The second wedding we went to this summer was Veronica and Charlie's wedding in Sweden. Again we turned it into a two week holiday to make the most of the trip.
We flew into Stockholm and went straight to Uppsala, where Veronica had her hen's do. Nina, Philip and their children were in a hotel room right next to ours. While Nina and Kerstin went out for dinner with Veronica and her
friends, the guys entertained the children.
From Uppsala we drove to a small town near Gävle, called
Skutskär. We stayed with
Kerstin's friend Malin and her family, who Kerstin had met while she was still at
school and hadn't seen for 13
years. Malin was very hospitable and the children enjoyed playing with Malin's two boys. The children had a swim in the local river, we went to IKEA (very Swedish) and to a zoo.
On our long drive up North to the wedding venue we stopped off at
a camping-ground in Hudiksvall. Here we met up with Nina,
Philip, Nick, Clare, Jana and
Julian and enjoyed a social evening outside our little hut. There was a nice beach where Yana had a swim. The water was reasonably chilli, but she didn't mind.
The remainder of the drive to Ulvon was done on Anya's first birthday, which we weren't able
to celebrate properly. We had some chocolate muffins on the boat-trip and sang "Happy
Birthday" a few times. I'm pretty
sure she didn't mind.
The island of Ulvon, where Veronica and Charlie's wedding was held, was very picturesque.
We stayed in a hut overlooking the small boats in the harbour.
The wedding itself was held on a hill with magnificent views. We all had to hike up to it, resulting in the women swapping their heels for sneakers. Lindsay and Phil were entertaining the
children with lots of rainsins and
bread sticks, so that they only
really distracted us from listening to the vows. The ceremony was very romantic, including some beautiful singing from Veronica's sister-in-law. The reception was lots of fun, especially since we managed to find a babysitter and we were able to enjoy it child-free.
After the wedding we headed back South to a small town called Jarvso. We stayed in an old (and
quite basic) cabin, which was a
little miserable in the rain. But we caught up with Nina, Phil, Nick and Clare, who were staying in a holiday house nearby and visited a wild-life park with them.
Our last days were spent in Stockholm, where
we met up with Nick and Clare again. We stayed in a hotel room, from which we had an amazing view of the cruise ships and
ferries in the harbour. Especially
at night they looked really pretty
with all their lights on. Being in the same room with the children meant that we had to spend our evenings in the bathroom, but apart from that it all worked out reasonably well.
We went into Stockholm every day: Kerstin with the children on the bus for free (because of the
buggy, as we found out from
the locals) and Lindsay on the rental bike from the hotel. We took several boat trips, walked through Gamla Stan, looked at
the sunken Vasa ship and went to the outdoor museum of
Skansen.
It wasn't a relaxing holiday (with children it never is), but nevertheless we had a very enjoyable time experiencing Swedish culture, meeting
up with friends and soaking up a
bit of sun.
No comments:
Post a Comment