Stockholm - There's SO much to see!

This time last year we were in Stockholm, Sweden. Quite why it's taken me so long to write about it I don't know, as it's among my favourite trips which we've taken to date.

The Vasa

We were there for 10 days and we crammed in a lot during that time. Flicking through the photos I'm actually pretty astounded how much we managed to do in such a short time, so I'll just cover the highlights!

As far as the tourist trail goes we did pretty well. First off we did the Vasa museum, a place which houses a 17th century warship, the Vasa, which sunk in 1628 but has gone on the become the most intact 17th century ship in existence today. It's simply beautiful, and took up a whole morning in itself wandering around the boat and museum (you can't go on it but you can go around it.) Rather than waiting for a tour we did it at our own pace, and waited for the English language showing of the video they show about the ship. It's actually pretty fascinating, the Vasa sunk on her maiden voyage, less than a nautical mile into her journey, and laid on the bottom of Stockholm's harbour until it was rediscovered in the late 1950's and salvaged in 1961. It's thought she sank because of the organisation of the ballast and weight of the guns in the hold, which made her more unstable, and also that she was sailed with the the gun ports open, which meant when the gun ports dipped below the waterline they further increased the weight and she capsized entirely.

Getting progressively more drunk and cold.

Next on our list of things to do was the Ice Bar! While they now have locations in London and Oslo, the Stockholm location was actually the original, and I've always been keen on trying this out. It's not cheap to get in, and then you have to pay for drinks on top, and boy do they hit you for the drinks, but I treated it as a once in a lifetime type of thing...and of course got promptly smashed. Once you get your ticket to go in they deck you out in a not very flattering blue poncho and mittens, you do feel a bit of a tit to start with but once your inside the ice you thank the heavens for them. You step in and are immediately blasted with cold air, and head over to the bar! The cocktail choice is actually quite varied and between the 2 of us I think we rattled through the majority of the menu, finding ones we each liked. You're given a glass made of ice to drink from, which I loved, and I suppose quite handy for them in that they dont need to wash anything, just chuck them out!

You're given 45 minutes in the Ice bar, which we thought was pretty meager for the ticket price, however there is a reason for it. I think we got mixed up with a second group of people who entered after us, and we actually got an extra 15 minutes, and after an hour in there I was beginning to get pain in my fingers and toes. Time to leave! By which point I for one was pissed as hell, we ended the night with a burger and tottered home.

Gamla Stan

Another day was spent wandering Gamla Stan, the Old Town area of Stockholm, the very centre of the city and I believe the area where today's Stockholm originated. It houses the Swedish palace, the Stockholm cathedral, the Nobel museum (I wish we'd visited this, I'll have to go back!) the Stortoget square, and it's beautiful cobbled alleys have seen much history. We spent the morning wandering here and were lucky to get there just as the palace changed their guard, so we hung around awhile and took in all the ceremonial pomp, as a marching band paraded through and played awhile, followed by some pretty intimidating guards.

Changing the guard.

We were in Sweden for Ian's birthday so we spent his day wandering the city, as just walking and exploring is by far our favourite way to get to know a city. We discovered the island of Skeppsholmen, where we also came across a hostel/boat which is permanently moored on the island and has a bar! Much fun was had just chilling here! (See right for a picture of this beautiful boat!) If your ever staying in Stockholm maybe look this place up, I haven't looked at reviews but it seems to me an awesome place to stay. We also discovered the neighbouring island Kastellholmen, where we sat and took in the views of the city, and took a look at a small (teeny in fact) castle.

Another day out we spent at Skansen, an open air museum and zoo on the island of Djurgarden. Skansen includes many buildings which have been bought and moved to the Skansen location piece by piece, in an effort to protect the rural way of life and tradition customs, and range from the 18th to the 20th century. They also include replica exhibits, where tradesmen which include tanners, bakers, engravers and shoemakers demonstrate their respective skills. Skansen also includes an animal section where we saw brown bears, wolves, foxes, elks, owls, seals and Scandinavian breeds of pigs, cows, goats and sheep. We even saw a bright red squirrel running around. All round a great excursion that took up much of the day, and was very informative about the Scandanavian culture and history, and is also surrounded by some of the prettiest gardens I have ever seen!

Outside 'Lisbeth's' apartment - Girl With the Dragon Tattoo tour.

Next we made sure we booked ourselves up to do The Millennium Tour. (That's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo tour to those less book orientated.) We had both read and enjoyed the Millennium trilogy, and seen the Hollywood version of the first book (the one with Daniel Craig in, not the ones in Swedish, but we've since watched those too!) so we were keen to see some of the sights mentioned and which acted as inspiration for the story. With the city of Stockhom being so deepseated in the book, it was amazing to see the areas in real life, such as the particular buildings where the main characters Blomqvist and Salander were supposed to live, a cafe they regularly drank in and one where Larsson apparently wrote portions of the book, (incidentally we later went back to both for coffee) a restaurant they eat at, the office Blomqvist works at, and various other locations. The tour was great, it lasted a few hours but zipped by really quickly, I loved our tour guide Mia who was very enthusiastic about the books and stories, and had lots of little inside bits of information on the films, and she seemed to relish people asking her questions, she certainly knew her stuff.

Last but not least was the food. We ate out a lot in Stockholm, as it was a holiday we wanted to make sure we tried as much as possible. One place did amazing plank steaks with sauce and the most humungous burger I've ever seen (the place was recommended to us before we went, and we loved it so much we went three times!) another stand out dish was meat balls with lingon berries. Another day I tried veal... it was pleasant but all things considered I'm not sure I'll eat it again. Alcohol is very expensive in Sweden, so barring the Ice bar we only went out for drinks on one other evening, and though it had a cool relaxed atmosphere we didn't stay till very late.

But the stand out meal for me was eating out at Eriks Gondolen restaurant close to the Slussen T-Bana station (that's Stockholm's metro system.) To get to Gondolen you take a lift up the building, the restaurant is high up and has fantastic views of the city. I can't actually remember what we ordered but I do remember being very impressed, and then following our meal walking out onto their balcony and taking in the beauty of the city as the sun went down.

My favourite shot of the trip.

Stockholm is beautiful, fun and an exciting city. The people are kind and friendly, it's easy to navigate and unintimidating. There is so so so much to do, I could go back for another 10 days quite easily and not get bored, there are still so many things we didn't do. Stockholm is most definitely on the list of places I need to revisit, as well as checking out other areas of Sweden.

Bruges. It's in Belgium.

In an attempt to finish my little European trip write ups before we go away, I'm going to write about our second to last trip. I can't believe this was a year ago!
 
Having loved our shenanigans to Paris, within a few weeks we booked a few days off and had a four day weekend for another little adventure. This time our destination was Bruges. (Our choice in destination was definitely influenced by watching the film!)

After loving the Eurostar, we were quick to book this up to use them again, and I was even happier to find upon booking that on the way there we'd been upgraded to 1st class seats for the outbound journey. This got even more exciting when we were on the train and someone came round with a trolley, and we realised we got free breakfast.

This is how excited we were about breakie!

The Eurostar took us as far as Brussels, where we then had to get off and hop onto a normal train (the price for this was included in our tickets, so no messing around with buying any others!) I personally really enjoyed the change of scenery, I loved that they have double decker trains, for me it was a novelty having never seen it before. And their trains run very efficiently, they were ALL on time.

A few hours later and we hit Bruges! The train station is on the outskirts of the city, but Bruges being quite a small place it was only about 15 minutes to our hotel and the weather was beautiful, so we walked. Walking through Bruges for the first time is gorgeous. You catch sight of all the little cobbled alleys and want to run down them all and explore.

We were booked in at Martin's Brugge, a lovely hotel smack in the middle of Bruges, right behind the Belfry. You couldn't ask for a better location, and I would highly recommend them. They were very polite and helpful when we asked for a change of room, I can't remember why we asked to be moved though..

So into Bruges itself, we quickly set out to explore! One of the big things for us was that we loved the film In Bruges (Ian particularly loves his films) so we tracked down the tourist information and got a map of the film locations, and made a plan to visit our favourites. The thing about film is how deceptive it is. They make things look so different to reality, so we were shocked to see the differences. That being said the film definitely choose the best settings.

The next day we tried to visit the Belfry, but unfortunately it was closed to the public for the winter, so we were unable to go up. We had a wander around though and the square is pretty, lots of dodging the horse and carts, and surprisingly busy for a cold February. We visited a few chocolate shops, you have to in Bruges! My favourite was The Chocolate Line with some delicious flavours, alongside some very weird ones. Cola, tea, vodka and passion-fruit were among some of my favourites. Havana cigar flavour (yes really) curry, crisp fried onion, wasabi and sun-dried tomato and black olive flavoured chocolate sounds all a bit too odd for me. I do wish I'd tried the bacon flavoured one though!

We tracked down many of the film locations from In Bruges, the hotel they stayed at, the bench scene in front of the statue of Jan Van Eyck (See right) the park scene at Koningin Astridpark, the bridge at Meestraat (see photo above) We also went a bit mad, and tracked down the restaurant Cafedraal, where Ray and Cloe have a date in the film, and had dinner there one evening. We managed to nab a table in almost exactly the same place where they did, you wouldn't believe how much smaller the place is. It's teeny! During the course of the evening a gentleman on the next table attempted to teach me a little Flemish. He taught me one word, and I promptly forgot how to pronounce it. Sorry good sir, but thank you for the kindness.

The Basilica of the Holy Blood

We also tracked down some of the other lesser known locations mentioned, but which weren't as recognisable. Such as the Basilica of the Holy Blood where they keep a vial containing a piece of cloth with the blood of Jesus Christ. every Friday they bring it out for veneration, and apparently they get 50,000 pilgrims a year!

The food in Bruges was lovely. The stand out restaurant for me was Sacre Coeur which was a chilled out restaurant that very kindly gave us a table quite late one evening. Another night I indulged in mussels in garlic sauce, which was served in what looked like a cauldron, I've never seen such a huge portion! Unfortunately we didn't get the chance to sample any Belgian beer while in Bruges on this trip. We would both love to go again (we nearly went this winter but decided to save more for Canada.)

My absolute favourite part of Bruges was Minnewater. It's a beautiful lake to the south of the town (also named the Lake of Love) surrounded by swans and we befriended a ginger cat too. We wandered here for quite some time, it was less busy and quite serene.

In the background is a building called the chateau de la Faille, which had previously been a hostel but was closed and empty when we visited. Such a shame as it's the most gorgeous building. If I had the money I'd buy it!

Overall Bruges is a beautiful town, it's small and quaint, with lots of museums (we did visit one gallery while there) and chocolate shops. It's a great little place for a little get away, I would say for an extended weekend it's perfect as there's just enough to see and do, but no more than 4-5 days.

Paris Minibreak!

With no Canadian visa in sight, I'm going to continue writing about our recent trips around Europe!

In December 2011 we got the urge to get away again. We didn't want to spend much or go for too long, but we needed to get away, so on the spur of the moment we booked a weekend in Paris, using the Eurostar. I must say I was impressed, the system was pretty efficient and cheaper than I'd imagined, and meant that we didn't even need to take time of work.

The number of trains and the times they left London were really convenient for us, we met in London and got the Eurostar straight after work on a Friday evening (slight panic that my delayed train to Kings Cross was going to ruin all our plans!) Getting the tickets was easy, as was going through security, it was quick and painless, and in no time at all we were ushered from the waiting area to the train. The journey was simplicity itself, I couldn't believe how quickly it went, it was much like taking an ordinary trian. You couldn't see much outside due to the darkness, so we just relaxed and rested, before our wander across the city!

We arrived around 11pm, and clutching my map printout (with my very efficient notations, for which I am now notorious) we emerged into Paris. Arriving so late and at the end of a long work week meant that all we did was find our hotel and crash. On a side note, our hotel was a Holiday Inn and I wasn't expecting it to be amazing, but the room we were given was actually lovely, we had a huge bathtub and a dainty balcony overlooking the front of the Gare de L'est. (Which might not sound brilliant, but it was actually quite a pretty view!)

The next day it was on with the sightseeing! First, we had to do what every tourist should do on a first trip to Paris. The Eiffel Tower!

It was a wet day, but we decided to brave the weather and went anyway. Being the money savvy couple that we are, we opted to walk (what!?!?) up the tower instead of paying extra to take the lifts, and I'm not going to lie, it was bloody hard work. But it was most definitely worth it, there's a sense of accomplishment when you do finally get to the top and get your breath back. After much climbing, walking round and admiring we deserved a break in the cafe! I loved the tower, it's definitely one of those attractions I could do again and still enjoy it as much as the first time.

Montmartre

In the afternoon we took the Metro to Montmartre, which we had been informed was a must, and had a jolly old time wandering its beautiful streets, and taking in the sights and sounds, and millions of photos. We whiled away the rest of the day here ducking between streets and into cafes, and as it was getting close Christmas there was a small Christmas market to have a peek at too. It was picturesque! 


That night we had dinner at a restaurant close to our hotel. For some reason travel makes me adventurous when it comes to food, so here I attempted a ridiculously large plate of Steak Tartare (yes, I'm one of those weird people who eats raw beef, and yes I did enjoy it!) I've cooked this dish before in my old job, and had always wanted to try this, the only complaint I had was that the portion was so big! I also had my first taste of French Onion Soup and loved it, I'm going to have to try making this at home.

The lovely Louvre

Sunday was spent trying to cram in as much sightseeing as possible. We got the Metro, and ticked off the Notre Dame, the Fontaine Saint-Michel (and an awesome man blowing massive bubbles!) lots of walking by the river and finally the Louvre, which we had intended to visit properly and see some art work. We hadn't anticipated the monstrous queue to get in though, (it turns out we'd come on one of the two days a month that the Louvre is free to get into) so we unfortunately had to skip it. One day I will have to go, visiting the Louvre is one of those things I would love to do, it's on the To Do List, so will make sure I get up early that day! We spent more time wandering, then hopped back up to Montmartre, our unquestionably favourite part of the city for a warm drink before we had to dash back to the Eurostar at the Gare Du Nord and head back to the UK.

The journey back was as smooth and ideal as the outward one. I really love the Eurostar's ease, and the fact that it feels much more laid back than travel by air. It's all so civil, calm and stress free! So much so that a mere 2 months later we were at it again, this time on the way to Bruges! (Blog Post imminent!) And that was that, our whistle stop tour of Paris! While we packed out the weekend, I will have to revisit as there is just so much to see and do, we barely scratched the surface. Next time I'll make it a longer trip, maybe 4-5 days, so we can take it at a slower pace and make sure we get to do more.

A Little Piece of Italy - Tuscan Adventure!

Before we disappear into the Canadian ether, I'd like to include a few posts about trips we've made in the last few years around Europe. Since 2011 we've had some great journeys and experienced some amazing places, all of which I would definitely love to return to in the future.

I'll start from the beginning!
Our first holiday as a couple came in October 2011, the destination: Pisa, Italy.

Ian had visited before, and was pretty adamant that he wanted to show me Pisa and that I would love it. And he was right. I did!

For a start it's stunning, almost everywhere you look is picture perfect and everything is so stereotypically Italian, it's almost like walking into an advert for olive oil.

There are of course the typical tourist traps. The area directly surrounding the Leaning Tower (the piazza del tuomo) is awash with stalls selling the plastic towers and snow globes, t-shirts, hats, you name it, they sell it, and restaurants who charge twice as much as they should. The Tower itself was lovely to see, though during the day the square was heaving with visitors, and lots of people posing for the standard 'I'm holding the leaning tower up with my hands' photo. We decided to go up the tower and took some great photos from the top, we also got tickets to go into the duomo (the cathedral) and the baptistry, both stunning in their own right but with not quite the star power of the tower. We went back to the square late at night, it was floodlit and nearly empty, so we wandered slowly and got great views with less of the hustle and bustle.

Lovely as it is, step away the Cathedral Square and walk round any corner and down a side road and your suddenly in Italian heaven.

Here the vibe is very different, its relaxed, quiet, and unquestionably beautiful. The side streets are peaceful and for us the weather was perfect, it was warm but not too hot, the gentle onset of autumn was palpable in the air, the kind of weather that makes you want to twirl in a skirt and make it fan out around you and then burst into song. I'm not even kidding, I twirled.

A Pisa side street

Other things I loved about Pisa, the food. My goodness the food was good. I ate so much gelato (I'm talking once or twice daily) drank copious amounts of coffee, (and found a new friend in espresso's) and ate some delicious dishes. We tried to eat moderately during the day so we could enjoy a big meal most evenings, with my favorite being the night we had steak wrapped in pork cheek (yes, I'm a huge carnivore) on a bed of mash, and then Illy coffee creme brulee for dessert. It was the most luxurious meal I think I've ever had, and I wish I could remember the name and location of the restaurant so I can go back. If I return to Pisa I will track it down!

On our little Tuscan journey we also took in other areas, we nipped on the train (I must say I was impressed with their train service, certainly no worse than ours in the UK!) to Lucca, a little town with gorgeous architecture, and surrounded by a huge wall which we spent a large portion of the day wandering around. Here the streets are tiny and quiet, and everything seems so compact, even the cars are teeny. Lots more gelato, lots of churches and we ate outside a restaurant being serenaded by a violinist. The place screamed Tuscany.

On another day trip we took the train to Florence. I must say I was looking forward to this, but we arrived without a map and got lost very, very quickly. We ended up going back to the train station to buy one and start all over again, by which time half the day had gone. Florence is...well it's pretty, but it's very tourist orientated. The whole city feels like an invasion, I'm sure you could go a week without speaking to a real Italian there. But it is pretty. The Duomo is magnificent, we took refuge in a University library where I took photos from a balcony. The other thing about Florence is the abundance of shops! And not just any shops but very exclusive shops, you name a designer I'm pretty sure they'll have a shop there. It'd be a great place to spend a few grand, if you were that way inclined.

Florence shops + me trying to look casual.

Ponte Vecchio

My favorite thing about Florence was the Ponte Vecchio bridge. Standing in the centre and looking either up or down river gave some unforgettable views and the bridge itself was pretty, if a little overcrowded with jewellery shops!

For me Florence couldn't outshine Pisa, which was just so chilled out, but I did enjoy it. I have hopes to visit Italy again, I would like to visit Naples and see Vesuvius and Pompeii, and possibly Rome. Any other Italian recommendations?

Raider Rachel in London

With (hopefully) just a under 2 months before we go, it's important to take some time to appreciate the country we are leaving behind. I know we're taking an exciting step into unknown territory, but it's easy to forget that there are beautiful and impressive things surrounding us right now.

In February we took a week off. It came post IEC Kompass stage of our visa application, and I must say I really needed a break! Despite the fact we live less than an hour away from London by train, I very rarely go there, so we took the opportunity to have a day sightseeing.

Our first point of call, the newly opened Shard! At £25 each, it's not a cheap attraction, but it is impressive. The day we had chosen to visit was unfortunately a little misty. We arrived at our allotted time and were led in, tickets in hand. Security into the building is tight, with visitors required to go through scanners and put coats and bags through separately, much like an airport! The ride to the 33rd floor takes mere seconds, and then you're ushered into a second rapid lift that takes you to the top. Our first impressions were a little disappointing, mostly because we couldn't see anything. A wall of white surrounded us on all sides! The binocular/telescope system kept us occupied though, and we spent some time trying them all out and checking out the landscape through different times of the day. After about 45 minutes the mist slowly began to lift, and the view widened until we could see a generous distance. There is only so much sightseeing you can do there though, we spent about an hour and a half at the Shard, and it was definitely enough. If you ever check it out, check the weather and make sure you go on a clear day, also I would consider going after dusk, the images we saw of London at night were stunning!

After a quick dart on the Tube (which I adore!) we had a quick dash to one of my favourite shops, Forbidden Planet. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, it's the best place to go and geek out (http://forbiddenplanet.com/) I seriously hope we find an equally nerdy shop in Vancouver! I prohibited myself from buying anything this time, I could spend a huge amount of money there.

Next on the agenda, the Natural History Museum! Having never been here before, we ran around the dinosaur exhibition like kids, took lots of pictures of bones with no recollection of what they actually are and got annoyed with the bugs exhibit (it was filled with squabbling school children.) I loved the architecture of the building, but not so much the prices in the cafe, so when we got hungry we hotfooted it out of there, grabbed a sandwich at Piccadilly Circus and ended the day in a bar with a glass of wine.

 

Abseil

The second and more recent London excursion also explains the name of the blog. At the beginning of 2013 I promised myself that this year I would stir things up and do exciting things! And so I threw caution to the wind and signed up to a charity abseil for a children's cancer charity, CLIC Sargent.

This initiated lots of comments about Lara Croft/Indiana Jones/stunt woman and voila, the nickname Raider Rachel cropped up.

The event involved me abseiling 130ft down Battersea Power Station, a great London landmark which is currently being developed, so possibly a once in a lifetime opportunity.

We turned up with plenty of time to spare and then they were running a little behind, which meant we were standing around in the bitter cold for quite some time, poor Ian froze! But after a bit of a wait I got suited up (it was surprisingly heavy, walking up the stairs made you feel like a spaceman!) and given a 5 minute safety chat. Then it was up the top, and somehow found myself being one of the first people coming over the side. Despite the fact my heart was pounding in my ears, I did love it. At one point I had to cross a window, and my shoes kept getting caught in the net covering it, I had to keep shaking my feet to get away from it, which put me off balance. I've seen the video and it's not very elegantly done. But ah well, in the end I raised £503 (and counting!) for a great cause, and I had an amazing day. If anyones interested in further pictures, they can be seen on my sponsor page here: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/RachelBrownAbseil