Stockholm Oct 23 and 24 2010

We were greeted by a skiff of snow and some very brisk fall air on our arrival in Stockholm.  Not surprising as the city lies on the same latitude with Moscow and is some 59° 17' N a little north of Moscow (our home town in Canada, Calgary is 51° 6' N for your reference). 

Stockholm straddles 14 islands, the center island being Gamla Stan where the old town is situated.  The Islands are interconnected by bridges, an underground, trams or ferries.  Surrounding the Gamla Stan are the islands/districts of

• Sodermalm & Langholmen
• Kungsholmen
• Norrmalm & Vasastaden
• Ostermalm
• Skeppsholmen & Djurgarden

We arrived in the early evening Friday after a quick 1.5 hr flight from Amsterdam which left us plenty of time to check into our hotel, the Rival, and make our way to Tranan for dinner.  As always, I'd done some research on the where to eat as I was keen to try traditional Swedish cuisine.  Blogs are a great source for local information, I found Tranan via Anne's Food Blog .   

Golf Golf and Whiskey - Scotland 2010

“The Open” and Scotland July 17 to 25, 2010

St. Andrews

It was a dream vacation for my dear G! Two days at The Open, 4 days of golf, okay make it 5 and a tour on the Whiskey Trail – whoa! Many thanks to Lisa, Bryn, Chris and Lori for organizing the entire trip! All I did was show up :)

Our journey began in the hamlet of St. Andrews, home of the famous “Old Course” and the host of the 2010 Open. The weather mostly cooperated for us as we watched our golf idols battle for the top prize. As you know, a relatively unknown golfer, Louis Oosthuizen from South Africa, won The Open this year. It was noted that each time the gang has ventured to the event it’s been one by an obscure player. Unusual!

We caught the action from the turn on the 7 through 11 holes on Saturday then on Sunday cheered the players from the dreadful 17th hole. Had a great time watching as player after player bogey the hole – only one birdie last day!

Bordeaux - June 18, 19 and 20 2010

I am so enthralled with France and we were lucky to find ourselves in Bordeaux for a long weekend in June.  G had to visit the Parentis office for some meetings so I tagged along (because I was afraid if I let him go on his own he would have drank Bordeaux dry and left nothing for me!).

While he worked on Friday, I drove our cute little BMW mini up to Archacon in the northern part of the province of Bordeaux.  The town is quite touristic but as the season had not started yet and the weather was on the coolish side there were few people around.  Archacon has a lovely "plage" (beach) fronted by a boardwalk lined with restaurants.   The beach was quite charming and I had no trouble picturing myself perched on a sun chair enjoying the sea air.  Behind the plage there are streets lined with shops and many more restaurants to choose from.  I managed to find some beautiful French linen tea towels and some regional specialty foods to take bake to Amsterdam.

The most fantastic site in the north of Bordeaux is the Dune de Pyla which is the largest sand dune in all of Europe.  The easiest way to the top of the dune is via a set of about a 100 stairs.  Once you climb to the top