Frisör och helgen utforskning = haircut and weekend exploration

We're learning some new skills and doing a deep exploration of our local neighborhood. As I've noted before, the Swedes haven't shut things down, including hair salons... so we could get Stephen's hair cut but didn't want to in a public place. As a side note, there are loads of hair salons- 2 in our small neighborhood, and a hair cutting place is a fairly common sight. The last time I cut Stephen's hair was a good 10+ years ago and I remember vowing not to do it again. However, I managed to find some hair-cutting scissors and braved it (or Stephen braved getting his hair cut after it got too shaggy to bear. He declined his sister's offer to help). Not too bad for a first try (1st picture is before, and the two pictures in lighter blue are after).  

  

In between mastery of new skills, we've been out and about doing a deep dive in the neighborhood. This neighborhood is fairly new by Stockholm standards and is in a space between the former Olympic grounds, the extensive King's Garden (effectively public lands) and a refurbished industrial zone. Depending on which direction, you can find all sorts of athletic buildings, long trails and forested land, or cement trucks and industrial tracks. Our wanderings tend towards trails and forest land, augmented by our trusty but pathetic bicycles.

On Saturday, we biked out along the Baltic and found a magical picnic place and an outdoor exercise/throw each other off the balance beam zone.

Lara's bike (Dutch vintage, looks a lot like it escaped WWII)

Chris' bike, largely held together with a promise and the periodic use of a wrench to keep the pedals on

Elizabeth on her fairly reliable bike

Stephen's borrowed bike- a common scene of fixing it before we ride

 Random hills and trails abound  

 

Picnic by the Baltic (safely distant from others) 

   

  

Exploring mossy cliffs (safely, of course). Stephen wanted to see if he could ride my behemoth bike. He's grown enough (we measured him at 5'8" this weekend) so he could just barely pull it off.  

 

An outdoor exercise set up = lots of entertainment for a while 

On Sunday, Chris and I left the kids reading and sleeping to walk for a bit. The quiet woods were spectacular, with this area perhaps being where an abbey had been located 1000 years ago. 

 

There is a small section filled with random handrails. No idea why. 

  

Lots of small lea-tos made out of sticks. 

Fika in the woods, anyone? 

On Sunday afternoon, we took our bikes out to the nearby flow course. The Swedish national mountain bike team has been building a set of trails and they happen to be about 1 km from our apartment. It's been too icy or muddy to ride but as things dry out and warm up a bit, the trails are more tempting. We may rent some more capable mountain bikes this week and see if that helps.

   

  

 The set up for biking is quite extensive; none of us were brave enough (yet) to try the teeter totter ramps.

Chris and Stephen did some serious exploration off in the trails (taking a path that runs below the old ski jump). I'll do a photo essay of this another day- it's quite something. Nice dinner of curry tofu and rice, topped with a mango lassi and some films shown in the Banff Film Festival. 

And if you need inspiration on what you can do at home for "outdoor recreation," check out this very cute film of a Spanish skier in his apartment and his very epic "ski": https://www.thelocal.es/20200404/video-spaniard-under-lockdown-proves-its-possible-to-ski-at-home