Summer fun

The best weather with sunshine and a cool breeze invites to be outside and I am surprised about the different possibilities offered to play and have fun in the parks in Stockholm.


Looks serious, but I assume it is a medieval 'game' in Fredhaell park.

The skating ground build under a bridge and a track for running -

In the city an installation for jumping in the air and not far away a place to jump in the water:

The difference of four months

July 28, 2011

We took a quiet walk along the water in Oesthammar. The Baltic sea is winding through many Islands small and large forming the archipelago of Stockholm to the North and to the South. This is the ideal area for summer vacations during July and August. Everybody is soaking up the sunlight missed during the dark winter and now the long days are spent outside enjoying the sun in the beauty and calmness of nature.

In March it was a different beauty when snow and ice started to melt away.

Forsmarks bruk and power plant

With friends who live in Oesthammar I visited the nuclear power plant in Forsmark. After the guided tour of two hours, I know more about this large source of electricity for Stockholm and Sweden.

No photography allowed but more info for the curious under http://www.vattenfall.se/sv/forsmark-nuclear-power-plant.htm

Our summer place

Monday July 25 -

A five minutes walk and we could jump in the lake Maelaren from Fredhaells badet. We waited ten months for that! In Boston it is 41C and we think about you. Wish you were here.

In the heart of Stockholm

Gamla stan - the old town - of Stockholm seen here from the garden in front of the Town Hall
in the evening on Sunday July 24, 2011, two days after the shocking incident in Oslo.

The last stretch to Stockholm

Saturday July 23 - we left Skaane early in the morning to drive up North the last 610 km to Stockholm. Europa road number 4 - E4 - is the way to go and one has to watch out for


the elks which can cross the road unexpectedly! They are heavy animals and - large.

'ca merite un detour'

Taking the ferry over the Oeresund from Sweden to Danmark, we visited the Modern Art museum Louisiana.
Art inside and outside and well situated in a gorgeous park at the eastern coast.


The seagull ccould not read 'Do not touch'!

We landed in 'good old Sweden'

after a short but good night's sleep in the cabin on the ferry 'Tom Sawyer'. At 6.30 AM we drove off the boat in Trelleborg. On the way to our friends we stopped at the southernmost point of Sweden





to find out that it is 1041 km from Paris, only 314 km to Berlin, but another 510 km to Stockholm.

So pleasant to walk with our hosts through the woods and to the beach while their labs were playing and swimming. Three days of rest in good company we will truly enjoy!

After three days driving North...

....we arrived at the Baltic sea coast and took a stroll along the beach in Warnemuende while waiting for the departure time of the ferry taking us to Trelleborg in Sweden during the night.

From the restaurant where we had dinner we could see our boat coming from Sweden.

Still on the road .....

(July 18)
My chauffeur on a 'Raststelle' (road side rest area = see the Germans in the background).
We stopped North of Hannover in a country side hotel and had time to look at the villages.


Untouched nature around a farm with restored Dutch windmill.

On the road again..... to Aachen

The first stop (July 17) on our trip up North was in Aachen (that is Aix-la Chapelle for our French friends) mostly known for the Dome from the time of Karl der Grosse (that is Charlemagne for our Ff) but as we discovered, also known for 'Aachener Printen' - a ginger soft cookie.

Inside and outside of the Louvre

From an Egyptian gallery in the Louvre, a good view on the Academie Francaise and the Pont des Arts leading to it.
See the dark clouds forming? How nice to be inside and enjoy the eternal rays of the sun caressing the head of an Egyptian lady since the 22nd Egyptian Dynasty.

Small hidden park

Pssssst - keep it a secret! If you look for a quiet place in the middle of Paris, take the Metro to Sevres -Babylon go to Rue Recamier and at the end of this 'cul de sac' you find this quiet shady green space with benches to rest.

Summer day in the park of Versaille castle

The weather is beautiful with sunshine and a cool breeze - a walk in the park of Versailles is a luxury because of the wast space and the 'open air' museum of sculptures from the 17th Century.

'Sleeping Ariane' in marble made by Corneille Van Cleve in 1684 is not disturbed by the visitors from all over the world passing by. She keeps on dreaming ......of Louis XIV?


During the winter she was hiding under the covers.......
More info about the castle in Versailles