fiskekaker

After spending the day at Vigeland Sculpture Park, our Oslo hosts prepared a delicious, traditional Norwegian dinner of fish cakes, boiled potatoes, and peas.

traveling

We are off to Oslo today. We'll take a train out of Stockholm at around 2:30 this afternoon and arrive in Oslo at 9 o'clock. A one-way ticket for an adult cost about $70; the kids' ticket, $1.50! The thing Leah is most looking forward to is buying food out of the vending machine on the train.

eating

Since we have a kitchen, and since Stockholm is so expensive (coffee and a couple of pastries will set you back about $10), we've mostly been eating in. Our meals are not much different than the same boring meals we eat at home even when cooking with unfamiliar brands and when I don't understand the list of ingredients on the packages. But we have discovered some new foods too. Some of the foods we have enjoyed or tried are:

• Swedish pancakes (already cooked and pre-packaged -- probably not as good as those made from scratch, I'm sure, but certainly convenient) served with lingonberry jam
  
• coarse breads, flat breads and crisp breads (you can find the Wasa brand in the States but there are so many more brands and so many more shapes and sizes here)
• sweet brown goat cheese (which is actually a Norwegian import)
• morning buns (the Swedish variation seems to be made with a hint of cardamon)
• müsli (eaten with Turkish yogurt, of course!)
• and, of course, I did buy a jar of pickled herrings but I think I may have been the only one in the family to eat any
  

We've already developed brand loyalty to anything made at the Saltå mill. They're the ones who make the müsli we like the best. They specialize in organic, whole grains (breads, pasta, even rice), nuts, juices, beans.

sunday in the country

Another escape to the country, this time to visit K's colleague and family in Trosa, a sweet town on the water. Many Stockholmers come here for a relaxing getaway. Some arrive by yacht. We took the train and then got a ride another 20 km or so to Trosa.

Shown here is the private pier the belongs to our hosts; a group shot in the town's central square (their two delightful daughters are 10 and 4); and, because I didn't make it into the group shot and because people are starting to give me a hard time, there's finally a picture of me (with L); there's also a picture of the waterway that goes from the sea into the heart of Trosa.