Playing in the dark

We did make it out in the freezing cold! It was cold and windy but only me who seemed to notice that ;-) The boys had fun playing in the dark and I had fun watching them and joining them every now and then. Playgrounds makes things so easy :-) It felt very good to come inside after and get warm. There is something with this weather that I really like. It is not comfortable to be outside but knowing that you have the possibility to go inside where it is nice and warm makes it so much better. All boys had a warm bath before bed.

I forgot to add this picture from a Christmas market in Berlin. It was so beautiful! Note that the church bells are playing in the background!

Gdansk, here we come!

After a long drive in the dark and on surprisingly small roads we arrived to Gdansk right before midnight yesterday. We are renting a small apartment here which is soooo nice! It looks totally new and the interior is really fancy. I have been able to do some laundry and me and the boys took a walk to a small shopping center where we bought some food and other small things. It is nice and cheap here :-) The weather however, is really windy and cold and rainy so we have not enjoyed the playgrounds at all. We might go for a quick visit before dinner, while Alex has his class.

Gabriel is trying to jump and he is sooo cute :-)

Great weekend in Berlin

So we had 1,5 great days in Berlin with my friend Brigitte and her boyfriend Stefan. Alex worked Saturday me and the boys took the train downtown to beet them. It was snowing/raining when we left and I was not very exited about the weather at all. But Marlee and Noah did not seem to mind at all and just focused on all the new things to see and to go on the train. Such positive attitude!! When packing for this trip I totally did not think at all, I think. For some reason I did not think that it would be so cold in December (as a Sweden I should know better!!!) and we have no warm jackets, no hats, no winter shoes and no mittens. We simply had to put on layers of clothes to handle the cold, which worked ok.

- What? Is this too much!?

The boys were so exited to take the train!

We lived at Nöldnerplatz, can you find it?

Watching the boats on the canal from the train

We visited the Aquarium and saw lots of cool stuff!!

A carpet fish

Gabriel and Noah watching some kind of lizzard

Alex stayed home with the kids at night and I enjoyed a dinner with my friend at a Bavarian restaurant. Soooooo yummy!

On Sunday we packet up the car again and then drove to Holocaust memorial platz to meet my friend and to do some sightseeing. Both me and Alex have been to Berlin before and done the big things and the kids are still too small to appreciate it and understand so we decided to only do the "memorial blocks" this time.  It is 2711 concrete blocks representing the murdered jews during WWII.

Me and my friend, before saying good bye for this time

Marlee lost his tooth (totally)!!

Marlee and Noah ate an apple in the car today when Marlee said: "It feels like there is so much room between my teeth". I looked and sure enough, there were plenty of space because his tooth was missing!!! And we could not find it!!! Our only guess is that he might have swallowed it!?

The last two days we have done some heavy driving and gone from France to Switzerland (to visit Alex's friend) to Liechtenstein to Austria to Germany to the Czech Republic and back to Germany. We are now in Berlin to visit one of my friends. :-)

Beautiful Prague!

I almost forgot... Chambéry looked just the same as ten years ago. We drove by our old house and the school. We also wanted to drive up to the cross on the mountain but we did not have a lot of time and was also worried that it would be too much snow up there. I hiked up to the cross from our house when we lived there and maybe we can do that with the kids next time we come visit, in ten years... 

We are back in CHAMBERY after 10 years!!

We arrived to Chambery late tonight, the town where me and Alex met for the very first time, ten, almost eleven years ago (in January)! We have not really seen anything of it yet, except the hotel, since we arrived late at dark, but tomorrow.... I am nor sure that I will be able to sleep properly! It will be so exiting to go see our old house on Avenue de Merande and the school we went to and the giant cross up on the mountain...

 

Chambery     May 2005

So, as you might understand, we are in France and arrived here yesterday, after leaving Spain. The drive yesterday was ok, rainy and a little foggy but no risk for slippery roads, unlike today. We slept at the most charming hotel so far on this trip. It reminded me of the hotel/guest house in the movie Dirty Dancing :-)

Pretty drive in Spain

Low clouds

Good morning view from our hotel this morning

Beautiful surroundings!!!

Our hotel

Very foggy and rainy drive today through France

And some snow, too. It slowed us down but better safe than sorry!

Another great news is that our boys got a new cousin two days ago!!! A little, or pretty big actually, baby boy. No name yet. It was my sister Linn who had a baby so cousin Ailo got a little brother. Congratulation to the new family and welcome to the new family member! Another member of the future soccer team! :-)

Bye Portugal Hello Spain and freezing weather!

It was sad to not have time to see more of Portugal but we had a very beautiful drive today! I really like what I have seen of this country so far and I hope to be back to see more! Today we drove by wine yards, fields, forest, olive farms, villages and really cool huge boulders. The people that we have met have been very helpful and friendly, too!

Now we are back in Spain again and it is really cold!! -2C outside and just slightly warmer in the hotel room, ok, maybe a little warmer than that in here but still very cold!

Yummy breakfast at the hotel this morning (used the "new" fuse tool on my computer to make this picture :-)

Every time we look back at the bed cover now we smile... Why? Because today, after having it for about two month, we realized that we have not put in on correctly... Embarrassing, we feel so stupid, but such a relief that it does not come off anymore!!!!! We are so sorry farmor and farfar for delaying you so much with all the stops!

Olive farm

Really cool boulders!!

Time to hide under the blanket now and get some sleep!!!

Bye Spain Hi Portugal Bye farmor and farfar :-(

We spent the last night with farmor and farfar in an hotel outside Seville so that we could continue our trip to Lisbon, Portugal where we arrived late at dark. Partly due to the bed cover on the truck that kept becoming loose so that we had to stop several times. Farfar and Alex finally managed to tie it down so that we did not have to stop every ten minutes. We did manage to have a very nice linner in Faro, Portugal.

Massing with the bed cover...

Bye Spain Hello Portugal

I love these fluffy pine trees!!

Great lunch!!

The boys really liked the fish head and the teeth :-D

Gabriel having fun with farfar!!! So cute!

A stop at Mc Donald's to use the Internet and find an hotel in Lisbon :-)

We did find a very nice hotel in Lisbon where we all stayed. However, farmor and farfar had to leave very early the next day so we all said good night before going to bed.

Bye Roquetas Hi Alhambra

Woke up to a beautiful sun rise our last morning in Roquetas de Mar. Me, Gabriel and Noah enjoyed it from the balcony before everyone woke up to get ready to go to Alhambra, Spain's biggest tourist attraction. I could bore you to death with all the pictures I took and I have really tried to limit the number but it is still a few... Bare with me ;-) The view was amazing and so was the art work used when building this incredible place!

Right before the sun rise

Sun rise

Alhambra...

Having fun with the camera focus when taking a picture of one of many beautiful views...

Now focus on the trees instead

The very independent escaper

A thick wall with a window...

View from the highest point

Just learned a new feature in the Photo gallery program...

... fuse picture and choose the best from each one = remove things that you wish to remove. Find the two things I have removed from the previous picture?

Smile!

<3 <3

There were wall after wall with this amazing art work

White wall meets wooden ceiling

Beautiful tiles everywhere!!!