Travels Continued 2


TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2013
Easter in Easter-Colored Tallinn, Estonia


Carl and I spent four days in Tallinn over Easter, which is a national four-day weekend holiday in Sweden.  Tallinn is quite easy to reach from Stockholm—you just hop on a ferry in the evening and you arrive in Tallinn at 10 am.  The rooms are comfortable and clean, even if you don’t splurge on a room with a view.
leaving Stockholm and powering through the archipelago
However, I am glad that before I went to bed I didn’t see all the ice that we were plowing through all night.  I never would have been able to sleep a wink if I had been thinking about Titanic survival strategies.  But when we woke up the next morning, the ferry was plowing its way through a foot-thick layer of ice which made a slightly scary grinding and churning sound as the boat crunched through.  Clearly, Baltic ferries are made to withstand quite a lot of ice, but I still felt relieved when we safely arrived in port. 
 
I wasn’t very familiar with Tallinn or Estonia before we starting thinking about going there.  But once I started looking at google image photos, I saw that Tallinn is a fairy-tale city with medieval walls and towers and buildings galore (i.e., right up my alley).  This is fairly surprising considering that Estonia’s history is a different version of the same old sad story common in Eastern Europe—under foreign rule from the beginning of time until 20 years ago.  If it wasn’t the Swedes, it was the Danish or the Germans or the Russians or the Nazis or the Soviets who ruled over the country, trampling citizens’ rights and opportunities.  (Actually, I have to give kudos to Sweden: The Swedish Empire was the kindest and least oppressive “guest” to rule Estonia.  Sweden even tried (unsuccessfully) to end serfdom in Estonia.)
Tallinn's onion-domed Russian Orthodox church is one clue of its Russian occupation
 
Amazingly and wonderfully, the local language and culture more-or-less survived the various oppressive regimes and Estonia has managed to rise from its Soviet Union ashes to become one of the EU’s fastest growing and strongest economies (Skype is from Estonia, for instance) despite a total population of only 1.3 million people (nearly 1/3 of which live in the capital).  I’m sure that tourism to the fairy-tale Tallinn helps to inject much-needed cash into the country as Tallinn saw 1.5 million tourists in 2011 alone.
Tallinn's main square is huge
 
Yes, Tallinn is touristy.  However, it manages to be touristy in a compelling, authentic manner.  There are no Ripley’s Believe It or Not nightmares, there are no Starbucks, and while restaurants and cafes cater to and attract many tourists, we saw many locals dining in them as well.  Tacky souvenir shops are minimized while high-quality hand-made goods are prevalent.  Tallinn seems to be handling all the tourism well.
local cafes instead of Starbucks
 
Despite rampaging armies and WWII bombings, Tallinn’s Old Town is wonderfully intact.  Large sections of the rampart/moat/earthwork system that once completely surrounded the city are intact and are preserved in a linear park that shields the western side of the city from newer development.  The moat was fed with fresh flowing water from canals that piped water from a lake 30km inland, through the moats, and then out to sea.  The canals also piped fresh water into the city and provided drinking water in the city's fountains and wells.

Additionally, long sections of the medieval city walls are intact 
as are 26 of the city’s 50ish original defense towers.   
The city was so well protected because it was an important Hanseatic harbor town (Hansa was the trade and commerce league in the Baltic) and therefore quite wealthy and of great strategic importance.  I’m a total sucker for towers so it was fun to see them pop up all over the place.  A few of them are even integrated into relatively modern buildings and we saw the plan of one apartment building that uses the integrated tower as a library/study space on each floor!
 
Two sections of the city walls are in good enough condition that you can walk on them for a good distance.  Visitors can even climb up one of the defense towers and look at how they hauled cannonballs up.  Soldiers stationed in the towers also had the convenience of toilets (emptying outside the walls) and fireplaces.

Inside the walls, buildings from the 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries abound with their red tile roofs.  Cobblestone lanes meander through the town, connecting the many small squares together.  There are quite a few historic churches in the old town, including a church spire that is believed to have been the tallest building in the world for centuries.
just a few of Tallinn's surviving medieval buildings
 
Carl and I spent most of our four days slowly meandering the streets, savoring the medieval atmosphere, walking on the walls, admiring the towers, photographing the pastel buildings, and sipping coffee and hot chocolate in the many charming cafes.  We did visit a few interesting museums, but Tallinn’s real draw is the cityscape itself.
 
It turns out that Easter was a perfect time of year to visit Tallinn because its buildings are all Easter egg-colored.  I found it fascinating that despite the governmental, political, geographical, and commercial ties between Stockholm and Tallinn, the two medieval cities feel so different.  Much of the architecture is similar in principal, but the colors create a completely different atmosphere.  While both cities feature yellow, rose, green, and blue-plastered facades, Stockholm’s colors are more earth-toned while Tallinn’s colors are lighter and purer.  The lighter colors along with the slightly wider streets make Tallinn feel much airier than Stockholm’s old town.
 
I fell in love with Tallinn’s doors.  The wooden masterpieces are painted to compliment and contrast the building’s plaster colors.  I must have photographed 50 doors, but I’ll limit myself as much as possible.
 

Another interesting difference between Tallinn and Stockholm is the level of renovation of the buildings.  In Stockholm’s old town, there isn’t a single dilapidated or abandoned building.  Even in the rest of downtown Stockholm, one would be hard-pressed to find a building visibly in need of renovation.  Stockholm’s building stock is impressively preserved, but I hadn’t noticed just how extensive Stockholm’s preservation is until we went to Tallinn.  While the majority of Tallinn’s Old Town buildings are beautifully renovated and in great shape, probably about 20% of the building stock is in need of serious help.   
a few of the buildings inside the city walls that need renovation
Outside of the Old Town, that ratio is probably almost exactly reversed: only one in every four or five buildings looks habitable.
a typical wooden apartment building that needs renovation outside of the city center
It is obvious that the city and the inhabitants of Stockholm have far more money available to devote to its buildings than in Tallinn.  Another vital factor is that Stockholm has been renovating since at least the 1950’s while Tallinn has only had the resources to do so since it gained its independence from Moscow in 1991.  

Perhaps the most interesting museum we visited was the KBG museum.  During Soviet times, visitors to Tallinn had only one lodging choice—the Soviet-built and Soviet-owned Viru Hotel.  The hotel was Estonia’s first “skyscraper” at 23 stories.  However, the 23rd story was a secret as it housed the local KGB.  From the 23rd story, the KBG was able to monitor secret radio transmissions from Sweden and Finland and to relay messages from spies in Sweden to Moscow.  From another hidden space on the second floor, the KGB monitored suspicious guests to the hotel.  The suspicious guests were placed in special rooms that the KGB could secretly visually and auditorily monitor through hidden wide-angle pin-hole cameras and microphones.  The dinner conversations of suspicious guests (locals and foreigners alike) were monitored using microphones sealed into the false bottoms of ash trays, vases, and bread plates.  In the ceiling above the restaurant and above the special hotel rooms, transceivers relayed the conversations from the microphones to the KGB’s hidden workroom.
The Viru Hotel from the city wall and some of the KGB chaos that was left behind in 1991
 
The tour didn’t give a sense of what specific information was gathered in or transmitted from the hotel, but it was fascinating to see how the information was gathered.  I’m surprised that there was never a James Bond movie based on the hotel.  Despite its shady history, Hotel Viru is still one of Tallinn’s largest and busiest hotels.

There’s not a whole lot of other easily-visible evidence of Soviet occupation in Tallinn.  We did come across a theater building which is definitely communist with its decorative stars and hammers as well as the strangely blocky classical styling. 

Another great museum was at the Kadriorg Palace.  The palace was built by Czar Peter the Great so that he’d have a suitable place to stay when visiting “provincial” Tallinn.  The baroque palace is relatively small but the exquisite ballroom is wonderfully intact.  The formal French gardens are supposed to be lovely as well, but since they were covered in snow during our visit, I can’t really say much about them.   
The museum’s European art collection was nice but seeing the building was the best part.   
Kadriorg ballroom

Two of our dinners were at traditional Estonian restaurants.  The first dinner served Sunday-dinner-at-Grandma’s-House type of dishes and we enjoyed a duck breast with saffron sauce with mounds of sauerkraut, lingon-like berries, and roasted root-fruits.  The second dinner was at a candlelit, mideval-themed restaurant that serves dishes that noblemen and extremely wealthy merchants would have enjoyed.  It was quite interesting to read about what types of foods and seasonings were available at the time.  I had a tasty and intriguingly spiced ground meat dish with wild boar and wild deer.  Carl drank an herb-spiced beer and one of our desserts was delicious a rose-flavored cream custard.  By the third dinner we had had enough of heavy, meaty Estonian food and opted for Indian instead.
medieval, candlelit dinner

We mainly stuck to the Old Town, but I did catch a glimpse of a couple of interesting contemporary buildings just outside the walls:    

goodbye Estonia!
 


TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2013
Skiing in Chamonix
Carl and I just got back from an incredible week of skiing in Chamonix in the French Alps.  We went with two friends and seven of their friends, so the week was quite social in addition to being outdoorsy and exhaustingly active.  Our friends Jessica and Johan introduced us to the non-profit organization UCPA whose founding goal is to get French youth (youth being up to 45) out into nature as affordably as possible.  We’re still not sure why so many Swedes are allowed to join in on the fun, but our wallets are very grateful!  The trip package included transportation from Stockholm to Chamonix and back, 7 nights lodging, a 6 ½ day lift ticket, all meals, equipment rental, and 25 hours of ski instruction for about a third of the price tag of a charter trip to the Alps which wouldn’t even include food or lessons!

The catch to this incredibly cheap trip to the Alps is that it involved a 30 HOUR BUS TRIP in each direction. The time on the bus wasn’t quite as bad as I had expected, and the movies they showed were actually pretty good, but I still think that it will be worth spending the extra money to fly next year.  To make the long trip a bit more comfortable, the bus seats convert into 2 layers of beds at night.  Carl, who can sleep well in just about any situation, got some good sleep both nights, but I, who has LOTS of trouble falling asleep, didn’t sleep a wink in either direction. 

UCPA has about six or seven destinations in the French Alps, so potentially we have years of cheap skiing ahead of us before having to repeat any runs.  In Chamonix, the organization owns an old hotel that has been recently renovated.  You can choose to stay in a four person dorm room or pay about $80 for the entire week to upgrade to a double room.  The rooms are simple but adequate and every room has an amazing mountain view.  Breakfasts and dinners are self-serve buffets and you make a sack lunch for yourself after breakfast.  The center even provides an afternoon tea with sweet snacks!  There was a bar at the hotel, but we did most of our après-ski celebrating out on the sunny slopes instead of inside the hotel.
Our room's view.
 
Chamonix is a cute tourist town with some interesting buildings, but naturally, the main draw is the mountain landscape.  The town is in a long, flat valley between two gigantic mountain ridges, so wherever you are, there are jagged peaks within view.  Interestingly, the town is much busier with tourists in the summer than in the winter and the town of 10,000 people has about 60,000 hotel beds and has about two million hotel stays each year.  Tourism is the industry in town.

I’m sure that the summer hiking is amazing, but the winter skiing is phenomenal.  Unlike the US where ski resorts tend to be huge with a hundred interconnected runs, the geography of Chamonix means that there are about 6 smaller resorts with about ten chairlifts and maybe 20 runs each.  These resorts are not connected up on the mountain; instead, you have to go down the mountain, take a bus, and then take another gondola or cable car back up the mountain.  If you combine the smaller resorts, Chamonix is more epic than Vail, but the disconnectedness means that you have to stay in the valley for a week in order to experience all the areas.
This ski map only shows lifts and doesn't depict any runs.

Most of the runs are above treeline, and only one or two runs at each resort navigate the extra-steep slopes below treeline down to the valley.  Generally, you take a gondola or cable car up to treeline and then continue upward on chairlifts.  Most resorts in the valley had three stages of lifts.  The gondola and cable cars get you from the valley at 3,400 feet to about 6,500 near treeline.  After taking the next two chair lifts up, you’re high in the sky at about 10,800 feet.  This means that skiing from the top of the highest chairlift down to the valley, you lose 7,400 feet of elevation!  I don’t think that there’re any resorts in the US that can compare to that kind of elevation change. 
View from a chair lift.  Sigh.
 
We were totally lucky with clear, sunny skies nearly every day.  The snow did start to feel “used” by the end of the week, but the skies graced us with a winning combination of fresh powder and sunshine for our last day of skiing before we got back on the bus to travel back to Stockholm.
Three of the colorful guys from our group.  It was super fun skiing together on our last day.

Sunday, Wednesday, and Saturday were “free” ski days without lessons, and we spent those days skiing with the larger group of friends.  The remaining four days were filled with lessons (in English).  Because our group of eleven had very different ski competencies as well as ambitions, we were in several different lesson groups.  My friend Jessica and I ended up in the same intermediate ski group, and it was fun to share the days with her.  Our lessons focused on ski technique and we spent nearly all the time doing various exercises like turning on one ski only, hopping up and down while going downhill, and skiing backwards to improve our balance, form, and technique.  The craziest exercise was called the Waltz.  You and a partner face each other and hold on to each others’ poles.  One person swoops downhill, ending up going backward until the next person swoops downhill, turning themselves backward and the first person forward again.  I never imagined that I would be skiing backward in my lessons, much less waltzing, but it was a fun challenge!
Lovely views from our lessons.

Carl is a much more advanced skier than I am and he decided to go with an off-piste group instead of taking advanced lessons on the groomed ski slopes.  He had a blast on his extra-fat powder skis.  Generally, his group would take the lifts as high as they went and then continued walking uphill.  Eventually, the group would drop into a bowl or chute and ski down it to the valley.  A couple of times his group even passed over the ridge and skied down into Swiss villages!
Carl's group walking up hill and then little ants skiing down the bowl.
 
Every day after skiing, parts of our group would assemble at a pre-determined location on the slopes for après-ski drinks.  With all the sunshine and relatively warm temperatures, we were generally able to sit outside with the sun on our faces as we enjoyed our hot mulled wine, spiked hot chocolate, cider, or beer.  The sun was so intense that we were forced to wear our ski goggles while enjoying our drinks—it was functional if not the most chic look!
The view from our one indoor après-ski and a typical, loungy and totally casual outdoor après-ski.

Wednesday, a “free” ski day without lessons, our group decided to take the morning off and took a series of cable cars up to Aiguille du Midi, a needle-like peak just below Mont Blanc.  We spent the entire week looking at Mont Blanc, so it was fun to get a closer look at the Alps’ highest mountain.   The morning dawned cloudy, but once we were up there, the clouds began to part and drift away.   
It was gorgeous to watch the process of the clouds dissolving before our very eyes, and after a time, we had completely clear views in all directions.  Although it’s the highest, Mont Blanc isn’t the most impressive mountain around.  Its rounded top isn’t quite as “Alp-y” and jagged as the surrounding peaks.
Mont Blanc
The surrounding, more jagged peaks and ridges.
 
While we were up on the needle enjoying the views, hundreds of people were descending the needle with crampons on their feet and skis strapped to their backs.  Once on the glacier below, they skied all the way back down to the valley.  I thought it looked like a crazy thing to do, but four of our group were in an advanced off-piste group that did that ski route the next day.  They reported that after the initial scary decent to the glacier, the route actually wasn’t so advanced.  Maybe one day Carl and I will do the route ourselves (with a guide, of course!).
Hundreds of skiers descending the needle to begin their long ski down.
 
I highly recommend UCPA to anyone interested in skiing on a budget.  The trip was an incredible value, but not only that, the other people in our ski groups and on the buses were very friendly and fun to hang out with.  Carl even made friends with one couple who invited us to come skiing with them at their house in middle Sweden!

It has been a bit of a bummer to come home and to return back to “reality” after such a magical trip with such amazing, story-book scenery.  But life goes on, and now it’s time for us to dream up our next adventure!


MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2013
New Year's in Lofsdalen
Carl and I are about to embark on our next ski trip, so I decided that it was high time to finally post about the last one!

We spent New Year’s week with Carl’s aunt Eva in Lofsdalen.  We stayed in the same cozy cabin as last year, but this time, Carl and I didn’t have to rush home to an apartment renovation so we were able to stay the whole week.  Although we alternated cross-country and downhill skiing days to give our muscles a chance to recover, we were completely exhausted after six days of fierce activity!

The snow was much better this year, so all the runs and lifts were open and we were able to fully explore the ski resort (last year the limited snow meant that several runs and lifts were closed).  In Sweden, runs are rated green, blue, red, and black from easiest to hardest, and I am now fairly confident on red runs.  It feels amazing to noticeably improve every time I go skiing!
Carl going backwards down the slope and me going forwards.

Like our experience last year, we found that the days in mid-Sweden in December are incredibly short and basically consist of a three hour sunrise immediately followed by a three hour sunset.  While we didn’t have a lot of day light, we did have incredible, prolonged sunsets.  Skiing back to base toward a fiery orange sky over a misty blue valley was a magical end to every day. 

We explored a couple of new cross country trails as well as repeated a few of the trails we had liked last year.  This year, though, we used our own skis instead of renting!
At the far end of a long, exposed trail, we enjoyed warming up by a blazing fire at a hut.  There were a ton of people in the warming hut, and nearly all of them had brought sausages to roast over the open fire.  It made our cold sandwiches seam a little boring!  If we go back to the same area next year, we’ll know to bring a gourmet lunch to cook over the fire. 


While our cold sandwiches seemed boring compared to others’ fire-roasted sausages, we certainly did not suffer from lack of nutrition.  The long evenings meant that we could spend quite a lot of time preparing gourmet meals every night.  Eva alternated with Carl and I and between the three of us, we cooked and enjoyed some amazing meals.  If it wasn’t oven-roasted trout it was reindeer stew, all with perfectly paired wines and then several types of gourmet cheeses for dessert.  Skiing and gourmet meals are now indelibly linked together in my mind.
our dining table centerpiece

We were in Lofsdalen over New Year’s, and while there wasn’t an official town-sponsored fireworks show, individuals put on an amazing performance for us.  We stood out on the cabin's front porch which overlooks the valley and watched the incredibly numerous and colorful explosions.  My favorite sight wasn’t actually a firework, but instead small floating hot air balloons.  The balloons are powered by a large candle which is powerful enough to send the two-foot-tall balloon soaring 2000 feet over the valley.  The candle illuminates the balloon as well, so you can watch it float along from a mile away.  Seeing the illuminated, candle-powered balloons drift along was indescribably beautiful.  You could never do this in Texas because it would set off forest fires of apocalyptic proportions, but here in winter Sweden, it’s apparently not a problem.

Poor Eva had to drive the entire six hours both to and from Lofsdalen because Carl and I do not have valid drivers’ licenses anymore.  New arrivals are given a one year grace period when their home country’s license is valid, but after that, you’re expected to get a Swedish license.  Of course the process is long and complicated and expensive, and Carl and I haven’t had the energy to embark on that journey yet.  Our goal is to get it finished before the roads get icy again next winter, and hopefully, if we return to Lofsdalen again next year, we’ll be able to relieve Eva from some of the driving.

Thank you Eva for an amazing week with you in beautiful Lofsdalen!


THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2013
Christmas Along Amsterdam's Canals
Carl and I are absolutely loving living in Europe for many reasons, one of which is how easy it is to get from European capitol to European capitol.  It only took a two hour flight to travel the distance between Stockholm and Amsterdam where we spent Christmas week.  From San Antonio, that two hour flight would have gotten us to such exciting places as Oklahoma City or Little Rock, Arkansas.  Admittedly, Denver was within a two hour flight, but even Denver and the Rockies start to pale in comparison to Paris and the Alps!

We totally lucked out because Amsterdam had a warmer than usual December.  Instead of the freezing temperatures we had expected, it was a balmy 50° F.  This meant that we could spend far more time wandering along the canals than we thought we would.  In fact, we spent most of the week outside wandering with occasional stops at some of Amsterdam’s wonderful museums.
it was even warm enough to enjoy a sunset drink outside one evening!
 
For an architect interested in city development and city planning, Amsterdam is like a candy store.   Because of its watery location, every development in Amsterdam since the middle ages has been fully planned and administrated.  A confluence of climate, late-Renaissance timing, and canal-side location produced a style of architecture that is uniquely “Amsterdam.”  Not only has the ingenious system of canals survived into the 21st century, but a tremendous stock of buildings from the 1600’s has also been preserved.  
some typical canals and canal houses
However, even though so much of Amsterdam is historic, very few areas have an overly old-timey or touristy feel.  Modern interpretations of the traditional canal house periodically puncture the blocks of historic buildings, and very few stores and restaurants are geared toward tourists.  Amsterdam is very much a living city where real, modern life takes place amidst a historic backdrop.  
One of my favorite modern buildings in Amsterdam.  Love the shutters!

Of course, Amsterdam is also known for its tolerance in addition to its unique architecture and canals.  Brothels and marijuana/mushroom shops coexist peacefully side-by-side with cafes, schools, grocery stores, town houses, and restaurants.  Memorably, there are several brothels across the street from Amsterdam’s Old Church and a head shop resides in one of the periphery buildings of the New Church.  
 I don’t feel very strongly one way or the other about the legalized marijuana in Amsterdam, but I did find walking by store windows filled with naked, writhing women uncomfortable.  In Amsterdam, “window shopping” has a whole different meaning.

We rented an apartment off of the website Vacation Rentals By Owner.  It was our first time using the website and we were a little nervous about our down payment disappearing, so we went with an apartment that had numerous good reviews.  The experience turned out to be wonderful and relatively inexpensive considering the location, the amount of space, and the kitchen.  Our apartment was the garden apartment to a canal house and it consisted of a main living/dining/kitchen area with a sleeping loft.  There were HUGE windows looking out into the garden, so during the day, the apartment had lots of natural light.  A gas heater did a good job of keeping the garden apartment cozy, and at night, we lit lots of tea candles whose flickering light added to the cozy atmosphere.  The apartment was about the same cost as a moderate hotel room, but we had a lot more space, a lot more privacy, and the apartment had a lot more charm and character than a moderate hotel room.  We also saved a lot of money due to the kitchen.  I definitely recommend the website.        
Left: Our garden apartment was behind the right-most short house.  Right: Approaching the garden apartment.

We literally spent almost the entire week walking the canals and by the end of the trip, we really gained a good sense of the city’s various neighborhoods and eras.  Several areas we walked both during the day and at night, and because of Amsterdamers’ habit of not using curtains, we got good peeks into the evening life at many canal houses.  We loved seeing the incredibly narrow houses and imagining how the spaces were arranged inside and how life could take place in a six foot-wide house.   
We were also amazed by the gigantic double hung windows—because the staircases are so narrow and windy, all moving in and out of goods and furniture has always (and still is) done with ropes and pulleys from the roof ridge beam and in through the windows.  Most of the windows were huge, but some of them were downright gigantic.  
Seriously huge windows: These double hung windows are larger than a porta-poty!
The gables lean toward the street, making it easier to haul up furniture without damaging the building.  
Buildings that originally had been warehouses also had thick wooden shutters.
I was also interested in all the black painted brick accented with stark white trim.  I would never have thought that a black building would be handsome, but they are beautiful in Amsterdam!
 I also loved seeing all the houseboats lining the canals.  The trend started after World War II when Amsterdam experienced a critical housing shortage, but these days new houseboats aren't converted sea-faring boats but are designed for the purpose.
And of course we loved the varied and ornate gables from the 16- and 1700’s.   
These are some of the more ornate gables
and these are some of the "typical" gables.
Most of the canals have narrow streets between the water and the buildings, but in the medieval quarter, there are several "Venice-like" canals where the water laps the buildings' foundations.
  
I seem to have a little bit of bad luck when it comes to Amsterdam and art museums.  The only other time I had been to Amsterdam was in 1999 on a long weekend with my mom.  We saw a lot that weekend, but we were very disappointed that the Van Gogh museum was closed for renovation.  As luck would have it, 14 years later, the Van Gogh museum was closed again for renovation!  Luckily, they moved about half of the Van Gogh collection to the Hermitage Museum, so at least I got to feast my eyes on some Van Gogh this visit.  However, Van Gogh’s presence at the Hermitage means that we missed out on spectacular Russian-owned art.  Not only was the Van Gogh museum closed for renovation, but most of the Riksmuseum was closed, too.  We did get to see one or two paintings of all the various Dutch masters, but I would have loved to have seen more! 

One of the reasons that we chose Amsterdam as our Christmas destination is that the city keeps full opening hours over the holiday.  All the major museums were open, even on Christmas day!  We did have a little trouble with grocery store and restaurants being closed for 24 or 36 hours over the holiday, but thanks to our handy fridge and kitchen we didn’t starve.  On Christmas Eve, we had tickets to a performance of the ballet Cinderella.  It was the world premier of a modern interpretation of the fairytale using the traditional music, and it was absolutely fantastic.  If you see that Christopher Wheeldon’s Cinderella is coming to town, I highly, highly recommend getting tickets.

One of the other cool things about Amsterdam over the holiday is that they had a Festival of Lights with lit art installations by various artists all over the city.  After the ballet, we spent Christmas Eve evening wandering around town looking at the very cool installations.  
I’m having trouble deciding if the suspended net or if the egg was my favorite, but there were also some other interesting installations that involved using architecture as the canvas.
  
Another great thing about being in Amsterdam in the winter is that all the lovey trees that line the canals are bare and they don't block your view of the canal houses.  Better views for archidorks!  And even though winter isn't exactly tulip season, the flower market was still filled with beautiful blooms.
One spring, I would definitely love to get back to Amsterdam and out into the Dutch countryside to see all the blooming fields of tulips.  One day...


WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2012
Kolarbyn
our hut
Last weekend, Carl and I took a train then bus about 2 hours northwest of Stockholm to stay in a little “hobbit” hut at Kolarbyn (literally translates as “The Charcoal burners’ village”).  Originally, the huts were used by charcoal burners working out in the forest, but now they comprise a rustic hostel.  We were the only guests last weekend, so after the caretaker left, we had the entire little village in the forest to ourselves.  After getting a fire started in the open fireplace, the hut warmed up quickly.  A combination of the massive, stone and concrete fireplace plus the sod earth exterior of the hut kept the interior warm and cozy, even after the fire died out in the middle of the night.  The huts have no electricity, so lighting is by candles.  Between the fire and the candlelight, the hut was very romantic and cozy!!

The “facilities” consisted of outhouses and we got water out of a not-yet-frozen-over stream.  Kolarbyn also has several large fire pits for cooking, but we decided to stay warm and cozy and to cook in our hut instead.  An outdoor fire in the snow would have been cool, but cold.

Another cool feature were the tiki torches.  I have always associated tiki torches with Caribbean or South Pacific themed restaurants, but they were absolutely beautiful as they lit Kolarbyn’s snowy pathways which wind through the giant spruce and pine trees.

We spent the evenings reading by candlelight and the days cross country skiing.  When we had booked the weekend, we weren’t sure if there would be snow, but a massive Wednesday snowstorm meant that there was plenty of snow by our Friday arrival.  A network of groomed cross-country ski trails was just a few steps outside our hut’s door, so we spent all day both days exploring various trails.  It was awesome to finally get out on the skis that we had bought in the April sales.  Luckily, the skis and shoes seem to work quite well and to be quite comfortable!  The going was rather awkward at first but after an hour or so we found a good rhythm. 
The winter wonderland was so beautiful and perfect that it felt like a Hollywood winter!

In addition to the surprise snow, we were totally lucky and ended up with unexpectedly gorgeous, sunny skies both days.  Even though it was -20 degrees Celcius (-4 degrees F!!!) Sunday morning, the sun felt warm on our faces and we were never uncomfortably cold.  In fact, we found that we were wearing far too much clothing and ended up tying our coats around our waists.  Eventually, we’ll get a feel for how much clothing we should wear on our skis.
One of the trails led to a iced- and snowed-over lake.  Notice the sun's position.  It was noon when we took this photo!

It was an absolutely fabulous weekend in a more beautiful than expected area with a more comfortable than expected cabin, and I think we’re likely to make Kolarbyn a yearly winter tradition.
The nearby town of Skinnskateberg at sunset.

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