Wednesday/Thursday April 4, 2019
A work day. Typing. Clicky clack. Meeting. Email. Free lunch. Cancel meetings for next week. Oh 3 pm time to go home. Home in record time. The family carpool is ready and Alan and Rowena take us to SFO. I work more in the back seat. There is some road rage on parts of others that we observe or bad driving, not sure which. Kids fall asleep on way to airport. No one is in BA line so we check in Vegas style, all flash and style with our 52.5 pound bag. We saunter down to the global entry office to update Fiona’s profile from UK to Canada which needs that personal touch.
We walk all the way back across to gate 9 and have dinner. My black porter by California Republic Brewing is not too shabby with my quesadilla. I work more. The Fiona splits a pizza with Niamh and Lawson orders noodles. We lounge until 6:30 and get up to go no where fast since we are in group 4. The plane is half full but we sit in the middle four seats in row 21. I get two stellar choices for beer Heineken or Amstel Light. They taste the same – light. I watch The Favourite and Mary Queen of Scots to get acclimated to all the funny accents we are going to encounter. Pretty good movies. I tried some Netflix stuff but the Russian doll was lame and the OC is better in a weird way, but rested my eyes around 3:30am. They turned back on the lights at 4:30am. We touched down at two minutes past two in the afternoon not 6am. Doh.
We go through customs with a guy training someone, but he managed to say Niamh’s name right which has all of us very excited. Lawson managed to get our bag without incident.
We are on the Piccadilly line and it will take an hour and 15 minutes to arrive. We get off at Leicester square for the Northern line for 7 stops and presto we arrive. Apparently I forgot how much fun it is to lug a 52.5 pound bad up stairs at tube stations. Learning how to get the tube tickets to go into the machine to let you in and out of the tube station was also an experience for the kids. The big orange bag became trapped when i tried to go through the machine. Oh hum.
We got off the northern line at chalk farm and walked to the madara grocery store and Fiona picked up some milk and croissants. After texting with the Air BNB guy we meandered over to the flat. Then Tom showed Fiona how to turn on the water at the sink, how the heater works, gave her the keyes and said he was off to Italy for the weekend. Hum. Turns out we have one lightning cable to share across 5 devices. This is not going to work so will pick up two more cables tomorrow after Harry Potter.
After a bit we decided to hit up a Tesco Express and a pub called Washington. We walked our 15 minutes and the kids decided to walk with their arms inside the jackets since it was cold. Apparently it snowed last night. I had a nice beer Camden Hells Lager with a wedge salad. Lawson insisted his fries needed salt but I said no eat them as they are. Pouting ensued. He was pretty much was a broken parrot since we got off the tube with this sing song moan hum thing. Niamh was a little better. She had the salad too but didn’t understand why it was not a wedge. It was arugula not ice berge salad. Oh…. Fiona was adventurous and had some Indian bites. The giant flour tortilla chip was interesting. We didn’t have money for a tip since I had euros and Fiona left her change at the flat. We stopped at Tesco express and picked up cheese, Cadbury eggs, beer, and wine. Only the essentials for us.
Friday April 5, 2018
Man it is cold. It rained while we ate in the pub and was blustery on the way back. Fiona I think took a shower, but I was asleep by 8. This one plug for electronics is not going to work as the kids like to not plug in things or will unplug stuff at will. So rather than play Russian roulette with the electronics need to go get more stupid cables. Fiona was worried about not getting up in time to go to Harry Potter but I’m up at 4am, and the kids were up at 3am. The flat woke up at 4:30 with gurgles but do not feel it warming up? Hum. Today is going to be great if we manage to warm up.
I fell back asleep around 6:30 and Fiona rudely woke me up at 8 saying I was the one who wanted to get up at 7 to make sure we got to Euston Station by 9. The kids were zombies when I got dressed. No interest in the croissants so I had 1.5 and Fiona had the other half. We took the long way to the tube since we got mixed up since we walked to the market instead of the flat, so we got to the tube by way of the market. Then we puzzled our way through the tube payment machine for 10 minutes until a tube worker came over and said buy an Oyster card for £15 and be done with it. So we did since we are going to be here another 2 days. I have no idea how much we have left on them but the kids rode for free which is nice.
The made it to Euston Station and saw a man in a pig costume. Now that looks like a fun tour! Who doesn’t want to be guided through a majestic church by a guy with a blow up pig costume? Our guy just had a flag. How boring. There was around 35 people in the group each with blue or white tags. Some kid turned 10 today so we all sang happy birthday in the tube station. Classic. He also got to carry the flag. Ah nuts. We made our way to the train which went to Watford Junction and the marched over to the bus who went to the lot. We put on a yellow wrist band and picked up a radio and headphones. We arrived around 10:15 to the studio and stood around outside for 15 minutes waiting for our VIP tour guide to arrive.
Our tour lasted 3 hours and finished around 2. Somewhere between lunch and butterbeer I lost my credit card, but some young wizard found it and returned it to lost and found. I got it back at the end of the day which was brilliant. I think the best part was flying on the broom stick. Fiona really excelled at this a real natural witch. I have a video of it too along with the kids and me.
The butterbeer which I got 4 separate glasses I drank as the from put everyone off tasted like vanilla root beer with maple syrup whipped cream. The do have rootbeer in England, but it costs quite a bit compared to a coke. Niamh ate half a burger and Lawson had fries. I had the other half of the burger and some of the chicken salad which is bits of chicken and salad with some salad cream. Fiona had the other half off the salad but scoffed at the salad cream. I got two mugs to keep, photos of us on the Hogwarts train, and on broom sticks. It was quite cool to see Hagrid which was 7′ 6″ and his romantic partner who was also the same size. Apparently it was two burly men who had to take ballroom dancing lessons for the part of Yule Ball in the Goblet of Fire. The amount of detail and number of duplicates was astonishing. The jacket the Harry has in Deathly Hallows movies numbered at 71 types with various stages of distress. Instead of buying second hand furniture they buy new and then distress them in various stages. Buckbeak and Fawkes were both animatronic and each feather had to be placed into the animal. It took 5 months to feather Buckbeak, and Richard Harris who played Albus Dumbledore thought Fawkes was a real bird since it moved so smoothly and life like. Pretty incredible the mix of mechanical and then computer overlap to make the final result.
I got my card, and we walked back to the spot were the bus was going back to Watford Junction. We saw the bus leave with no one on it which was really sad so we waited for the next one in the cold for 15 minutes. The kids kicked a rock the entire time. We sat in the back seat of the bus and texted David and Zeta that we would be back to our flat in an hour or so. We left around 5:30 and got back to the flat around 6:30. The David and Zeta family arrived around 7 and we walked to a closed restaurant which was sad. However we found an Italian place and had some lasagna which was very good with its crispy cheese top. I had a bit of the Lawson’s pizza too. The beer was weird, but I drank it. We went to bed at 11 something and the kids were out out of it.
Saturday April 6th, 2019
The curtains fell down at 1am. They woke me up which woke up the Fiona who then promptly tried to fix them. She struggled. She failed. I said I’ll fix them in the morning. I wake up at nine, and them flop around and give Fiona a pat on the back who promptly turns into the Poltergeist and her head spends around 360 and spews pea soup and bile in my general direction for disturbing her beauty sleep. Her snakes are still looking at me funny when I get up and fix the curtain. She does not believe that I fixed it. I did.
We make out way to David and Zeta’s house which is a 10 minute tube ride and 7 minute walk. It is a great place. They are redoing the backyard which looks very posh with a new fence, deck, and soon to be green grass. My guess is 2 to 3 more weeks and they will be done in time for better weather. Fiona has turned back into a human being by the time we arrive. The kids turned into monkeys for the tube ride and Lawson didn’t disappoint by saying he had to pee as soon as we got off the tube for our seven minute walk.
Gordon and Lucy arrive shortly after and the coffee / tea drinkers and Fiona catch up. We then get on the tube and make it to Winchester along with everyone else to see Big Ben covered in scaffolding. I had a pickle and posh cheese sandwich but was disappointed it was relish and not nice yummy dill kosher slices. I get an iced americano to boot. We get the water taxi for the tour which is faster, cheaper, and less annoying than the tourist boat. I have a nice beer as we speed down the river up London Bridge and then Tower Bridge. We see David’s building, and the new Walkie-Talkie building too. We get off at the end and walk around the Olympic park. The kids have a grand time, and we find a park with exercise equipment that would charge your phone. It ended up actually doing the opposite since we would look at the phone to see if it was charging. It was easier to plug it into our little battery and walk 20 minutes so it would charge another 10 percent. The Olympic rings were on a hill and the kids rolled down the hill.
We stopped by M&S for a quick break and then to a restaurant called Giraffe. I has a Japanese beer which was made in Italy? Huh? It was the Budweiser of Japanese beer. I had a brown rice bowl with sriracha sauce. More Japanese beer and the an espresso, Kahlúa, and vodka martini for desert. No enough money on our Oyster cards for the train ride home so we borrowed the David/Zeta cards, but turns out only one card worked and one didn’t so Fiona road for free. The train man let us go so hopefully David will be ok with a free ride. He is going to take us to the airport tomorrow. The kids are sleep by 9 and I’m about to nod off. We are watching the voice UK which has two American artists as judges which is pretty funny.
Parents of small children
Sunday April 7th, 2019
The Fiona got up at 6:30am and started buzzing around and packing things. The curtains fell down again. I fixed them again. All packed up and out the door around 8:30am. Loaded up 10 more pounds on out Oyster cards since they now said negative 2.50 since we tried to use them for the train. Oh well. So we have around 5 pounds left on each card. Back to David and Zeta’s so the David could drop us off at Luton airport 30 minutes away. Before we took off we saw a you tube man called brave wilderness take a Costa Rica wasp called the executioner and sting himself. Pretty dumb.
We arrived around 10:15 which was perfect, but the maze to get to the terminal from the drop off was pretty amazing. Felt like a rat in a maze. Where is my cheese? Didn’t listen t Fiona who saw a giant orange building with easy jet on my it. Instead we went to the airport checkin and weight in our 22.2 kg bag for the flight. We beat the weight by almost 1 kg! Woot woot! No extra money for a stupid heavy bag. Only one person needed to provide the passport to check in to the flight and the bag which was a bit weird.
We then went up to have lunch since our flight left at 11:30am. I had a nice melty ham and cheese sandwich and a beer that I had in 2015 called the doom bar. The weather was awful with thick fog so got yelled at to turn off my computer as it would interfere with the pilots. Yeah ok. I finished my 450 emails on the plane ride that took 45 minutes.
We arrived in sunny Amsterdam and it is like California weather. Around 75 in the day and 60 at night. Crazy good weather. However before we get to experience this weather we spend an hour, longer than our friggen flight, to go through customs. Dumb. We manage to get a 3 day metro card for the adults and day passes for the kids after getting our train ticket. We finally make it out around 3:30 and take two trains and a metro to a hipster hotel called volkshotel. We walk in and there is a DJ spinning records and a vinyl record sale going on. There are camper vans, and a motorcycle in the freaggin lobby too. This place is awesome. I need to bust out my Birkenstock’s and peace pipe and say hello to the locals. We checkin to the second floor and the room is huge for Netherland standards.
The kids bed is a double but in a wooden double door closet with hide away doors that offer about 12 inches of space between the wood enclosure and the window. Everything is polished concrete floors and very utilitarian. It is now around 4:15 so we get back on the metro where Fiona become stuck since you can only tag in one time to get on the metro. We go three stops and it is tourist central with all the canals, food, bikes, and mopeds. Crazy. Here are giant Pringle cans that line the canals, ha. We walk to a giant white statue and see the David, Rebecca, and sprog. A wee little boy of 3 months named Albin. We walk around and go to a recommended place a 10 minute walk away at the Blue Bistro which is very good. I have some Spätzle which was very good, a bit of Niamh’s burger, and some of Lawson’s fries. It goes really well with my Bavaria Pilsner. I’m very full and enjoy the walk back. We hope on the metro back to the hotel. We drop off the kids with their iPads and then go have a drink on the 7th floor at the hotel bar called Canvas. I have 3 local beers and David joins the Fiona and I. David has a new venture which is pretty cool, and shows me a man in a suit that is covered in dots. Might see the flowers tomorrow. The kids are in separate beds since they are too tired to fall asleep. Would like to get up early. We will see!
Monday April 8th, 2019
These IKEA beds are quite nice, but I slept horribly. Niamh and the Fiona swapped places so I got a little person who was talking her her sleep rather than a big one. We got up at 8am local time which is whatever time from home. We went upstairs to the canvas room and had breakfast. It was quite nice. I had a croissant, turkey and Swiss, and a few glasses of orange juice. We planned out our day and figured we could try the metro and bus to make it to the tulip garden. We got on the M51 and then stayed on for a long, long time. Too long. So long that we called an Uber to come get us. When I first called an Uber it was a minimum of €75 for a ride, but when we called 30 minutes later fro the end of M51 it was only €44. So we took an Uber and the kids fell asleep on the way there. We arrived at 10:45 instead of of 10:15 to then walk around for 3 hours and leave around 1.
We walked to a windmill or as the kids like to say a windmeal within the garden. There are over 7 million tulips on the grounds which is awe inspiring. We walked up a windmill, hid in a giant wooden shoe, and saw some pretty amazing flowers. There was also a few orchids as well which were pretty cool.
Amah would have really like the half mannequins.
We also had food which consisted of Dutch fries, salad, soup, and Heineken. You can decide who had what, but I had a bit of everything and the beer. I walked around in a T-shirt and wished I had a pair of shorts as it was sunny and warm. Who knew it could be this nice. We called an Uber to get us and the kids were rambunctious on the way back yelling out tunnel when going through a tunnel. We arrived back around 1:30 and ducked into the metro to make our way back into town for the Heineken Experience. We arrived but the Rebecca, David, and Albin were about 40 minutes out.
We walked over the ‘The Carousel’ and I had Dutch pancakes with rum and powdered sugar. It was delicious with a Heineken an Oud Bruin and second which was called an extra cold which is a marketing ploy since all it is a normal Heineken in a frozen glass. Ah to be a dumb tourist. Lawson ate his giant Dutch waffle, and the Niamh had a side of crispy bacon. Then we went back over to the brewery and had a interactive experience. The tour made Guinness look like it was done in 1980 and this was done in 2015 with all the sounds, music, and wrap around projections. It took around an hour but I had 5 Heineken which was quite good. 2 in the middle and 3 at the end. I was a happy camper for my €21 ticket. I also got first place for the best pour and got a shiny Heineken pin. It was tough as I forgot to take a special foam scrapper and scrape of the foam on top. However the crowd helped and yelled at me to scrape the top.
Winner. Lawson wrote on a chalk board on my shoulders, and then we left for the boat tour. We got on the blue boat tour and kids liked flipping to various languages while we were not paying attention. It was ok, but not the best the tour not the language flipping 😀. The red tour came with beer, but it was interesting about how they built the canals every time the got a population growth. There were quite a few derelict boats on the canal.
Made it back to the hotel via metro and had dinner. Fiona had cheese plate surprise, surprise and I has pulled pork with cornbread which was very yummy. T goes great with a Heineken or two. I fell asleep around 9:30 and the kids kept playing with on their iPads. At some point the kids and Fiona played musical beds while I missed the music.
Tuesday April 9th, 2019
Up at 9am for another Dutch breakfast. They had mini chocolate croissants, I had two, to go with my standard croissant, OJ, fruit, Swiss cheese and turkey slices. A very good breky. We shows off our massive room to the Sweds who were jealous, and the left for the airport at 10. We took the metro, and then the train from Zuid. 4 stops on the metro and 1 stop on the train. It was very good. The train was quiet and fast 80 mph. I could live here. Very nice place. However, getting to gate D71 to fly to Copenhagen was ridiculous. Was walked 2 miles in the airport to check into out flight, and then walk to drop our bag, and finally to the gate. Crazy. There was some fast walkways, but still would think a tram would be useful. Turns out my colleague from Cisco lives here now and she was at the tulip show yesterday as well. Small world!
Made it on the plane but they didn’t like me having my own beer. So i drank it and boarded. Guess i should drink more and write less. Ha. Should be leaving shortly.
The plane flight was boring and not very full. The last rows were empty so the guy next to me popped out as quick as he could. We landed and didn’t have to go through customs which was very nice. However we did have to walk forever to get our bag which was turning On the claim begging for us to get it. Fiona called the AirBNB people and said we were on our way. As we crossed the airport we picked up the train/metro/bus ticket for 3 days for 40 dollars for the large area instead of the small area as i was not sure where we would be touring. I remember my cab fare last time i was here and 800 krona for 2 people is a steal for 3 days when i think it cost me 600 Krona for a taxi one way.
Which way to get the train? Where do we go? We asked ourselves these important questions like all the other tourists. We get the train into København, oh look all the trains stop in København, yeah and only takes 20 minutes. Well that worked, but then had to figure out how to get the metro service, the S line. Some nice lady said to go out and go to platform 11 / 12 then we go to Carlsberg which is 4 stops which is about 10 minutes. We get on the B train and get off the metro, and to exit just walk up stairs. There is a Netto supermarket staring us in the face which is on our 5 minute walk to the flat. We stop and get milk and other kid essentials and let’s not forget beer for me.
I wait. Wait some more. We go round the corner and see all the bike and then ring the buzzer at building 5 for Emma. We ring once, the door buzzes to let us in, and we go to the 4th floor. There are no numbers on the doors? Which door? The white on on the right or the white on on the left. Fiona calls confused. Oh, we go out the door to the outside of course. Uh, there are 4 doors on the outside. Ah the one with the coat hanger in the door, right that one. Knock. Lovely lady answers and shows us the flat. It is clean and pretty much an ikea showroom. Everything but the TV is from ikea, probably the floor too. The door to the patio does not work, bummer.
We decide that food has been calling and should do our best to answer, so felt adventurous and set off to eat at a place on whim. We walked. Walked some more. Walked even further and stopped at the Chicky Grill for some real danish food. I had meatballs, steamed potatoes, onions, and gravy. Fiona and Niamh has the junior hamburger, and Lawson has sausage and fries smothered in spicy ketchup.
Oh wait Lawson doesn’t do spicy ketchup. Well something for Niamh, Fiona, and I to snack on while we find pieces that are not ‘touching’ the evil ketchup for the picky eater. The beer is a good one from Carlsberg called Elephant. We make our way back and there are no ice cream shops to stop in so we go back to the flat and warm up. I take a shower, and Fiona proceeds to do all the laundry.
We watch the first Harry Potter movie, but the dryer stops drying. It just beeps at us. Fiona is asleep. I turn it off. The movie ends. Fiona starts the dryer again and it stops after 10 minutes. It beeps some more. I turn it off since it is loud and beeping. I get told off for turning it off, but it does not want to finish drying our clothes. Dumb dryer.
Wednesday April 10th, 2019
It is bright and shiny at 6am, and I figure out our dryer is a Siemens iq300 which is a condensation dryer so it collects water in a holding tank which has to be emptied. Oh. I Empty it and the dryer runs longer than 10 minutes. Yeah! Out clothing dries by 7, but we do not leave the flat until 9am.
We take the metro up to see the mermaid. We walk around the park / military place and see a windmill, cherry trees in bloom. Then the mermaid came into view so had to have a waffle for Lawson, hot chocolate for Niamh, and coffee for me. Fiona had a chuckle as we eat had our fix while gazing on the mermaid. We learned this later but apparently the mermaid has lost her head a few times, her arms, and been covered in various liquids like paint if I remember correctly. Fiona is cold so have to walk in the sun at all times.
We then meander to Frederick’s Church aka marble church, which was pretty neat.
We stopped along the way and picked up some more postcards. At 1pm we saw the Royal Dutch Guard some out and play. No really a marching band came out and played a tune, and marched by us. I asked a guy if we could do a selfie but he just wiggled his head from left to right. Instead we found an abandoned guard station and did a family selfie.
We passed 7 pizza shops which the kids poo pooed, but found a great place for lunch, the Gardhåven, full of old people so it had to be good. It was. Fiona and Niamh had tomato soup and I had a delightful ham cheese sandwich on a homemade warm roll. Lawson had 4 mini pancakes. It was grand with the tip top beer. The beer was a little funky but am not sure if it was the tap or the beer.
Off to the canal cruise. We found one next to some brightly painted houses called Strömma and ticket person said we can get 20% off Tivoli Gardens if we bought the tickets all in one go. A walking garden sure no problem. We took the cruise and went under many low bridges, a super narrow bridge, and every bridge in between. We saw the opera house which they extended to be able to jump off the roof into the canal which seems like a perfectly reasonably thing at the opera house. An old ship mast building that would hold up a ship mast to put it into a ship. A crazy church, church of our savior, with stairs that went up in a spiral to the top (we will do that tomorrow) on the outside. We saw the little mermaid again and heard stories about her decapitation, missing arms, and paint endeavors. The architecture along the canal was very cool. There was a lighthouse houseboat, a building that looks like a diamond when reflecting off the water, the house of Hans Christian Andersen, and we ended up at Tivoli Gardens only a half mile away.
Oh wait it is not a garden, but an amusement park sort of like the boardwalk but we had to pay to get in, and then pay to ride on the rides. It was around 4:15 and walked around to find the front door as we tried to go through the exit. Ages later we found the door and figured out it was open till 11pm. Well ok. So we walked around for an hour and to ride on a 1 ticket ride would cost 3 dollars, or 6 krona. To ride the mountain ride would be 6 dollars for versus an all day pass for 30. So yes after 5 rides we break even, but also didn’t want to spend all day in the park either and the kids were hungry. We were very close to the place I had my good beer and hamburger, Restaurant Puk.
We found it and Niamh had a burger, Fiona a flank steak, Lawson fries, and I has danish meatballs and potatoes. The meal looked great, tasted good, but then potatoes and meat balls were cold. Bummer. My stout local beer helped quite a bit.
Out into the cold we waited for the A1 bus which would take us directly to the flat. Oh, but we didn’t ring the bus stop button in time so he went to the next stop. So we walked back and picked up some milk and watched the second Harry Potter movie.
Thursday April 11th, 2019
Holy cow it is 10:30. I guess it doesn’t help that I stayed up late goofing around. Off to see the spiral church.
Well not quite. We got the metro into town again another 4 stops, and on our way to the church we stopped by the round tower. It was a very fun tower that spun around with old bricks that made up the floors. At one point there was a glass floor 75 meters up that marked the spot were a little boy fell down and lived, but the Dutch had to get him out so it is a little shaft that about a meter wide that two people can fit that runs the entire round tower from top to bottom.
Off to the next sight, Rosenborg Castle. There is so much to see as this is the place that holds the Crown Jewels of all the rules of the past. Tons of ivory, silver, china, mirrors, portraits. The favorite part was at one o’clock a music cabinet from 1757 played a little ditty which was quite amazing. The other bit of the adventure was Lawson managed to go on the tour by himself which the three others managed to see the second and third floor , and then see it again looking for the little rascal. We found him where we dropped off our bag, but included him on the final bit of the tour in the basement where they keep the good stuff.
However to top off taking himself on his on tour he thought it would be funny to pee of the grass of the castle while I went to go get the bag from the locker. I didn’t find out about it until later and was quite upset at well. Lawson pushed all the buttons and we all yelled at each other after I tripped him into the dirt for not listening to me. I guess it is only fitting that we got this all out of the way prior to visiting the highest church steeple in Copenhagen.
Before we arrived to the church we stopped by a cafe, Le Coin, who had three things on their menu. Kids stuff was not on it. I had an open faced salmon and cream cheese thing that was really good with a Turborg Gold beer. Fiona had an avocado open faced sandwich, Lawson an apple, and Niamh the nice bread and cream cheese. Needless to say the kids didn’t eat. I ate Lawson’s bread with a bit of Niamh’s cheese and got yelled at for contaminant the cheese with my knife. Yup I’m a knucklehead it was used to cut my sandwich, ah….nuts. This is why I do not eat seafood with Fiona as I do stupid stuff.
After our lunch we headed up the Church of Our Saviour. We watched a little puffin bird give a 5 minute introduction and then proceeded to squeeze past people built on steps only big enough for one person. Oh and the bells still worked so we went up and down in 20 minutes. Only Lawson actually made it to the top as the adults where to fat and in the way, so I didn’t make the last turn up the spiral. We stopped by the ice cream shop and everyone got their fix – kids with their ice cream, my beer, and Fiona’s wine. It was 4:30 and the next place closed at 5, but we trek off to look at it anyway.
We arrive at Christiansborg with 5 minutes to spare to 5 and decide to go up to see that tower too. There is a restaurant called Tärnet which is Tower which is very fancy and expensive, but they do not have a bar. So we took in the tower and then found a place called Restaurant Karla where the kids throughly enjoyed the food since we starved them of lunch.
Lawson had two red sausages with fried, Niamh had pork and 17 potatoes, I had a burger, and Fiona had cheese. Niamh like the gravy that came with her potatoes too. She also got the recipe for perfect potatoes. Add a pinch of salt, bring them to boil, and let them simmer for 20 minutes. Stick a knife in them and if they fall off they are done. Lawson will be harder to convert. They ate so well we had another desert which Niamh also ate when Lawson couldn’t finish.
We took the A1 bus back and this time all three were ready after the stop prior to Carlsberg. The bus stopped at the right place and this time we visited Føtex for our milk, but Fiona also picked up airplane snacks and tights to wear while in Sweden. Didn’t you know it was minus 1 Celsius? Bummer. Anywho we watched the third Harry Potter film tonight and the kids are at each other’s throats again. I tried to switch with Lawson but the couch pullout sucks.
Friday April 12th, 2019
We get up and pack and make our way to the airport to get our flight. We get the metro without any issue. We are on SAS to Sweden on the 11:45 flight. Security was a snap and didn’t have to go through customs on the way out. We ate at the cock and cows before the flight. I had a nice beer with a session IPA for a morning breakfast with and English muffin and danish yogurt which of blue berries and maple syrup of all things.
The flight was uneventful thank goodness. We arrived and it was sunny and crisp. We got the train direct into Stockholm which reached speeds of up to 120mph so we got to town in 20 minutes. Then we got a 7 day metro pass for the 5 days we will be here and go the T train and then the metro line which was steps from the AirBNB were where staying.
We rang the place and Jenny let us in and introduced us to her two Burmese cats, Miso and Maki. We then went to the beer, wine, and spirit shop about 300 meters away across from the grocery store. We picked up some milk and OJ and took it back to the flat to then meet up with Rebecca and David. We had pizza Swedish style with is not so different than the states, but this would be my first kebab pizza ever 😉
We went to sleep back in the cat flat where I had a heck of a time with the evil cats while watching the 4th Harry Potter movie. I had a Zyrtec and felt better, but the cats are still vile little monsters.
Saturday April 13th, 2019
We got to borrow some coats, and Rebecca picked up some gloves and hats for the family which turned out quite nice for today in the icy sunlight. We are thinking of going down to the mall on Monday to get some proper cold weather gear for the states.
David and Rebecca played host to the Americans and took us on the ferry to the Vasa Museum where we got to see 7 stories of a boat built in 1628 that sank on its maiden voyage. The amount detail was amazing. We spent about and hour and a bit on the various levels just gob smacked with the ship. The kids were not as quite as impressed. David later mentioned he same ship builder commissioned another boat and built is a meter wider than this ship and is credited with winning a war with the Polish. Crazy what a meter will do. Then we had lunch at a cafe and had my meatballs and fries. It was good with the local golden beer.
After lunch we went to the ABBA museum which was very interesting. Learned all about he band and got to interact with the songs ourselves to boot. The costumes where fantastic and Fiona says we should use this as inspiration for Halloween this year. Hum. After the tour had a break with a pop lager that is gluten-free and is not great. We get the ferry back to a local brewery where I get to order a flight of beer. I get a falafel burger which is ok, but the beer is good. One of the tasters is gluten free again and it is not much better. Not sure why I do that to myself. Gluten free beer what a crock. We then walk back and I have a Carlsberg export and watch the 5th Harry Potter movie. We don’t hangout with the new parents since Albin can’t go to sleep, oh well. Always tomorrow 😉
Sunday April 14th, 2019
I woke up at 9 and played on the IPad for a bit. No rush today since we are off to see the changing of the Swedish Guard and they do it at 1:15pm. Now how to get there? By boat and see if we go correct way ay whatever time or use the google maps and take the tram and metro into see the royal palace. Google maps does not provide boat times so we opted to take the tram and metro. It was like going back to the airport but Niamh decided to not be with us as we went through the ticket machine and was locked out. It became clear that we each needed a kid through the turn style since the kids tried to go together but lack tickets for the machine. We finally got there around 11 so walked along the narrow streets with no cars or bikes. It was a tourist haven with all the nicknacks and bars. We found the house of burgers was a good place to recharge our feet at 11:30 we finished by 12:15 and then meandered around until 1. Then stood behind a rope for 45 minutes while a band played and the changing of the guard transpired with pomp and circumstance. I managed to wiggle my way to the front half way through since the people didn’t know it was going to last 45 minutes.
The guard wore berets instead of fuzzy hats which was disappointing. Shouldn’t all palace guards have fuzzy hats? I was hoping to see a bunch of fuzzy hats moving about but the swishing of waking of the flags was pretty good. The guys holding the flags had to hold them a good long while, but got a break while the band played.
We then did an Easter egg hunt in the royal apartments and the kids found 15 golden eggs across 3 floors and 29 rooms. Each kiddo had a clipboard and a map to indicate where the eggs were located. We had to walk down and back instead of being able to in a circle. The good thing is we didn’t loose any children. Doh. After the hunt the kids turned in their maps and go to pick either a postcard of the future queen, Princess Estelle, or a chocolate coin. They go for the chocolate, and then proceed to wine for it until we find a pub.
Wirstroms pub is were we stopped, and Fiona wanted to leave but i found a table in the back. Then a nice lady said they had a bunch of room downstairs so we checked out the dark hole down some dark winding steps. It smelled like urinal cakes so opted to go back to the table upstairs and proceeded to have two beers and a Nutty Irishman. Fiona had a choice of wine red or white, ha. The kids gobbled their chocolate coins and had a coke and apple juice.
We then got the metro and tram back, but this time we got each kid. The machine gave me a squeeze but still managed to make it through. We still didn’t manage to tag on and off the tram, but stopped back by our flat to feed the cats and drop off the backpack. We then made it to David and Rebecca’s by 6 for a great meal of chicken, carrots, broccoli, and potatoes and of course beer. I tired 5 different kids by splitting the bottles with David.
We go back to the flat at 10 after gabbing with David and Rebecca. They hung out with Albin all night listen to him complain not being with his cousins, so they didn’t get to join us on our royal guard adventure. I did enjoy the Swedish beers.
Monday April 15th, 2019
I woke up to math. Well Fiona explaining (aka yelling) to Niamh how to round up money to the nearest dollar or half dollar, and then subtracting the change of the items. It was a challenge. Lawson read a story and thunder and lightning and had to compare characters. Today is our last full day and get to return our fluffy coats to our hosts and figure out how to take off sheets at 4am tomorrow.
We met Rebecca by the tram, Fiona had to go back and get the silly girl her coat since Niamh ‘thought’ she put it in my backpack. We then followed Rebecca into town to a big shopping mall to find me a nice coat and perhaps a Swedish jersey for the kiddos. We managed to also get clothes for the kids while we were at it. Lawson found some Monkey PJ and minion gear. Niamh also got a puffy coat. Fiona didn’t get anything from the store but Rebecca gave her coat that we borrowed which was nice.
We are at a hotel restaurant that Rebecca frequents and the kids managed to break a rope since they treated it like a swing instead of a barrier to not go up stairs. Lawson ate bread, but Niamh at least had the soup. We quietly slinked away as we didn’t want to be told off. We tried to make the last tourist canal boat but it was pulling away at 3:30 when we walked up to the ticket booth. Well it is not all bad as we went to the grand hotel and had some nice beer and a snack of fries
David met us at the hotel and we all walked to our viking dinner. The restaurant was very cool, but the Lawson didn’t eat as they didn’t have fries in Viking times. I ordered something that I thought he would eat since it said it was sausages but turned out to be cured meat slices like salami or pepperoni which is is not a fan. Bummer. I had a honey beer out of a giant ceramic cup. I however should have ordered the salmon and let the poor boy suffer all by himself, but ended up eating much of the cured meats that were not that bad even if it said reindeer heart on the menu.
We then made our way back to the flat and packed up our bags and left the kids on their iPads while we gave back the gear we borrowed back to Rebecca and David along with sharing some last beers from Sweden. We left at 11pm and the kids were still up. We set the alarm for 4:45am which is over 6 hours of sleep.
Tuesday April 16th, 2019
Out the door at 5:15am to get the tram. We really had the struggle to get the key in the pouch in the mail slot but forced it in. My Tesla keys and badge disappeared as I looked for them in the big bag. Hopefully a helpful person didn’t move them but otherwise need a new badge and another Tesla key and a home key which all pretty much suck. Hopefully it is another pocket, but think they might have migrated to another bag or someone skimmed them from our orange case which is a bummer.
Fiona missed the train from the tram connection, but managed to get the next one 4 minutes later. Everyone made the fast train to the airport. I got a text from my boss who said KB was down turns out the KB user lost read access which I’m not sure why? I was traveling is all I can say 😉 We couldn’t use the automated self check but managed to get our two bags into the airline. So we made the first leg of the plane flight, and will get to hangout for 5 hours which will be more like 4 since we have to recheck our bag and go again through security. Yeah. Hopefully Lawson will keep the contents of his stomach to himself though the next security check. Dum. Dum. Dum. To be continued.