I’m tracking back a few months to finish up on our Summer holiday tales. To catch up on where we last left off in the Lapland Lake adventure, follow the links here, here and here.

Our last full day on our island was pretty overcast, so we spent most of the time indoors…

We used up our tins to make some pretty amazing hummus (or ‘chickpea smash’ if you’re Israeli and have certain posh standards regarding how hummus should taste), and ate it with shakshuka (i.e. ‘panned tomatoes and eggs’).

The rest of the day was similarly spent ‘using up the last of our edible supplies’ (eating lots of chocolate and chips), while we played a crazy long and complicated boardgame, read books, or ran in and out of the wood-fired sauna.

After the sun once again refused to set properly, and then leapt into the sky again, we said goodbye to our favourite island foliages, did one last moose impression and packed up the boats.

Leaving our private Lapland lake was hard. And not just in the ‘this holiday is nearly over’ way. I I mean actually, physically, difficult.

Luckily we had school-rowing-champion Simon at our disposal: after dropping off one load of passengers he had to go back in to help tow the second boat, which, completely filled to the brim with people and luggage, kept getting dragged across the lake.

  

Have you ever been to Arvidsjaur?

It’s a locality in the far north of Sweden with less than 5000 people.

It’s also a major centre for European car companies to test their vehicles driving and braking skills in icy conditions, and now attracts tourists (mostly Germans) who are into the whole ‘driving really fast on ice’ thing.

Convenient for us, because they have a small airport. Waving bye to the other kids, Andy, Dick, Elle, Jules and I flew up and out to Stockholm.

By the time we arrived, there was just enough time left in the afternoon to find our accomodation, and to wash 4 days of dirt of our bodies.

But the next morning began with coffee, and was filled with sunshine.

We stopped off for some fried herring on toast (Skåning), following a recommendation from Bonnie prior to our previous trip ut to Stockholm, and spend the rest of the morning wandering around.

Tiny little wild blueberries were also called upon…..    

.. and later in the day Elle and I tucked into some icecream.

We spent some time in the afternoon chilling, before heading out again to do a bit more public chilling… this time on a rocky outcrop overlooking the water and the city.

And then, the next morning, with barely the time for a morning coffee, we hit the airport to fly to Riga.