Wednesday 11 August 2010

We came back yesterday from a holiday of a lifetime. It was my Father-in-law's 80th, so he took all 17 of us, his sons, their wives and their children on a Baltic cruise. It really was a holiday of a lifetime.

Despite the fact that we are essentially holiday anti-socialites, preferring out of the way gites to busy, noisy hotels, we managed. Well, what's not to manage? Being taken to some of the most beautiful countries in Europe. Spoilt thoroughly by 24 hour attentive service. Oh and did I mention the all day and evening kids clubs?

Whilst I am not a convert to this kind of holiday, I certainly made the most of it and enjoyed not having to do any domestic chores of any description for 10 days.

I'll be reporting back, over the next few weeks, on the wonderful places we visited, but since this is essentially a crafting blog, I thought that would be a good place to start.

Our first port of call was Copenhagen. I instantly fell in love with this city. Not only is it beautiful and oozes charm, but it is such a laid back city. And I loved the way the whole city travels around on bicycle. It didn't take long for us to realise that bikes, with their own space on the road, rule the road. In our naivety as we strolled down the street, it soon became clear that you don't walk down the cycle lane as it is just that. The first cross tooting made us quickly evacuate the lane and made sure we never entered one again!

The shop windows in Copenhagen were beautiful. Quite Parisian in feel, I thought. The bead shop above is one such example. I loved the mix of vintage with bright colours. I had to be dragged out of here kicking and screaming.

The knick-knack shop across the road had a real vintage feel. I am quite cross I didn't get my promised return to explore to it's full potential.

This all highlights Frustration Number 1 of cruising...being given the merest glimpse to some wonderful cities. Whilst I feel privileged to have visited some amazing places at all, there were times when less is more really did not apply. Coupled with the fact that we were a party of 17 trawling the streets, with little folk amongst us, a lot of compromising took place.

I did however make the most of the very short time we had in beautiful Tallin. This was a much more compact city, so plenty of opportunity to break off from the group and catch up a bit later. Tallin was full of linens and embroidery work. Whilst some of it wasn't to my taste, I loved the crafting vibe. And I loved even more my find of this bag of embroidery threads. All this for less than £15...definitely worth breaking away from the group for and being a little late for rendez-vous ;-)
I'll be back soon to show you some magazines I picked up on my travels. All have a Country Living/Marie Claire Idees vibe and are going to be a great source of inspiration to my work over the coming months I feel.

9 comments:

Quiltycat said...

Copenhagen is a lovely city...I visited it in the Christmas time and was just wonderful!
Happy you had a nice time !
nichi

Andi said...

That bag of threads looks heavenly!!
What a lovely holiday.

One Flew Over said...

Wow Karen! Looks and sounds like you had a wonderful time.

Claire said...

Copenhagen is somewhere I really really want to visit..even more so if the shop windows are as lovely as that one!!
Glad you had a nice time. We too like a self contained out of the way cottagey/gitey type of holiday.
look forward to seeing those mags..I have a foriegn mag thing!!!

Kylie said...

How wonderful! I love Copenhagen too (when the sun's shining!) Love your photos and so happy you had a great time :) Kx

oklyous said...

I live in Copenhagen, and one thing I just love, is the way we all drive around the city on our bicycles..Something I think other countries really ought to copy! So glad you enjoyed your visit!

Nicole Follow the White Bunny said...

I was in Copenhagen last year, it's wonderful! Did you make a stop in Stavanger (Norway) too? I lived there for a couple of years. Would love to return to Scandinavia!

Unknown said...

I enjoyed reading your blog and appreciated the fact that you are so poistive about your trip. I organise a patchwork exhibition in Paris this w.e.

Unknown said...

I enjoyed reading your blog about your summer trip!