Nosh and Elp’s day of fun

I’ve been home this week! For a conference of motor neurons and ceilidhing, which was both enlightening and exhausting.

Today, however, was a day off, so last night I drank a few delicious cocktails in delightful company and then sauntered off to Kirk Street to flea-treat the beasties and stay with JH. Nosh promised to be round at 9am so I got up and started annoying Jen early, only to leave at 11am, after she had already been awake for three hours.

First we headed to Kilimanjaro (on the bridges, not in Tanzania, for any non-Edinburgh folk) for one heck of a brunch. I should have taken a photo, but we ate it too fast to get one.

This photo is a copy of one my Mum took TEN YEARS ago, I look older now. If you look closely, Nosh is in this one too.

Then on down the Royal Mile for some culture at Holyrood Palace, where Nosh had never been. Hilarity started when our audio tour told us to exit the quadrangle via a door on our right. “If the door is closed,” it advised us, “please turn the handle, and go through.”

Cove with an audio-guide.

Would you trust a guard who looked this cheeky?

Just in case the audio-guide hadn't given enough instruction on how to get through a door.

Not snapdragons, but very pretty foxgloves. 

I think the audio-lady was telling him he could come back for free all year.

We saw some good portraits and learnt some gory history before heading to the photo exhibition in the parliament building, for some much more contemporary and thereby more disturbing history. After that we had some bracing fresh air on a walk round Arthur's Seat (where we saw a stoat! They are stoatally tiny!), and an earthy coffee before heading home and getting ready for holiday!

Off to Brittany at 4am, so it's maybe time to go to sleep. Happy Friday 13th one and all!

Au revoir!

x

Specially for Bambridge.

Guest Blog - Duffers and JH (staying above the law...)

First of all, let's make it perfectly clear that we're not here to make friends.
We're just trying to stay above the law and make it to our next birthdays...

The City of ENTERTAINMENT

We kicked off the trip by visiting the largest Ikea in the world, where we befriended a shark and cockatoo. We also indulged in some delicious pizza and weinerkorvs (that's hot dogs, to the non-Swedes out there).

Entertainment in Stockholm is fruitful and varied. For example, of an evening, we have known to find ourselves swing dancing in a converted cinema, gallivanting in a theme park, and loitering fruitlessly outside a club, at the mercy of Stockholm's rude bouncers and non-existent queuing etiquette. The latter evening was salvaged by personalised cocktails in a much kinder establishment.

No entertainment section would be complete without bridge. Needless to say, we have whiled away many a happy hour playing three-person. Our hearts ache for the absent Bam. But luckily, we have coordinated our nail polish, our pajamas and our cards, so all is well.

The city of HISTORY
"DO NOT TOUCH THE CANNONS."
Brush with the law number one occured at the palace, home of the Swedish Royal Family (God bless 'em). Foolhardedly, we thought it acceptable to have a photo with a cannon. How wrong we were. The booming tones of the palace guard still resonate today. For future reference, when in Stockholm, as a general rule we would recommend staying well clear of cannons.

This is not the offending photo, which has been burnt from the camera.

History in Stockholm isn't always dangerous. We also spent a lovely evening in the Nobel Museum, seeking inspiration from wonderful, artistic scientists who had sketched their discoveries. We also enjoyed reading about and watching short films about the incredible historical figures who have won the Nobel prizes over the years; truly an inspiring museum and well worth a visit.

The short film about the achievements of Dr Duffin is under construction.

The city of GEOGRAPHY

Stockholmers love a boat; they literally can't get enough of them. And what better way to learn about the geography of the city than to ride one?! Our boat expeditions have been numerous. We sailed the seven seas of the greater Stockholm area, nourished only by macaroons and diet coke. Scurvy was rife, but luckily we pulled through. Our destinations included Djurgarden (home of the theme park, see above, and nordic animals, see below) and the Archipeligo, consisting of shedloads of islands.  "It is pretty spectacular; it can have a capital if it wants one" - LH Comley, 2012.

Jen left us for dead on Lizard Rock.

Survivor of the Lizard Rock Disaster, 2012.

The city of SCIENCE AND NATURE
Nordic animals have played an integral part in this trip, most notably the moz (moose). On Laura's day off (huzzah!) we took a day trip to Skansen, a lovely big open air museum full of animals and very old Scandinavian buildings. We frolicked with the likes of otters, seals, goats, bears, rabbits, bison, hogs, wolves, reindeer, and a cheeky lone fox. Obviously this frolicking occurred on the other side of the appropriate glass/fencing provided for safety; we are staying above the law, after all.

Such is the magic of Skansen that houses grow out of the ground. Perfect for grazing goats.

We have been fortunate enough to observe the most ferocious of the nordic animals in its native environment at close proximity....MISCHA. Laura is sharing her flat with the most delightful, hard-of-hearing, up-in-your-grill cat. We are big fans of her work, except when she is all up in our grills and/or drinking our water straight from the glass.

The city of ARTS AND LITERATURE
We spent a lot of time reading our books, but this was too boring to photograph.

The city of SPORTS AND LEISURE (including FOOD AND DRINK)

Sushi. Macaroons. Diet Coke. Pimms. You get the picture. It's been delicious.

We ate sushi literally every other day; Laura had it twice on Friday. Other delicious meals/snacks have included a lovely vegetarian meal (spice for some, hammocks for all), a delightful cafe overlooking the water (an ideal setting for bridge), and a spectrum of ice creams. Travellers among you, take note - when buying ice cream in Stockholm, do not yield to the pressure of Jen's bladder and be tricked into paying 590 SEK for ice cream. Turns out, this is a total rip-off. We would suggest that 350 SEK for 2 scoops (400 with sprinkles) is a reasonable price.

Happy 4th of July, chums! Gnocchi and the Union Jack...as American as apple pie.

"But isn't it almost Jen's birthday?!" I hear you cry. Don't worry, we've got it covered...

Laura, like the team player she is, covered the sports category by cycling to work. Jen has pitched in with some successful sprinting up to catch the T-Bana at short notice. Duffers does not excel at sports; this shouldn't come as a surprise. However, we were all enticed into some energetic swing dancing. Jen was amazing, whilst Kathleen struggles to walk without falling over, so you can imagine how that went.

The city of WHIMSY
Fans of the blog will be wondering, where are the pictures of people emulating statues?! Don't worry friends, here they are, Pimms and all!

Stockholm, we salute you!

Word for the day - cykel

Nypa stansen första dagen i månaden! Apparently! Although I am not sure that the expression of the sentiment will necessarily translate into Swedish, so I might not go about pinching or punching anyone today. Holidays have officially started here; lots of people are now off until August!

One of the best things about summer in Stockholm is all the cycling I am getting to do. I've got a 10km journey to KI, and pretty much the entire thing is on bike paths. In the morning when I am going in at a normal time it is BUSY! There are queues of cyclists at the lights, and for some reason the slowest person who everyone else has passed on the previous stretch of path always thinks its a good idea to free wheel past the queue, so everyone has to overtake them all over again. But in the evening I tend to miss the rush hour, and the path is nice a quite, and I can wheel along singing along to my music.

A lot of it is along water, and it is pretty beautiful. If steep at the end!

Crossing Tranebergsbron.

I pick my favourite boat from here every morning.

And then cycle round the north-west corner of Kungsholmen.

The best and the worst cycle happened within 40 hours of each other at the end of this week. Let's start with the worst and get it over with. First off, I was TIRED, I wasn't sure if my legs were going to power me all the way back. Second, it was properly windy, like Edinburgh often is, but Stockholm seems to be less often, which means it has a lot of grit which has accumulated and blows in your face. Third, I had made an unfortunately floaty choice of skirtwear, which kept getting caught in my wheel, so I had to hold it up to the handlebars to avoid this. It was still decent (thank goodness!), but when held in this manner turns into a sail even on still days, and on this particularly blustery day became a total health hazard. Forth, I managed to leave at normal time, which meant I got caught in going home traffic, including one lady cycling whilst on a hand held phone and weaving all over the path, and several inline skaters with lethal poles, which they shoot out behind them right at cyclist eye level about 30 times every minute. To top it all off, as I was cycling past a stationary car at the side of the road, it suddenly pulled into a U-turn too close for me to avoid, and I crashed into the back of it making a terrifying noise. It gave both me and the girl driving quite a shock, but once we had got over our language barrier (by her starting to speak English!) we established that both me and the car were alright, and carried on. Horrible journey!

In contrast, on Wednesday I stayed at work until after midnight, and so got a completely deserted ride home. I haven't seem Stockholm in the dark much, because it isn't dark much at the moment, but between 12 and 1am is as dark as it gets (not very!), and beautiful!

As I pulled out of KI I was treated to a view of the cranes building the hospital all lit up.

Back over Tranebergsbron.

It took way longer than usual because I kept stopping to take pictures, but I had Johnny Flynn in my ears and one heck of a sky above. I tried to get a good photo of the colour of it, but the best I got is reasonably un-scenic. Here it is anyway:

Absolutely not doing it justice. I am not sure if the sun is setting, or rising, or just skimming the horizon for a bit.

As I got back to Åkeshov a deer walked right on to the bike path a little ahead of me. She was lovely, but didn't stay about for long before springing off into the bushes to the side of the path. Glory!

So, in conclusion: cycling = a good way to travel. But not at rush hour!

It's late, and a soggy Misha has just come back in from a nighttime sojourn and is trying to push her way into my bed, so I am off to remove her and sleep.

Godnatt all,
x