Aussie in Sweden (and other places)

It’s been a fair while since we last updated this so it will most likely be a long one. The last time we did update was on our first of 5 nights in Paris. The next day we started seeing the many sights in Paris, which takes longer than most cities because they are so spread out but are connected by a great Metro system. First stop was the Louvre which we spent a couple of hours wandering through. You aren’t allowed photos of the famous things inside (even though that didn’t stop us taking some) so here’s my favourite photo which is of the pyramids and fountains outside.

Next we headed to the Cathedral of Notre Dame via the modern museum (Pompidou). This cathedral is the biggest we’ve been into so far and there were plenty of people wandering around inside and out. At 5pm we arrived at the Eiffel Tower and jumped in the queue which is the first we’ve come across. This was a good time because we got to see the Eiffel tower in daylight and watch it light up as the sun went down. The line took about an hour to move and then we were on our way up the elevator. The view from the 2nd tier let us see the city quite clearly and from the top tier it was a great view but being almost twice as high it was more difficult to see anything in detail. Here’s the view from the top tier.

It was a fantastic experience both going up the tower and also seeing it so close. This photo was from across the river looking back after we’d come back down.

The following day we caught the train out to Versailles to have a look at the spectacular palace. Our photos don’t do it justice because of the fog that started to blanket the city for a few days (which makes us glad we did the Eiffel Tower the night before). It took a couple hours to wander through all the rooms which we had audio commentry for. Here’s a photo of painting from one of the rooms, but if you look at the couple in the bottom left you may recognise them as Jesse Spencer (Chase) and Jennifer Morrison (Cameron) from House MD. We all had the same commentary so we saw all the rooms at the same time, which felt slightly like stalking especially since we saw them the day before at the Louvre. The photo isn’t all that good because we didn’t want to bother them by asking for a proper photo since we seemed to be the only ones that recognised them.

The gardens of the palace covered many hectares and every bit of them is so well manicured. Unfortunately most of the fountains weren’t working because the ponds were all frozen over. This photo looks out from the palace into the gardens. We walked towards the canal you can see in the background and out to the smaller palaces.

That night we went to a show at the Moulin Rouge which we really enjoyed and are glad we went to. There was plenty of singing, dancing, amazing costumes, topless girls and to our surprise small skits that were actually really entertaining to break up the dancing. Our seats were right up the front within an arms reach of the stage so we felt like we were almost part of the action. We weren’t allowed to take photos inside so here’s one of the entrance which I’m sure most of you recognise.

On Christmas Eve we did the rest of the major monuments and famous regions of Paris. The day started with a train trip out to La Defense, which is the commercial district of Paris with many modern high-rise buildings. There isn’t much to see there except the tall buildings and an Arch that lines up with the Arc de Triomphe which is directly down a long straight road. After a quick wander through the Christmas markets at La Defense we took the Train back to the Arc de Triomphe. Surrounding the Arc is the craziest round-a-bout we have ever seen. No lane markings, enough room for about 1000 cars to be on at the same time and European drivers is definitely a recipe for disaster. Suprisingly no accidents in the 15 minutes we were there though. This photo is from the outside of the round-a-bout looking at the Arc, I managed to get a photo with no cars in it.

We walked from the Arc down Champs-Élysées which has many prestigious retailers which are unfortunately well out of our price-range. The only thing we bought was tickets to Disneyland from the Disney Store for the next day. After we reached the end of the avenue (which is getting close to the Louvre) we wandered back to our hotel via the shopping district. Most shops were shut because it was quite late but they had nice Christmas lights and window displays. That night we went to Mass at the Sacré-Coeur with thousands of other people. Unfortunately, it was in French. Here’s Sophie in front of the church before we went inside.

Disneyland was where we spent our Christmas day because nothing else was open. It was a really good day despite the low thick fog and breeze. The park is definitely designed for kids so we spent the day going between the fast rollercoasters and managed to avoid queues every time. At the end of the day we saw ‘The Legend of Lion King’ which is a short play version of The Lion King. By the end of the 11 hours at Disneyland we were cold and wet from the fog. It was a lot of fun and certainly worth visiting. Here’s us at the entrance as we left.

The next day we wasted time with a short sleep-in and some general exploring until our 6pm flight to Stockholm (Lachlan left for London around midday). David picked us up from the airport and took us for a tour of Stockholm. The next morning it was Sam’s Birthday which we began with a sleep-in and bacon and eggs. We went to David’s parents for an early dinner of Moose Casserole and Blackcurrant Mousse Cake (with Ben and Jerry’s ice-cream) for dessert. We then drove to the Globen which is the main ice-hockey rink in Stockholm. We watched our first ice-hockey game which saw David’s team win (which was good news because of the terrible season they’ve been having). That night we met up with Andreas who also went to the hockey for a few drinks. Here’s the Globen (which they light up different colours every night, shown here in Djurgården’s colours) and the view from our seats.

The next day we had even more of a sleep-in (so good to catch up on sleep we haven’t been getting) and again had bacon and eggs. That afternoon we went to SkanSen which is a zoo/museum with historic Swedish buildings and scandinavian animals. There we saw some Wolves, Lynx, Foxes, Otters, Minks and some (living) Moose. Here’s a photo of the male Moose (the females look a bit like humpless camels because they have no antlers).

That night we cooked traditional Swedish Meatballs with Lingon Berries. Ian came over for a few drinks and we spent the rest of the night planning our next week or two.

This morning we had planned to do washing and booked a 7am spot but it was too dark to be 7am so we stayed in bed until 10. Washing is now done and we are just about to head out to see the city.

Tomorrow we are heading north to go skiing for the day. We’ve also booked a trip that wasn’t really on our itinerary so here’s the plan for you all.

January 2 - Fly to Gothenburg. Stay with Emil and Ludvig for a couple nights.
January 6 - Train to Copenhagen. Staying in a hotel for 2 nights.
January 8 - Fly to Stockholm.

We then hope to go north again and go skiing for a few days (if we like it tomorrow).

We’ll keep you posted with how that goes and the rest of our doings.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes.

Hope you all have good New Year celebrations and we look forward to seeing you all in 2007.

Sam and Sophie

PS - Tjena is Sweden’s version of G’day

This entry was posted on Friday, December 29th, 2006 at 11:16 pm and is filed under Trip. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.