cobblers

Holiday over

Now we have been back in sweden a couple of weeks and I am only just getting around to talking about it. Heres my list of the good stuff :-

• Northern Italy is really nice
• the Dolomites just kick ass, they are so amazing
• Wine in italy is cheap
• Germany was a really big surprise, I had no expectations but there is just so much to see and there are lots of really nice towns.
• Lake Garda is really nice to swim in when its 38 degrees

See some pictures of the trip here (now in the correct chronological order)

All in all it was a great holiday.

Scotland in September

I will be over in Scotland the first weekend in September. This is mainly to pickup up Elsa who is spending a couple of weeks with her Granny and Grandpa. Not that I dont already miss hre but, woohoooo! Time to do all those things you can't do with a kid e.g. go to cinema, go to pub, other things which involve going out together...

So time will be limited, but I still have hopes of meeting up with some friends when I'm over, so leave a comment or get in touch if you fancy a pint. Hmmmm, Cale 80...

Lots happened, now in Italy

Ok since Denmark we have done lots so this is just a quick update...

Drove down to Marburg in Germany where we spent a few days with Ulrika's brother and family. Really nice university town with some cool buildings and lots of real good German beer, hmmm.

Then drove down to Interlaken in Switzerland, pausing in Baden Baden on the way (lots of rich old peaple). Switzerland was great too. Camped in a valley that was all towering cliffs and waterfalls. Did some walking.

Drove down to Italy going over a couple of extremely high steep passes. Think 1-in-10 for 15 kilometres and you'll get the idea. Managed to make a hole in the exhaust. Lots of hairpin turns...

Capmed at the really nice Lago di Iseo and then Lago di Garda. Really hot, 38 degreed but nice to swim in the lake. Met up with Pat and Jen. Lots of good food and drink.

Finally travel up, yay, to the Dolomites where its cool, and that about where we are.

Summer Holiday 2006

At last we have started our holiday, it felt like we were never getting away. Now however we have made it as far south as Koge, south of Copenhagen, in Denmark. That is about 800km drive from Uppsala. The first night, wednesday, we stopped in Jönköping to stay with Malin, Håkan, Alma and Hilda. Then on thursday it was another long drive down to Helsingborg where took the ferry over to Denmark.

The weather has been really hot, about 30 degreess, which makes me wonder why we are driving all the way down to Italy when there is so much to see and do here. The Danish countryside is really nice. We are staying with Per and Eva who Ulrika know through work. They have a great wee house, with a guesthouse, so we haven't even slept in the van yet.

Tomorrow we head off for the ferry to Germany and then further south...

Plans for summer

This summer we are planning on taking a long holiday, six weeks, and tavelling down to Europe. We are going to drive down in the campervan that we bought last autumn, and have never really used yet.

Probably from the last week in June to the first week in August.

The rough plan is to go down through Germany and then head over to northern Italy and spend some time in the Dolomites. Then the idea is to head over to southern france and hopefully meet up with Chris in Nice and Sophie in the Pyranees.

Or we might reverse the route, however this way we may get lucky and find some tickets to the final of the world cup, or not.

If anyone else is heading in that direction give us a shout, or if you hae any good advice about things to do.

Scotland for New Year

We are back in Scotland for Hogmanay now, and will be in Edinburgh tomorrow if anyone wants to come out for a pint. From about 7.30 in The Last Drop, Grassmarket.

Ireland Trip

Last week we were in Ireland for Ulrika's cousin Jenny's wedding. Thanks for having us over Jenny and Pat and lots of luck in the future.

When we were over we took the chance to see a bit of Ireland. Flew into Dublin and stayed at the very good North Star Hotel. Then we drove over to Galway on the west coast, having had a tip that this side had much nicer scenery and it did, which is a really nice town with a pretty active pub scene.

Aside: Active pub scenes are no use when travelling with a two year old. They never buy a round.

We decided to take a drive up into Connemara Co. and had the luck to have the perfect weather to do it in. Blue skies and not too windy wither. It was also here we had our first real encounter with Ireland's infamous wee roads. Good fun to drive on, maybe not such good fun if your a passenger or feel car sick. Anyway Connemara is very beautiful and well worth a visit if your into the deserted beaches thing. (Well in May they were deserted, probably not in July unfortunately).

Quickly, we then also visited

• The Cliffs of Moher - really spectacular though it was pretty wet when we were there
• Ennis - nice little town with a pretty good youth hostel
• Kilkenny - really nice old town, which also produces wonderful beer and I also had the largest pork shank I have ever seen

Then finally we get to Kilmacow where Jenny and Pat live. Stay in a tent in the rain. Elsa hogs the inflatable matress so we only get the very edges.

However the company is great and we make the most of the Guiness and whiskey at the local pub.
Then its the big day and everything goes without a hitch, congratulations!!

What more can I say, good company, good food, good booze. All the ingrdients fo a perfect wedding :-)

More pictures on Flickr

Kittelfjäll ski weekend

Last weekend a big bunch of us from work went up to Kittelfjäll in the north of Sweden for a skiing/snowboarding trip. For the few of you out there who don't know where it is its up there:

Its easily the furthest north I have been, at about 1000km stright up from Uppsala. We travelled up overnight by bus. It was my first time on a sleeping bus (the seats turned into some sort of giant bunkbed in a way that appealed to the engineer in me, but not the sleeper), but it wasnt as bad as I thought it could be. It was cramped, and the roads in the north of Sweden meant that we were kept awake by being shaken about. But thats not really the buses fault. Anyway, after 12 hours we arrived at 8am in Kittelfjäll to a perfect day.

Quick breakfast an then it was up onto the slopes, first time skiing this year so it took a wee bit to come back into it but the snow was pretty easy, even if they could have used a bit more.

The saturday didnt have such good weather, but the meal at night and the pub afterwards well made up for it.

The sunday was great weather again, so we decided to splash out and go heliskiing. This is something I've wanted to do for a very, very long time and the price was right so we booked three runs.

At least half the fun was flying in the helicopter, another first time experience. The tops of theose hills look very small when your coming into land. But the skiing was first class on Marsfjället, the mountain we flew to. It was a bit hairy at times but I kept the side up and made it to the bottom in one piece.

See some more of my pictures here

See Stophe's pictures here

Edinburgh week

Last week I was in Edinburgh for a Computer Security course, which was interesting and gave me a chance to catch up with a few old friends. So thanks to Olly and Francis for letting me stay with them all week and treating their flat like a hotel.

On Monday I met up with Dave and Martin in Dave's private club, which I cant remember the name of just now, very nice though with friendly staff.

Then on tuesday Frances, Olly, Richard and me went out for a curry at Guru Balti. This place must have the biggest Naan bread in the world, we had one between four, so I take pity on folk who havent been there before and order one each.

Then on wednesday it was out for a few beers with Alyn and Dave, really good to see tham again. Starting off in NB's then on to Cenaro in the Grassmarket for some food. Afterwards it was a quick pint in The Last Drop before going up to Finnegans Wake to listen to a little live music.

Giving my liver a much needed rest Olly, Richard and me went for a climb on thursday at Alien Rock. Havent been climbing since I came to Sweden and this really got me in the mood to do some more. Must dig out the harness and shoes.

Then on friday we just had a night in watching Donnie Darko, not sure I understood the ending though :-} but a good film all the same.

Creative Commons Travel Guide

The map in the previous post was generated from the World66 travel site. Looking at it again I saw that it allows anyone to add informations. All this under a Creative Commons license too. Must go and add something about Uppsala.