Barcelona 2013

Måns and I celebrated our 13th anniversary in Barcelona, Spain!  We were so lucky with the weather.  We came from -3 c and arrived to 20 c !  (70F)  Måns had a conference for a day and a half, so I spent that time shopping, eating wonderful food and checking out the Picasso museum.

When I got Måns back again, we did a lot of walking (at least 4 – 5 hours a day) and checked out some of the sights.  La Sagrada Família was very impressive from the outside, but that’s about all we saw.  The line had to be at least 2 hours or more to get in.  Sorry Gaudi, maybe next time.

We walked through the parks and the beaches.  We had ice cream by the harbor and every meal we ate was outdoors.  After spending all winter in Sweden, this was just amazing.  The food was so good there.  Those Spanish know what they’re doing with tapas.  Such a great idea.

Here are a few pictures from our trip.  Look at them and forget it was -14 this morning in Stockholm.

Welcome Clara!

We got a new member of the family this month!  Malin and Christian had a healthy, beautiful little girl named Clara.  We are now Uncle Måns and Aunt Heather!  The boys were so excited to meet their new cousin.  Here are a few pictures.

Florence, Italy 2012

We just finished a wonderful 5 day trip to Florence.  The weather was a little rainy, but as we spent most of our time in museums, it didn’t matter much.  We were in Florence because Måns had a conference the first few days.  We rented an apartment in the city, so while Måns was at work, the boys and I checked out some museums.

We went to the Galileo science museum.  Best part – it contains 2 fingers, one thumb and a tooth belonging to Galileo.  What kid wouldn’t love that?!
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Galleria Accademia, where the real statue of Michelangelo’s “David” is kept.  Major security!  We had to go through x-ray machines and metal detectors just to get to the window to pay.  Then I was asked my nationality and had to provide an I.D.  Very strange.  The other museums were not like this.  Anyway, David was very impressive.
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We all went to the Duomo to look around inside.  It’s the biggest church in Florence.  We also all went to the German Christmas market on Saturday, where they sold roast pig and chianti.  Nice German-Italian mix there.
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The food was excellent as usual.
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On the way home, our connecting flight in Zurich was cancelled so SwissAir put us in the Hilton with free dinner and breakfast before our noon flight the next day.  Not bad being stuck in a Hilton in Zurich!  The kids even had their own room (with connecting doors to ours).  They did a great job taking care of themselves and watching German cartoons.

Gothenburg 2012

We are just back from our weekend train trip to Gothenburg (Göteborg), Sweden for Måns and Leo to participate in the National Pinball championship.  The weather in Gothenburg was rainy and gray – what a surprise!  So different from last year when it was….. rainy and gray.

We started off Friday night by going to the Christmas market opening in Liseberg Amusement Park.  The kids got to ride the rides, see the beautiful lights, ice skating show and meet Santa Claus.

Saturday was competition day.  Leo did very well beating out two people out of 8 games.  I won’t mention who one of those people were, but his name rhymes with “Håns.

Måns also did very well moving on to the second round on Sunday.  He finished in the top half.

While Måns competed in the second half on Sunday, the boys and I went to the Sea History/Maritime museum.  The museum had many wonderful exhibits and the boys walked around taking pictures and playing on the interactive parts.

We took the train home late Sunday night (4 hours with the X2000 train).  Now we are completely exhausted and have 10 days to recover before the next trip!

Leo’s 8th birthday!

This weekend we celebrated Leo’s 8th birthday!  On Saturday night, he had a disco party with his friends from school.  Then on Sunday morning, he woke up to a special birthday breakfast, presents and then another party with close friends and family!  Now we are all stuffed with cake and Leo said he’s had the best birthday ever!

A week in Provence, France

We have just returned from a wonderful week in Provence to celebrate Katarina’s 60th birthday.  There were 8 of us on the trip and Katarina rented a beautiful house for us all to stay by the small hillside village of Claviers.

We had a wonderful time visiting villages in the area, as well as swimming in the local lake.  We even visited the city of Saint-Tropez, which was nice but a bit crowded.  After the city, we decided to visit the beach, which turned out to be “clothing-optional.”  The ultimate French Riviera experince, I suppose.  But since we had already paid for parking, we decided to stay.  At least it wasn’t a problem finding a changing room!  (We wore bathing suits.)  Sorry, no pictures from that part of the journey.  Had a feeling that cameras would not be welcome.  Don’t worry, you really didn’t miss anything.

Here are some pictures from the week: