Sweden- Photos and photos and more photos...

Finally I have a few moments to finish off our adventures in Sweden. Well, it was really only Stockholm and I am sure that Sweden has a multitude of other spectacularly beautiful places to visit, but with a a travelling family of 6,  one destination was all we could manage this time round. 

As for what I have been doing since our holiday.... school has started back, we have had several NZ visitors including  my mum, so it has been busy and fantastic to be connecting again with some special people in our lives.  Also, I am greeted by this on a regular basis:

Sadly, this is not a week's worth, but only 2-3 days... I am kept pretty busy most of the week.

Now back to Sweden, it did feel a bit like we had returned to a civilisation that was more familiar to us... many echoes of some of the luxuries that are standard in NZ such as table water served with meals (for free- gasp!), lots of ATMs and everywhere took bank cards making it easy to live a cash-free existence, and some of you may be worried that I am now overly obsessed with this subject, but there were PUBLIC TOILETS everywhere which meant heading to a park or outing was not an exercise fraught with anxiety about whether two little ones would be able to hold on... 

There are so many sites and wonderful things to do in Stockholm, even with young children.  I had a long long list of potential options and we did not get through half of them. Here are just a few highlights: 

1) Exploring Stockholm Old Town: we spent a day wandering around the beautiful cobbled streets, taking in the architecture and browsing through shops.  

2) Experiencing the Swedish landscape: As our apartment was close to a beach, we spent time exploring the forest areas and taking in the complete stillness by the waters edge. An absolute highlight was the wild deer that I spotted in the forest just a few metres from the path.  Unfortunately I was not able to take a photo but the kids were able to see it before it ran off. 

3) Swedish play grounds: Although Stockholm playgrounds did not have quite the same degree of shiny newness that the ones we have been to in Brussels and in Brisbane, they had their own unique characteristics. This one  for example, provided trikes and bikes for the kids to play. There was a coffee room where parents could make themselves coffee/tea and help themselves to cookies and snacks based on an honesty jar policy. There were also trampolines built into the ground and ping pong tables that you could borrow bats and balls from the coffee room. 

4) Sightseeing by bus and boat: There is nothing like exploring a city by double decker bus and I have been harrassed for weeks about going on a double bus by the two little nuggets.  I would say this was one of the least successful outings we had but I still saw enough of this beautiful city to get an idea.  The boat ferry was more interesting and Stockholm is a water city.  Spectacular weather made it all even more beautiful to look at. 

5) Janssen Open Air Museum: A lovely day trip with friends that was a nature's delight for our kids.  Squirrels and birds came up and fed from their hands.... we spent a good hour enjoying these interactions. 

Lemurs sunbathing!

 Be warned- there may be a few too many children feeding squirrel/bird photos!

Speed thrill junkies!

Family photos - and yes one would think from the clothes we are wearing that it would be too cold for icecreams. Apparently it is never too cold for icecream!

6) The very cool accessibility features on all the public stairs: It took a while to figure out these ramps but I gathered they are for prams and pushchairs to be able to go up and down stairs, and also suitcases.  My little ones however, much to their delight found these to be perfect for sliding and skating down, ad nauseum... ie. one time down was never enough. This lengthened any particular excursion by at least 45 minutes once you take into account the multiple stairs we had to navigate through. 

And finally, we headed off, rested and happy to have experienced this northern country.  We really should have known better when we reached the airport that Swedes, really do things well.  We spent much of our waiting time doing the usual feeding the troups, looking at souvenir shops, removing crying children who have been denied a 10th toy each etc etc. And then we get to the gate just before boarding and find a mini Pippi Longstockings playground! Let's just say we were last on the plane... 

And unlike the trip over, coming home was uneventful now that the kids had become accustomed to the lack of inflight entertainment.   D serenaded us with "Down, down, we're going down" on the descent (Thanks Coles Australia for that gem!)