travel – Baldur's Den

Trip to the North

Aaron, my mum, dad and I went on a looong overdue trip to visit my aunt in the north of Sweden. With stopping for lunch, the drive took about 4 hours.

She owns a horse ranch, and I pretty much spent my Summers there during my childhood. Now, it was probably 15 years ago since I was there, and my aunt lost her husband since, as well.

It was good to bring the love of my life there. My aunt barely has any horses left, and there is even talk of how long she will be able to keep living there. So I was very happy to go one last time (for all we know, we might go again).

While we were up north, we also took a day trip another 100 kilometres and visited the city where my dad and his sister grew up, Sundsvall, and my grandparents lived their entire lives. I have only visited there when I was small, and I don’t remember the place at all. My grandma died when I was 2, and my granddad when I was 9.

We drove by the actual house where the grew up, and their mother’s parents lived next door. That was cool to see, and it looked very much the same apparently ❤

We also went to the cemetery, where their parents are laid to rest. It was beautiful there. I’m glad we went.

For lunch, we went to a restaurant up in the mountains. There was an incredible view from up there, and the food was nice too, a buffet with a few nice dishes.

Aaron even went up in the tower that was there, and he got an even better view. You can see me tiny, waving, below:

Aaron and I decided to walk down the mountain, there were stairs and lots of fun historic stuff and information to see on the way.

And the view from a mountain on the other side of the city wasn’t bad either (in the Winters, it’s apparently a very famous and used ski slope):

Journey home went well, and we had a super tasty pasta for lunch. Too bad it’s 2,5 hours away from our home… It was a lovely trip ❤

Business trip!

In my new and fancy project leader job, I works from home, but “some traveling” is included in the job description. Not too long ago, I was summoned on a business trip down to the city of Jönköping, south of Sweden and 260 km away from where I live.

First train departed at 6.15am, and after three (!) switches to other trains and buses, I arrived in Jönköping after 4 and a half hours. It rained…

I sat for half an hour and perfected the Powerpoint presentation about myself (yup, I had a Powerpoint. The ONLY one that had prepared that…). Then I went passed my hotel and dropped off my bag, then straight for the lunch with my colleagues.

Found this in my book on the train 😍😍😍💖💖💖

After lunch, a day of introducing ourselves to each other, lectures and workshops, we went to check in to the hotel, Elite Hotel – Stora hotellet. Such a lovely hotel on the outside, and this is the inside 🤣:

My room was lovely though, and Aaron 100% would have fit in the bed 😅 Next time, he can come with me ❤

After some freshening up and unpacking, we went to Ciro, a fancy Italian restaurant, for dinner.

If it hadn’t been raining, it would have been amazingly beautiful (well, it was anyway, but even more).

The food was fantastic. First a charcuterie board with some nice delicacies, and then I took a pasta Piemontese (beef, cream, garlic, red wine, rosemary, mushroom, parmesan and parsley). YUM-MIE.

After dinner, I stayed long after everyone else had left with two of the girls, and we had dessert and talked for a long time, super fun! Then the three of us went for a walk around Jönköping (to try and find a shop to buy soda and sweets, admittedly).

After a documentary about the Palme murder (when Sweden’s prime minister was killed in 1986), I went to bed EARLY.

The next morning, I met my two new besties at 7am at the hotel buffet. MAN, it was one of the greatest ones I’ve had! Sooo much food, and a WAFFLE station. I ate way too much, and for way too long.

I was eating for so long that I barely made it for the first seminar (also had to pack up and check out before that, but still). Let’s just say I was not hungry at 10.00am for the “fika” (pastries and coffee) OR the lovely lunch at 11.30.

When the official work was over and everybody had said their goodbye, I still had 2 hours before my train left. So I decided to do as much sightseeing of the city as I could:

You can tell it’s a very old city. It was actually founded in 1284, given city priveleges from Magnus Ladulås, the king of Sweden 1275 – 1290 (and the son of Birger Jarl, the founder of Stockholm). Unfortunately, most of the city burned down in 1612, so the oldest buildings are “only” from that time, but according to Wikipedia, the oldest preserved part of the city is the “Hovrättstorget” (Court square), where my company’s office actually is situated (all the pictures above). So, that’s cool (to a history nerd like myself)! 😋

I walked the same path like during the restaurant night, when it was raining. It was as beautiful as suspected in sunlight.

Then, I stumbled upon Jönköpings Museum, and I decided to spend my last hour in there.

What a great idea! It was marvelous, and SO mixed and diverse. It had everything from history and vikings, to technology, science, eSports and gaming, the women’s movement, the jews situation during WWII and the holocaust, paintings and photographs. Phew!

You needed muuch more than an hour in there, I only scratched the surface now. But I can definitely recommend it, if you are ever in Jönköping.

After the museum, I had to make it to my train, to go home. It was a lovely trip, and I work with some amazing people. Can’t wait to do it again soon ☺️

Aaron’s birthday!

We had a lovely day on Aaron’s birthday, in March. I woke him up with heart-shaped grilled sandwiches, then we went to Stockholm for a day of ADVENTURE. Such a handsome birthday boy ❤

We went to the docks by the royal castle and went out in the archipelago on the boat Dalarö.

Sorry for being disgustingly cute, but we had a lot of time to kill before we could embark, and we took some greeat pictures.

The boat is kind of a commuter boat, but we were just there for the view and adventure! We got some beer and wine from the café (and sandwiches).

It was a bit windy, but still very warm in the sun, we were very fortunate with the weather.

We got off on the island Vaxholm, and had three hours before the next boat arrived. Across from that island is the famous old Vaxholm Castle, an old (decommissioned) fortress from 1548. The fortress today houses The Vaxholm Fortress Museum with exhibitions on, among other things, Sweden’s coastal defense over 500 years, life in the fortress in the past, the dungeons, and the preparedness in the archipelago during World War II. They also have bed and breakfast, events and a super nice restaurant. I was there with work at a conference and team building day, and I can’t wait to take Aaron as well (some other time, though).

We were going to eat at the large Waxholms hotel, but then decided on a smaller place, with excellent food. AND, there was a pub quiz we didn’t know about!