Stockholm

We spent the first half of our Christmas holidays in Stockholm. It was extremely cold (mostly due to the wind), but no real snow to speak of. Funnily enough, the city was a ghost town - that is, until the Boxing Day sales began! Then there were big queues outside all the shops in town.

Day 1 (23 Dec): Arrived, checked into our hotel (very nice) and had a walk through Gamla Stan. This is the Old Town, and was on an island, as seems to be de rigeur in Europe. We had a great dinner at the Glenfiddich restaurant. The food was much more authentic than the name, with a great deal of pickled herring. Surprisingly yum. Our waiter had a Geordie accent, having learned his English from a Newcastle resident!

Day 2 (Dec 24): Walked through the city...

...and ended up at Gamla Stan again. Saw the guards at the Palace and had a hot chocolate at a cafe, which had been converted from a prison (where they held Gustav III's assassin).

Went to the oldest church in Stockholm, the Sankt Nikolai kyrka (Saint Nicolaus Church), most commonly known as Storkyrkan (The Great Church). Admired their nativity scene and the gorgeous 1489 wood-carved St George and the Dragon.

Watched the ceremony for the closing of the Christmas markets. Had some tasty gingerbread, and some horrible mulled wine (Glögg):

More Stockholm:

Day 3 (25 Dec): Spent Christmas day at the open-air Skansen museum, where they recreate traditional Scandinavian country living. Had good luck with the animals - saw a red squirrel, plus wolves, a fox, wolverines, reindeer, and mooses (meese?). Spent the evening watching The Lord of the Rings on telly.

Day 4 (26 Dec): More museums on Boxing Day. The Vasamuseet (houses an intact 17th Century ship)...

...and the National Museum:

Spent our last evening at the Absolut Icebar Stockholm which was actually in our hotel. Everything, including the glasses and furniture, is made out of ice. The temperature inside is -5° C!

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah and Happy New Years from London. We are thinking of all our family and friends, wherever in the globe they may be! Wishing you all good health and safe travels during the festive season. Love from Michael and Anna. xxx

As a bonus, here is a photo of the 30 foot chanukiah (Hanukah menorah) outside the Golders Green Tube station. Apparently the largest in the world!

Winter hits hard!

It's finally here: the bitter, dark, zero-degree winter of London legend! As best described on my friend Connor's blog:

London, for all its joys, is not really a city built for summer. It's not until winter when this city comes into its own, and becomes the London of imagination - warm crowded pubs, cold streets shrouded in fog, and long dark nights. ... Winter's cold jaws have descended upon London in the last couple of weeks and the weather has become, at long last, what I had been led to expect from this city.

A morning visit from Jack Frost:

The nightly fog that has been grounding hundreds of flights (hopefully not ours!) out of the UK:

Camden markets

Weather was clear this weekend, so we took a stroll through the markets at Camden Town. Very vibrant, and a terrific selection of food. I'm afraid these pics don't really do it justice, but it's something different to look at. Plus - blue sky! (After a fashion.)

Anna in Valencia

View of the historic centre of Valencia from the cathedral bell-tower:

The historic Silk Exchange building:

Central market:

Lunch at the America's Cup pavillion:

Buildings at the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (City of Arts and Sciences), designed by Santiago Calatrava:

Dinner at Restaurante Submarino, plus Kasia, Matt and Christina from Engle Architects:

After-party!

December in London

We've been pretty quiet recently (other than Anna's trip to Valencia, more of which soon...) so I thought I'd post a few random pictures:

Went for dinner with some of the York girls. Fortunately we went to the Chinese restaurant opposite this one.

So much for taking a stroll though Greenwich.

A great piece of graffitti near the Chalk Farm tube station.

TOOL at the Wembley Arena

Good evening! I have good news and bad news. I'll start with the good news. Good news is: Danny Carey, Maynard Keenan - Irish. Adam Jones - Welsh. And Justin Chancellor - English. And the bad news is: there is no bad news. - Maynard

Went to my first Tool gig with good ol' James Chapman. After getting some food, and buying a t-shirt and packet of Maltesers, we went and took our seat in the nosebleeds. (The standing tickets sold out fast...)

All in all it was a pretty good gig - standouts for me were Stinkfist, Jambi, Schism and Vicarious. In fact, Jambi surprised me - it was a hell of a lot better live than it is on the album. To be honest though, the rest of the set kind of bored me a little bit. I appreciate Tool's prog-rock angle, but the long, slow numbers really dragged - especially after the weird 15 minute candle-holding intermission. Eek. At least there was a helluva groovy laser show. Nevermind, bigger Tool fans than me seemed to enjoy it!

Also, Maynard stood at the back of the stage the whole gig. What's with that? Must've been disappointing for the devout fans getting squished up at the barrier.

Setlist: Stinkfist / Swamp Song / Jambi / Schism / Lost Keys / Rosetta Stoned / The Pot / Wings For Marie / 10,000 Days / Lateralus / Vicarious / Ænema