Göteborg

After Helsingborg, we drove 2 1/2 hours to Göteborg, the second largest city in Sweden.

We found our hotel, right above the Central Railway Station, and had our fingers crossed that the windows would be double glazed this time.

Thankfully they were, and once we dumped our bags in our room, we headed out to explore Göteborg.
The great thing about touring Scandanavia at this time of the year, is that the sun is still up at 10pm, so we had lots of daylight to wander around.

Our first stop was the Trädgårds föreningen, the Garden Society of Göteborg, one of the best preserved 19th century parks in Europe.  It was founded in 1842.  The gardens were well manicured, and interesting to wander around.  We enjoyed the large Palm House.

There were some amazing plants and flowers inside.

There was Water House as well, and this had a pond with the largest water lillies we had ever seen before

These large water lillies have small thorns on the outside, which Alexander will tell you are very very sharp!

These sculptures are part of an exhibition being held in the Palm House by Birgitta Jannesson.  They looked fantastic in amongst the plants and cactuses.

We had a stroll along the Rosenlundskanalen river, towards the Haga district. 

Along the way was this interesting sculpture.

The Haga district is known for its "arty" shops.  It has some great window displays, and gorgeous little cobbled stones streets.

Finally the wind picked up a bit and we were able to get a good photo of the Swedish flag

We walked up a hill to the Skansen Kronan, started in 1687.

It was difficult to get a decent photo of it, this was the best that we did...we got a bit sidetracked.  Nicole thought Phil took a photo of it, and Phil thought Nicole has taken a photo of it.

The fortress was never attacked in battle, and has been used as a military museum. Now it is used for functions, and this evening there was a wedding reception being held inside.

The view from the top was great, again, Nicole taking photos of houses.

Pizza and Pasta for dinner, and a walk back to the hotel.

The Göteborg Stadsmuseum was closed by the time we walked past, but an interesting building.

Helsingborg

We drove 3/4 hour to Helsingborg for lunch.  It is one of the oldest cities in Sweden, dating back to 1085.

From the harbour, Denmark is only 4km's away by boat.

We had a great stroll along the harbour, looking at the different boats and ships that were docked.

At the end of the esplanade was the Dunkers Kulturhus, which was designed by Kim Utzon, the son of Jørn Utzon, who designed the Sydney Opera House.

Then we walked up the hill to the Kärnan, the central tower, built between 1310-1320, of the Helsingborg Castle.  The central tower and part of the gates is all that remains of the castle.

From the top of the gates, you had a great view of Helsingborg, and the red roof tiles.

Part of the city hall building.

Road Trip to Sweden and Norway.

Nat and Dane (friends from Australia) left early this morning to catch a train to Prague  - it is always great to have visitors in the house.

Phil went to work, and Nicole and the boys packed to get ready for our 2 week trip to Sweden and Norway.

Phil got home just before 2, we packed the car and headed to the ferry at Rostock - a good 2 1/2 hour drive, even with some serious autobahn driving!

Thankfully we had reserved our car ticket for the ferry as it was full.  We watched many cars get turned away.  Given our first night's accommodation was another 2 1/2 hours of driving through Denmark and into Sweden, missing the ferry would have made for an interesting start to the holiday!

We parked the car on the ferry and headed upstairs for some early dinner and to look out at the Baltic Sea.

The ferry ride was very smooth, and we had an uneventful trip!

The kids enjoyed going up on deck, although a lot of the areas are out of bounds.  We last travelled on this ferry when we toured Denmark, and the boys remembered where everything was.

We then drove the 2 1/2 hours through Denmark, and over the bridge to Sweden to Malmö (39 Euro toll), where we stayed in a great hotel, and had a suite room.  Very posh..unfortunately, right above the main shopping mall , so very noisy! Well you can't have everything! ;)

Malmö

After a rough night trying to sleep in the hotel on the corner of a busy mall without double glazed windows, we toured around Malmö before lunch.  Perhaps it was the end of the school year, and the kids were out celebrating...all night.  We heard every shreik,shout and conversation from the very popular square below...However, we were up and about and set off to look around the city.

A few of the old squares were lovely to look around.  Great buildings to see.

Nicole loves the Tudor style houses around Lilla Torg, and took lots of photos of them.

The oldest medieval home was built in 1597.

Next was a visit to Malmöhus Slott, the castle which was built in the 1530's. 

The castle has been renovated to house a cafe and museum.

the current exhibition is on Nelson Mandela and apartheid.

Nicole nearly choked when she saw this sign, as she didn't realise if was part of the exhibition.

The gardens around the castle were beautiful, and great to wander around.

A section of the garden was divided up into smaller sections with themes. Japanese, herbs, fragrant, but the one that intrigued us was the insect garden. This garden looks like a huge mess of weeds, however it has specific plants to attract insects and bees to ensure that the berry bushes and fruit trees are pollinated.

In the middle of the gardens was a cafe and a small green house.

 Inside the green house were tomato plants,

and grape vines

Although these look like plastic, they were real!!

The garden had some great sculptures of deer

and a few trees to climb

Cameron collected some flowers along the way, this was his stash!

Aussie visitors

Stu's friends Nat and Dane are travelling around Europe and got in contact with us to stay for a few days.

It was great to meet them, offer a bed and shower,and help them with their washing while they toured around Berlin for a few days.

Our last night we went to our local steak restaurant, Block House, and had a great meal together.

Nat and Nicole enjoyed a Blocktail....2 shots of vodka, fresh berries and Russian Wild Berry...very tasty, while Dane and Phil sampled some German beer.

We really enjoyed their visit, and hope they enjoy the rest of their time around Europe!

We had hoped we would have more visitors stop through during our 5 years in Berlin, but sadly not as many as we would have hoped for!

Last school day in Berlin

After 5 1/2 years, today the boys both said goodbye to their teachers and friends.

A sad day, we have made some great friends through the school, and we hope that at some stage we will see them again (once some of them get over their fear of spiders and snakes in Australia)

Nicole went to Cameron's end of year assembly.  It was sad to say goodbye to teachers, friends and children that have had a big impact on our lives here.

Nicole got a thank you flower for all her help in the library over the past 3 years and running the Year 3-5 knitting club every Tuesday.  Cameron went up to the stage to collect it and bring it to Nicole.

All the August Birthday Kids got up and had Happy Birthday sung to them.

Then it was time to get their Leaver's Certificates.  There were 6 kids in Cameron's class who are moving on.

Nicole didn't get to Alexander's assembly, the time to get to each campus was tricky.  Alexander had to say goodbye to his friends.  He was very upset to have to say goodbye to some incredible friends.  We will see some of them before we fly out, and we hope we will see some of them in later years.

Thank goodness for Skype, Email, Facebook and cheap phonecalls!