Nice holiday in South Africa

As soon as the Christmas holidays were over, we suddenly found ourselves with loads of work. This was in part due to the pending trip to South Africa. We needed to finish many things before we could leave and Carina needed to plan many other things for the trip (since part of her visit included work). But on the 10th of February I joined her in South Africa (after traveling through an Air France strike) and we had a very nice time with our families.

The first few days we spent with my parents and sibling and her fiance (getting married early next year). They live in an apartment in Mossel Bay with a beautiful view of the ocean.

Apartment in the background.

Beach across their apartment.

We had a number of activities during our stay in Mossel Bay...

Eating.

Visiting caves (where my sibling works). 

The cave man Cois

At the Knysna Heads.

Noetsie (the place is called Noetsie, not the person).

Sandboarding.... (more about this later)

 We flew back to Johannesburg and drove to the Free state to visit Carina's family.

A great braai on the weekend.

We then went to Clarence in the eastern Free state with Carina's parents for a few days.

To eat (...and drink) some more.

Hike.

Visit Golden Gate National Park 

We left the Free State and had one final braai before returning to Sverige.

We have planned quite a number of activities for the coming summer and will blog on them soon.

R&C

p.s.  I also took two Swedish colleagues to SA and tried to feed them to the lions :)
C

Jul, 2011

This is our third Christmas we celebrated in Sweden. We started our Christmas on the 10th of December with a traditional Christmas-treat baking day at Örjans' farm (Ronnie's boss), near Knutby, 40 km from Uppsala. Baking with us were some of Ronnie's group members. We made the traditional ischocklad (chocolates), knäck (toffee), lussekatter (saffron buns) and pepparkakor (gingerbread). Baking these Christmas candies and cookies is a common custom that families embark on every December before Christmas.

Knutby farm

Preparing dough for the lussekatter

Knäck

Xidan making marzipan chocolates

For our own Christmas Eve dinner we kept to the traditional Swedish Christmas foods since it's available en masse in the shops while "boerewors en pap" are impossible to find. Below is a video of Ronnie placing the extremely traditional Christmas Ham on our julbord (Christmas-table). Other traditional Swedish Christmas foods that we enjoyed this year were: pickled fish (sill), beetroot salad, shrimp salad, potato gratin, liver pate, pinskorv (small sausages) and risgrynsgröt (rice pudding). The essential accompanying beverages are julmust (christmas cola) and glögg (warm mulled wine).



This is the fourth consecutive year we were at a different place during Christmas. Hopefully next Christmas we will be here again.

C&R

Getting high in Denmark.

During our recent visit to Denmark we went to a number of interesting places other than the Lego store. But for some reason we tended to end up atop some structure with a very nice view of the city. The first of these were the rides at the Tivoli theme park. We cannot recall the name of the tower (probably something suitable like "the tower of death and fear and AAAHHhaaaaaaaaa!!!"), but it is a structure where you are strapped to a seat and hoisted above the city. The view is quite impressive for the few seconds prior to dropping to the ground. Needless to say we have no pictures from the top.
The classic theme-park swings are also found in Tivoli but there is one set with a bit of a twist. They are raised several meters while in full…swing. Below are a few photos of the park but see the video for some of the excitement:

After we survived a full day of theme park excitement we went to a number of interesting sites in the city.

Of course we went to see the little mermaid and here is the required photo.

On the same day we went to Rundetårn (round tower) which was build in the 17th century as an astronomical observatory. It is however noted for its spiral corridor which slope to the top without any stairs for more than 200 meters (the face is due to the continued harassment to appear in the photos).

We also visited the tower at the "Vor Frelsers Kirke". From this tower we had the most impressive views of Copenhagen, the Øresund Bridge and even the coast of Malmö. The view was in part due to the hight of the tower but it was also a very nice clear day.

The video at the top is a summary of the high points on our trip.

R&C

Lego shop in Copenhagen.

We spent a couple of days in Copenhagen to celebrate our wedding anniversary :) In the centre of town is the street Strøget, the longest pedestrian shopping area in Europe. However one of the best shops in the world is located there. Following is a few pictures from that shop. It should be noted that we were there a few times during the weekend and at all times there were more adults than kids in the shop.

We visited quite a few other places as well as crossed via the famous Øresund Bridge/Tunnel and will have a few more post about our trip.

R&C

Almost snow

This morning when I looked out the window, I thought we had our fist snow. There was white on the sidewalks and on some of the cars’ roofs. It turned out to be just heavy frost. In either way, I decided to walk in to work and take a few pics to show the picturesque route I take to work every morning. Usually I cycle but once in a while one should take it slow and take in the unappreciated beauty that surrounds us every day. So here’s Carina’s route to work!

Approaching the Fyrisan (River Fyris)

Walking towards mid-town, Uppsala domkyrkan (Uppsala cathedral) in background

Walking past svandammen (swan dam) towards Uppsala slott (Uppsala castle)

Going towards Blåsenhus (the education department of Uppsala University). 

Notice the almost snow (and the people cycling on it! this is quite common practice by the way)

Walking through the small alley that runs next to the Botaniska vaxthus (Botanical greenhouse)

Arriving at EBC, Norbyvägen 18. At work!

C