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We took advantage of the end-of-May bank holiday and went to visit Andy (now called Andreas apparently in London. Well, Twickenham to be exact.

We took off on Saturday morning by bus from Cambourne. We were a bit worried whether the bus would come or not. The night before we tried to go to the Cambridge beer festival but neither the 18:16 nor the 19:16 bus ever showed. No beer for us this year then Luckily there was a bus on Saturday morning and we had no problem catching the coach to London.

It was great seeing Andy again we spent a lot of time just catching up. Quite a lot has happened since we met the last time in 2000, just after we moved to the Netherlands. Besides talking over coffe/beer/dinner we also managed to take in a show on Saturday evening. The Producers was well worth seeing. Funny and witty as only Mel Brooks can be. With an amazing amount of lines “borrowed” from movies, both his own and others.

Sunday we went to the National Gallery. We decided to see the impressionists. It’s an amazingly good idea to make museums free, it means you don’t feel any obligation to go through the whole collection. Instead you can choose a part of it, making sure you don’t get museum fatigue. Of course it does help knowing that the museum isn’t too far away to make another visit in the not so distant future. We didn’t know that Westminster Abbey is closed on Sundays so we were forced to save that for another visit.

It’s been two days since we got back from our trip to Sweden. Already itfeels far away and long gone. I guess we need to go back pretty soon again.

After a 2.5 hour car ride we found out that the airport called Brussels south Charleroi) wasn’t at all as big as we had imagined. Slightly larger than Landvetter, roughly twice the size of Eindhoven. A lot smaller than expected given it’s grand name. We were early as always when Dita gets to decide so we had ample time to have a bite at the cafe. The flight left at 15:15 and arrived in Skavsta almost 40 minutes ahead of schedule (expectation management at its best I guess). The bus ride into Stockholm took a little over an hour, but the scenery made it feel shorter. It’s amazing how entertaining a few hills can be after having lived on a beach for more than 4 years.

Finding Hotel Amaranten was a breeze, the tube stop at Rådhuset basically had an exit in the hotel’s lobby. The lobby was impressive; really the lobby of a €100/night hotel. However the room was more in the €50/night price class. Hotels in Stockholm, it seems, has a rather screwed up way of setting hotel stars, ours was 4, but the room was barely a 3. There was a computer in the lobby offering Internet to all hotel guests though–a requirement for a 4 star hotel in Stockholm. Go figure!

We spent three days (four nights) in Stockholm, doing really touristy stuff every day. In our common leisurely pace we did the king’s palace (Kungliga slottet) and a lot of walking in the Old City (gamla stan). We also visited Drottningholm, where the royal family lives–actually we only saw the Chinese Pavillion and the Palace Theatre, since we’ve heard that Drottningholm Palace itself really wasn’t writing home about. Of course we also managed to do some browsing in stores as well.

On Sunday the 19th we packed up our stuff and checked out of the hotel. There was some confusion about the bill since my Dad had paid it, but the woman at the counter didn’t manage to follow hisinstructions (she was supposed to say Happy birthday and then let us know the room was paid for) instead she refused to tell us who had paid the room. Well, who would argue when someone says you don’t need to pay €400? Not us, that’s for sure. After a short ride with the tube we got to Östermalms torg where we picked up a cute little silvery Peugeut 206.

On the way towards Alingsäs–the place I grew up–we made two pit stops. The first at Max, a Swedish chain of hamburger restaurants. They beat the crap out of all other chains (I think). The second stop was for some tea and cookies in Örebro with an old mate from university, Fredrik Örvill. All in all the trip took almost 8 hours and I was really tired of driving by the time we arrived at Glimmergatan 46, Alingsås.

Staying in Alingsås is always nice, but it quickly becomes a bit boring. Not because of them, but they aren’t around that much and Alings simply doesn’t have that much to offer. To make sure we didn’t fall in the trap we went to Varberg on Wednesday. For the first time I actually got to see Bockstensmannen and the button that allegedly killed Karl XII. Awesome, and the entrance was a mere 30SEK! We also saw Varbergs fortress, both of them! (Dita brought up the idea of going to Varberg; she wanted to see the fortress. Later on, in Alingsås, when she looked up Varberg on the Web she didn’t recognise the fortress. She had mistaken the cold-bath house for the fortress. Luckily we got to see both when we were there.) That night we spent in a cabin belonging to my aunt and uncle, it’s just outside Varberg in a place called Trönningenäs, just by the sea. The next day we spent shopping, first in an outlet mall in Kungsbacka, and later on in Gothenburg. We stayed with my brother and his girlfriend that night. The next day we played tourists again and visited the Eastindia man Gothenburg. After a lunch with my sister, my brother, and a friend (Klas Sanden) we took a trip with paddan.

The saturday went by with people comming to celebrate our birthdays. During the day some of my old friends stopped by–Anders Magnusson, Nicklas Berg, Henrik Steen, and Erik Zaring. In the evening my Mum and Arvid came over to my Dad’s as did some of their friends.

The journey back to the low contries started on Sunday at 6:00. We had to leave that early since the car had to be back before 13:00. We made it with time to spare. Getting down to Nyköping and the Ibis hotel there proved easier than I thought and we had dinner around 20:00 in a Chinese restaurant on Östra Storgatan in Nyköping.

All in all it was probably the best trip to Sweden so far. Next time it seems we’ll have to plan one other place to stay over since my sister and her boyfriend is planning on buying a house.

The following is converted from an old email (and the blog is back dated):

Hi you all!

I am writing this in English since I don’t want to send this mail in two versions, one in English and one in Swedish. This weekend we spent in Edinburgh, Scotland, with Kiki and Richard. They are friends of ours who we met in the States about 10 years ago. Kiki, from Germany, stayed in Rockford and Richard, from New Zealand, stayed in Lake Forest, just outside of Chicago.

Friday last week we took a flight from Amsterdam to Edinburgh. It was amazingly packed at Schiphol due to Koninginnedag (Queens Day) and school holidays. After having endured almost 90 minutes of queueing with rude Dutch who constantly tried to cut in front of you we finally got our boarding passes and got on the plane. The flight from Amsterdam to Edinburgh was uneventful, just a little rough at the landing: it was windy in Edinburgh.

Kiki picked us up and drove us in to their apartment, located within walking distance to the centre of Edinburgh. A very British apartment, I’d say, with all the little quirks that you would expect (a combined shower and bathtub with separate taps for each, hot water that had to be turned on from outside the bath room, and a floor that was amazingly squeeky to name but a few :-). Later that evening we went out for dinner, to a restaurant with Sudanese food; oh my, it was good!

The Saturday Dita and I spent walking around Edinburgh taking in some of the sites. After having being helped to the tourist information centre by Richard and Kiki we took off on our own. The castle was on the top of the list, with the Scotch Whisky Heritage Centre as a close second. We took a (free) guided tour of the outer parts of the castle and then wandered through the exibition of the Scottish regalia (the oldest regalia in Britain they proudly told us). Then off to the Sotch Whisky Heritage Centre! We got to know almost all there is to know about whisky, there was a lack of practical experience with it though. A small glass of Ballantine’s Finest was offered at the start of the tour, but none of the real stuff (or the real McCoy, which is a Scotch-related expression from the abolition in the States, a scotsman (McCoy) realised that most of the spirits in the States at that time tastes like crap so he saw his chance and started smuggling the genuine article over there, the real McCoy!). Anyway, it was well worth the visit, and of course a small stop at the gift shop was needed to get some of the Aqua Vitae (10 yo Laphroaig). Since we had tickets for ‘The King and I’ for later that night we headed back to the apartment and had a great dinner. The show was great and we wouldn’t have wanted to miss it for the world, the only set-back was the lack of posters on sale, we searched in vain for one to put next to our ‘Phantom of the Opera’ poster

The following day, Sunday, we jumped on a bus and went out to Leith, the port of Edinburgh were Britannia is (permanently) anchored. It is the royal yacht, and it was in use from 1953 until the late 90’s (if I remember correctly now). Very impressive, indeed! They are meticulous when it comes to their royal family, the English. After that we went and quickly walked through Holyroodhouse, a royal palace in Edinburgh situated at the opposite end of the Royal Mile compared to the castle. It wasn’t really worth the money, some parts of it was closed for repairs so maybe it is more impressive on a regular day. Then we had tea in a tea house, a very British little cafe that served only tea and chocolate (hot and cold) ranging from just under two pounds up to over 8 pounds per cup.

On Monday we first tried to find a place that served breakfast. Since we were to pick up our hired car from Arnold Clark at Lochrin Place we searched the neighbouring streets for a place. After quite some time we found Ndebele where they served South African food, and they had breakfast. After getting the car (and having to explain just where the P on my MasterCard comes from) we started driving up towards Stirling. When driving through the gorgeous landscape, we realised just how flat The Netherlands is and how much we have missed seeing some rolling hills and mountains. Apparently we aren’t the only inhabitants of Holland who think so since we saw several cars with Dutch plates. It is said that whoever controls Stirling controls Scotland and it was a place of uttermost importance in old days, and they still have the buildings to prove it. It seems Robert the Bruce had a thing for demolishing castles (the Edinburgh castle was levelled with the ground on his command too) so the castle was relatively young. Positioned on the top of a hill it totally controlled the surrounding areas, and of course the view was spectacular. After a (free) guided tour we took the car and drove out to the Wallace monument, when we got there we realised that we didn’t really have the energy to climb up the hill and the monumentss stairs to take in the view, so we decided to return to Edinburgh again.

Our last day in Scotland, Tuesday, we got up quite early (early for a vacation anyway) and drove towards Loch Lomond. We were regularly passed by cars in more hurry than we (we only made about 40 on roads that allowed 50 mph) since I wanted to take in the views while driving. After a couple of stops along the lake and one at Furloch(?) Falls we reached Crianlarich where we had some lunch. Then we set out on the road along Loch Earn towards Perth. We took a guided tour at Glenturret distillery and got a little more practical whisky knowledge, a tasting of their 12 yo whisky. After another purchase, this time a bottle of 12 yo Glenturret, we drove on towards Perth. Dita wanted to see the Aberdour castle, but they were doing some restructuring so we had to enter through Silver Sands according to a sign at the regular entrance. However, after driving around for a while and not finding the entrance we gave up and returned to Edinburgh. Wednesday at 11:00 we borded our plane and had another eventless flight back to Amsterdam. Edinburgh and Scotland was amazing, with many, many things to do and see, maybe too many! The landscape is breathtaking and there is an abundance of historical sites. Edinburgh alone I think could easily take more than a week to explore. We know a few things that we would have liked to do, but we didn’t have the time, so it isn’t too unlikely that there’ll be another trip some time in the future.

We have taken quite some photos, so if anyone is interested you can just drop by and have a look. Of course they will be accompanied by some single malt water of life

That’s it for now!