Start of the holidays!

Saturday was the beginning of our 2 week summer holiday in Sweden. We were going to go camping in Skåne, on the south coast of Sweden like last year, but the weather forecast said rain, rain, rain everyday so we have decided instead to stay in Gothenburg and explore a bit closer to home.

On Saturday there was bright sunshine despite the weather forecast so we jumped on a tram and went to the fishing village of Saltholmen. We spent a beautiful sunny day lazing around reading on the rocks and I also plucked up the courage to go swimming in the sea - brrrrr! No photos of Saltholmen I'm afriad as I forgot to pack my camera!

On Sunday we went for a wander round the park up the road and managed to discover some penguins and seals!

We also saw the Daddy elk that I spotted a few weeks ago sunbathing with his calf (below).

Across the road from the park is Gothenburgs Botanical Gardens which were built in 1910. It was really nice to wander round in the sunshine and forget you were in the middle of town!

I thought this pavilion looked like the one in the Sound of Music that Liesel dances round with Rolf! Daniel wouldn't do the dance with me though!

Hot in the city!

We've just come back from a very lazy 9 days at home. I think we picked the right week to be at home for a holiday as the temperature was up to 35C/95F for most of the week so we just spent a lot of time lounging around in the garden - it's a hard life!

We were also home for Mum's birthday and celebrated with a meal out...

On Thursday we had arranged to meet up some friends in London. Despite having lived in London for the 5 years (university and working) prior to moving to Sweden, we've not been back to London for nearly 2 years so it felt very strange to be back! After living in Trollhättan with a population of 52,000 and then moving to Gothenburg where there are 879,000 people it felt very cramped to be back in London with another 7 and a half million people!!

The photos below are from Oxford Street - there aren't many things I miss about London, but the shops on Oxford Street are definitely one of the things I do!

Look who I met..

Look who I met in the park today...

Well, I didn't quite 'meet' him as he lives in the animal enclosure in the park up the road! There is however an elk on the loose on the other side of Gothenburg who has been seen wandering along the main shopping street and drinking from fountains so I'm going to keep my eyes peeled for him too!

Just after I took this photo the batteries on my camera unfortunately ran out, which was a shame as the Mummy elk came out of her stable and right up to the fence to have her photo taken. There were 2 calves there too last time we went to look so I'll have to try and take thier photos next time...

I've only seen a glimpse of an elk in the wild so its quite amazing to watch them and realise how huge they really are!

(Carrie and Simon - next time you come we won't have to drive around for miles 'elk spotting' - we can just go to the park!!)

Canoeing

Yesterday we spent the day canoeing at Vättlefjäll which is a series of lakes just north of Gothenburg. Although it wasn't as sunny as it had been all week, the rain managed to stay away for most of the day.

There were 4 lakes that were linked by little streams or some areas where you had to take the canoe out of the water and carry it over the land which was hard work!

We stopped for a BBQ on an island at lunchtime only to discover that no-one had packed matches, so had to wait awhile for another boat with matches to turn up!

End of World Cup dream and sunbathing

On Saturday we had a few friends round to watch England play Portugal in the Quarter Final of the World Cup. Sadly England got knocked out on penalties, but the most contravertial part of the match was when Wayne Rooney (above) was sent off for stamping on another player in a rather sensitive area! David Beckham has said he will stand down as Captain and it was Sven's last match as Manager, so it will be all change for the next England match....

We rounded off watching the football in true English style, with one of Daniel's monster curries, plus a bit of a dance-off between Magnus and Daniel! (Why do all our parties end with cheesy dancing?!)

Yesterday we cycled 15 km to the coast and spent the day sunbathing at Fiskebäck.

We thought no one else would have the same idea as us, but we were proved wrong when we cycled up and realised half of Gothenburg was there too!

A lot of Swedes were out swimming in the sea, but it was a bit cold for us - maybe next time!