Patricia & Christopher's Wedding

I had been looking forward to Patricia, my second cousin, and Christopher's wedding for a while now, and on the weekend made what I consider a short trip over to Liverpool. Australia is a long way away from most of my family this was a wonderful time to be with them at this special occasion.
My uncles, grandmother and me at the reception.

The next day, after having a coffee in Bold Street in Liverpool, like my great-grandmother did many years ago, I walked down to Liverpool Lime Street to catch a train to Manchester Airport for my trip back to Sweden. Who was sitting there on the platform? Tricia and Chris also going to the airport about to head off on their honeymoon in Morocco. It also gave me a chance to get a good photo of them before we parted ways at the airport.

They are both wonderful people and look forward to catching up with them again, hopefully at the end of the year. Wishing them both best wishes for the future.

On my bike

One of the best things I have done here has been to hire a bike and ride around the city.

View video of me riding through Stockholm along Norr Mälarstrand towards Stadshuset (City Hall) and beyond to a view across the water (map of route taken in video).

Not the best of bikes as you can see below but it has to suite all. For 25 Kr a day ($4.50 AUD) and an excellent dedicated network of bike paths it was a great way to see some of the city. After you have bought a card from the train station, you can use it to unlock a bike from one of the many stands around the centre of the city and just drop it back at another (more info on Stockholm City Bikes).

Thanks Chester for the photo - from last weekend.

Changing of the Guard

A good friend of mine came over from London to Stockholm for the weekend. We walked down to the Royal Palace in Gamla Stan to see the changing of the guard. Very different from that at Buckingham Palace, much more informal and "happier."
The guards will smile and talk to you, unlike in London where you have to peek through a 6 foot fence with police with machine guns looking on. Perhaps the fact that Sweden hasn't fought in any wars for almost 200 years has something to do with it. I took some video, view it here.

On Sunday we went to Skansen, a huge outdoor museum and zoo and with a beautiful Autumnal day it was a great place to visit with some great views over Stockholm through the orange coloured trees. Here are some familiar Nordic animals getting ready for Christmas.

Laundry Dilemma

To book one of the two laundries where I'm staying you use this lock that your room key operates and latch it onto to time slot. It is a grid of slots, with the days of the month across the top (1-31) and the times down the side, 6-9, 9-12 etc.
my dilemma:
I just went down to book the laundry, and what do you know it, tomorrow morning 1st,9-12 is free. Sweet!! Since it's my day off after working the weekend. But then I look across and someone has used the slot 31, 9-12. So has someone not realised that it is SEPTEMBER with only 30 days and thought tomorrow is the 31st?
Is it a case of tough! Use your brain next time? Or should I have left the slot blank, knowing that someone has probably made a mistake? and there are others that booked the 31st also!
Tomorrow there may be a war in the laundry, comments please...