last days

On our last full day in Stockholm, I was stopped in the street but someone asking directions. I was able to easily direct him to the biblioteket and point out Odengatan (our street). Now that I'm finally a local, it's time to go home.

düsseldorf

Our visit to Düsseldorf was too short and was made even shorter by the fact that Leah spent our first day there in bed with a fever. But she recovered soon enough to give us a chance to, among other things:

• explore the neighborhood which was the home of many shops and markets as well as cafes and bakeries and a local library
• visit Schloss Burg, a medieval castle about 45 minutes drive from Düsseldorf
• shop at an open air market where local farmers were selling fruits, vegetables, flowers and locally-produced honey, jam and different types of wurst
• go to the races (the adults did not bet but the kids rode ponies and got their faces painted)
• take a short walk to see the Rhein River
• and, of course, we made time to play in the neighborhood playgrounds (we found three within walking distance)

In case you're wondering, the trips to and from Düsseldorf were surprisingly smooth despite the many transfers and modes of transportation.

weekend in düsseldorf

The girls and I are off to a long weekend in Düsseldorf, Germany to meet up with an old friend. We were able to get a good deal on Ryan Air which is a British discount airline that offers dirt cheap flights throughout Europe. (I have heard it used as a verb as in, "His friends ryanaired over from London for the wedding...") Ryan Air flies out of lesser airports which means that we're in for a logistically interesting travel day. Our day will involve the following means of transportation:

• Subway from our apartment to the Central Station (2 stops)
• Train from Stockholm Central to Nyköping (1 hour)
• Taxi from train station in Nyköping to Stockholm Skavska Airport (7 km)
• Ryan Air flight to Weeze in Germany (1 hour, 50 minutes)
• Bus from the Weeze airport to Düsseldorf (1 hours, 15 minutes)
• Car from bus stop to my friend's house (unknown ... only a few minutes, I'm hoping)

Wish us luck!

kaknästornet

No visit to any city is complete without going to that city's highest point for a panoramic view. The views from the Kaknäs tower of Stockholm and the archipelago did not disappoint.

daylight

In the eight weeks we have been here we have seen the days get shorter. When we arrived in June, right after midsummer, it got dark around 10:30 and was light again by about 3:30 in the morning. (We know this because we were so jetlagged and were waking up at all hours.) Now it gets dark around 9:00 and the sun rises, according to one website I consulted, at 5:00.

tessinparken

During the summers there is an open-air market at Tessin Park where we bought a jar of Swedish Sea buckthorn (havtorn) marmalade -- we bought it out of curiosity more than anything. The park is also home of a fabulous sculpture called The Egg (designed by Egon Muller-Nielsen). Kids can climb in and out of the sculpture and go down and a small internal slide.

the tooth rooster

Anna lost her front tooth yesterday. But since the tooth fairy was unable to obtain a visa for Sweden, we had to do what Swedish children do. At bedtime, Anna put her tooth in a glass of water by her bed. In the middle of the night, a rooster came to take away the tooth leaving a few coins in its place.