Copenhagen, Denmark

The best way to get to Charlotte's family in Sweden is to fly into Copenhagen, Denmark - which is closer than Sweden's Stockholm airport.

Having never been to Copenhagen before, we decided to stay a night on the way home from Vitaby and check it out.

We were pleased with our decision as it's a beautiful and compact city, great for a quick visit.

We had a small apartment in the city from where we could walk or bus to see the sights. There are millions of cyclists everywhere and proper bicycle lanes all through the city. Copenhagen has the highest cyclist rate per capita in the world.

There's a lovely park called the King's Garden, complete with palace of course.

But more importantly, also a playground

 "Look mum, I laid an egg!"

"Look mum, I can fly!"

Rosenborg Castle in background (this is one of the King's castles, but there are more)

The best thing to do in Copenhagen though, is to just walk the streets. It's such a beautiful city and there's plenty to see wherever you go. Our poor kids had to walk for miles - we could have done with a stroller or chariot. But Flynn toughed it out and Benjy gave our arms a good workout.

This waterfront area is called Nyvorn and is a narrow canal-like waterway that goes out to the sea from a wide sea channel that divides Copenhagen in two. It is a tourist hub and a hive of restaurant and entertainment activity, set against a backdrop of colourful buildings and beautiful old-fashioned sailing ships.

An interesting shoe-wall that left Benjy with lots of questions

Who's ready for a restaurant?

Whoops, forgot to rotate this one, but it's a restaurant called Mama Rosa, which for us was meaningful as we used to frequent a Mama Rosa in Kohimarama when we just started going out. And since we walked past on the very day of our anniversary of getting together, we felt we should eat there. Food was pretty average though.

A friendly troll agreed to a photograph

Lots of street musicians in Copenhagen (and lots of pubs)

This area is the official residence of the Danish royal family. A raised flag tells you if they're home or not.

Overall very impressed with Copenhagen, a beautiful and vibrant city. Highly recommended for a short break.

Summer Holiday in Sweden

Our Swedish friend Charlotte, who I know from Singapore, invited us to stay with them on her father's farm in Sweden, for a week during the summer holidays.

We were not expecting much but the farm was amazing -  very picturesque, set in lovely gardens and the part we stayed in was nicely refurbished and new. The property is no longer a working farm, but has all the original outbuildings that were once barns, pig houses etc. They have increased the size of the original house to include the cow shed so the living space is very large.

The farm is outside a very small town (village) called Vitaby (in south-east Sweden), consisting of little more than a small supermarket and a pub. Within about 25 min's drive there are much bigger towns and some lovely seaside towns.

The farm is surrounded by lovely forests

We took at look at some of the larger nearby towns of Simrishamn und Kivik

In Simrishamn we did a tour on an old-fashioned fire engine, which was kind of fun, except that it was very hot, the engine fumes were almost overwhelming and the commentary was in Swedish - other than that, it was awesome

Sweden was having a heatwave when we arrived, which is very unusual. We were in Sweden a few summers ago, and the summer temperature was around 14-18 degrees. This year, it was around 30 - 34 degrees. So we spent lots of time at a lake, at the beach and playing in a paddling pool at the farm. It was great as the kids hardly ever get to go to the beach and we weren't expecting Sweden to be the place for that!

Despite Vitaby being a small place, there was lots to do all around the area. There are quite a few tourists in the area for summer, given the lakes and the nearby sea.

We did a rail-bike tour through beautiful farmland and forests, to a great swimming lake

It was another shirts-off, hot day

The rail-bikes use an old railway track that used to be the main access to this area and ran using steam trains. You can also take a stream train ride from here.

Kivik is a seaside town with a nice cafe-restaurant scene going on. There are some beautiful beaches along the south east coast and we spent lots of time on these.

Cool little changing sheds that people buy or rent. This color scheme of reddish brown and white is characteristic of the farm and country buildings in this area.

Flynn and Blake went fishing for a morning with Dietrich and Elias. Flynn was the champion fisherman and caught the most and the biggest fish. He declined to eat any of it, but the rest of us enjoyed it!

The churches here tend to be BIG and solid-looking

The Spandau and Kackie families

Around Simrishamn

We had a pleasant morning walk in a national park overlooking the sea

And were pleased to meet a friendly dung-beetle

The beautiful landscape driving from the beach to Vitaby

These half-stone buildings (using massive round stones) are also characteristic of the area

Despite a long day out, the boys still had enough energy for a Masai-style jumping performance

Then they choreographed an undie-hat dance for some light pre-dinner entertainment. After these photos, all underwear (except for that on the head) was removed and they presented us with a creative nudie dance. Fortunately Charlotte's 96 year-old grandmother had a good sense of humour.

As always, we had a great time with the Spandaus, and we enjoyed meeting Charlotte's extended family. From there we drove to Copenhagen, Denmark - the closest international airport - spending a night there to see the sights. Check out the next blog for details...