We've sadly waved the amazing Hotel Stotvig goodbye and travelled across the border to Sweden. It took around 5hrs30mins driving time to travel between Rygge & Stockholm plus we had plenty of stops for the kids to run off some energy.

At approximately 4pm we arrived at our hotel. It's really convenient for John's (10min drive) and the bus/train to town. There's a secure car park and friendly receptionist plus our room is the first one on the main floor so super easy to get to. The room itself is big but a little strange! The bathroom, for example, has a nice shower and a jacuzzi bath...but the entire inside walls and door are slightly frosted glass so privacy isnt high on the agenda! The bed is huge, probably 8 foot long and wide (in fact 8ft from every angle as it's round...and velvet.

Once unpacked we had a visit from John and Rox and headed a few stops into town for tea at an Irish Bar. During the following days we have....

1) visited Skansen an open air museum with Nordic animals and traditional working buildings. We saw moose, reindeer, bear, wolves and many ducks who tried to eat our sandwiches at lunchtime. During an ice-cream break in the afternoon some particularily brave birds kept performing flybys inches from our noses. Once back in the town centre we went to a lovely park with a climbing wall that occupied the children for ages then had pizza for tea in a cute little italian restaurant. Afterwards we came back to the appartment and the kids picked up supplies before skipping out with John for a sleepover at his house.

2) had a day sunbathing by a lake, we took a picnic and john even went swimming in the lake with the kids - it seemed pretty cold though so soon they were out playing football instead. The weirdest point of the day was when 30 Spanish cyclists on a bike tour rode up and parked their bikes all round us like a fortress wall. They talked animatedly, got us to take photos then disappeared the otherside of their bike wall to head to the cafe for lunch. We all got really sunburnt that day! John and Rox made us meatballs for tea too which were very nice.

3) The weather turned and there was a constant drizzle followed by a large thunderstorm. We went to John and Rox's for lunch then John and the kids baked vegan choc chip cookies for us all. We decided this would be a good film day so watched Beauty and the Beast in the afternoon. For tea we headed out on the train to a 'hipster foodcourt' then the kids went for sleepover number 2.

Its now the beginning of our final day in Stockholm, looking forward to an adventure before we start to prepare for heading to Denmark tomorrow.