It has been a while fellow bloggers since I just got back from my month long trip to Sweden! I shall be writing all about it in the next few blog post entries. My husband has three brothers who all live in Sweden and we were far overdue for a vacation anyways. Mind you this is the first time traveling with my husband in a plane and first time with kids of my own. I will be writing a post of traveling with kids on its own.
Our flight was a direct flight from the Toronto airport to Copenhagen, Denmark. We were told it is faster to take a train from the airport in Copenhagen to Malmo then taking a plane to Stockholm, Sweden which would be at least a 6 hour drive from where my husband's brothers live! We arrived at around 10:20am. Upon our arrival to the airport we picked up our bags, bought a ticket for the train, and jumped on the train. Booking and board the train took the most time for us. The train took less than 15 minutes from where we were to get us to our first stop which was Malmo. The difficult part was holding the hand of my four year old, having my 3 month old at the time in the carrier, and trying to help my husband with 3 large suitcases and a carry-on. We somehow managed. We jumped off the train and my husband's brother was there to receive us. My husband has not seen his brothers for 6 years so it was great to see them reunite. I had never met Mohamad's brothers or their wives in person, we only had spoken over the phone so it would be my first time meeting the family which in itself was nerve-racking! We packed suitcases up into the car and headed to Landskrona where Mohamad's brother lives. It was about a 30-minute drive from the Malmo train station to Landskrona. About a week into our vacation we rented a car in order to drive around comfortably and go sight seeing together.
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| In front of the Citadel- See there's a guy behind us fishing in the moat (permit required). |
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Landskrona is a peaceful city marked with a few historical landmarks including the Old Watertower and the Citadel which is surrounded by a moat. Entrance to these landmarks is free which I noticed many things are in Sweden or at least the places we went! There is a large immigrant population that we found in Landskrona in comparison to Höganäs which was nice to see. My brother-in law who lives in Landskrona with his wonderful family works in a factory 5 minutes from his house that manufactures wind turbines. The city borders seawater where you stop and fish without a permit! As opposed to lake fishing which requires a permit. Like the Citadel has a moat that surrounds it with plenty of fish, fishing there requires a permit. They have more of an emphasis on roundabouts as opposed to traffic lights which gets you to where you need to go quicker but in general people drive slower. My single brother in-law lives here with his brother and his family and he is studying and working in the city. Landskrona had plenty of playgrounds which was great for the kids and for the parents to enjoy the outdoors, not going to lie I played on many of the playgrounds too. We drove back and forth between the cities to spend time to get to know each city.
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| Check this sensory activity at the daycare. Strands of fabric in trees! |
Höganäs is a great city for family life. It was much more quiet and low maintenance. What is so beautiful about Sweden as a whole is there love for nature as opposed to expansion and urban sprawl that we are so accustomed to seeing here in Canada. There are more bikes on the streets than cars! The people in general are low maintenance; they love their downtime and all things peaceful. Here you feel people are always rushing from work to hang out or volunteer or their second jobs. Sweden no one is on the streets at 8'o clock and the sun doesn't set until practically 11 o'clock (In the south where my brother in-laws live). The city was clean, well maintained, and the flowers smell amazing! Wherever there are flowers growing there is a lovely smell blossoming from them, I feel like the flowers I walk past here in Canada have no smell! It was absolutely refreshing. My brother in law that lives here also lives 5 minutes from the factory where he works as a metal worker. Each city that we visited was full of everything needed; schools, factories, shopping areas, and tons of natural landscapes to enjoy. Right in front of the apartment my brother in law lives is a playground so he can see his kids playing right from the balcony plus his daughter's daycare is right next to the building. Talk about convenience. Most importantly a big milestone for my son Fares- he went swimming for the first time in Höganäs! They have an incredible indoor community pool. It is split off into 4 different pools for different depths. The kids pool has a consistent depth all the way through which was great! They also have a great length hot tub and sauna. We really enjoyed ourselves that day. Höganäs has a great beach too for the family to go and swim while Landskrona's water has a strong fish smell, you can still swim in it but the smell is too strong.
In my upcoming posts about our Trip to Sweden I will be going into detail about individual cities we visited and our week that we spent in Germany! Check it out and let me know what you think or if you have any suggestions for our upcoming trip to Sweden next summer :)
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