Someone said that wherever you are, there you are (some existentialist stuff), but right now we actually are in Are,and that is where we are. As our travels would have it, throughthe good fortune of having such a good friend in Caron (Holdsworth), and the kindness of her sister and borther-in-law, we were able to use their RCI points for a week somewhere in the world. How exactly we got to Sweden,is now a vague and contested memory. I did suggest a snowy place in December, but it was Caron who got that to mean Sweden. Anyway, she got us booked in Are, at a ski resort. Departing in the coldest weather in Europe since records began in 1900 or something, UK and European transport is in a complete shambles. God was smiling on us as our little plane from Ryanair (!!! cheap flights,usually late or land wrong destination apparently) departed on-time from London Stansted airport to Stockholm 2 days ago, just as Gatwick was stopping flights and Heathrow was starting to have trouble too. Landed,completely surrounded by snow, in Stockholm.

The strategic advantage of vacation in Sweden right now, is that they are entirely geared for lots and lots and lots of snow, and temperatures between zero and -25 (which it is about today)! A lovely,cosy and restful overnight train brought us to the front door (literally) of the resort at 8 am, and within hours we were into the Glugg (Swedish equivalent of mulled wine/gluhwein) at the local, and later a sauna in our little cottage.

Today was a very successful ski experience - we took so long to get dressed in all the ski gear that we could not make it to the ski-slope, so walked around in our ski shoes and went back to our cottage. Glugg seems the only other option right now, until we try ski again tomorrow. Everything is white, fluffy and we'll have to go get Glugg from the supermarket. Perfect, enough extreme stuff for one day, I say.