These days keep getting away from me- school being taught, places being visited, pictures taken, and the blog begs me to be updated. So, here I am!
The pictures you see above are from our visit to Kronberg Slot, the castle that is the setting for Shakespeare's play, "Hamlet." You know, the one where Hamlet holds a skull and says dramatically, "To be, or not to be. That is the question!" Apparently that play is frequently reenacted at the castle, by an extremely renowned cast of characters, actors such as Laurence Olivier, Jude Law, Vivian Leigh, Christopher Plummer, Michael Caine. Naturally, we didn't see any of those people on our visit.
Last weekend we visited Stockholm, taking the train from Copenhagen. It was a great adventure and I'll hopefully write a post about it, with lots of pictures, but they have not been uploaded yet so I am only going to briefly mention it for now. Having a Swedish heritage, Sweden, and Stockholm, has a special place in my heart. I'm sort of falling more and more in with Scandinavia general on this trip. It's true that the language is really difficult for me, and I'm not crazy about some of the food, and the weather is too cold for me most of the year. But there is so much that is really special.
I may not be very good at describing it, but it is more of a feel or an atmosphere that I just love.
It's cozy. So much knitted warmth: hats, scarves, mittens, sweaters (you know I love that part), hot chocolate, down blankets covering babies (who are wearing the most darling wool baby bonnets) in buggies being pushed down the streets, lots and lots of candles.
It's beautiful. Beautiful lighting, clean, simple design and furniture, absolutely breathtaking landscape, so much water everywhere, and swans! Actual swans swimming in the water! Darling little houses all designed with seemingly the same look, and did I mention the cathedrals and castles? Amazing.
Furthermore, there is a really sweet attitude toward children, where there seems to be a sense of preserving innocence much longer than there seems to be in much of the US. There are so many little spots thoughtfully set up just for children, whether a little play area next to a grocery store, a basket of toys at a coffee shop, a room just for children to play on a ferry, or an entire museum just for them. I'll write more about this museum when I post about on our visit to the extremely well done and interesting Junibacken, the Astrid Lindgren (author of Pippi Longstocking plus so much more) museum. Last week, we needed to make a late night trip to the Danish emergency room to get stitches for poor Jude, who smacked his head into a door knob. He received such sweet treatment there from the nurse. She asked him many questions about the stuffed fox he had brought along, including asking him if he wanted her to treat it with a band aid, and demonstrated the laughing gas mask (yes, they gave him laughing gas while stitching him up!) on the toy fox before having him try. For being quite a traumatic experience, Jude was quite calm, thanks in large part to the thoughtful nurse. At the end, Jude was allowed to pick a toy from the pirate treasure chest, though the nurse weren't certain if Jude knew who Jack Sparrow was yet. I wonder what five year old boy in the US has not heard of Jack Sparrow, but I appreciated the sentiment. (By the way, Jude's stitches got taken out yesterday, again, by a very kind nurse, and while he will definitely have a scar to show off his battle wound, it was stitched up quite nicely and healed very well. Please God, no more moments of cradling my boys head in my lap with blood gushing down his face, into his eyes, all over my hands and clothing so that I fear to look at how bad the damage actually is. And thank you that behind all that blood was "only" a centimeter long wound, rather than what my mind pictured it must be based on all the blood.)
One thing I really did not expect to find in Scandinavia was so many Asian tourists, who are so interested in our family. It's becoming a rather run-of-the-mill circumstance now for me to look up and find several with cameras out, aiming them at Clemmie in the buggy, and one of them asking Jude to move closer in toward her and smile for them. Then the funny thing is I then take my camera out and take a picture of them taking a picture of my kids. Then we exchange smiles and move on.
I do really love so much about the lifestyle here. And thinking about the good parts leaves me feeling slightly less homesick. One more month until we come home again.
