A song of ice and snow in Stockholm

The month of January was cold in Stockholm and the ice and snow gradually took over the city. It was a very magnificent time - beautiful and exhilarating, as we discovered a new landscape and as we walked, skated and slided on the frozen lakes.

It was a fleeting time also, when everything could change from one day to the next as the weather warmed and the ice thawed or as snow covered the pristine ice.

Our first steps on the ice this year on Trekanten lake - Jan 12th.

On our lake, the ice came and went. The first tentative ice, easily broken and melted, dissipated quickly, leaving behind some oddly shapes ice drops.

Then there was a nice snow fall, which warmed up the weather, which sadly turned the snow fall into rainfall - the image is from before the rain.

The following week end, we went back to Trekanten lake with our skates - we are adapting to local customs and now the whole family is equipped with skates and practicing.

In terms of skating-competency, Eric is doing great, I manage even if not in style, Ruben started from scratch but is now doing quite ok (he did practice a lot, with us on the week end, and during the week with his school), and Alexandre likes being pulled either on skates or on a sledge.

The next day, Manu and Sophie suggested that we join them for an outing on Långsjön - which confirms that Swedes often have very straigthforward naming approaching, with långsjon litterally meaning "the long lake". It was cold, cold, cold but also very beautiful.

It was not a remote outing ; we were there with hundreds  other Stockholm-ites, complete with a hot dog kiosk on the ice. We could not have felt safer after seeing so many families on the ice.

Our lake, the big and deep Mälaren, finally showed signed of freezing and we saw the first people going out on the ice. Now, those who love ice-skating and are keen skaters are looking for the freshest, smoothest ice, really black ice, almost invisible to the eye. This is how we saw a pair of skaters in the middle of the lake, where it seemed that the water was still open ; they themselves were proceeding carefully and regularly checking the strength of the ice with their poles.. a bit disquieting to watch.

 But, over the days, as the ice was getting thicker, we did take our first steps on the lake.

Around this time, a retreat for my job took me to the countryside - just 45 min from Stockholm centre, but we were deep in another, beautiful world. 

On January 26th, we went to an outing on Hagaparken, to enjoy the lake there. A lunch mis-calculation made for hungry and unhappy kids, and an un-necessary back and forth to the city in the search for food, but the landscape was very lovely indeed.

The ice was covered with a layer of snow, but it was very powdery and the skating excellent in many places, getting difficult where people had already passed and compacted the snow.

And the ducks congregated around the one warm water outlet into the lake.

We went north on the lake, up to catch the metro at Universitetet station, and through an impressive ice fog hovering over the lake.

On the sunday, I went for an early morning outing on Lake Mälaren by myself. With the snow that had fallen, cross-country skiing would have been even better than skating then, but we will have to move to a bigger place with a storage room before we get there (in that case, a kayak would also be great to have for the summers).

I went down to Solviksbadet, our favorite beach. How different and beautiful it is to be on the lake ! And the view towards Stora Essingen was also magnificent.

We then went out with the kids, ice skates, sledges - everything that we'd need to be happy on the ice and snow.

Alexandre enjoyed being towed and Ruben managed very, very well the whole trip on skates.

 We went first to Appleviken, the lovely harbour accross from Stora, and then continued to the second harbour, where people had cleaned up some ice to play hockey.

That day on the ice, there were many other people out, everybody coming as they pleased, skating, pushing strollers, skiing, walking, running.. 

Eric tried to go to the southern and then eastern shores of Stora Essingen, but had to turn back as the ice made some ominous sounds - after all, there is a channel that is kept open for boats on that side, and it does not look very safe !

On the way back, we skated close to our island and much enjoyed the unusual view over the nice villas by the water.

On Friday Feb. 1st, just on time for the week end, there was a good snow fall and the weather warmed up. The snow became extremely sticky and we spend a fantastic day playing outside in our garden and on the lake. We expanded on the snow fort that the neighbours had started building and then built our own houses on the lake. The adults had as much fun as the kids making giant roll ups of snow !

On the sunday, the top layer of the lake started melting unfortunately and we did not feel that it was very safe to venture much on it. But the kids had a wonderful time sledging behind our house and Alexandre turned into a real polar boy.