Punsch

In Sweden, as well as in Denmark, one can buy a cake - made of mix of crushed cookies, butter, cocoa, and liqueur - shaped like a small rod. In Denmark these are either coated with green marzipan or simply dipped in chocolate. The latter is probably the more sensible with regard to the Danish name: Træstammer = 'logs'. Until very recently we only saw the green variety in Sweden. They are sold under the name punschrullar = 'punsch-rolls', but for questionable reasons they are better known as dammsugare = 'vacuum cleaners'.

On the occasion of the many parties of the season (the National day, the wedding of the princess-heir, the many graduation parties ... or even midsummer!?) an alternate version in yellow and screeching blue is also available.


It might just be those of us who grew up with the green ones that find the blue-and-yellow ones to look significantly more poisonous - or.. ?

Together

Many of you may have noticed that Sweden - and especially Stockholm - has been quite focused on the royal wedding lately. Ikea decided to contribute with their own celebration of the couple: under the name Together (allow us here to point out that for those of us remembering the 2000 Lukas Moodyson movie this might not give the very best associations regarding the future happiness of the princess) they put up a pavilion - an Ikea-tent-castle if you prefer - close to the royal castle in the old town.


Ikea had thought of most details: there were a set of golden skis in the garage, a gallery of ancestors in the hallways, fitness equipment in the bedroom and of course the dining hall had been decked up for a grand dinner. They even had the menu figured out...

("I want meatballs from [the world's largest Ikea]")

...as well as prince-preparation-exercises for Daniel...


...and of course a bed worthy of a real princess.

Lidingö

Our new home on Lidingö ('Liding'-island)

The main reason nothing much has happened on this page for the past month is that we've been busy moving - well, the moving itself took less than 4 hours. But then we also had to clean the old apartment, and everything needed sorting out in the new apartment - add to this a trip to Ikea (complete with the mandatory serving of ridiculously cheap meatballs)... it all takes time.


On top of that we've spent some time getting to know our new area. Lidingö boasts being the 'island of health'. This could in part be due to it being the richest municipality in the Stockholm area, but it is certainly helped along by the large green areas with many an inviting path for walking, running and biking.


Although it thus seems a bit more like the countryside, it is in fact only marginally farther away from central Stockholm than it is from Solna. However, every trip into town must go via the Lidingö bridge.