Trip to Sweden

Since the weather was still good, we went to the beach. To Sweden. To the Koster Islands, not so far from the Norwegian border. The islands are ca-free, peaople use bycicles to move around, and you take a boat to go there. Here we are on our way:



A tender moment with mom after lunch:

Good beach, probably there are more of them on the islands, we just went to the first we saw.


Here is my 8 months pregnant belly. Ta-da!

We played with the sand on the beach, and played ball while waiting for the ferry back.



We hed a room at a camping site where we stayed overnight, and today we just had it slowly - a breakfast in town and a good time at a playground.


On our way back we stopped at the big shopping mall and filled the car with stuff, as always. But that is ok too, from time to time.

My weekend

While Greta and Santiago are in Spain, I decided to went for a hike in the mountain. I felt I needed to connect with nature. The original plan was to go to the top of Hallingskarvet, but the road there was closed. So I needed an alternative plan, and went to another top - with a view to Hardangervidda. You are supposed to see Gaustatoppen from there on a good day (but it was not one of those days).
Driving in the mountain:

The start of the hike. Looking north to Hallingskarvet.

This was my route to Ustetind

It was not much more than 3 km to walk.

The nature is always beautiful everywhere in Norway. There it still looked like spring, while here in Kongsberg it is summer.

Finally at the top. Looking north to Hallingskarvet, again.

But then the clouds came in no time and covered everything. This is looking south to Hardangervidda. The visibility soon was no more than 20 meters ahead, so I went down, while it was snowing a bit.

The way down was much easier for a pregnant lady like me. And the weather got better too.

I had a great walk in the mountain and a beautiful drive home. Did you have a good weekend?

Rome

I couple of weeks ago I read this post about Yulia's trip to Rome, and just could not resist. We desperately needed a couple of days after being at home with my leg for the last several months. So, day after - we bought the tickets for the closest weekend. And here we are on a Ryanair (what a shame) plane, Greta studying the emergency instructions.

 The weather is surprisingly nice the day we arrive, we can not believe all the bad forecasts we saw.

 We arrived to the small airport, Ciampino, but it is actually closer to the center that the big one. Greta and Santiago are looking at the city map.

 After we arrived to the central station and walked a long one kilometer to the hotel (it really looks closer on the map), we went for our first walk in Rome.
Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore was not so far. So we start right there.

 When we get outside, there is suddenly no more light, surprisingly early. So we decide to find a place to eat dinner and go rest to the hotel.

 That first night we were pretty tired and slept 7pm to 7am! Greta found chocolate cookies for breakfast )

 Now it is Sunday morning, and we are going to Colosseum.

 The streets are emptier now than ever.

 

I was pretty  surprised to see the queue to get inside, we just skipped all that since we printed our tickets bought on internet. So here we are, a huge thing!

Greta and Santiago are more interested in history than I am, so they read all the info they find. So if you have any questions, I will have to ask them )

Here I was trying to take a panorama picture of the Colosseum.

 From some of the "windows" you can see the Palatine Hill, where we will go later.

 After an hour trying to find my husband and daughter in the Colosseum, with my husband's phone in MY pocket, finally we found each other, and go out now. And it starts raining.

We have the sling and the umbrellas, so we are safe to continue our trip to the Palatine Hill.

 

 The rain is getting more serious, so we get inside a museum, where I get to check out the marble men )

Olives

 Now we are near Foro Romano, with a view to Colosseum.

 Greta falls asleep, and I am again very thankful for having a sling.

 This, I think, was a temple.

Now we are tired of walking, and also hungry, so we are trying to find food. But this people eat much later than we do it here in Norway, so most of the places are closed. Took a while before we found something. 

 We also need a dessert. Meanwhile, I am astonished of how dark it can be at 2pm in Rome when it rains.

 This is heaven!

Now we are going to the Trevi fountain, and Santiago begs for chestnuts.

 Suddenly a huge monument (Vittorio Emmanuel II) appears on our left.

 Still rains

 After the Trevi fountain (we will come here tomorrow, too, so there are pictures of that) we continue walking (tired) to the Spanish steps. Here we take a couple of pictures and Greta begs us to go home. Now we take a train, but have to get our one stop earlier, because our stop is out of service because of the black out caused by the rain.

That was it for Sunday. The day after we plan to go to Pantheon, but we stop by the Trevi fountain again, first.

 Greta is going to throw a coin into the fountain. Look!

 To Pantheon now. At this time of the year the ray of light does not come through the roof, so it does not matter when we go.

 Greta loves running after the birds.

 This is Pantheon itself.

 And the famous roof.

This is just some tourist shop.

Now we need our morning coffee and dessert ) St. Eustachio was on our list thanks to some useful recommendations, and it was great.

 Plaza Navona is the next step before we go to Vatican.

 While I was distracted taking pictures, they had to buy this plastic bubble blower (that broke 5 minutes later, of course)

 Getting closer to Vatican.

 The St. Angels bridge.

 Here Greta is very curious about the skeleton costume, she was fascinated.

 St. Peter's Basilica at the end of the street.

 And finally inside.

We also went 320 steps up to the top, and then down. Great training for my foot. 

We found an interesting place to eat. Pizzeria Alice near Vatican. The pizza is ready, you just chose the one you like, pay accordingly to the weight of the piece you like, and then eat it on the steps outside. On a sidewalk. At least we did, and many other people. But the pizza was real good. 

 On our way back to metro, Greta relaxed a bit while Santiago had to buy a couple of t-shirts.

 Our last dinner in Rome was a great place, ristorante RomAntica. Great food, great desserts, incredible lambrusco.

 Going home! Thanks for your patience )))