At least it’s quite colorful and might give you lots of travel ideas and temptations since it’s quite full of travel related details….

I guess it will be a little too much if you decide to put it up on a larger wall, but as a back wall or maybe just one wallpaper gore it would be rather cool!

©Lifecruiser Love Travel Wallpapers
 

You will notice many scenes from Disney films, that is because it’s an old tradition in Sweden to show Kalle Anka (Donald Duck in Swedish) at 3 o’clock in the afternoon at the Christmas Eve day.

Enjoy the peace and happiness of the holidays, where ever in the world you are. We spend this Christmas in Stockholm, Sweden this year. Next year it will be somewhere else!

©Lifecruiser Love Swedish Christmas
 

Earlier Swedish Christmas posts by Lifecruiser:

Christmas Tree Gifts 2011
Swedish Heart Pepparkakor for Christmas
Santa Travel Speed Need
Merry Christmas 2009
Christmas Dinner Delights 2008
Swedish Christmas Dinner Preparations 2008
Different Christmas 2007
Merry Christmas All Bloggers 2007
Some Swedish Christmas Gifts
Christmas Street Market Stockholm 2007
Wordless Christmas
Swedish Christmas Traditions
Christmas Eve is here (2006)
Christmas Preparations (2006)
Lucia with Glögg & Lussekatter (2006)
Lighten Up Christmas (2005)
 

Rather often, there can be very nice winter scenes in Stockholm with snow a while before Christmas, but equally often it can be melting away just right before Christmas Eve making all kids (and us!) very disappointed.

So there is no wonder that many Swedes has begun to spend the Christmas holidays abroad and especially New Years Eve – but it can be tricky to found the right trip since everyone want to go! It increases the prices a lot too.

This year, we have decided to stay at home during the holidays, because we’re busy fixing things in our new apartment and need to be able to relax at home for once. Our next trip will start some time in February-March instead…

©Lifecruiser ♥ Christmas
 

The cities above is just three of many popular city destinations in Europe and US, but you could probably add many, many more to a long list you either want to visit or already have visited. We still have Barcelona, Rome, Venice and Florence very high up on our very long wish list to go – which ones are in your top?

©Lifecruiser Love European Cities
 

The building has been nominated to Stockholm Building 2010 for it’s design by the Swedish architect Per Johanson, who played with pastel-colored balcony windows glass as a contrast to the white side of the house which continues over the roof and is supposed to make the house look like it’s upside down U-shaped – at least on a a distance.

What’s so special (read scary!) with this house is the balcony rail of glass from floor to ceiling that hangs like a loose plate outside the balcony itself. I’m afraid of heights myself, so my first thought was how I would dare to go to the front of the balcony rail without getting the feeling of falling down…

When traveling by the subway train passing by the house, you get many reflexes in the colored glass on the house. The more practical side of me thought: how difficult to clean the windows, so much glass everywhere – and how to clean the outside?

I suppose they hire professional windows cleaners to get the job done and not hanging out from there themselves. Phew!

This whole area at Brommaplan is now in the plans of renewing with 600 new apartments as well as 14000 kvm shopping/service areas and it was not a day too early if I should be honest! It’s a bit worn down and not effective used today.

Stockholm is growing and developing – all places need to catch the modern time we are in even though we also need to keep the wonderful old architecture Stockholm has too.

©Lifecruiser Love Stockholm
 

The Turning Torso is, with it’s 190 meters (623 feet) and 54 stories, the tallest building in Sweden when created, but also one of the most spectacular with it’s crazy 90 degrees twisting of the 9 cubes in the tower from top to bottom and irregular pentagonal shaped floors rotating around the vertical core.

A true artwork in structural expressionism by Santiago Calatrava (follow the link to read more about this fantastic engineers work!) from 2005, inspired by his own sculpture called the Turning Torso which the Swedish contractor saw and asked him to copy his design as a building.

Featured in Discovery channel’s TV program, Extreme Engineering – always so incredible fascinating – where they did show how a floor of this twisted tower was constructed. It’s also built with sustainability and an environmentally friendly way of life in mind and the building is supplied only with locally produced and renewable energy.

Santiago Calatrava (from Valencia in Spain) is considered to be one of the worlds elite designers who has won gold medal’s. A truly gifted structural engineer with an unusually artistic approach in his creations! I’m totally blown-away by several of his other architectural wonders too.

He also contributed (but did not won) in the architectural competition for the Swedish Öresund Bridge in the nearby area, which we had to pass over to get from Sweden to Denmark on our next leg of Lifecruiser Europe trip…

©Lifecruiser Love Unusual Architecture
 

Though they are most charming there and not everywhere else. We love to see different styles everywhere. That is after all what makes traveling so interesting and educating.

©Lifecruiser Love Traditional French
 

If you have been following our travel blog for a while, you know that we already have announced that we are making preparations for a future move – and that we in that preparations phase were forced (lol) to drink a 31 years old Napoleon Mandarine Liquor… (We sold the emptied bottle later!)

We have been living in an already small apartment (50 sqm) for years now, just to be able to save for our travel, to afford going on as many trips as possible, but now we are moving to an even smaller apartment (43 sqm) higher up on the same street, believe it or not!

We will save an extra 600 SEK/month, move up one floor (not so cold apartment when not on ground floor), plus getting the extra bonus effect of not having our nagging, annoying neighbor who literally are stalking us with her negativity all the time.

The saved money will go to a future move, together with whatever other amounts we succeed to save up. Our future move will most certainly be to Spain if nothing unexpected happens – thinking of the economic crises in Spain which can affect our decision in many ways. Why Spain? Because of the ease for us and our family to get there, plus the excellent climate for our aching bodies.

When having a goal like travel or moving abroad, living a compact life style is not any problem at all. The adjustment to this compact living is going so easy that you wonder why the heck you have bothered with all the other stuff earlier in your life, which only complicates your life.

We have sold plenty of stuff by now, getting quite a bit of extra money to both cover the cost of the move and to buy new smaller, cheaper furniture which is easy to move or to get rid off later if we’re moving abroad next time. If we do, we will not take anything with us.

If not moving abroad, we will most certainly try to stay during the winters abroad, because the Swedish winters are killing us both slowly. We will start this winter, by going to Costa Blanca in Spain around February-March to do a research of which area there would be best for us.

Our nearest moving day though is set to the 3rd of December, so as you can imagine – if you know our efficiency since earlier – we have already started the packing for the move…

©Lifecruiser Love Travel
 

There are over 500 homes to choose from, and each home comes with its own iPhone loaded with information gathered from the host about the best things to do in the local area. Each home unique, but here are a few that have that extra little something:

The Boat House

Life doesn’t get much more luxurious than this. This stunning home with its lavish decoration is certainly a sight to behold and sleeps up to 12 people. Original Georgian features are complimented by elegant and sophisticated décor making this the perfect riverside house to drift away and dream the days away. Beyond the garden, which boasts a hot tub, barbeque and adventure playground, is the River Thames, perfect for an afternoon stroll to explore some of London’s finest waterside cafes.

Albert Terrace

This home is steeped in history having been built for a doctor of Queen Victoria. A wonderful mix of original period features in the sitting room, carefully blended with modern style in the kitchen, this house is as grandiose as it is comfortable. Stay here for your own slice of history in Primrose Hill.

Russell Garden Mews

For the more modern minded, this four bedroom family home is the residence of a DJ turned architect, and it shows. Clean lines and sleek style characterise this house, and if you head downstairs to the basement you even have your own dance floor! Located in west London it is perfect for visiting the famous Portobello Road market.

Lifecruiser Love Unusual Stays
 

The thing is that when living at the same place for a long time, you always start to collect a lot of things again! *bummer*

Believe me, we have been throwing (and giving) away so many bags full of clothes, home textiles, kitchenware’s, things (even paintings) now, so I can’t even keep up with the counting of the bags.

So what are we cleaning up for? Except for the fact that you need to do it once in a while, we also have a future move in the mind actually. The move can come surprisingly quick, knowing how we can be, so better to be prepared.

We might move to an even smaller apartment further up in the street or to another location, another city or somewhere else in the country – or even abroad. You’ll never know with us. If the right opportunity comes, we certainly will grab it!

We have had in mind for several years now, that we might spend the winters somewhere else and just a shorter summer period in Sweden. We will see what happens… For sure is that we will make some kind of escape later this winter, short or long….

©Lifecruiser Would Love To Move Abroad