1. the final week wasn't so much to blog about and so will be fairly short (yeah, right!).
2. i'm sick of it ruling my life and sucking so much time and i want it finished!
ok, after we left the Arctic Circle we spent three days driving back down through Sweden to Stockholm where spent a few days walking around and taking in the sights (what really happened was that we walked between places to eat all day and then went to bed).
here are a few nice shots of places we saw on the drive down through Sweden:
the one above was taken when we were diverted off of the main road we were on and then we took some crazy wrong-turn before eventually finding what we (correctly) presumed were the Swedish signs for 'diversion'.
a nice little sunset:
the sheds below were traditionally used for storing/drying hay but now they just wrap the hay in plastic and so they're all falling down - shame as they're nice (and much nicer than big rounds of plastic in every field):
once in Stockholm we (via a combination of adequate directions and good fortune) soon found the place we were staying right in the heart of the city.
it's an old converted ship which is now used as a hostel.
here it is at night (looking like it's been taken by Judy Finnegan's shaky Gin hands):
we had some very nice meals (my favourite was Moose Meatballs and Mash) and saw some nice old parts of Stockholm and even managed a first on the Honey-Bob trip - a photograph of the two of us!
this was taken on the underground on our way back from a meal:
next, we drove on down through the remainder of Sweden and into Denmark.
we stayed in Copenhagen for a few days and pretty much loved it.
Copenhagen felt a lot more 'real' than Stockholm (grittier and more 'normal' somehow - not that we hated Stockholm).
we stayed in our nicest accommodation on the whole of the trip opting for a nice little boutique hotel which was all organic and ethically sourced etc... and very nice it was too!
Copenhagen has loads of old buildings which illustrate it's past well but they don't seem to figure much in modern day life in Copenhagen and so are pretty much just left alone:
we paid a visit to Freetown Christiania which is a semi-autonomous area within Copenhagen but is run pretty much independently and allowed (more tolerated) to govern itself.
it was started in the 70's when some hippies moved into and took over an old disused military base and they've been there ever since.
the first thing we noticed on entry was the smell of some very strong weed and the source was many people just wandering around smoking joints on the street.
there's a street called 'pusher street' where stalls sell hash out of suitcases which is fun.
and before you get all 'drugs are evil' on us it's worth noting that whilst alcohol and cannabis are allowed within Christiania nothing else is and so despite lax rules on the smoking of weed it is the only place in the entire of Copenhagen with zero hard-drug problems - so there!
it's somewhere between a very interesting hippy village and a dingy squat (it looks worse in winter without leaves/flowers etc...) with many houses being built solely from scavenged and recycled materials creating some pretty interesting architectural results - like this house:
on our way back we say this couple pushing their baby in this pram and then Nikki pointed out that their older child was laying face-down on the bottom which can't have been overly comfortable but it seemed happy enough:
there are loads of interesting little eateries in Copenhagen and here's a shot of one we had some decent grub in:
after an early morning of lows (being woken up by the fire alarm in the hotel and having to stand around for the better part of an hour while the firemen figured out what was going on) and highs (gaining a free organic breakfast on the house as a result) we packed up and moved out.....
next stop - Berlin where we would spend a few days doing more exploring.
here's a typically touristy photograph which proves we were there:
we stayed in Will and Ilka's flat (although unfortunately they were away for work) and it was very nice to have a base to explore from - thanks for your home guys!
one day we walked around a bunch of places for a few hours before meeting up with Amadeus (a friend from Malawi) and his girlfriend.
they took us on a tour of all things underground in Berlin which suited us much more than the usual touristy nonsense.
we went to a large artists squat where a huge old building has been taken over with cafe's, exhibitions, shops etc... very interesting.
over the next 3-4 hours we pretty much covered everywhere in Berlin on foot (ok, it felt like it by the end) visiting some really interesting places.
we saw the wall, took in a lot of street art, saw where the illegal raves are held in the summer and went past/through a few squats (places run not unlike Christiania in Copenhagen - it's amazing that they too openly sell weed).
here's some anti-corporate graffiti on a squatted building that amused us:
and here's the eastern side of 'the wall' where it's still remaining:
on the other side of the same stretch (we couldn't get over to see a lot of it - oh, the irony) they get famous street artists to do social/political art to decorate the wall - here's an example:
and some more huge graffiti:
and this one's particularly interesting:
all-in-all Berlin felt a lot like London to me - good bits, shit bits, poor bits, rich bits, interesting bits, dull business bits etc... but with a lot less development and money than London.
due to the large amount of buildings and land made available after the wall came down Berlin is one of the cheapest places to live in Germany (very unlike London).
anyways - we ate good, had some fun and then moved on.....
next up was a stay at Teresa's in Frieburg near the German/French/Swiss border.
apologies Teresa but the photographs of you were all taken whilst you were pulling your best "please don't take a photo of me" faces and so i can't imagine you want them shown and the other shots of your lovely home haven't come out so well either but here's a nice shot of the mountains from the top of the hill we walked up:
many many thanks for having us, the tour of the town and most importantly for the kartoffelpuffers!!!
ok, moving on (i know i'm not covering things in enough depth now but it's got to end).....
after leaving Germany we drove down through Switzerland to Chamonix to see Jane.
here's a nice shot of lake Geneva:
and here's one of the peaks peeking through the cloud on the mountain road up and over to Chamonix:
Jane had plans for the evening we were there and so i gatecrashed and joined in.
the plan was to walk (or skin in everyone else's case) up the mountain at night for a little while before skiing (boarding in my case) back down (enjoying the moon rise at the top).
as i had no equipment with me a friend of Jane's (apologies but i can't remember his name) very generously let me borrow a powerful head-torch, some snow-shoes, snowboard and boots - which was greatly appreciated.
it was hard work (especially trying to keep up with the skinners) and i was pathetically rusty on a snowboard but i really enjoyed it all the same - brilliant!
here's a shot of Jane sat underneath her favourite (and massive) old cycling photograph in her flat:
the next day we were up and on the road again just as far as Meribel to unwind for a little while before finally heading back home.
here's the view from the flat:
as you can see it's not too shabby a place to kick-back, relax and enjoy doing nothing but eat, sleep and take long baths!!!
finally the day came to do the final leg of the trip back to Simple HQ and we said our farewell to the Alps and headed home.
here's some nice silhouetted mountains on the road near Valence on our journey back:
late that evening we made it back and concluded our grand tour of all places cold and white in northern Europe.
as you may imagine (from all of the photographs and explanations of things we saw/did on our trip) we had an amazing, once in a lifetime, Honey-Bob!!!
now it's back to work with a million and one things to get done here at home.
but more about that another time.....
hope you've enjoyed reading about our trip.
cheers (or skol in Swedish).
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