Pre-Christmas - Stockholm

Just before Christmas Linda and I headed off on a trip around the North of Europe to grab a taste of such places in the thick of their Christmas celebrations.

We started in Stockholm, which we've visited previously but later in the year. This time we turned up just after they'd had some unseasonably cold weather the week before, and Stockholm and Sweden were featuring heavily in the news because of the Wikileaks drama, an attempted terrorist attack, and the Chinese boycotting of the Nobel prize ceremony.

Linda had found us a really nice apartment in the old part of town, just across the river from Gamla Stan which is the real historic heart of Stockholm.

In Stockholm we visited the Christmas Markets in Gamla Stan, which were picture perfect in the old square with snow all around. We learned all about the Tomten (precursors to Santa Clause), and kept warm on Glogg, Saffransbullar, and Pepparkakor (mulled wine, saffron buns, and ginger biscuits).

We also went to Skansen to see the Santa Lucia celebrations in the open air museum. The history of the Santa Lucia tradition seems to be a bit vague, but the modern interpretation is of lots of singing and the crowning of a girl who is elected to play the Lucia role.

We also saw groups of people singing in the streets all around Stockholm, in less formal performances.

At the end of our stay we caught an overnight ferry to Helsinki. At the markets we had bought a salami and cheese, which kept us well fed through our ferry trip and beyond!

Actually the Ferry trip was both fun and weird. Fun because we were catching a ferry through the Swedish Archipeligo and ice towards another icy location, but weird because of the strange captive-audience/b-grade entertainment atmosphere of the ferry.

Belgium

A couple of weekends ago we did a quick search through the flight scanning websites and came up with our next destination, based purely on convenience, which is how we ended up going to Belgium!

Not that Belgium was a bad choice, and actually it had been on our list of places we'd quite like to visit for some time, but it wasn't exactly at the top of that list and from its reputation we didn't have high expectations.

Of course this presumption was completely unfounded, and we ended up having a fabulous time exploring the cullinary delights of Belgium (Chocolates, Beers, Mussels, Chips & Mayonaise, Waffles, etc.) as well as some its very pretty medieval cities.

We started in Ghent, a city I'd never heard of before this trip but which came with fantastic recommendations from the travel websites. Our hotel fronted onto a Canal with fantastic old building facades, and we had a great time exploring the streets and cafés.

We also visited Saint Bavo Cathedral and laughed at the extravagant entry fee required to duck around the corner to look at The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, by Jan van Eyck, which was trapped behind multiple layers of glass in a climate controlled room.

Then we travelled to Bruges which is another very pretty town but far more touristed than Ghent. Fortunately we weren't visiting in peak season otherwise it would be a bit unbearable.

Aside from wandering around the streets and buying lace (a local speciality), we had the best dinner of our trip, made up of a bucket of mussels in beer broth and some of the local soup.

Lastly, we spent only a few hours in Brussels, buying up big on chocolates from the famous ateliers, before doing our typical hustle to the airport (which this time was unnecessary since the flight was delayed). All in all we had a fantastic time in Belgium and came home feeling fat and happy from our experiences.

This was our best photo of that icon of Brussels, the Mannekin Pis. It's difficult to capture in a photograph because it's just so small!

Saint Petersburg - The Hermitage

While in Saint Petersburg we spent 2 afternoons in The Hermitage; Saint Petersburg's first public museum housed in three separate buildings: the Winter Palace, the Old Hermitage and the New Hermitage.

On our first day there we spent hours wandering around the 2nd floor visiting the state rooms, including the room where the October revolution came to an end, with the stopped clock recording the time.

The state rooms were amazing in scale and grandure. Also amazing was the Hidden Treasures display of French artwork, taken from Germany after WWII and now quite discretely displayed within the museum (I gather Germany is quite interested in getting them back).

We also did a guided tour of the vaulted "diamond room" where some of the most valuable pieces are kept (but no pictures were allowed).

On the second day we focused on the 3rd floor containing modern art, and also a very interesting Oriental and Middle Eastern display.

Then we made sure to spend some time on the 1st floor looking at the prehistoric artifacts from finds around Russia.

All in all it was quite exhausting but really interesting. I'm sure it's true that you could spend many days wandering around the museum, not least because it is quite confusingly configured! Also interesting were the countless "babushkas" who guard each of the rooms both in the Hermitage but also in the Ethnography museum - I don't think there was any doubt about who is in charge of the museums!