If you haven’t already, NOW is the time to book a visit to Oslo, the capital of Norway: August 18th – 22nd to explore the city in the north with it’s history, culture and traditions - all this together with a bunch of highly curious bloggers!!!

Renny has taken the initiative to gather us bloggers and as you can imagine, this will be a once in a lifetime opportunity.

The Official Program:
 
• 18th of August: Participants arriving from all over the world
• 19th of August: 10AM – 1PM – Highlights of Oslo – A compact guided tour
• 19th of August: 5PM – Grand opening by The Mayor of Oslo
• 20th-21st of August, Daytime: Free choice of Oslo attractions, some guided by locals
• 20th-21st of August, Evening: Group outdoor activity to enjoying the long summer night
• 22nd of August: Participants returning home

The Highlights of Oslo is an awesome sightseeing tour of several of Oslo’s most interesting attractions: Downtown Oslo, Vigeland Sculpture Park, Holmenkollen & Viking Ship Museum. Free choice of return to the city center by bus or boat (if the weather allows).

There are also lots of other things to choose to see, different kind of attractions depending on your taste - and of course we’ll have wonderful Nordic summer evenings together!!!!

We’ve been to Oslo before, but not seeing all of the attractions yet. Downtown Oslo of course and the Vigeland Sculpture Park, but we don’t mind seeing it again, this time with more time to really enjoy it fully.

We’re so excited to go there, we’re going by car from Sweden - mostly because we hope to see YOU there!

Click the image below to read more - and to book the program!

Lifecruiser ♥ Blog Meetups

The sculpture was created by the artist B G Broström and called ASEA-strömmen, symbolizing workers on their way to work in the 30-50’s at the big Swedish Electricity company ASEA (later ABB), which was founded in Västerås as early as 1883.

I loved to take a closer look at two of the sculptured workers, they looked so authentic, especially with the snow.

This sculpture is a reminder of a time when many Swedes did go to work by bicycle instead of buses or cars, but it also reminds us of all kind of travel by bicycle.

Västerås - as many other Swedish cities - has excellent bicycle roads, so next time you’re in town - or another town: why not take a bicycle sightseeing tour? More and more cities starting to offer rental or even free bicycles everywhere.

We’ll definitely keep this in mind - unless it’s raining… then we’ll rent a boat! *giggles*

Lifecruiser ♥ Bicycles
 

Earlier post about this town:

Swedish Roadtrip: Vasteras Gherkin Town
 

It simply were the only nearby place that had the special supermodel we wanted, so off we went to the Swedish town of Västerås.

It was a bit late on the day so we had some kind of race against the time, since we wanted to take some photos in Västerås before the sun went down, which it does very early in the afternoon at that time of the year.

Västerås Old Town

Västerås is one of Sweden’s oldest towns, which tracks back to the end of 13th century, but even the vikings were there before that. There are still some old buildings left in the town, even though many of them are gone.

FIND DEALS ON HOTELS IN VASTERAS

Known for gherkins

For us Swedes nowadays though, Västerås is mostly known because a special kind of midget gherkin (Cucumis sativus) or cucumber, were grown here from the 18th century and forward. It was a German gardener, Bernhard Johan Bohnsack that started it. The gherkin was sold all over Sweden and even to parts of Europe and is mostly used to be pickled.

That’s also how the town got it’s Swedish nickname Gurksta’n (The Gherkin town).

Västerås Castle

Västerås Castle is where the famous Swedish King Gustav Vasa held the reformation parliament in the year of 1527, that made Sweden switch from Catholicism to Protestant.

The Starred Cathedral

Västerås has a beautiful old Cathedral dated back to the 13th century that is worth a visit, you can see it in the end of the street picture below.

It’s very beautifully situated with the creek floating by below. The Cathedral has got 3 stars in Guide Michelin.

Inside there is another Swedish King buried: Erik XIV (dead by arsenic poisoning!). It’s said that because the sarchophagus were too short they had to chop off his feet & put them aside his body…!!!

His current sarchophagus is made of black Carrera marble from Italy.

The Black Creek recreation area

It might be hard to believe when seeing these winter scenes, but it’s very popular during the summer, when the area around the creek, Svartån, is filled with strolling people, choosing between different cafés and restaurants.

Boat life around lake Mälaren

Right outside the town is the lake Mälaren with hundreds of islands in the archipelago and there is a very active boat life in the summertime - as everywhere around Mälaren or the Baltic Sea.

Shopping: H&M’s hometown

There are some shopping that can be done here, the Swedish company H&M was even founded in Västerås. Some specialist boutiques & large shopping arcades, even though we did not have time for it.

Photo slideshow of Västerås

It were getting darker, we had to rush our photo session there, but still, it will give you a pretty good picture of how this Swedish town looks like.

Slideshow with all the photos from Västerås town:

Unusual treehouse hotel

Thinking of going there? Where to stay? Our tip is: the unusual Hotel Woodpecker in the old oak tree!

Roadtrip mission completed

Did we get our wanted vacuum cleaner? Yes! And we’re very happy with it, because it’s quite the opposite from our old one that just did blow around the dust: it’s actually working!

Very efficiently, we have to watch out or we’ll be sucked up too! *giggles*

Lifecruiser ♥ Swedish Roadtrips
 

This is a very traditional Swedish red cottage, just placed a bit unusual. It was built in 1998 and renovated in 2006. No damage to the tree was done when they built this cottage, no nails - it’s carried up by very powerful steel wires.

Mikael Genberg is the Swedish artist that came up with this unusual and fun project and this is not the only place he want to place a red cottage - he also want to place one at the moon before 2011, thus creating quite an interesting challenge for the Swedish Space Corporation!

I’m not so sure that I could manage to book the Woodpecker treehouse hotel suite for the night, not that I wouldn’t dare to sleep there, but because how on earth would I get up there in the first place? I’m afraid of heights and it’s only accessible by a (wobbly?) rope ladder!

No, but I like the use of the rope ladder for something else though: to get up the yummy meals!!!

In this photo you can see how the ropes goes up in a hole at the floor at the treehouse, but I saw no harness - which I think they use to get you up there, you don’t have to climb thankfully.

… and yes, it does has both a kitchen and a toilet up there too, so you don’t have to worry about getting down the rope ladder in a hurry! *giggles*

Personally, I think they have a rather expensive room rate: 1100 SEK (146 Dollar / 108 Euro) per person and night without any meals, 1250 SEK with breakfast, 1500 SEK per person and night with breakfast and dinner.

One could think that you really could get some peace and quiet alone up there, but I wonder how it is with all the people passing by in the park? Would it be like to be on stage?!

Tempted to give it a try? The treehouse can be booked by Västerås Tourist office (+46 21 39 01 00).

It can only be booked between 1 April - 31 October since it got no electricity or heat (other from yourself!), but I recommend June-August since nights can be very chilly!

…and sometimes very windy too, but that might just do the trick to get you to sleep…

Lifecruiser ♥ Unusual Hotels
 

On The Road To Travel Tool Application Homepage

Our regular readers know that we from time to time like to make reviews of different travel related things, this time another travel tool. Yes, it’s necessary to keep up to date what’s going on in the travel world.

Insider at the Olympics

One of the accredited journalist for Olympics, a Swiss journalist and blogger, Urs Berger, is blogging live from Vancouver for them at On The Road To new Olympics blog.

Special Olympics blog from Vancouver at On The Road

This means that his press pass will get him into places where regular visitors wouldn’t usually, so be sure to keep an eye on his writing for live experiences.

On The Road Main features

On The Road has a lot of features which I can’t go into in details, so I listed the most useful here.

Main features of the travel application are:
 
• Publication of articles together with photos and videos, accompanied by an exact GPS location
• Possibility to export the GPS coordinates directly to a navigation
• Google maps integration
• Google Latitude integration available
• Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed integration available
• Easy organization of trips, articles and comments
• Offline mode (phone app) – store travel adventures to the phone and upload them at once
• NearByMe feature (phone application) – Find cool places and events nearby at any time
• Subscribers – Track and organize the followers of a certain trip
• SMS, MMS, email article publishing available as well

I really like the interactive maps that more easily can let friends and family follow our location and see where we’re going next, but also the drag-and drop sorting is making everything more easy. Plus I don’t have to worry about compatibility since all image, video or audio format seem to work.

Seeing the local weather is another thing that comes in handy for us travelers. If creating a schedule, our TripBook will even keep a record of the weather on our trip - nice!

Friends and family can send comments on our created trips and photos and we’ll get an email notifications about it. If we reply to the comment, they will receive an email as well. They can also subscribe to the trip and get email notifications every time wel post something new.

One of the perhaps most useful features after a trip, is that you can make it available as a web widget on your blog, to show your articles from On The Road.

Of course there is also possible to share everything to different social networks: log in to account, go to “Share” and select your favorite social networks.

Phone application quick glance

Since everyone nowadays seem to be totally into iPhone or similar applications, I thought I would show some screenshots from the apps too.

On The Road To iPhone Screenshot of Articles and Trips

Don’t you just love how simple it looks? Despite that it has those really useful features, making it worth trying yet another travel tool.

On The Road To iPhone Screenshot of other features

Oh, and don’t miss On The Road To’s Video’s, if you want to learn more about how to use it!

Different from other travel apps?

Yes, it’s true, there are a lot of other travel applications that are similar - or travel tools that I prefer to call them - out there already, but are we really satisfied with them?

I would say most of us are not. There are still a lot to wish in all of them, but I think that this particular one is “On The Road To” some new ways of seeing things at least.

Let us hope for more interesting features to come, to really fill all our travel tools needs!

Lifecruiser ♥ Travel Tools
 

What is the most romantic nearby place you can think of?

Just go there if it’s nearby. Pick the best spot you can find to watch the sunset together - and don’t forget to bring a picnic basket loaded with goodies with you.

If the weather is too cold, go there but stay in the car with pillows and cozy blankets. I promise, you’ll keep each other hot enough… *giggles*

The Hawaii Spa Resort

Another alternative is to try to make your home be like that place you dream about taking a trip to. If it were Hawaii like in my dream, decorate like it were there, put up pictures of the islands, try to make some Hawaiian cuisine, make tropical drinks, play Hawaiian music, do a hula-hula dance wearing flower wreaths - use your fantasy.

Spoil your beloved one with Champagne and lighted candles, a warm bath with a nice bath oil and flowers floating around, pedicure or massage - anything that will make you both relax and enjoy!

Where did you first meet?

Try to replicate it, if not fully, so try something that relate to it. It tells that you remember it all like it were yesterday. For me that would be that special café we did meet first time, eating apple pie with lots of vanilla sauce…

Where did you go on your honeymoon?

Again, try to replicate it, if not fully so something that reminds you of your honeymoon and what you did there. Bring forward all the photos from your honeymoon to re-experience them.

If you went to the Greek island Crete on your honeymoon just like us and did drive around a lot in the mountains, you could drive to the nearest mountains on an excursion to do something crazy, like standing on the top of a mountain (OK, hill if you have no mountains) and shout out to the whole world that you love her/him. Can it be any more romantic?

… or dancing Greek dances - whatever you find most suitable for you. There are no rules, just make sure firing some love flames!

Love is in the hot air balloon

Yes, take that hot air balloon trip and surprise your beloved! Let her/him lose her/his breath from all your long passionate kisses and not just from the breathtaking view from the air…!

If you research properly before and make some contacts, you might get away pretty cheap if it’s low season in your part of the world.

Surprise with an unusual secret destination

Keep it secret, keep it unusual - how about a beach resort in the winter when the beach is covered with snow and totally deserted? That will probably be at a good price. You’ll feel like you’re the only ones on earth together under the stars!

We did our engagement alone on a winter beach… opening a champagne bottle and toasting for our future totally alone under the stars - with sand blowing in the glasses! *giggles*

Get a last minute hostel deal

Nowadays the hostels are often like 3-star rated hotels when it comes to the standard and they do have private double rooms and some hotels, so why not check out hostelbookers extended January sale to find some good deals at interesting locations?

Bring with you the stuff to “romancify” your room: flower petals, champagne, music player… Remember: It will be what you’re making it to. Romance is where we allow it to be.

Ask around for private rentals

Ask around among your friends if anyone is willing to lend you or let you rent their summerhome. Sending out requests to your friends in social networks like Twitter or Facebook can be very effective. You’ll never know until you ask, right?

Hot Valentine Tips

Avoid crowded tourist attractions and areas, you can lose that intimate feeling in a blink. Though if your love is strong enough it can manage even that. Hubby proposed to me below Sacré-Coeur Basilica in Paris and there were thousands of tourists, but we saw none of them… ah… *dreamy sigh*

Give your beloved one total focus and appreciation. Be romantic, passionate, kiss all the time everywhere - just make sure you don’t offend anyone: check up what rules goes in the place you are and adjust to custom behavior a bit - but just a bit!

Dare to show your passion, you have no idea how many plus points you get from that!

An absolute minimum of activities is to cook a romantic country themed dinner together, you can have a lot of fun in the kitchen while cooking… *hint*

Leave rose petals on the bed, upon a nice looking love letter… maybe with a promise of another real trip later on. Look her/him in the eyes properly and tell your beloved one all the things you haven’t had time in ages to say, but always think.

Be creative, don’t just come home with the usual flowers or chocolate box! Take a road trip, break loose from the every day behavior and spend some quality time together in the car experiences new surroundings and your love once again.

Whatever you do: do NOT take your beloved to see your family or relatives. That does not count and especially not the parents!!!!

Lifecruiser ♥ Romantic Trips
 

SkyView attraction premiere, Stockholm Globe Arena, Sweden. Photo Copyright Globe Arenas.

This is actually a top attraction of a top attraction since it’s situated on the Stockholm Globe Arena which in itself is quite remarkable - the worlds largest hemispherical building, used for sports events and music concerts.

It was built in less than 2 1/2 years, constructed on top of 48 curved main columns a Mero space frame carries the dome shaped structure. The new SkyView where built on top of that with help from ski lift builders.

The two SkyView glass gondolas has room for 16 persons in each and the ride to the top takes 3 minutes. The gondola stays at the top of Globe approximately 10 minutes before going back on the same rails.

Skiss of SkyView glass gondola attraction, Stockholm, Sweden, Image Copyright Globe Arenas

• Size of each gondola: 4.5 meters in diameter
• Weight of each gondola: 7,000 kg
• Maximum speed: 1 meter per second

Impressed? No? Maybe these facts will impress you:

42,000 kg of steel have been added to the original structure to strengthen the exterior and 70,000 kg of rail have been assembled on the outside of the Globe with the help of mountain climbers and a helicopter!

Have we been up there ourselves? No, we’re waiting for the spring with better weather - or to get a special invitation with a free ride…. *giggles*

Seriously: it’s fully booked all weekend and they have even squeezed in extra rides, that gives a hint of how popular this is gonna be.

There is no doubt at all that SkyView really will become one of the most important symbols for Sweden internationally, visited by every tourist that comes here.

They claim that you should prepare yourself for shivering kneecaps and sweaty palms - would you like to take a ride in it…?

Read more about SkyView here.

Lifecruiser ♥ SkyView
 

The easiest way to change webhost

We did it the easiest way there is: our new webhost have a fabulous offer to help you transfer your blog to them without charging you extra for this great service!

They did the complete free blog transfer for us including the transfer of the domain name since we wanted that too. All we had to do was to fill in the two DNS addresses they gave us plus our blog and contact details.

Can it be any easier…? Or faster?

We laid the order in the evening and in the next mid day, they had completed the blog transfer!

After changing webhost

Within the hours when the changing of the Domain Name Servers around in the internet were to take place, we had about 4 comments on our old webhost, which we did enter in ourselves afterward at our new webhost.

We haven’t encountered any problems so far, but IF you should stumble upon something strange or not working, please do tell us - in case we don’t now.

We did have some email conversation back- and forward since we had some moments of confusion, but their support were awesome to deal with every time. Very serviceminded.

Choosing a cheaper green webhost with more diskspace

An important fact is that this will be green webhosting. We’ll also save money since HostGator is cheaper than our old webhost, plus we got more diskspace & bandwidth traffic for the money too, so why not?

If we had wanted to have only 1 blog or website, the price right now starts at $4.95/month (Hatchling), but we did choose to go with their Baby plan which will allow us to have unlimited blogs or websites starting at $7.95/month.

We’re thinking of having a separate photoblog.

Whois Privacy Protection

We also requested to continue to have whois privacy protection (cost $10/year as usual) which means that people can’t do a whois lookup and see our name, address or phone number.

We don’t have anything to hide, but for several reasons a bit privacy still can be a good thing.

Awardwinning serviceminded webhost

HostGator has such a good reputation, that’s why we did choose them, they’ve got many awards for their great service. We like them so much that we even decided to become affiliates.

We would not recommend them if we didn’t think they’re really excellent - and believe me: we’ve really done some heavy research before signing up.

So are you interested of changing webhosts or just curious? Click on the image below!

You’ll get a 20 percentage off if you sign up now, I can’t say how it is later, but you might get lucky then too.

…or why not bookmark this page to come back later?

Lifecruiser ♥ Our Webhost
 

I felt right at home at once - of course, since I just love boats. So many different boats in this port, no wonder it’s called the capital of sailing at the Mediterranean.

We did meet up with Claudies sister and husband too (such a nice couple!) and had a very nice walk plus a bite to eat at one of the places there, not just going through the market.

As usual I went crazy with the camera at all that yummy food products, even though the light were difficult at the stalls at the market. The others just laughed at my eagerness.

As you could see, there were a lot of different interesting things, even a boat fight AND a beautiful dressed bride…. You’ll never know what you’re going to see!

Oh, I wouldn’t mind at all at go there once again - or to live nearby to be able to go there every now and then… or maybe I would be a steady customer there when I think about it…. *giggles*

Here in Stockholm we don’t have that many markets with fresh products in the same way. We have a bigger one in the city center at Hötorget, but not with fish and meat out on the street, it’s available inside another building.

Lifecruiser ♥ Bandol Market
 

Earlier posts in this serie:

Big Fig Dig in France
French Cooking a la Pierre
French Art Gallery Exhibition
France Bandol Beach Sunset
To Tour Toulon Too
Le Castellet Medieval Village
Vintage Marseille Soap Posters
French beach leach
Bloggers toast in France
Bloggers finally meet in France after three years of blogging
French blogger host lost
Start Fart of France Trip
Marseille Air Lair Stare
Pastis in Provence Southern France
Photographer beholder but not older
Connect Hotel Skavsta Airport
 

So when we got the chance to taste fresh figs just picked from a fig tree in Claudie and Pierre’s garden we found it very interesting.

Just the things we want to experience when on trips: to see or and taste things we don’t have at home!

As you can see, they also had wonderful tasty tomatoes for our lovely breakfast - or more like brunch - table.

We were surprised to find the figs so juicy and sweet, it was not at all as we had imagined they would taste - they tasted much, much better. So good that we wish we could have them every morning…

We do have seen a fig tree before, but none so up close and with ready fresh fruits to eat, so this was a new experience for us.

How nice it would be to have this green tree in your garden and to get fresh fruit like that!

Since we’re having a bit too cold climate around Stockholm for figs, it has not been commonly grown and the only figs we’ve known during our lives are dried figs - which are too sweet & sticky for my taste - and mainly during Christmas time.

There are some that has been able to grow figs in the South of Sweden with success since they have milder winters, but not so much here around Stockholm and up in the country.

We can only hope that this will change!

Lifecruiser ♥ Fresh Figs
 

Earlier posts in this serie:

French Cooking a la Pierre
French Art Gallery Exhibition
France Bandol Beach Sunset
To Tour Toulon Too
Le Castellet Medieval Village
Vintage Marseille Soap Posters
French beach leach
Bloggers toast in France
Bloggers finally meet in France after three years of blogging
French blogger host lost
Start Fart of France Trip
Marseille Air Lair Stare
Pastis in Provence Southern France
Photographer beholder but not older
Connect Hotel Skavsta Airport