Chmonix and Geneva

Late Ester trip with three nice days of skiing in Chanomix (Brevent and Grands Montets) and two days of nice sight seeing in Geneva.

London

Sports vacation to London. Not much sports, but lots of sight seeing and shopping, and a memorable visit to Green street to see West Ham United.

Munich, Herrenchiemsee, and Hintertux

St Petersburg, Roshino, Zelenogorsk, and Novgorod

Munich, Germany

Chamonix, France

St Petersburg

New Year's celebration in Romme

Celebrated the weekend in Romme with family Krehlas. Two very nice days of skiing and nice New Years dinner with family and friends!

Antalya, Turkey

Vacation in Antalya, Turkey with Irisha and Gesha at the very nice Kremlin Palace.

Linköping

Spent a few nice days with Brith and Göran in Linköping, where we went to "allsång" in Landeryd, Skänning marknad, and to see Ronny.

Roshino, Russia and Helsinki, Finland

We arrived to Saint Petersburg from Pärnu via Narva. We spent many nice days in Roshino and Zelenogorsk on the beach. In Saint Petersburg we did lots of nice shopping and went to see Zenit beat Sibir with 2-0. After two wounderful weeks in Russia, we went by car to Helsinki where we had a very nice evening and day.

Pärnu, Estonia

We spent a very nice week in Pärnu with Anders, Anna, Galina and Alexander, and Irish and Gesha. Weather was fantastic and we spent time on the beach, in restaurants, bbq'ing, playing tennis, running, etc. From Pärnu, we continued to St Petersburg via Narva.

Prague

This week, Paul has been on a nice conference in Software Engineering (CompArch) in Prague. On the Friday, Elena, Elin and Alexander joined to spend the midsummer weekend (until Monday) in Prague. We had a big appartment in central Prage. From there we made excursions to the castle, old town square, zoo, etc.

Pictures here.

Val Thorens, France

Jan 2, 2010: We traveled with Norwegian Air from Stockholm Arlanda at 05:45h, and continued from Geneva airport at 10:00h with bus to Val Thorens. The trip went smooth, but the early departure from Uppsala kept reminding us during the day. Upon arrival in Val Thorens, we check in at Hotel Chamois d'Or and went for lunch across the street. We also did some shoppning until we got access to our room/appartment at 16:00h. We spent the evening by resting and did some more shopping.

Jan 3, 2010: The day started with buying skipass in Val Thorens at 10:00h. The skiing conditions were quite good: -10C, no wind, and cloudy. We first went to Glacier de Peclet and then moved towards the highest peak, Pointe de Bouchet (3230m). Everything went as planned except for minor problems with Paul's skipass (it stoped working so we had to talk ourself into every lift except the first two). On the way down from Pointe de Bouchet, we experienced how the skiing conditions got worse. The biggest problem was the bad sight which made it difficult to see the snow surface. That we accidentally ended up in a non-prepared and difficult piste did not make things better. We then had a very nice lunch at Plan Bouchet and decided to move back towards Val Thorens where we exchanged the broken skipass and decided to go back to the hotel to rest. In the evening we had dinner at a nice restuaruant in Val Thorens.

Jan 4, 2010: The conditions were just a few minus, cloudy, no wind, lots of new snow, and snowing. We started by skiing in Plaein Sud in Val Thorens, then moved on to Col de la Chambre (2850m), and further to Meribel, including Mont du Vallon (2952m). The skiing was very, very nice due to all the new snow and many of the pistes were not prepared, leaving lots of nice new snow to ski in. We had lunch in Meribel and then moved back towards Val Thorens. In a slope near Val Thorens we found a very nice afterski where we stoped for some time, before going back to the hotel. In the early evening we went to Centre de sportif to swim and have sauna and hamam. We then did some shopping and cooked dinner in the appartment.

Jan 5, 2010: The weather was absolutely perfect! Sun, -10C, and no wind. We skiied on Caron before noon, then moved on to the sunny side of Val Thorens and Menuires. There were still lots of good opportunities for offpiste skiing which we enjoyed. We also very much enjoyed the pistes that had perfect snow and were faster than yesterday. We had lunch on the top of Col de la Chambre (2850m) and then skiied on intensively until 16:00. We then went back to have a short rest in the appartment before going on a snow mobile tour at 17:30h. It was a very, very nice experience that last for an hour. We took turns in driving and both had lots of fun! We drove slow, very fast, and in deep show. Both uphill and downhill. After the tour, we did some shopping and had dinner in the appartment.

Jan 6, 2010: Yet another day with excellent skiing conditions: -5C and not a cloud in the sky. We decided to ski in all three valleys, i.e., from Val Thorens to Courchevel and back. It worked out really well, and we had lots and lots of nice skiing in the sun. We stopped to have a late lunch on one of the tops and made it back to Val Thorens just in time before the lift stopped (at 16:30h). In the evening we packed our suitcase and cleaned the apartment. We also went to have beer at the local bowling place and had a nice raclette (with lots of cheese) in a restaurant near by our hotel.

Jan 7, 2010: The bus left from Val Thorens at 07:20h and reached Geneva airport at 10:30h. In the airport we had brunch and tried to do some shopping, but ended up at a gate, resting and writing this text.

In summary, our experiences from Val Thorens are very positive. The skiing is absolutely excellent, regardless if you prefer on or off-piste skiing. Val Thorens is a 100% tourist resort. On the negative side this means there is no old or genuine city centre. On the positive side, the whole resort is optimized for skiing and winter sports. It is basically a village located around a slope in which more or less every hotel has direct access to the pistes, which in turn means you never have to bother about ski buses or car parking. The ski system is also very well developed with a high capacity. During our four days of skiing we stayed in line less than 15mins in total(!).

Click here to see pictures and videos.

Split

Last week we spend in Split in Croatia. Paul was working the first few days. Wednesday to Saturday we spend together. We had a lovely flat on the heights of Split with a spectacular view of the they city. From there we could walk to the city center or the beach in just a few minutes. We also visited Supetar and Bol. During the stay we also ran a 10km race with Paul's colleagues.

Strands in Uppsala

The last few days, we had Ronny, Emelie, and Erika Strandh visiting from Linköping. It was some intensive days with sightseeing in Uppsala and Stockholm, including Old Uppsala, Wiiks castle, Gröna lund, and (allsång på) Skansen. We hope they enjoyed it as much as we did.

Our photos.
Ronny's photos.

Bellevue, Seattle, WA, USA

The last week (July 18 to 26), we have spent in Seattle, WA, USA where
Paul attended a computer science conference and Elena was (mostly) on
vacation. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency at Bellevue since it hosted
the conference. Bellevue is a small suburb/part of Seattle which seems
to be populated mostly with rich and successful people (e.g. Bill
Gates ;-)), and the surroundings is quiet with expensive stores and
restaurants.



On Sunday the 19th we went with Cristina, Tibi, and Johan to the
Olympic National Park. The drive there included a ferry trip to
Bainbride Island and a stop at the Discovery Bay Railroad Park. In the
park, we experienced the scenery at Hurricane Ridge. On the way home
we stop in Port Angeles for dinner and experienced some congestion on
the way to the ferry.

The next day, we went to do some shopping. We visited Best Buy in
Bellevue and the Tulalip outlet. In the evening the conference started
with Welcome reception where we met with more friends.

The next days (to Friday) we interleaved with working during office
hours, some running, and going to Seattle in the later
afternoons/evenings. We visited the Pike Place market, the dock area,
the conference dinner at a boat tip with Royal Argosy, many other nice
restaurants and shops, the Olympic Sculpture Park, and the Space
needle (at least its base).

On the Friday evening, we went with Johan to the Seattle underground
tour -- a very nice guided trip in Seattle underground (what used to
be the sidewalk level just after the big fire), some nice pubs in the
Pioneer square area, and later to China town. On the Saturday, we went
with Cristina, Tibi and Johan to the Qwest Field stadium to see
Seattle Sounders vs. Chicago Fire. We first had some problems to find
tickets, but some minutes after the game started the street prices
leveled with the original prices and we managed to find tickets and
enter the sold-out game. Unfortunately, in the 2nd half, Fredrik
Ljungberg (Seattle Sounders) received a red card and the game quality
degraded substantially. After the game we made a short stop in China
town (from where our three companions left to the hotel and airport)
and we continued to Pioneer square and further to Pike street. Here we
shopped at Ross (for the 3rd time) and then went to see the Torchlight
parade, which started with a running race, then the crowning of a
parade queen.

To summarize, Seattle and its surrounding areas are well worth a
visit. We heard that we were extremely lucky with the weather. We also
heard that all Seattlers say so to foreigners since the population of
Seattle has grown by 100% in the last 20 years - judge for
yourself. Anyway, when the weather is nice Seattle is a very nice
place!

Photos!

Costa Brava, Spain

We have been to a very hot week in Spain. We traveled with Ryanair from Västerås to Gerona, then continued 40km by car to Cala GoGo camping in Platja D'oro, where we had a Mobile home waiting. It turned out to be a very convenient and nice way to live. The mobile home was very well equipped (booked from Eurocamp) with three separate bed rooms WC, shower, kitchen and living room with a sofa convertible to double bed. Close to the mobile home was a pool complex situated, also a sports area and the beach was very close. At the pool there was restaurant, shop, bakery, etc. Especially the shop was very nice since it had really good prices and it was allowed to drink beverages from the shop at the pool. Some of the days we spent at the beach, one day we went to Barcelona, another to Palamos. The pictures explains pretty well the week. They can be found at Google pictures.

We really enjoyed this type of travelling (too ;-)).

Wonderful Saint Petersburg

Have been in wonderful St Petersburg and Roschino for almost a week. It was great as usual. St Petersburg stoke us with its beauty! See pictures by clicking title.

Skiing in Stöten

Spent the Eastern weekend skiing, together with Leo, in Stöten. We stayed in a flat at Stöten mitt and enjoyed the skiing there very much. One of the days we went to Tandådalen (20km from Stöten) where we meet the Sjöbloms and enjoyed nice weather and company.

We conclude that the skiing in much better in Stöten than Tandådalen. Stöten probably has the best skiing in the whole Sälen area, however, other ingrediences of a skiing weekend might better at other places, e.g., after-ski, activites for kids, etc.

Pictures!