Sweden 2010

Here we go then, a quick tour of the tiny part of Sweden that I managed to see during the past seven days. First stop my brothers place in Vasteras. Apologies to any Swedish readers for the lack of inflections, afraid I don't have those on my keyboard.

Then a one hour journey courtesy of Swedish railways to 3 full days in Stockholm with a double booking mistake at our hotel which led to a fabulous, free upgrade including a fully paid for taxi across the city to our new accomodation!! Wow!!

The wondeful Stockholm island of Djurgarden. Check it out, fantastic. Stunning views, truly breathtaking.

Do I need to say more where this next picture is concerned??? I seem to remember spending a lot of time in here, maybe a little money too!

and something equally as beautiful, Svenskt Tenn. Truly stunning contemporary design. I couldn't even afford a paper bag in here though.

I really hope these next pictures make you gasp, deep in the woods, miles from anywhere. A little red riding hood..ish.

The home of my brothers father in law and his lovely wife. Words fail me.

I believe that this is the outdoor loo, never used, far too pretty.

Then back to Vasteras and my brothers house for a few days, with a view to die for.

San Francisco 2009

Here are the San Francisco pictures as promised! You have jet lag to thank for this, I have been up since 3.30 a.m.!! I am also assuming that you have come here from my other blog. If not and you have just stumbled upon this rambling then please visit me here, it's much more interesting!!
First pic, the view from my open top bus tour. We bought a two day ticket for this, hop on and hop off as you want and it was a really good way to get our bearings and an overall knowledge of the city. In the foreground here is a school yard, apparently O.J. Simpson went to this school before he chose his future life path, now is that a reflection of the teaching I wonder!
Next up, City Hall, typical tourist image.

The street entertainment was awesome, these guys with drums would often have small children playing along with them. You can also see a cable car in the background.

I took this next picture from the bus again so couldn't get any closer. Can you see the group of houses to the left of the square building? These are apparently famous Victorian houses known as ''the painted ladies'' and are often used in films.

Next, a gorgeous piece of art in Union Square facing our hotel, (very close to the spot where the famous knee pictures were taken!) our hotel is in the image below.

A lovely ''arty'' water fountain on Embarcadero

some more temptation for feeding the creative soul, very tasty too I might add!! especially filled with strawberry cheesecake ice cream.

We went to a ball game, San Francisco Giants v L.A. Dodgers. I adopted the home team, needless to say they lost but it was worth it for the view from our seats across the bay, amazing.

My lovely, fresh fruit smoothy, a healthy feast for the creative soul, taking care of my 5 a day here! I still don't know what the black things in the bottom were but they went down with the rest!

The next pic was taken on the boat trip to Alcatraz. The following Alcatraz images speak for themselves really. It was quite wierd being there and thinking how it must have been when it was in use. I love all the neatly folded prison issue wear, doesn't it look good, folding fabric, right up my street!

this next one is the view of the city from Alcatraz. I was suprised at how close it seemed. In my head I imagined Alcatraz to be miles out to sea, not so.

More street entertainment. These guys were amazing, they sounded fantastic and I really admired their innovation, guitars with amps on a street corner, they were there every night.

On our way to Yosemite National Park we travelled through, (I think it's the central Californian valleys) anyway there were acres and acres of crops. I don't know what these were but they are either walnuts or almonds, you could see them for miles.

I cannot find words to describe these next images. Yosemite National Park, speechless. I hope you spend time with these ones, try and imagine, breathtaking.

I have never in my life seen such huge fruit! The plums tasted delicious, we were at this street market A LOT. (see, it wasn't all cup cakes and ice cream) Can someone please tell me what squash blossom is? what do you do with it?

ahhh! my little friend, sat next to me for ages, so tame and friendly.

Below is the cause of me using San Francisco public transport in a state of unimaginable 'wetness'! We had a tour round the bay in this power boat, guess who was sat at the side and got drenched????? Followed by a tram trip to get changed, not a good advert for the English tourist!

Pier 39, permanent home to all these seals.

Now some general views of the city from a cable car. I risked life and limb hanging out of the side to take some of these!

I took this next photo to show you the mist. Do you see it at the top of the skyscraper. Mist would descend from nowhere, anytime during the day it was amazing, one minute sunny next thing everything obscured by mist. It is something to do with the unique climate of San Francisco. and finally. I spotted this on our hotel on my last day. Good job I didn't see it on the first day I may not have stayed! What's this all about!

So that's it, never another post on this blog, enjoy and let me know what you think.