Tag Archives: Vacation

Returned to Tokyo

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Yesterday we got up early. Checked out from the hotel. Walked 200 meters (or so) to the Arlanda Express platforms where we bought tickets and boarded the train bound for the airport.

After 3 hours transit at Schiphol where we did some last minute tax free shopping and a sleepless flight we arrived in Tokyo today. We got on the airport shuttle bus to Shinagawa area and got off at the Shinagawa Prince Hotel. From where we took a taxi back home, arriving around noon.

I was exhausted and Chie had also not slept well on the flight so the first thing we did was to take a 1.5 hour nap. Then we were ready to unpack, do laundry and… Well, get used to being home again 🙂

By 6 pm we were starving and went to Tatsuharu, a Chinese restaurant a few hundred meters away. It was yummy!

Piren Bar

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Another long day of shopping and walking. We had lunch as a sushi restaurant in Hötorgshallen. Then we continued shopping again. We finally ended up buying another bag for me to carry all the things back to Tokyo 🙂

In the evening we made a quick visit to my old work place Eurostep. On our previous visit they had been conveniently located on Drottninggatan in the same building as Zara. But now they had moved to Alvik. Though this was not far away from the Piren Bar where we had a reservation at 6 pm. Eurostep’s new location though not convenient if you want to borrow the bathroom while shopping had a great view of the water. And a very nice and large balcony for the few warm summer days 🙂



At 6 pm we entered Piren Bar. They had mixed up my last name so we almost did not get a table (which was not easy to book in the first place). The whole thing with Piren Bar is their location. Along the water in Kristineberg. A great place to watch the sunset while having something to eat and drink. Though the eating and drinking is just so so (Helena, you really don’t need to go here for dinner – Mancini is almost the same price but lightyears better).



After dinner we hurried back to the hotel where we packed for our return to Tokyo the next day. By luck, once we had packed all our bags full, we found yet another shopping bag behind the curtain in our room. We squeezed the content into our bags, jumped on them and zipped them up 🙂 Good night!

Mancini

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Chie and I spent most of the day shopping. Robban (my brother) came down from Uppsala to have lunch at Vapiano.

After lunch Robban joined us for shopping. Though Chie did most of it while Robban and I talked 🙂 Later in the afternoon we were all tired and returned to our hotel for a drink. Chie had a beer while Robban had a mineral water and I a cup of tea. At 4 pm Robban had to get back to Uppsala to prepare for his 24 hours work shift the next day, starting at 8 am.

At 5:30 pm we met Jimmy and Emma in the hotel lobby. From there we walked to Mancini on Tunnelsgatan, about 50 meters from where Olof Palme was murdered in 1986.

The dinner was delicious :-P. The best during our vacation! We had two wonderful starters – parma ham and carpaccio. YUMMY!!!



Besides the dinner it was also fun to meet Jimmy and Emma again. They visited us during their honeymoon two years ago. When we were done eating we took a taxi back to our hotel as it had started to rain. We took some drinks at the hotel and talked some more before Emma’s father picked them up at 10:30 pm.

Birthday

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My mother had her 60th birthday today, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! It was a bonus that we could celebrate it with her on our vacation trip to Europe. Since it was her birthday she could decide what to do and she wanted us all to go to Högbo Bruk. So we all went there, Robert riding with Chie and me in our rented Volvo S80 D5.

Once there we walked around in the quite nice weather. To Ulf’s delight they had a Hot Rod show there as well, though the rest of us walked around checking the handicraft and shops. We had a short stop at the glass designer as well, but he recently had a break in so there were almost no glass on display. And our timing was bad so we could not watch him make glass either 🙁 We had to sit down and rest after that surprise 😉

Once rested we continued to Björk & Berries, a Swedish brand that makes soap, lotion and the likes out of Swedish berries and flowers. All things are picked locally around Högbo and Gästrikland. Then it is shipped to France where it is made into perfume oils, and ends up in New York where the perfumer is mixing it into what becomes the flavors of the soaps and lotions in the shop. The soap and lotions are manufactured in Gothenburg.

After lunch at the Högbo Brukshotell we returned back to mo mother’s place in Valbo. There we prepared for dinner. My aunt and her husband were going to visit to celebrate my mother’s birthday. It was nice seeing them again after quite a while, unfortunately I missed one of my cuisines that had returned to Stockholm with her twin daughters just a few days before we came to Valbo.

She got many birthday gifts from all of us. And was quite happy for them 🙂

Valbo

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We spent the morning at my father’s place before once again climbing into our rental car. First stop was at Jimmy, Emma, Oliver and Nova’s place to return somethig they forgot from yesterday’s dinner.

But only Nova was home. Barking as mad when we rang the doorbell. We could see her throughout the kitchen window 🙂

Then we found our way to my mother’s place in Valbo. After a short rest we headed out for a short trip to IKEA and Valbo Köpcentrum, a small collection of stores in Valbo.

We did not find much we wanted except for some cushions for the kitchen table chairs, and some bed blankets and sheets at KungSängen. During this trio we had grown accustom to having our own blankets rather than sharing a big one 🙂



In the afternoon Robert joined from Uppsala. And we had dinner and watched photos streamed from my iPad to their TV using Apple TV (I am hoping Apple will sponsor my blog any day soon now ;-))