Home visits

A sunny evening stroll near my apartment

Since my last post I've had two long weekends, one with a visitor from home (Libby) and one with a trip back to Coleshill for catch ups and participation in the village show. In between these it's been very quiet here in Stockholm as everyone has disappeared for the majority of the summer. We're down to just a handful of us in the department, those that are around though are more than happy to
join for a lunchtime swim down at the lake to cool off during this crazy heatwave.



Looking across to Gamla Stan

Libby's visit gave me a great opportunity to explore more of what Stockholm has to offer, even if it was a little cooler than the consistent 25-30C we've been experiencing lately. Libby arrived in the small hours of Friday morning, after a delayed flight from the UK. Having got to bed at gone 3am we had a slow start to Friday then made our way to Skansen (the world's oldest open air museum), stopping off to take a view of the city on the way.
Skansen is located on the island of Djurgården so we took a 5 minute boat trip over there.



Skansen


Skansen is a step back in time to Sweden's past, there are renovated old buildings showing a range of industries and how schools, farms and homes were in various decades. Our favourite section included Scandinavian animals, from pigs to otters to brown bears and elk.
After exploring Skansen for a few hours we were pretty tired so head back to the city to find a fika spot; went to a little café on Södermalm and tried out the chokladbollar (Swedish chocolate balls). Walked back through the historic (and tourist packed) streets of Gamla Stan then caught the T-bana back to mine for dinner.




On Saturday we went to the Royal Palace just outside Stockholm, Drottningholms Slott. We took a walk around the extensive grounds before heading into the palace itself. Once inside we were surprised to find the interior was not up to the likes of the royal properties we are used to around Europe, everything felt like it had undergone renovation on a tight budget. The pillars and walls had been painted to look like they were marble and the portraits looked like replicas, very interesting to see.



Serious gym session
Once we'd had our fill of Drottningholm we headed back into Stockholm centre for fika at Café Pascal where we sampled the rather delicious cinnamon and cardamom buns along with our coffees. Spent the evening at my place; after dinner and a classic Pimm's (Libby had kindly brought over a supply) we went for an evening stroll down by the water and acted like the sensible adults we are in the outdoor gym!







The boat trip back from Grinda

On Sunday, we took a boat out into the archipelago to the idyllic little island of Grinda. It was perfect weather for sitting out by the water's edge, soaking up the sun and doing a lap on the islands little paths, trying out the first of this season's wild blueberries on the way. On the 2 hour boat ride back we managed to get a spot outside so we could see the abundant little green and rocky gems of the Stockholm archipelago dotted along the route back to the city. Monday was Libby's last day in Sweden and I had to pop into work for a morning meeting so she went to the Vasa museum and then we met for lunch in the centre. Finally got to try the meatballs from 'Mom's Kitchen' which I've been meaning to do since I visited last December with Mum and Dad; pleased to say they were great value for a decent taste of Sweden's famous dish. From here I bid farewell to Libby as she took the Flygbussarna to the airport. I'm so glad Libby was able to come over and see Stockholm, so we could get up to the usual Watts madness, bring on her next visit in winter 2020!

Sam and Tilly at Jung's
Award winning cookies! 

After just a few days back at work I was off again, this time to make a trip across to the UK for a wonderful long weekend. Packed in a meet up with some of the Grocer lot at Tom Yum, a trip to London with the family for a picnic and 'Matilda' the musical (thoroughly recommend), a catch up with Grandma Wendy,  brunch with Sam and the lovely baby Tilly and baking of a cake, a loaf of bread, a batch of cookies, a batch of brownies and a jar of lime curd for the Coleshill village show. Such a great, full on, visit, I can't wait to return in August for a few more catch ups and perhaps a spot more baking :p


For now I am enjoying making the most of the abundant sun here in Stockholm, with frequent trips to the lakes, coffees in parks with new friends and exceptional ice creams (turns out beetroot, chocolate and ginger flavour is rather scrumptious!), even though most of the Swede's have disappeared, summer in Stockholm is mighty fine.



Heading to Rosendals Tradgarden for a MeetUp 
StikkiNikki ice cream - heaven

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