Upstairs, Downstairs

It proved a bit tricky to find somewhere for lunch on Saturday. Everywhere was really busy and it was near to impossible to find somewhere that didn't have a too long queue to get a table and that also pleased all five - especially with the two little people in our company not having a lot of flexibility... ha ha!

In the end we ended up in Kungshallen, a central food court by Hötorget that the locals avoid, but hey, when you are hungry you go for what there is!

Crossing Hötorget:


We still couldn't quite agree on what to eat, so we ended up splitting up for lunch in the end; the boys went upstairs for some ribs at Texas & Co., and the girls chose 'husmanskost' - traditional Swedish food, at Pyttirian.
Lucas got a grown-up sized order of ribs, and he polished it off in no time! Apparently he was like a rib eating machine! Not sure how he got rib sauce between the eyes though..?





Us girls downstairs ate pyttipanna, and it was pretty good too. I'm a huge pyttipanna fan!

The Change of the Guard

After a quick coffee break along Drottninggatan Saturday lunchtime, we made our way back to the Royal Palace, one of the biggest Royal Palaces in the world.
One of the more popular tourist attractions in Stockholm is the Change of the Guard at the Royal Palace. This ceremony is performed daily and even though I've been in Stockholm many times, I've never seen it before. I was very excited about this and I was hoping that this would be something the kids would enjoy too.

During the summer season, the mounted guards march all the way from the Army Barraks through town and up to the Royal Palace. We didn't see the parade as we had gone straight to the Outer Courtyard to get some good viewing spots for the ceremony itself - and we weren't the only ones, so many people!



























The kids did really well considering the whole ceremony took about 40 minutes. Linnea lost a bit of interest after a while, but Lucas seemed to like it.
I really enjoyed it, it was very interesting. There was an MC who told us all about the Royal Guard and their duties, both in swedish and english; and who continuously informed us visitors about what was happening in the Courtyard throughout the ceremony.

The Guard was accompanied by The Mounted Band of The Royal Guard, and they even got a little spot of their own in the limelight, performing a mini concert - in formation! As an old marching band player myself, I really liked this part of course! Impressive control of the horses, while the were playing at the same time. The guy who played the drums was controlling his horse with his feet!














I'm so glad we went to see this! It was really nice.
You can visit several parts of the Royal Palace as well but we gave that a miss this time. That might have to wait until the kids are even older.

Terrific tourists

Our family hasn't really seen Stockholm before.
Nathan and I did visit before kids, and Lucas was with me once when he was a baby - but none of those times did we do any of the sights, museums or other tourist attractions.
I usually go up to Stockholm each time I'm home, to see my best friend Erika. But then I always go by myself so that we can powershop and hang out, just as friends, without little people who needs the toilet or are hungry at odd times... :)

But, this summer it was time for an introduction to our beautiful capital! We've purposely been waiting so that the kids were slightly older, for them to be able to enjoy and remember the visit.
Saturday we started with a walk through Gamla Stan and along Drottninggatan. We were really lucky with the weather, it had rained a bit in the morning but by the time we hit town it had dried up and then it just got warmer and sunnier from then on!

I really do like Gamla Stan. I know it's probably the most "touristy" place in Stockholm, but I still appreciate it's atmosphere. I like the cobblestone streets, the beautiful old buildings and all the quirky little shops you can find there, in between the souvenir shops. And hey, for an expat Swede, even the souvenir shops are fun!




















After a quick walk up and down the main pedestrian street in City, we headed back to the Royal Palace for the first event of the day - the changing of the guards. (To be continued!)

Sum up

We came back to Mormor and Morfars house this morning after a few days in the capital. Mormor asked Lucas what we had been up to, and the answer was:
- " We've been going on lots of trains and eaten ribs."

...?

Well, yes we have, but we have also done a lot of other exciting things! Funny though what apparently sticks in an 8-year old's mind!

Berries

One of my favourite things with summer, is all the lovely berries.
In Brunei we can sometimes get imported, tasteless strawberries and blueberries from Australia, but that's about it. Not even here in Europe can you get nice berries all year around, so berries of all kinds are on my daily menu when I'm home in the summer.

Sam and Kicki had an abundance of raspberry bushes in their garden, and also green and blue gooseberries and red currants. I was welcome to eat all that I could! Mmmmmmmm!

Simple pleasures

We only stayed at Sam's for a couple of days, and nobody actually felt like doing anything much. We were all pretty happy just hanging about at the house.
We ended up taking the kids out of the house for a little bit though, down to the playground by the harbour. It was a super nice day, and they had lots of fun!





















Then we went down to the harbour to have ice cream. I tried gingerbread ice cream, it was really yummy!








On the way home I took the big kids on the 'Tuffis Tåget'. It's a little train that drives between the harbour area and central Nyköping and it was a fun way of finishing a sunny afternoon.

Nyköping

A must for us when Nathan is with us in Sweden, is to go to Nyköping and visit Nathan's best mate Sam and his family. We were there both three and two years ago and have been looking forward to returning ever since.
They have a fabulous house in the outskirts of Nyköping, with a huge garden and a heated swimming pool. A perfect place for a chill-out!
















We had a nice lamb dinner outside, the kids were playing in the garden; on the swings, in the pool, climbing the trees and playing chase. Fantastic way to spend an afternoon!
Later Sam took out a bag of marshmallows for the kids to BBQ, which was a pretty new experience for our two.