Saturday in Stockholm

The temps were in the low 50s but the sun was shining. The sun is shifting back towards summer with a 5:26am sunrise and 8:10pm sunset already today. It doesn't feel like spring yet and most of the trees and stuff are still bare from winter. However, we headed to Kungsträdgården for the Cherry Blossom Festival to see the blooming trees in the park and finally a sign of plant life coming back to the city. It was a very small festival compared to the one we always went to in DC so it made us miss that part of home. Regardless, we're really enjoying living in Stockholm. It's definitely a walkable city best enjoyed on foot. We walked along some of the waterways to Kastellholmen and Kastellet which is a small military fortification built in 1667. Here's some pictures of our day and another beautiful walk around town ending with a typically Swedish fika or coffee break. Click on the pictures for bigger versions.

Paris

It was a 4 day weekend at work for Easter. It was another opportunity to add a few days and spend some time in another city on our European wish list which is pretty much every country in Europe. Paris might have seemed more exotic and different if we hadn't been living in Stockholm and visited Berlin, Lisbon, and Rome before this trip. It has it's own vibe and hearing French everywhere is different but there's something about European cities that's starting to feel familiar.