Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Stockholm

Hello Everyone,

So we are in the middle of Easter vacation week, which started sometime on Thursday.

On Tuesday and Wednesday Robin was at tryouts for a local soccer club ("fotboll"). He is training on a trial basis until coaches make a decision. Will started Judo.

Will had Thursday off and so went over to a climbing gym. He tested and was certified to climb safely on any of their walls. Robin got out early that day too. Schools are a lot more causal here about where kids are. So Robin was home with two friends when we got home from the climbing gym. But then they were off to downtown Stockholm on the bus to a birthday party. Will then went to guitar lessons.

Friday we took the bus to Vaxholm to explore. Vaxholm is a seaside town which reminded Will of Maine, rocky shores and pine trees. It was cold and windy. We hunted around for chocolate for Easter (hiding it from the boys), and then went into a cafe for hot chocolate, coffee and desert.

We returned to Stockholm by boat, which went through the "Stockholm Archipelago", thousands of little islands which remind me of the "Thousand islands " (New York - Ontario), with all there little cottages. The boat we were on stopped at a dozen of these.

Saturday Kristina and I explored Södermalm, which is part of Stockholm, south of the city center. It is full of shoppes, galleries, etc. .

Sunday I went for a hike through the Ekoparken, or "Kungliga Djurgårdens natur". This is a huge park, 8 km x 3 km at the edge of the inner city. It includes the lake I run around, starting 100m from this apartment. It was the royal hunting grounds in about 1750. I like when I am walking though the woods, and come out on a cafe in the middle of a pasture.

Monday, Robin and I went to the climbing gym (we also passed the test). Tuesday Will meet some friends from school and went to the National Museum and the Ikea, Robin and I went to the History Museum to see Viking ruin stones and hoards of medieval gold.

Today we are off to Uppsala.

Tim