Tricks and Sweets

We spent our first Halloween in London trick-or-treating for sweets with friends of ours and their children. Our illustrious Maya Poppins we discovered, had never partaken in the traditional festivities, so she shared in the merriment as well. G led the trick-or-treating way, S found the whole affair rather sare-ey after the first goblin sighting, and B was happy just being along for the ride, quite literally.

Happy Halloween!

Another Day In Old Town

I didn't have the luxury of time yesterday to post photos from our last day in Sweden as we spent the better part of the day at the airport. We are now back home and my children are sleeping in because they are probably suffering from pure exhaustion from having such a late night flight with long waits and delays, none of them due to airport facilities or procedures, just user error. Lesson learned, right?

We spent our last day in Gamla Stan. We found that area full of history and charm and thoroughly enjoyed exploring the cobbled streets and narrow alleyways filled with old buildings, enticing shops and tiny, wonderful restaurants serving traditional Swedish food.

Here we are crossing one of the many bridges into Old Town. And a bit of trivia, did you know that the Stockholm archipelago is made up of over 25,000 islands. It is a beautiful city!

Our first stop was back to the Storkyrkan cathedral. This was really a highlight of our trip. A breathtaking interior:

Our next visit was to the Royal Palace to tour the Royal Apartments and Palace Museum:

And wandering the streets again in search of homeland eats. G was especially proud of the boys during this stroll as they went from proudly waving their Swedish flags to using them for sword fights:

G's is already planning our return trip. I kid you not!

Lessons Learned This Weekend

1. Don't book a cozy boutique hotel for a bustling family of 5, even if it is "wonderfully located in the heart of the old town" of the beautiful city of Stockholm. It may just turn out to be the dusty old attic of someone's rundown and unkept home that even their distance relatives would not stay in, mainly because the stairs may be so steep that they are impossible to get up or down, or it may be because the railings that lead to the floor below are so rickety that one could easily fall to one's death with even the slightest push or shove on that railing, or it may be because the worn peices of wood covered with old blankets that they call furniture would never be able to hold the weight of even a small toddler, much less any adult.

2. Don't travel to a different time zone when daylight saving time changes. Wait until you hear this one, Joe and Julie! It's almost as good as Eastern time in Destin.

3. Always double check your itinerary, especially when you are calculating international time.

4. Don't arrive at an airport 4 hours before a flight because you miscalculate international time, especially with 3 young children that have not napped in 4 days because you have drug them through every inch of a foreign city so that no site is unseen.

5. Don't pass the 4 hour airport wait in an area with an over abundance of glass doors that the overly tired children may run into repeatedly. You may risk a trip to a foreign ER.


Good times, here. Good times.

A Day Out at Skansen

Skansen is an open-air museum that debuted in 1891 to show an increasingly industrialized society how people once lived. There are over 150 period homes and farm buildings assembled here that were preserved and transported from all over Sweden, portraying the life of both peasants and landed gentry. Native flowers and trees are featured throughout, as well as natural habitats and a zoo of the Scandinavian animals. It was an amazing adventure for us all and a great family day out!

And need I say it again, G loved seeing his family history first hand and sharing it with all of us. If little G and I hear, "Look, I think she may be my cousin!" one more time I'm not sure what we may do to our Swedish family head! You think I'm kidding, but oh, no, no kidding here! We sat at dinner last night and G had us look at the people sitting at each and every table to identify similar facial features and general mannerisms that resembled his. No joke! To know him is to love him!

G is hoping to stay in his homeland permanently, but this gaggle of geese has other plans. I haven't laughed quite this hard in a long time!

Djurgarden

Today we explored Djurgarden, an island in the middle of Stockholm that was formerly a royal hunting ground. Today it is home to many museums and attractions offering a wonderful mix of nature, culture and entertainment.

Little G has been reading Pippi Longstocking in preparation for this holiday, so his first point of interest was Junibacken, a children's cultural centre and tribute to Astrid Lindgren.

Our next stop was the Vasamuseet, a museum highlighting the royal warship Vasa which was salvaged after 300 years in the depths of the Stockholm harbour.

Our last stop of the day was the Aquaria.

A fun day for everyone!

G continues to spot ancestors at each place we visit. He's trying to convince the rest of us that this should be the one and only place we ever visit on our holidays so that we can know and love our Swedish homeland. He definitely feels right at home and I'm afraid he's not going to leave!

Hej!

Greetings from Sweden, the Nelson family homeland. We are here discovering the roots of the Nelson family and enjoying this beautiful country.

In true Nelson style, we spent the first part of our holiday disputing the quality of our hotel room and moved locations in the end. Here is a snapshot of our family patriarch en route to the new digs:

Once we got our accommodations straightened out, we set off to explore the city of Stockholm. Here we are in Gamla Stan:

Here is the Royal Palace where we caught the changing of the guard:

Here is a lovely view of the city at sunset:

The boys at the Stockholm bloodbath:

This is Stockholm's 700 year old cathedral, Storkyrkan, from which Swedish reformer Olaus Petri spread his Lutheran message to the kingdom in the 16th century:

And since we are enjoying our ties with England, we must include the statue of St George and the dragon:

We are finding Sweden to be quite lovely and an interesting mix of culture and nature. G is spotting relatives with each turn of our journey and is thoroughly enjoying experiencing his homeland.