going dutch

i am so happy to be travelling to holland with my boys today.  it's been too many years since we were last there.  i already know the very first two things we will do when we arrive - eat dutch fries with mayonnaise (dutch snack food is the best!) and visit the anne frank house (kai and i are reading her diary).  

photo from here

i will drink too much milk too, it's the only milk i can drink straight up.  maybe their cows are happier :)  then there's nine little streets, a cute shopping area to explore.  stefan wants to share childhood memories with kai and visit vondelpark and the apartment he lived in as a little boy.  i want to explore jordaan too.  

the main reason for our visit is to celebrate my in-laws 50th wedding anniversary!  and that's not all.  we will share a farmhouse with the lovely melanie and family.  so cool. i can't wait.

we'll also hop over to spain and france before coming home to stockholm.  keep well, i will see you back in this space in a few weeks.  in the meantime, you can follow me on instagram.

summer attire

three looks i would love to wear this summer.  bright causal shorts, pretty printed dress, and a beautiful jumpsuit.  these pieces are simple, easy, and perfect for summer.  j. lindeberg, flippa k, and monki can all be found in the gotgatan area.  a pedestrian only area spreading a few blocks with many cafes to take a rest, drink a chai and people watch whilst shopping.  

now, if only the sunny weather would stick around for longer than a few days at a time, that would be a good start to stockholm's summer.  fingers crossed.

26 / 52 weeks

kai: he's been wanting a "cool" hair cut for awhile and was so excited for his appointment he even had a picture to show the hairdresser.  he pulls off this short cut very nicely - look at that face :)  but it also makes him look older so i need his longer hair back, like right now, please.

sunny days, monteliusvägen

in stockholm these days, the sun rises at about 3:30 am and sets just after 10 pm leaving us with about 18 hours of daylight (instead of the typical 5ish hours in the middle of winter).  

the best place to enjoy the night sky is along monteliusvägen, a 500 metre long walking path in the heights of sodermalm.  this area has a beautiful view of lake mälaren and the sun sets just behind city hall.  the path is lined with houses on one side and the view on the other.  

  

it was also a night for delirious laughter :)

stockholm weekend pics, midsummer celebrations

in a country with long, dark winters, the summer solstice is cause for celebration, complete with flower picking, crown wearing and dancing around the maypole.  

midsummer is second only to christmas in sweden.  it always falls on the third friday of june and is an official holiday.  big 'welcome to summer' celebrations take place in and around stockholm.  despite the rain, stefan, kai and i headed to grinda, a small archipelago island just 1.5 hour ferry ride away.  the ride out there was lovely and very picturesque, the ocean dotted with little islands all around.  

 

grinda itself was lovely. we enjoyed roaming around the island, lunching and dancing around the maypole.  the maypole (symbol for fertility) is an important part of the festivities, decorated in greens that were picked earlier that day.  it's a lovely moment when you are holding hands with a flower-topped stranger and dancing around a leafy pole to silly swedish songs.  thanks stefan for indulging me.  kai was too cool for such an activity :)

 

strawberries must be eaten on midsummer so stefan made a strawberry pie served with whipped cream, of course.  delicious.

midsummer is also the time of our anniversary.  18 years with him.  his goofy rhymes make me laugh, his swedifing (i.e. smearing pickles from a tube on his sandwiches) amuses me so, and his "boy" humour antics make me so incredibly grateful that kai has him.   we are a lucky two, kai and i.

hope you had a lovely midsummer weekend too.