Notes from Sweden...

Snowboarding

We've just got back from a fantastic week snowboarding with our English friends Carrie and Simon and Swedes Andreas and David. We hired a little log cabin and have had an action packed week of snowboarding, sledging, 'sauna-challenges' (ruuning outside in the snow after a sauna!) and an eventful ski scooter ride where Daniel crashed and nearly broke my hip!!

Snowboarding seemed a lot easier than last year with a lot less aches and pains but I still think I've got a bit of a way to go to match Daniel's speed and stunts!!

Just a few pictures from our trip....

(Carrie & Simon filmed some movies of us all skiiing and snowboarding so I'll have to fgure out how to put them on here)

Simon, Carrie, Daniel & Andreas

Our top floor 'stuga' - the stairs were a bit lethal for running down during the 'sauna challenge'

All straped onto our boards and ready to go!

A well dererved 'after ski' drink!!

Just admiring the view!

Sunset from the top of the slopes!

Feeling Christmassy!

We had Daniel's Mum and Dad to stay this weekend, and no visit to Gothenburg in December would be complete without a trip to Liseberg. To reach Liseberg theme park we took an old 1920's tram that they only run during the Christmas period. It had beautiful wooden interiors and is complete with a driver and conductor in old fashioned uniforms and white gloves!

All of the rides at Liseberg are shut during the winter, but instead they cover the park with just under 5 million tiny fairy lights and have lots of little market stall selling Christmassy produce.

They even had an ice bar, which is made from the same ice they use to build the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi in the North of Sweden. I don't think the bar staff looked as though they were enjoying themselves too much!

I think our tree needs a few more lights before it can compete with Liseberg!

Sorry!

I've been sooo busy with work for the last few weeks that I've not had a chance to post anything on here.... so here comes 3 postdated entries! Promise I'll try harder to make time to post!

Snow!!

We've been having a very mild autumn, so were amazed to wake up to snow this morning!! The temperature dropped from +12 C to -5C in the space of 12 hours - brrrrrr!!

Mum & Dad to stay

Mum and Dad came to stay this weekend, although they didn't time it very well as it rained just about all weekend! Mum came armed with wedding magazines for me and Dad came armed with whisky for Daniel, so we were both happy!

On the Friday we just wandered around Gothenburg popping into little shops and cafes along the way - generally just giving Mum and Dad the guided tour of our new town!

On Saturday we drove out to the little island of Marstrand, just up the coast from Gothenburg. It was sunny when we set out but when we arrived it was really rainy and dark! We only saw about 5 other people on the island during the whole day!!

To round off their weekend, I took Mum and Dad to see the elks in the park up the road. The whole family of elks was out enjoying the short burst of sunshine, and this Daddy Elk was very keen on having his photo taken!!

Engagement ring

I am now the proud wearer of a beautiful white gold engagement ring with 3 square cut diamonds set into the band - its beautiful!! We chose it together in a little jewellers down the road. I've noticed that I keep sitting and looking at it and seeing which light it's most sparkly in!!

Portugal

We got back from a brilliant week in Portugal late on Tuesday night. The holiday was made even more special by Daniel's proposal - see post below! There were no direct flights from Gothenburg to Faro, so we flew from Copenhagen instead. As the flight was super early in the morning we decided to travel down to Copenhagen by bus the day before and spend the day exploring Copenhagen and then to stay in a hotel before heading to the airport at 4am!

We'd been to Copenhagen 2 summers ago, so the weather was a bit different this time round -grey and wet! Below is a photo of Nyhavn which is a very picturesque row of restaurants and bars, one of which Danish author Hans Christian Andersen used to live above.

Once in Portugal we were very lazy - just spending our time wandering along the beach and round the marina, or lazing by the pool reading - perfect!!

Most evening we walked into the nearby town of Vilamoura for drinks and a meal. We even managed to find a Swedish restaurant where we could speak Swedish to the waitress!