Lund - bicycle paradise?

It's much warmer here, only around 0 in February and now around 7... and everybody bikes! We have bought a cargobike upon our arrival and it's fun to drive, although I would never get one for Montreal, it's very wide, and it would be a nightmare with all the potholes. However, here, with the bike lanes everywhere, and of a very decent size (better than Rachel street in Montreal), it's good.

The path is clear, all the bicycle lanes are on the pedestrian way, and there are lights and nice slopes down for the transitions to the street level. Most major intersections have a signal button accessible for bikers and pedestrians and I have found that the mix of both seem to function pretty well. We will see if there are more conflicts when spring will start and even more people will be biking.

Downtown Lund is all pavers and somewhat less comfortable for the kids, but it's nice to bike there since there are very few cars.

I now take the kids to the day care by cargobike every two days and I like it. It's fast and I'm getting used to the slopes, no too steep but still... I leave the bike at the daycare and go into town carrying Ariane for shopping and a cup of the LOVE coffee which will be the subject of another post.

 Ariane didn't like the cargobike at first and would cry herself to sleep at the beginning, but since we have added a cushion on the bench and installed a foam seat for her, she seems to enjoy it.

We went to Lund Stadsparken  last weekend by cargobike and we were not the only ones! Below is a photo showing a sample of the type of bikes parked at the playground. Ours is the green one, on the left.

Swedish people are very nice!

We arrived on a Wednesday and found out that our stroller was missing from the airport baggage area. Staying alone with Simon and Ariane during the day, I was not looking forward to be going out with them for a long walk.

On Thursday we went by train to Malmo to buy a cargobike that we had found on blocket.se, the swedish craigslist. The seller was very nice and offered us, while talking with us about our future use of the cargobike and the fact that we had no more stroller, to lend us one. She was offering to bring it to Lund central station on Monday. Wow!

On Thursday night we went out to a pub, The Bishops Arms, with Nicolas' collegues. He was cheered for biking with the cargobike from Malmo to Lund, and one of his collegues offered him to lend us a stroller for the time we would need it. Nico went to get it at their place, with the cargobike, on Friday.

By Saturday we had our stroller back from the airport delivery service.

We will still meet for a coffee in the forseable future with the cargobike seller, and are happy to have been able to try out the typical swedish stroller: the emmaljunga Nitro or Supernitro equivalent from few years back.

Thanks!

A New life for a short while: in Sweden!

We arrived in Copenhagen, Kastrup airport, after a good long flight from Toronto where we got lots of room to sleep. At least for the kids. Since the flight wasn't full, we were able to use 3 seats for me + the baby cot, and 3 seats for Simon and Nicolas further away in the plane. The service on this flight was very good, all the hostess were really fond of the kids and spent lots of time smiling to Ariane.

The one drawback on aircanada is the fact that the flight from Montreal to Toronto was full of businessmen with carry-on and they forced us to check every one of the 3 carry-on suitcases that we had. Lesson learned: never spread all your baby things around in the carry-on, you might have to check them even if you don't want to.

The taxi company that we used to go to Lund, "Taxi Skåne", booked in advance, was good, on time and they waited for us while we were filling the missing stroller file at the airport lost baggage desk.
Now we are in Lund and the apartment looks like an ikea web page... Not bad at all, and very clean. A few items missing, like the hooks for towels in the bathroom, or the dishdrainer in the kitchen... we'll be fine.

Un tour dans les cantons de l'Est

À l'est de Montréal, il y a d'abord la Montérégie, puis les Cantons de l'Est (ou l'Estrie). L'histoire de la région est marqué par l'exil des loyalistes à la couronne Britannique après l'indépendance des États-Unis.

À 1h30 de Montréal, c'est une région touristique très populaire, avec un relief plus prononcé (et des stations de ski), beaucoup de lacs et de beaux paysages. Notre itinéraire nous a amené à Sutton, nous avons dormi à Magog, sur les bords du lac Memphrémagog (mais n'avons pas vu le Memphré), dîné à la micro-brasserie locale, avons fait une petite randonnée au parc du Mont Orford, puis sommes revenus en nous arrêtant au Lac Brome. Plus de photos chez Isabelle.

La bête est là...

... et elle aime le carton !

De retour de Washington DC

Notre séjour s'est bien passé, et une fois n'est pas coutume, vous allez pouvoir voir des photos du voyage que j'ai mises en ligne dès maintenant ! Après 2 séjours de 3 jours, on a encore tout plein de choses à voir, donc on y retournera, c'est sûr !





En attendant pour en faire baver certains, allez voir le Brickskeller.

Maru the Cat

Found through, guess what, xkcd, Maru the cat!



There are plenty more on the owner's youtube account.

Première tempête

Hé oui, c'est notre première vraie tempête de neige. Il neige depuis que nous sommes levés et ça ne s'arrêtera qu'en fin d'après midi, après 25 à 35 cm de neige. Actuellement, on ne voit pas à 50 m de ma fenêtre. Apparemment, la définition d'une tempête de neige dépend uniquement de la quantité de neige, pas nécessairement de la présence de vent. Enfin, on va pouvoir faire des bonhommes de neige ce soir !

Ils ont osé...

Dans la série Montréal kitsch, voici le bonhomme de neige au-dessus d'une boule à neige (il y a de l'air soufflé dans pour faire "tomber" la neige). Je me demande ce que ça donne sous la neige...

Premières neiges

Apparemment, ce n'est rien pour les locaux... On attend la vraie première tempête de neige !