What a miserable drizzly morning, in both weather and moods. J showed the girls how to play conkers in a break in the rain, which he enjoyed almost as much as them! We managed to pack up in spite of the rain, and drove over to Drottingholm Palace nearby. My intention had been to go in but it didn't open for another hour, the drizzle was off-putting and jas had done his palace bit yesterday. He wanted to get a few miles under our belt today so we set off. The bea...

Pancakes for breakfast this morning, courtesy of the supermarket trip yesterday so the kids were happy! I'd arranged for the inspection to happen at 10am so we got packed up and I cleaned the hut as requested using flash wipes and vacuuming. It was looking spic and span, but when the 'cleaner' came she insisted that there was dirt and articles on the floor under the couches and by the bathroom. I was not impressed as the place was certainly in the same condition ...

We decided to do a bit of sightseeing this morning, then spend the afternoon swimming. The promised trade-off kept the kids going and happy this morning. We started with Gamla Uppsala (once we disregarded ms tomtom's request to park up in someone's front yard - a worryingly frequent occurrence!) which is the Old Uppsala, or original town site. Most famous are the burial mounds from the Viking age. There are 3 large mounds, and 250 other burial sites. 2 of the 3 m...

After checking out from the hut, we headed over to the swimhall this morning as they have a heated indoor pool. The kids haven't been swimming in a while so we thought it would be nice. Unfortunately their definition of heated is not quite the same as mine - a bit chilly! Made me nostalgic for the good old virgin active pool. There was a big group of primary school children so we went in the diving pool which was, of course, a bit too deep to hold onto felix pro...

We packed up this morning - still takes a while - and were on the road by 10. First stop was Roros, an old copper mining town on the inner highlands. It was just under 2 hrs away. Completely different to anything we've seen so far but uniquely beautiful. The mine there ran from 1644 till 1977 when the company went bankrupt. The town itself is very utilitarian in appearance, prettily industrial in a very oldfashioned way. The houses are small and squat but painted...