It was one of those Saturdays mornings when E found this great connection flight with a good price to Stockholm, via Moscow for our family of 5. We had the flights tickets set but nothing other than that. Since it was very close to the actual flight time, I was worried about where will we stay there, but finally we found a nice Airbnb apartment in a beautiful and cosy neighborhood, located just 2 Metro stops from the city centre. We came back home a week ago.  To make a long story short, we didn’t have the time to do what we usually do before such trips. We had nothing planned for this visit. Non of us had the time for that including the kids. So, we took some trip recommendations / articles to read on the flight but most of our plans were made the evening before, while sitting around our dinner table. It amazed us how we wanted the same things and how we managed to fill our days with activities that kept all 5 of us happy. Actually we felt we are happy to be together just the 5 of us and we enjoyed it so very much.Oh, excuse me, we were 5 plus Angie of course. She travels with us wherever we go, of course. This time I even took 2 Angies because some times when one wants to hold it, automatically it makes someone else jealous;-)On our first morning in Stockholm, after a successful visit in the local supermarket, with some delicious Sandwiches in our bags, we went to see the change of guard at Queen’s Palace. Luckily we were there right on time to find a nice high spot to see the whole ceremony and we enjoyed a long theatrical show including a beautiful concert played by the Guard Soldiers’ Band. Naturally we strolled the Gamla Stan right after the Change of guard was completed. The weather was perfect and we walked for hours. This old area of Stockholm is breathtaking and we just couldn’t get enough of it. Actually we came back there for 2 more times after that day.E and myself had a short visit in Stocholm about 18 years ago, before we were married. It was right before I started my internship’ in LA colours studio (a colour forecast studio in Amsterdam) and I do remember very strongly how I was impressed by beautiful old Gamla Stan.

And…. with my guys, after a short walk we found ourselevs inside these fantastic little Comics shops, looking for some comics notebooks to add into their collection. I just stood behind them and heard their conversations about the topics, the characters and the various publishers. Yes we visited more than one of those comics shops.

We were strolling old Gamla Stan for hours, enjoying it’s colourful narrow alleys, with it’s small caffes’ and shops. We found a hidden very little and quiet coffee place. We stopped for sock knitting break, enjoyed the owner home made delicious cakes. Tha’t me knitting the Easy cable sock, made of Granny Kit cotton, colour Alice. One of those ‘life’s so good’ moments.Had to stop and take a picture of these cute little crocheted ships. Actually my kids stopped me for that, aren’t they adorable? The whole window display was something worth a stop.The day after we visited VASA museum, where we heard the whole incredible story about this 17th century ship. It was very hard to take the boys out of this museum, they were mesmerized into this wooden ship story details. We all enjoyed every moment there. After that visit we were all ready for some street walk.Here I am taking a picture of this design shop window, finding my reflection merged nicely into the colour theme. I’m wearing my new red coat which I found about an hour before on a Zara sale section for a SUPER DUPER great price. Happy me in my new red coat.We had a visit to the supermarket every morning before we went out to our day. We had a little breakfast at our apartment and while enjoying it, we made some sandwiches and things to take with us. So, we had a few nice spontaneous picnics on some very nice gardens around the city. Always with some coffee to go for E and myself as we are ‘coffeetogo’ kind of people. The weather was just perfect for these picnics. The picture above is a little park we stopped at, for a picnic in Sodremalm area. We bought a Weekly card for all public transportation and that’s the way we moved from one place to another when walking was too much. We used all kind of public transportation as well as the Metro. Some of it’s underground stations are painted beautifully and worth a visit, like the one above.

The city is built as a few islands, so water and boats are a very dominant part of the view. Well there’s a little truth that has to be said, I took so many pictures of boats that it’s really hard to believe. This ‘boats on water’ aesthetics, captured our hearts strongly. We found ourselves strolling around and from time to time stop to stair at the water for very long moments.I think the City Hall building was one of the main reasons that E was so happy to go to Stockholm again. This is one of his favorite buildings ever, and he was so excited to visit this place again. One of the special things about this building is the fact that it is located right on the water. At it’s front garden there are stairs that lead right into the water and E really really loves it. He insist that we’ll sit there and have a little picnic on these stairs at the water. We began our City Hall visit with this little ‘stairs on water’ picnic. Angie took some selfies trying to show her bunny followers how beautiful was this visit. We went in for a guided tour, knowing that we are going to be back to this beautiful garden afterwards. Angie liked the Golden room, as you can see. Lets say, I do have a few ceiling pictures in my camera. Yes, I do love ceilings in old buildings, they can drive me crazy. I always go behind my family ׳couse׳ I stop million times for taking pictures. The joke of this trip was ‘not surprisingly, Osian Bolt retired, mommy cause you’re so fast’.And this is from Skansen open air museum. We have visited some open air museums in the past and we were sure our kids will give up this time. Surprisingly, when we talked about the options of what shell we do tomorrow, all 3 said they want to visit the open air museum. As always, these museums are giving you the opportunity to see and feel how people lived in the past. Skansen is a huge area, with many different houses and farmsteads from every part of the country. We strolled around a whole day long. Our kids loved it and so did we. In the picture above you can see an old hardware store… I could stay there forever. Look what I found in one of these old houses. There was this lady that works there, she was knitting while she wasn’t busy with visitors. So lovely. Part of the Skansen museum is a zoo, a very big one even. The Reindeer colours got me far behind my family again (me and Osian).We visited the Moderna Museum on the last few hours we had, just before our flight back home. E and myself visited there on our last visit and we remembered we enjoyed it a lot, so we felt we don’t want to miss it this time. The Museum is surrounded with a beautiful Sculpture park. This colourful animal sculpture is made by Niki de Saint Phalle. As we entered the Museum, there was this huge painting table with some painting activities for kids. Our kids spent about 2 hours around this table while we were walking around the rooms.Angie wanted a selfi made next to Matisse Paper cutouts. I couldn’t resist. If you make one selfi, let it be next to Matisse colours. This bunny is a feinshmaker.While we walked in and out of the rooms, our kids were sitting there and making their own little exhibition.We had our last lunch in the museum restaurant but not all of us were eating. This little guy came to visit us on our lunch table just after he finished his paint and he found an enthusiastic crowd around there. One of the reasons we set there for our last lunch was the fact that the restaurant offered this magnificent view from most tables. The food was great btw and the charming view made it taste even better. We went out on the balcony for some more Stockholm selfies with some heavy hearts for these last moments in the city. Just before we left, the big guy asked his father to hang his paint on the wall among all other kids paintings. The small one wanted to keep his (Osian Bolt was happy).We took the express train to the airport and we made it right on time to the flight, happy in hearts. We enjoyed every moment with these 3 Minions, Stockholm has something special in the air. We enjoyed some great weather days and the city felt very comfortable and safe for a family with kids. We had a connection flight again so I had plenty of time for Easy cable sock knitting.And when it got too cold on the plan I put Angie in and went to sleep. We’re back home now and I’m trying to enjoy the last days of the summer break, while at the same time trying to spend some time at my desk. xoxMo

 

, , ,