Elena's Birthday

It is Elena's birthday today - congratulation!

Tallin

This weekend we have been on a cruise to on M/S Victoria to Tallin together with family Sjöblom. It was a nice ship and we had a very nice time together. On the ship both Egil and Elena became happy winners in competitions. In Tallin we found a very nice old town but unfortunately also some rain. After arrival back in Stockholm Frihamn, we stopped in Stockholm and visited old town and Naturhistoriska riksmuseet with Cosmonova.

S:t Petersburg and Moscow

Today, we returned from a ten days trip to Russia, together with our parents. Here is what happened.

July 10: The trip started in Linköping where we picked up Paul's parents on our way back from Mats and Magda's housecooling party in Lerum (they are moving out ;-). We continued to Stockholm and Viking Line.

July 11: From Helsinki, we drove to the Russian border (approx 200 km). The procedure at the border took about 20 minutes (we had a non-Russian car). We then drove to Vyborg where we made a quick stop at the market place to do some shopping. After Vyborg we drove to Fersmans summer house in Roschino. Here we met family Gena Fersman and Vadjim Fersman and celebrated with lunch, water skiing, BBQ, etc.

July 12: From Roschino we drove to SPb (S:t Petersburg), with a short stop at a beach in Roschino and another short stop at a beach of the Gulf of Finland. In the evening in SPb, we went to see dance group Todes performing in the concert house October (Oktjabrskij). It was a fantastic show that we celebrated with Russian champagne!

July 13: After a short visit at a market, we went to see Pavlovsk. A beautiful area outside of SPb. A purpose of the trip was to listen to a concert in the building pavilion Rose. On the way back, we stopped at Newsky Prospect to have dinner at a restaurant.

July 14: The main happening of this day was a lunch at Polytechnical University. In one of their best private rooms we enjoyed a very good lunch (as usual with champagne, vodka, wine, and beer ;-). In the evening, we took the subway to the Moskovsky railway station. And left for Moscow after midnight.

July 15: We conveniently arrived to the hotel Izmajlovo after a trip by subway from the railway station Leningradsky. Our hotel was just one of several (four?) 30 floors hotel buildings in the area. In the early afternoon we went to visit the Fersman museum - named after Elena's grand grand father, the famous Alexander E. Fersman. In the museum, which was partly being renovated, we were guided in English and learned a lot about A.E. Fersman and geology (in particular those that are non-Fersman's ;-). At the time we were to leave the museum, Moscow surprised us with thunder and rain, but we still made it to the Red Square and the shopping mall GUM.

July 16: Close to our hotel, there was a huge market. This morning we just took a quick look at it. We then took a three hours guided city tour. We went to many places, including: Red Square, Kreml, Moscow state university, Park Pobedy, Fersman street(!), etc. The tour stopped at the war museum where some of us went in to see the exhibition. After the museum it was already 6pm so we went back to hotel area to have dinner.

July 17: This last day in Moscow, we spent a lot of time (too much?) at the market close to our hotel. It turned out to be at least ten times bigger than we thought the day before. We had lunch at the market and then went to see the VDNH park. It was really nice, with lots of people walking around and enjoying themselves. In the evening, we went by metro to the railway and took off towards SPb again.

July 18: Back in SPb, we did some shopping, and then went to see Peter and Paul's fortress. Here we also listened to SPb male choir. In the evening we celebrated Brith and Göran's 41:st wedding day with Zhanna and Erik.

July 19: This last day in SPb the weather was not so good. Since the it was sunny and around or over 30 degrees all previous days, it actually felt quite nice! We finally decided to see Kronstadt. The way to Kronstadt is quite peculiar since it is in the water, but it is not a bridge. They have simply built a small stripe of land all the ten km out to Kronstadt. We went to see the cathedral that unfortunately was not open. In the evening we all enjoyed Irisha's wonderful borsch!

July 20: After leaving SPb around 9.30am, we drove the 150 km to the Finish border. Made a quick stop at Vyborg of course. In the evening, we had a quite rough sea trip from Helsinki towards Stockholm...

Östhammar

Today we went with the Krehlas to Östhammar at the Swedish east coast, 70 km north east of Uppsala. In Östhammar they opened their week of music with the just 13 years old Swedish pop star Amy Diamond (What's in it for meeee). After the opening ceremony, we went to the beach, swam in the Baltic see, and had BBQ (with only bread and sausage).