Stockholm

The only real travelling this summer was our cruise to Stockholm (Wed-Fri). We travelled on board Silja Serenade.

Luana looking at Helsinki as we're leaving. It was bitterly cold on the deck but she was able to squeeze a smile on her face :)

First thing we did was to visit Junibacken, home to Astrid Lindgren's characters. It was a lovely place and the kids liked it a lot. We got to see two short theatre plays and although they were in Swedish the kids still found them interesting. This picture is of Pippi Longstocking.

Then we went to the Royal Palace and saw some of the fine rooms and halls inside. This picture is from the court yard.

Finally a walk in the old town. This is the old market square.

And one of the main shopping streets in the old town.

The cruise takes two nights and you get to spend the day in Stockholm. The boat is great with kids; ours loved the play area! We also had a really good buffet dinner and the kids surprised us by behaving really really well for almost two hours at dinner. They didn't even go crazy with the desserts and allowed us adults to carry on eating even when they had already finished their meals. I had some pencils and small notebooks for them to draw and that was enough to keep them busy until we all had finished our dinners.

The kids were very excited about the whole trip and that came out as tantrums and excessive whining for most of the time. We were trying to enjoy the trip but it was a bit hard at times with at least one of them strongly objecting to everything we suggested... Good memories all the same and the kids sure had a good time! :)