Honeymoon

A week away in a cosy, little cottage by the sea, just what we wanted for after the wedding!
We left on the Saturday, 19th, took it easy with the driving and stopped for a night in a hostel at lake Vänern, nearby Lidköping.
We arrived in Stockevik, a tiny place on the island Skaftö on the Swedish west coast during the day on Sunday and were very pleased to see our lovely cottage. It was located a bit further up on the rocks with a beautiful view over the sea and an island opposite. We could basically sit there on our veranda all day long, enjoying the sun, the air and the view and watching all the boats floating by.


Although we were driving through some heavy rain on the way, it cleared up from Sunday on and got warmer every day. We spent all day outside and it was warm enough to sit outside until late in the evening. Towards the end of the week, the temperature climbed up to 30° degrees in the shade during the day!! Almost to much for my pregnant state, but the owners of the cottage offered us to use their pool, so that we could cool down every now and again :-)

We took it very easy that week, read a few books, struggled with some advanced sudokus and just relaxed in the sun.
We did some trips to the other small villages on Skaftö - Fiskebäckskil, Grundsund and Rågårdsvik - all quite small places with pretty houses and cottages and a little marina full of boats from different countries.



On Sunday we drove down to Gothenburg, which was only 100 km away. We booked a hostel there, a bit outside the centre, that used to be a mental institution. In fact, it was a bit of a weird place, but ok anyway.
We got to see a bit of Gothenburg, which is quite different to Stockholm. Not only regarding location and size, but also regarding atmosphere and the people. Gothenburg seemed to be even more multicultural. I quite liked it, especially the huge harbour and the big long green park in the centre.
As I couldn't walk too much, we did a very touristy thing and took one of the "paddan" - a boat trip through the Canal and the harbour of Gothenburg. It went under 20 bridges - one of them so low that everybody had to get on the floor! - what was quite fun and interesting.

On Wednesday we drove back to Stockholm, with a stop for a swim in lake Vättern on the way.
It was a happy and very laid-back honeymoon and we both really enjoyed it!
The west coast is beautiful and I'm glad I got to see a bit more of Sweden.

Our Wedding Day - Part 1

So it finally arrived, the 16th of July, the day we were to get married. Despite the poor forecast, the sun was shining when we woke up and so one of our concerns was solved right away. We had breakfast with Marion, Caroline’s good friend from Germany and her five year old son David. They arrived a few days earlier from Cologne and had been checking out Stockholm with Caroline. I drove to collect the flowers and did some errands together with David, while Caroline got ready at home. At one o’clock, Hannah and Emma arrived and then Caroline and I set off to walk to the park to meet up with the photographer, Alicia. We found her on the net via her web site that had some great pictures which we both liked immediately, so we had chosen her just a few weeks before the wedding. We spent about an hour in the park with Alicia photographing us in different settings. She was very easy to work with and her relaxed style made us very as ease. Just before three o’clock we met up with Hannah and Emma, who had come together with Martin and his wife Lotta. Martin is a good friend from Sweden who I have worked with and known for many years. Finally Elizabeth arrived, the official who would be holding the ceremony, and everything was ready.

The short service was held in “Ekotemplet” or Echo-Temple, which is a classical park pavilion, built by the Swedish King, Gustav III in the 1800’s. Before we exchanged rings, Caroline and I read our personal vows to each other, which made the ceremony more personal and special for us. It was a perfect location and together with our witnesses Marion and Martin, with Lotta, Hannah and Emma and the sunny park in the background, we couldn’t have wished for a better wedding.

After the ceremony, we had a champagne picnic in the park. We spread out some blankets and served Eton mess, a strawberry, whipped cream and meringue dessert, which made a perfect complement to the champagne. It was really very enjoyable sitting there in the sun and enjoying the day and the company of our guests.

The pictures here we taken by us during the day.
You can see some of Alicia’s photographs on her blog...
http://aliciaswedenborg.blogspot.com/2008/07/caroline-richard.html

Visit from Germany

Caroline’s brother, Florian, visited us this weekend from Germany. It’s the 1st time he has been here to visit us in Sweden, so it was good to see him here. He arrived on Thursday evening, after missing his original Wednesday flight due to a delayed train. We spent the weekend with him and showing him some of Stockholm. This included a long bike ride around the city, Södermalm and even Hammarby Sjöstad, where we called in on Aaron and Ann for a BBQ. I can’t believe that Caro managed to cycle so far in her pregnant state, but she did. We drove out to Waxholm on Sunday with him and Hannah and had a fika in the sun.

Florian also had with him the new Camera that Caroline has bought in Germany online for our wedding present to ourselves. Its great, a Canon EOS 450D. So now we can start getting to know how it works and perhaps even improve the quality of the pictures on the blog.

It’s now only a week and a bit before our wedding (on the 16th) and we are busy with all the plans. We are both looking forward to it very much, we just have to hope for good weather.

Thanks for coming to see us Florian.
Look out for a wedding entry soon :)