June in Stockholm - our first Swedish Midsommar !

At the end of may, Domi - Mamido came to visit us for a few days. The kids enjoyed meeting with their grandmother again and Eric and I very much enjoyed a kayak outing on Lake Malaren !
We hesitated a bit about the itinerary because there were many different things we wanted to check out and did not know whether we would have enough time (we did!), so we ended up doing some back and forth. Our 4 hours on the kayak were spent seriously paddling !
Starting from Kungsholmen, we went around Lilla Essingen to salute our house.

Then around Langholmen.

Heading downtown... Just magnificent.

And back all the way to go round Stora Essingen ! The paddling on the way between Grondal and Stora was hard, with lots of wind and waves. But we got to see the beautiful villas of the island by the water, and the way back along the western shore was very nice.

On the Saturday evening, we had organized a barbecue party on the big terrace of our building, since we were renting Kajutan for Domi. It was a nice evening ! Pretty much nobody knew anybody but it was fun - my colleague Francois was there, his cousin Come, Karin and her family, and Manu and Sophie and their kids.

On the sunday, for her last day in Stockholm, we went with Domi to Solviksbadet. We had a good long swim there, the water has gotten much warmer since the beginning of may !

 Wednesday June 6th was Sweden's national holiday. It marks two important dates : Gustav Vasa being elected king (6 June 1523) and the adoption of a new constitution (6 June 1809). However, it was only established as a holiday in 2004 and it did not seem like people were much celebrating the day - although the royal family heads to Skansen and there are fun activities for kids in a number of parks.
So, we headed out to Blecktonsparken in Sodermalm, intrigued by the 'kanin hopning' event planned (= rabbit hopping, litterally).
The party was great for the kids - there was, beside the regular great play ground and barbecue, a bouncing castle, a popcorn stand, ice-creams, a balloon stand...

It got very, very crowded, an unusual sight in Stockholm ! I was reminded of how crowded Paris parks get - not something we are missing.
The kaninhoppning itself was... not what we expected. A couple of young girls were there with their rabbits, some obstacles were set up, and the girls were trying to convince the not-so-interested rabbits to hop on. Alexandre and Ruben got a bit into it, but not much.

 Back to the archipelago the following week end ! We headed out to Orsö, a small island about 2 hours from Stockholm, where we had rented a house (We figured after a how to pronounce the name of the island : Oeurchoeu it is, with an accentuation on the first syllable - I still can not pronounce correctly the name of our host Börge however).
Waiting to board the ferry.

 The ride through the archipelago was amazingly beautiful.

Orsö is a relatively small island (2 by 2 km?), with lots of trees, a fair number of houses and a few beaches,
We took turns with Eric exploring the island in the evenings to enjoy the sunset.
To the west.

 To the east.

The house was lovely and the garden was fantastic ; the boys had a blast, especially with the trampoline !

We were very curious to explore the southern tip of the island, since it appears to be almost touching another island to the south, so we set out to explore on the saturday. The path was very nice but we quickly bumped into houses ; as in many other areas, there are few walking paths around and a lot of the shore is private.

Very luckily, the owner of the sounthern-most house kindly invited us to have a look, so here is the tiny - tiny canal that separates the two islands !

On the Saturday afternoon, we went down to the beach close to our house.

And a sunset outing again, this time towards the east and then north.

Our second day on the island, sunday june 10th, was the last very hot day we experienced. The weather then became much cooler and changing, with some rains and then some sun again. It can get really cold but, luckily, when the sun gets out, it is still strong and warms us up again.
Alexandre officially finished his classes on june 15th, like the regular Swedish kids. However, since his forskola stays open for a while longer and most of the other kids were still around in his school, it did not feel very different to before.
Alexandre got to fill out a nice survey however to give feedback on his experience at the forskola (a very positive outlook luckily !).

We were invited for a barbecue at the house of Antoine, Gaelle and their kids Tao and Elio (who is in Alexandre's class). They live in Avlsjo, a bit far out but their house was really  great !

On the following saturday, we set out to a new park which Eric had seen north-west of Kungsholmen. This park, in Kristineberg area, is very fun and funky, full of giant flowers and insects and animals to climb in, over, and through. And we unveiled a mystery, as Alexandre had been telling us about the 'flower park' he had been to with his school, and we could not figure out where this was.

And then we went down to a very nice plaskdam near the shore.

I regretted not having my swimsuit with me to jump in the lake but Eric and I went for a swim back home, so all was good!
On the sunday, we headed out to Tekniska museet. The kids were very happy to go back there since it had been a long time (april or so ? since the cold days were over) ; I was also happy to finally ckeck it out. And it is great, there is much to do, explore and play with there !

 On Thursday june 21st, the office was closed and I got to enjoy a rare few hours without the kids and without being in the office. Actually, I did work for a couple of hours, since the workload has been pretty bad for a while, but it was great also to go for a long walk in Bromma along the shore - finally got to explore past Solviksbadet and it was nice !

Then Midsommar was upon us, the biggest Swedish celebration, a very nice outdoorsy and pagan feast !
Many Swedes had laughingly warned us that the tradition is for Midsommar to be rainy and cold, and it did not disappoint. The day was mostly rainy and cold indeed.

There are actually few midsommar celebrations in Stockholm ; most Swedes head to the countryside to celebrate the feast - erect a mast, put flowers in their hair and danse around on Sma grodorna (the "little frog" song, and I have not yet figured out where this song came from).
We heard about a small celebration in Kungsholmen however, so off we went. It was tiny and very focused on being multi-cultural so not very traditional. Ruben and Alexandre were not very interested anayway, so we then took them to Leo Lekland (a huge indoor playground full of ropes and slides and bouncy stuff and balls - and then were they happy !
 And, luckily enough, we got some sunshine when we arrived back home so got to enjoy the garden a bit. Ruben and Alexandre set up a big bakery in the sand box.

On the Saturday, we headed to Gröna Lund, the big amusement park on Djugarden. The kids had a really good time and even Ruben went on rides. It was crowded ! But it was good to have been there, at last. Also, we saw a magic show there and were then treated to a lot of magic tricks at home.

On the sunday, we headed out to Solviksbadet again. The beach was very empty, which was great ! but also very cold and so we did not spend too much time there. Ruben has started seriously complaining about going to the beach too much - who could have thought so ?

And with this came our final week in Stockholm before heading back to France for the summer.. Hej då Svenska !