I always said I wanted to see an ice-hockey game, if I had the opportunity one day... So when we booked our trip to Stockholm, I did a little search on the internet and was happy to find out that there was going to be a match on one of the days we were in Stockholm. So when we arrived, we immediately bought two tickets. The game itself was part of the "SUPERALLSVENSKAN 2004" and was between HIF and Vasteras. In Sweden ice-hockey is the second biggest sport after football. A very fast and aggressive sport. It was even too fast for me to be able to take some good pictures ;-). We got value for our money, we saw 3 times 20 minutes, afterwards 5 minutes extra and we even saw penalty shots.... read more

When we heard about Skansen, we thought immediately at Bokrijk, which is also an open-air museum, but located in Belgium. Though we had never visited Bokrijk, we thought it would me very similar. Apparently Skansen was the world's first open-air museum, founded in 1891, located on the island Djurfgafden. Purpose of the museum was to let the visitors see how Swedes lived in ancient times, before the industrial revolution. Here you can find about 150 traditional houses. It's a kind of "Sweden in miniature". Besides a museum, there is also a zoo where you can see al lot of Scandinavian animals, such as moose, seals and otters, bears, reindeer, wolves,... It was nice for us to see the animals in the snow. At the top of the Bredablick Tower, you can enjoy the great view while ... read more

Though it might sound funny, we were very happy being in Stockholm in wintertime. The snow and frozen rivers gave a special effect to the city. Indeed it was cold, but not too cold, although we have to admit that we drunk a lot off hot chocolate milks ;-) We also took several times the metro. Some of the underground stations were nice decorated. Stockholm is a really nice place to stroll around. The fact that it there are several islands made it very attractive for us. It seems that every island has it own character. We especially liked Gamla Stan, full with colourful houses. There you can see also really nice telephone cabins. Something that also looked typically were the "korv kiosks", where you can buy hot sausages. We found them at nearly every corner ... read more

We slept a few nights in Phitsanulok, from where we did some excursions. Phitsanulok served as the capital of Thailand for about 25 years. Sukothai is the original capital of the first Thai kingdom. It is one of Thailand's World Heritage sites. It was so huge that we used rented bikes to move from one part to another. There is a story about a general standing behind the Buddha statue, pretending the Buddha was talking to the troops, hence the name "talking Buddha". Wat Phra Si (the exact name is actually Wat Phra Si Ratana Mahathat) contains one of Thailand's most copied statues. In fact, afterwards we visited a small factory where bronze copies of that statue were made...... read more

Near Bangkok, there are other interesting places worth a visit. In the huge canal system surrounding Bangkok, there are several floating markets. We visited one of them, namely Damnoen Saduak Floating Market. When you see pictures of these markets on the internet, you usually see the wooden canoes filled with multicoloured fruits and vegetables, and the Thai women wearing straw hats. All this was nice to see, but I also remember seeing lots of tourists (including me of course ;-) touring at the canals. Some canoes didn't sell any fruit like in the old days, but sold souvenirs instead. So I fear a little bit the disappearance of the original character of this... Wat Pho is the oldest and largest wát in Bangkok, featuring the largest reclining Buddha (46m long, 15m high). It is also the ... read more