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