Brrrrr

It's been a miserable day today, weatherwise. I was going to run out to the base but decided not to take the car out anywhere. The day started out with snow. This turned into sleet, then rain. I went out to sweep the snow off our steps and walk and took a tumble on the steps, not realizing there was an icy patch under the snow. It was such an odd sensation when I fell. My feet slipped out from underneath me and it felt as if I was in slow motion. My feet were spinning trying to regain my footing and all the while I knew I was going to fall. I fell on my bum and, maybe because of the extra padding, did not hurt myself too bad.

I've spent the day catching up on flickr and my blog. Later I will bake some empanadas to bring to Victor's house for a Puerto-Rican-themed New Year's Eve party. Victor is our swing dance instructor. He and his wife both come from Puerto Rico. I told Victor the empanadas are not necessarily Puerto Rican but they are quite tasty.

Norber Erratics

ON THE WAY TO NORBER


NORBER ERRATIC AND THE GANG

Today I hiked with the Thursday Ramblers again who had planned a special hike for the holidays. We started off from Clapham, a village just north of Settle. It took about an hour to get to Clapham from the base but it was a fairly straightforward drive and we had ample parking at the National Park Centre in Clapham. The village itself looked very cute -- as they all do. We were expecting cold and windy weather. After all, yesterday it went as low as -6C in Harrogate -- the coldest it has been since 1966! And today we would be hiking on the moors where the wind always seems to blow the strongest and the weather always feels colder. I bundled up with 3 layers under my winter parka. Well, we were very pleasantly surprised; the weather was rather on the mild side. The sun shone most of the day, the wind was gentle and we enjoyed some beautiful blue skies. At times I actually felt a bit overheated and did not even need my hat or gloves for most of the walk. I had been warned it would be rugged going and that much turned out to expectations. It was one of my most vigorous hikes yet with lots of uphill climbs, trekking across rocky paths and a small stretch atop some slippery limestone pavement. About halfway we stopped for a snack by an outcrop of limestone. That was when I began to feel cold. As long as we were moving I was okay. The terrain was really stunning. We headed towards a huge craggy outcrop on the moor. I'm not sure what it is called. Someone said it was called Norber which means Northern mountain. We walked around and up Norber passing some otherworldly looking landscape along the way and plenty of sheep. We eventually reached the Norber Erratics: huge boulders of sandstone sitting atop small pieces of limestone. The limestone is local but the boulders were moved here from elsewhere by glaciers during the ice age. We also passed many sinkholes and eventually came upon Gaping Gill, a massive underground chamber carved out of the limestone by surface streams. The chamber is 110 meters deep and is large enough to hold all of York Minster. Gaping Gill is only open to the public for only a few days each year when caving organizations provide a winch to lower people into the chamber for short visits.

The hike was a little over seven miles long and took us nearly 4.5 hours to complete including a 45-minute break for our snack. We were all tired and hungry and were happy to find a little tearoom open in Clapham. The poor proprietress had a bit of trouble serving all 14 of us as she was there on her own, so it was a long wait for our tea and soup and sandwiches but boy were they tasty when they came!

Too Little, Too Late

It snowed today! Too late for a white Christmas. And, as usual, the snow did not last very long. Brad had to go back to work today. In the morning I went to the train station to get our ticket refunds. Unfortunately Vince is out £32 for his tickets. His were the cheap day return tickets for which you cannot get a refund. I had had to purchase the more expensive return ticket at £72 as the cheap ones were all bought up for my original departure date of 27 December. The good thing about those tickets is that I could get a refund -- all but 5 pounds for a processing fee. So, all in all, the only loss of Vince's cancelled trip is the £32 for his train tickets.

In the afternoon I went with Jean on a walk advertised in Nigel's column. The walk started at 2 p.m. at the Stonehouse Inn in Thruscross and was to be led by a fellow from a local archeological group who would be pointing out features of historical significance. Nigel was there for bird and wildlife identification. It was advertised as a gentle one-mile hike. Just what I needed to begin to get myself back in shape. I haven't been walking or exercising much at all lately. When we arrived at the Stonehouse Inn the carpark was nearly full. We thought it was everyone who had come for the walk. Turns out that we had just missed a performance by some mummers who we saw leaving the pub as we gathered for our hike. They were colorfully dressed in what I can only describe as hobo-chic. Their faces were blackened and they were wearing clogs. Apparently they go from pub to pub performing mimes and dances and collect money for a charity. Sorry we missed that! Anyhow, the walk started out gently enough. Then the wind picked up and chilled us to the bone. Then it started snowing. Hard. Almost white-out conditions. And it was very muddy going uphill. Yuck. Even so, I enjoyed the walk. We didn't see many birds or any wildlife but we learned more about the West End village that was purposely submerged when Thruscross Reservoir was filled in. After the walk, Nigel invited us all in to the pub for further discussion, but I just wanted to get back on the road and get home before the weather got even nastier. It wasn't snowing so hard but it was cold and windy. The thermometer read -4C. That's 24F. Doesn't sound like much from a U.S. perspective, but somehow 24F feels much colder here in England.

Kong is King

Brad and I were on our way into town. I wanted to stop at the train station to get refunds on my and Vince's tickets to/from London, plus we wanted to see what kind of sales we might find. On the way in we passed the carpark for the Odeon Cinema and noted there were very few cars parked there. We stopped at the ticket window and noticed that it was just 10 minutes past the showtime for King Kong. On an impulse we decided to pop in and see the movie -- it was obvious there wouldn't be many people in the cinema and the first half hour is taken up by commercials and trailers. We shared the cinema with about a half dozen other people. Amazing!! I'm sure in the States you would get a much larger crowd in the cinema for a blockbuster like King Kong the day after Christmas.

I LOVED the movie. All 3 hours of it. The acting was great, the script superb, the special effects wonderful. I especially loved the look of 1930s NYC. And I loved that we had the theatre nearly all to ourselves.

After the movie we continued our stroll into town only to discover the train station was closed. Imagine that! Nearly all the shops were closed. And cafes and restaurants too. I'm sure the Old Bell was open but we didn't even bother with that. Last year we tried to go there on Boxing Day and the place was packed to the gills. I'm sure this year would be no different.

Merry Christmas To All

No white Christmas this year. It's too warm. But a lovely Christmas morn it's been. All our presents have been unwrapped, Brad prepared a special Christmas breakfast (pancakes and sausage) and I've put the turkey in the oven.

We gave Ginger a cute little catnip toy with a reversible feature: it can either be a sheep or a dinosaur. No matter, he is ignoring it as he does nearly all his store-bought toys.

Brad's gifts to me followed a time-related theme, though he says the theme was purely accidental. He gave me a beautiful gold dress watch by Longines, a watch winder (so I can wind my Mother's automatic watch when I'm wearing my new watch) and a delightful art deco nurse's watch -- the kind you wear as a brooch. I gave Brad various CDs, DVDs and books, a gold-colored tie, plus a nifty little art deco penguin-shaped corkscrew. It is made of shiny chrome and goes perfectly with his cocktail shaker and ice bucket.

We found out today that Vince has to cancel his trip here. :-(
He was scheduled to arrive on the 27th in London. I was gonna take a train down and spend a few days there with him. Then we were both going to take the train back up here so he could spend some time in the Yorkshire Dales. But, alas, he has a problem with his foot and can barely stand much less walk on it. I've just canceled our hotel reservation in London and luckily we will not be charged a cancellation fee. And Vince says the airline (Virgin Atlantic) will allow him to use his plane tickets anytime before Nov. 2006. Will try to get refunds our train tickets tomorrow.

Christmas Eve at York Minster

We've been so busy since our return from Stockholm and on top of that I've been trying to recover from a cold I caught days before we left for Sweden. I think my cold is on the way out...just in time for Christmas.

To start Christmas Eve off right we went to Bettys for breakfast -- always a special treat. They opened this morning at 8 a.m. instead of their usual 9 a.m. starting time. We showed up just before 8 to make sure we didn't have to wait in line but I think the special opening time caught many patrons off guard. The cafe had several open tables even around 9 a.m. I tried the Christmas coffee (a yummy chocolately blend) and the Christmas Fat Rascal (made with Stollen spices) while Brad had his usual scrambled egg and bacon muffin. Everything was delicious as usual.

After breakfast we strolled through town peeking in at a few of the stores. The day was surprisingly mild and clear. James Brindley had Christmas ornaments already on sale at 50% off and I picked up a cute Santa/reindeer snowglobe to add to our Christmas decor. We stopped off home for a bit then headed to the train station to catch the 11:05 train to York. We strolled about in York for a bit; the mild weather was not very festive but the city was looking prettier than ever all decked out for Christmas. Had lunch at the National Trust tearoom and then I began to get antsy about going to York Minster. Today at 4 p.m. they held their annual Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols service. It is quite a popular event and I'd heard one must get to the Minster by 2 to get a good seat. I wondered if there would be even more interest in the service since it will be the first one presided over by John Sentamu, inaugurated as the Archbishop only about a month ago.

I went to stake out our seats by 1:45 p.m. and told Brad he could take his time coming to meet me. I had come prepared for the long wait with a book. It wasn't long before Brad joined me as well. As I read my book, he read the Saturday Independent while we waited. The time went by rather quickly and soon we began to hear the organ music echoing through the minster signalling the start of the service.

I'd never heard of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols until I moved here. The service has a long history and is traditionally held around Christmastime. The Nine Lessons are nine readings from the Bible concerning the life of Jesus. Interspersed between the readings Christmas Carols are sung. The organ and York Minster choir sounded lovely. A procession of clergymen and women, including Archbishop Sentamu decked out in glorious purple robes, made its way through the nave of the Minster. The Lessons were read out by people from all stations of life from the head choir boy to the Archbishop. We recognized many of the carols that were sung by the choir but were surprised that many of them were sung to a different tune than what we are used to. The entire service was televised and I was sure the camera was pointed directly at us more than once or twice. This Christmas Eve in one of the world's greatest cathedrals was definitely one of our most memorable.

We caught the train back into town and stopped off for dinner at the Thai restaurant that opened up where the old Thai restaurant used to be. It was fabulous!! We're home now with just a few more hours till Santa makes his rounds.

Last Full Day in Stockholm

ALLEYWAY IN STOCKHOLM OLD TOWN


NK DEPARTMENT STORE


VETE-KATTEN CAFE

Another very full day. The weather was nearly a repeat of yesterday: clear skies, a bit windy and cold. We had heard it would be colder today than yesterday so we bundled up extra warm but found it was not as cold as predicted and felt a bit overheated.

We got up very early, finished breakfast by 7:00 and went to nearby Klara Church to attend a special event. Today is Santa Lucia Day, a day that Swedes celebrate as the opening of Christmas festivities, in honor of Saint Lucy, a Christian martyr from Syracuse. Legend has it that the Roman Emperor attempted to kill her by burning her at the stake but she miraculously escaped harm from the flames. Santa Lucia Day is celebrated with a children's procession and singing of carols. The children's choir at Klara Church sang with hauntingly beautiful clear voices carried through the Baroque church with fantastic acoustics. The beauty of the singing brought me nearly to tears. The children were all dressed in white with red sashes. One girl, who portrayed Santa Lucia, wore a crown of white candles, symbolizing the fire that refused to harm her. The other girls, her hand maidens, wore garlands in their hair. Boys and a few girls wore conical hats with stars on them. It was a lovely, endearing performance stripped of any religious ceremony. The children proceeded to the front of the church, sang their songs, then filed out. Most of the songs were Swedish carols that we were not familiar with. We did recognize Silent Night, sung with Swedish lyrics and the final song, sung to the tune of the Neapolitan song Santa Lucia but with Swedish lyrics.

After the Santa Lucia concert we walked to the old town, known as Gamla Stan, and paid a visit to Storkyrkan, Stockholm Cathedral. The rather plain exterior belied the profusely decorated interior. Two highlights of the cathedral are a 15th century statue of St. George and the Dragon and the Parhelion, a 17th-century painting of Stockholm. The painting, which is actually a copy of an original from the 15th-century, is the earliest known depiction of Stockholm.

From Storykyrkan we made our way south to an area called Flussen. One of the guidebooks I had checked out from the library spoke highly of the view from Katarina Hiss (Katherine Elevator). I was extremely disappointed. The elevator itself was hideous and under construction. The view was underwhelming and marred by dirty glass string through with wires.

From Katarina Hiss we caught a ferry to Nordiska Museet (Nordic Museum). It was a quick trip to Djurgarden island but we finally got our beautiful view of the Stockholm skyline. The Nordic Museum was a real treat. The building itself was beautiful both inside and out and the exhibits on Nordic life, art and customs were fascinating. We stopped at the museum cafe for some tasty treats. We both had coffee; I had a scrumptious chocolate-macaroon pastry while Brad indulged in a heavenly cream-filled star pastry.

From the Nordic Museum we caught bus no. 47 to the NK department store for a bit of shopping. We had a tasty lunch at one of the many restaurants in NK. Brad had green thai curry soup while I opted for carrot and ginger chicken soup. They were both served with rice. Delicious!! We shopped some more and worked up an appetite for another treat at Vete-katten cafe: hazelnut mousse and a cream-filled Danish-style pastry with coffee and tea. More shopping.

We had heard there would be a city-wide Santa Lucia procession starting at NK at 5 p.m. and ending at Skansen at 6 p.m. We decided to wait outside NK for the beginniing of the procession. We staked out what we thought was a good location for viewing the procession. At the last minute many people showed up and gathered in the street in front of us, spoiling our view. Santa Lucia left NK by horse and carriage and we left for another visit to Gamla Stan. We wanted to pay one last visit to the Christmas Market there. We had dinner at a German restaurant called Zum Fransiskaner, probably the most uninspiring meal of the whole trip: Brad started off with onion soup, we each had Wiener Schnitzel and fried potatoes for our main course.

After dinner we wearily made our way back to the hotel. Sadly, we must depart early tomorrow.

Skansen

BUILDING AT SKANSEN


COTTAGE AT SKANSEN


TURF-COVERED BUILDINGS AT SKANSEN

We both slept well last night in our comfy bed. While I was showering Brad went down to reception to retrieve our luggage which was returned last night after we went to bed. To comensate for the inconvenience of our misplaced luggage, we are getting a coupon worth 25 Euros towards another flight from KLM. The hotel puts on quite a wonderful spread for breakfast: a selection of yogurts and cereals, eggs (scrambled, soft-boiled or hard-boiled), sausage, Swedish meatballs, a wide range of cold cuts and cheeses, many different types of bread, fresh fruit, juice, coffee, sweet breads... Everything I had was delicious. We both ate well so we could get by with a light lunch during the day.

Last night they took down the flea market in the square next to our hotel. This morning a fresh flower and fruit market sprang up in its place. The square, Hörtorget, is where the original Hay market used to be. We browsed through the market before making our way to the Tourist Info office. From there we caught the number 47 bus to Skansen, the world's first open-air museum. Skansen is on a large island where there are several other museums as well, notably the Vasa museum (which we visited last May) and the Nordisk museum. We decided to hit Skansen first and if there was time, go to the Nordisk museum. We ran out of time, even though most of the attractions at Skansen were closed. Skansen is somewhat like Colonial Williamsburg: the buildings there are historical recreations from different time periods and the staff members who work inside the buildings dress in period clothing. We visited an iron monger's shop and house, several old farmsteads, a general store and a few others I can't remember right now. The architecture was wonderful -- so different from other European and English architecture we are used to. Also part of Skansen is a Nordic Zoo: we saw wolverines, wolves, foxes, owls, otters, seals, moose and reindeer. The brown bear was evidently in hiding or maybe already hibernating.

It was clear, windy and extremely cold today. At one point in Skansen I felt that my fingers were going to fall off. We had a tasty lunch in one of the restaurants there. The restaurant reminded me of the restaurant at Ikea: the special of the day was Swedish meatballs with potatoes and lingonberries. We each had some delicious goulash soup.

We did not leave Skansen until 2:30 p.m. By 3 p.m. the sun had already set. We made our way back to our hotel. Before returning to our room we checked out the department store on the lower floors of the hotel building: PUB. It's a nice store and we had a tasty snack in the store cafe. We're resting up a bit now and will head out for more shopping in a few minutes.

Arrival in Stockholm

OUR HOTEL OCCUPIED THE TOP FLOORS OF THIS BUILDING


VIEW FROM HOTEL AT NIGHT


CHRISTMAS MARKET IN THE OLD TOWN


Our short hop to Stockholm has turned out to be quite a long journey. Neither of us was able to sleep very well last night but we managed to stagger out the door at 4 a.m.. I had made egg sandwiches the night before so we could have breakfast after checking in at the airport. Check-in went fine but we could not find a place to get a cup of coffee so we washed down our egg sandwiches with bottles of water. At that point the notice on the board stated we should proceed to the departure lounge. We got to the departure lounge to discover that was where the cafe and restaurant were open. Brad got a latte while I had a cup of tea. Our plane departed about half and hour late -- delayed by a suspicious package (which turned out to be an innocuous item left accidentally by a previous passenger) and by operational difficulties in boarding a wheelchair bound passenger.

We had to change planes in Amsterdam and found ourselves at the back of a huge line to go through passport control and customs. All the while biting our nails, hoping we'd make our connection in time. The metal stud in my shoe set off the alarm so I was treated to quite an invasive frisking at the security gate. Regretfully, we had to race through Amsterdam airport. It's a pretty airport and would have been nice to linger a bit in the shops and cafes. Made it to the plane on time and luckily had a vacant seat in our row of three. On both legs of the flight I had planned to read my guidebooks on Stockholm but barely managed to keep my eyes open.

When we got to Stockholm we and several other passengers discovered that our luggage did not arrive on the plane with us. They took our details and informed us that once they found our luggage it would be forwarded to our hotel.

Caught the Arlanda Express train from the airport to Central Station in Stockholm. Wow, those tickets were expensive! 25 bucks for the two of us. It takes 20 minutes to get to Central Station. Once there we made our way to our hotel. Brad was amazing, he needed to only take one look at a map before we left the station and he found our way to the hotel without a problem. Our hotel is situated above a department store on Hörtorget sqaure. There is a flea market going on in the square. Our room overlooks the square with beautiful views. The room is immaculate, the beds extremely comfy. This is a really great hotel.

We visited the flea market outside hotel where Brad got some roasted almonds (they are for sale everywhere) and picked up a St. Lucia pin. (More on St. Lucia later) We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the city center. We are a short walk from Gamla Stan -- the old quarter. There we found a Christmas market, similar to Christmas markets in Germany. There were stalls selling hand crafted items and foods. We each had a bratwurst and glögg. The bratwurst was a bit spicier than those in Germany and glögg was similar to gluhwein but spicier and sweeter. I told Brad it tasted like liquid red hots candy. And the wurst has been repeating on me ever since. There were some students dressed as angels singing carols. And sturdy little ponies giving rides to children. We saw reindeer pelts and smoked reindeer meat for sale. And there was even a full-size stuffed reindeer at another Christmas market closer to our hotel. The city is so beautiful, such interesting architecture and everything is decorated so festively for the holidays.

The sun really sets early here. It began to get dusky around 2:30 p.m. By 3:30 it was downright dark. It is only 5:30 p.m. right now but it feels like 10 p.m. to me. Partly because we got up so early and had such little sleep last night. We've been informed that our luggage will arrive between 8 p.m. and midnight.

Well, I'm gonna go rest up in the room and guess we'll figure out what we will do tomorrow.

Nighty Night

We went to the Brad's work Christmas Party and had a great time. I knew lots more people this time around than I did in the past two years. We got a chance to test out our swing dance steps on the dance floor. I am getting over a cold and have now nearly lost my voice from trying to talk over the noise and music. It's nearly midnight. I've got to go to bed. Our alarm is set for 3 a.m. We are leaving for Stockholm in the morning and our flight departs from Leeds Bradford airport at 6 a.m.

Cookies and a Choral Treat

I spent nearly all day baking cookies. I made 27 dozen Italian cookies, the kind I used to bake with my sister Vickie. I remember how we used to try to come up with a new shape of cookie each year. Today I came up with a new shape in honor of Vickie: a capital V.

After baking, I had just enough time to eat dinner and change clothes. I'd heard there was going to be a performance of Handel's Messiah at Christ Church, the church that is just a 2-minute walk from our house. I haven't been inside Christ Church yet and I've never heard a performance of the Messiah either, so it seemed a really good idea to go. The performance by the Harrogate Choral Society was very good. The audience was invited to sing along but I didn't see many people chiming in. The soloists were excellent but I preferred the bits sung by the entire chorus. The acoustics were fabulous.