer to where one of the cubs was hiding before the cub would charge out and chase the bird away. In a separate enclosure were three almost fully grown male cubs. Apparently their mother had been killed by a train in Finland and the park had taken them in when they were found nearby. The boys too were enjoying the sun, play fighting and splashing in a large pool. it wasn't hard to imagine them fishing for salmon.

The park is also home to bison, wild pigs, reindeer, elk, seals, otters and a variety of birdlife including a number of scarily big clawed owls. To recover from the exertion of touring the park Nick decided he needed a blueberry icecream and I decided we needed to purchase post-cards. Having dutifully completed these two tasks we decided we should find a spot to picnic further around on Djurgården, since most of the island is officially a city-park. We found a lovely spot overlooking the water. The Viking sightseeing cruise going past completed the picture. Having indulged in a leisurely late-afternoon snack we headed back to the hotel for a rest. We decided to try our luck again at the Japanese restaurant across the road and this time were rewarded with an open door. The sushi was excellent and Nick had delicious looking Salmon Teriyaki. We figure it was warm up for our trip to Japan early next year. We crossed the road and headed back to our room for more bad American TV.

Posted by Hayley

Sunday 14 August

Moderna Museet

We saw no point in rushing around this morning so following a leisurely sleep in we headed down to breakfast at about 10.00. The hotel sensibly has breakfast lasting until 11.30 in the weekends meaning you don't have to get out of bed at the crack of dawn to sample the wonders of the smorgasbord. We stayed in the same hotel as last time we were in Stockholm and the breakfast was still suitably impressive. It really is possible to fill up for the day and only need a light snack instead of lunch. (Well, I'm not so good at that but then I am a little more restricted than some people who can pork out on cereals, breads, pastries, bacon, eggs, cheeses etcetera).

We decided to have a cultural day and headed out to Moderna Musseet on Skeppsholmen, one of the islands that makes up Stockholm. It was a beautiful day so we decided to walk around the waterfront. It wasn't really far from our hotel only about 20 minutes and the scenery is so interesting that you barely notice the walk.

The museum itself begins before you even get to its doors with a number of huge outdoor sculptures, so at least we knew we were heading in the right direction. The Museum originally opened in 1958 but its real heyday was the 1960's and early 1970's and it has a very impressive collection dating from this time. It has recently been revamped and updated and was reopened in February last year as a free museum. The spaces are well-designed and most allow plenty of natural light in which is a little unusual in an art gallery. As you would expect, Swedish artists are well represented but there are works from all the big names as well, Picasso, Braque, Pollock and Warhol. Lesser known international artists are also in abundance.

Three works particularly captured our imaginations. The first Monogram or The Goat, is according to the Musuems publicity the most famous work in the Museum's collection. I think the story behind it is more interesting than the art work itself although I'm no art critic. Apparently the stuffed goat of the alternative title was originally destined for a display of wool types in the early 1950's. However it got separated from the rest of the display and ended up in a second hand furniture shop. The artist, Robert Rauschenburg, spotted it there and acquired it for the princely sum of $35, $15 down and the rest when he picked it up. He had to spend more on cleaning products to de-matt and whiten the goat's wool!

Secondly, A-Z by Swedish artist, Lars Arrhenius. On a background drawn from the A-Z London street guide (familiar to all those who have traversed London's by-ways) a series of illustrations showing 18 characters in a number of scenarios traverse and intersect across the map horizontally, vertically and diagonally in a formation reminiscent of the Underground network. I think this tickled our fancy as it was so familiar, we could spot roads we know very well, and we do all carry out our lives on the tube. The things you learn sitting quietly on a commuter train could easily be those things shown in the illustrations. Thirdly, was High Voltage Discharge Travelling by Hans Haacke. Again I think it was the ordinariness of this. Just a long tube reminiscent of a flourescent light but with a hint of danger, I don't think anyone was keen to touch it to see if the electricity would ground through us.

There were of course lots of other works we enjoyed including a lego sculpture, a distorted ping pong table, a woman talking about her relationship with shoes (including one slightly disturbing story in which her mother insisted she wear boots four sizes too large and her teacher had to ring home and ask her mother to please put her in boots that were the right size as she couldn't walk), a human size poodle costume and many more. We had a very fun few hours, the only down side was we discovered the luggage lockers as we were leaving rather than at the beginning when we COULD have done with leaving the backpack behind!

We went and sat and ate a snack looking out over the royal palace and the boats making good use of the harbour before heading back to our room for an afternoon siesta. We headed to Gamla Stan for dinner. A bit touristy we know but the food at the restaurants there is excellent. Nick again sampled reindeer and I had salmon. The reindeer was delicious, melt in your mouth, and came served with potato gratin and ligonberry and red wine jus. My salmon was beautifully fresh and I was lucky enough to get asparagus and boiled potatoes with it. Nick finished off his meal with a dessert of apple and chocolate muffin with a cream anglaise. We were both quite grateful for the short walk home as it meant we could burn off some of those calories.

Posted by Hayley

Saturday 13 August

TV pretty, sitcom bad

You have already had our Saturday summary from Nick. But I thought I would add my two cents worth (as if I could resist). He missed out a couple of important details:

1. We fared extremely well from the catering strike. We were given £5 vouchers each to spend at the food outlet of our choice AND we received deli bags containing a bottle of water, crisps, a mars bar, cake and dried fruit. We think our Pret snack combined with the pack make this the best catering we have ever received on a plane!

2. Stockholm is still just as beautiful as last time. We felt relaxed the moment we cleared the rather long customs queue.

3. I love TV. I remember why we don't have one every time we stay in a room with one. I will watch anything, including REALLY, REALLY bad American sitcoms that don't make any sense!

Posted by Hayley

We made it

Only one flight to Stockholm was cancelled today and it wasn't ours. So we are now on holiday in peaceful Stockholm. The plane was a little bit late departing but not because of the industrial action - someone had checked in but not boarded the plane so they had to unload their luggage before we could leave.

We got into downtown Stockholm around seven in the evening, checked in, and then went in search of food. We had thought we might grab a delicious Japanesse meal from a restaurant just across the road from our hotel, unfortunately though they weren't open at the weekend (but as this was the only 'cancellation' of the day we weren't too bothered) so we headed back to our room and ordered room service.

I was unbelievably tired and subsequently fell asleep watching CSI:NY

Posted by Nick

Friday 12 August

11:13pm Breaking news... our holiday

Well the unofficial strike appears to be over, but our flight tomorrow is by no means confirmed. All we can do now is get a good nights sleep and see what the news is in the morning. At this point the BA web site is listing our flight as running but the morning will shed light on that. BA spokepoeple have stated that they will be attempting to run 50% of their short haul flights. Keep your fingers crossed that ours is in that 50%

On the bright side we have travel insurance and hey, whatever happens, we're not going to work on Monday.

Will we or won't we...

Just when we were getting all excited about our trip to Stockholm it appears that might be in jeopardy. Unplanned industrial action has grounded all BA flights in and out of Heathrow. Currently I have been unable to get hold of BA for comment. Strangely their lines are busy. Fortunately we have travel insurance that will help us recoup costs, but I'm really hoping we get the holiday. I'll keep you posted.

Posted by Nick

Saturday 6 August

Mock me, for I am stupid

Ow. My head hurts. Well actually my tummy hurts, but pain is the general theme in my body today. Last night I was not very smart. I partook of the evils of alcohol. And they are evil evils indeed. The main culprit (apart from myself) was a Pisco Sour whipped up by colleagues in the Chelsea office as part of a leaving party (not mine). Things started to head downhill after we left the office and went to a bar. Evil. So please email me to make fun of my folly for today I am a quiet boy engaging only in quiet contemplation.

Yesterday was my Mum's Birthday. Happy Birthday Mum. I hope you got lots of nice shiny presents and that you ignore the paragraph above : )

Posted by fragile Nick