For those of you who haven't been following me on twitter for the last 6 months and don't already know, fika is a Swedish word which basically means to have cake & coffee. It's a little more complex than that though; for a start, it's not really something you do on your own, and conveys an element of socialising, whether that's with just one friend or an entire office of people. It's quite a large part of Swedish society, and a custom we've been more than happy to adopt since coming here! And the place is Taxinge Slott, or as it's more commonly known, the 'Cake Castle'.
As it was (nearly) my birthday, I treated myself to a serious piece of Sachertorte:
It was tough going, and I nearly didn't make it, but I did eventually manage to get through to the other side.
Our original intention was to go for a walk down by the lake afterwards, but the fact that it was -18C and the paths were knee deep in snow persuaded us that perhaps it wasn't such a good idea. Plan B was to have a drive up the road to Mariefred to see if the lake was frozen, and it most certainly was - there are some photos of it on Flickr. It was only -14C up there, so we did manage a quick walk round (didn't dare venture across the ice though, despite the fact that there were footprints in the snow), but then hurried back to the car and home to warm up with a proper English cup of tea (actually, the tea came from Ireland courtesy of @Twistedlilkitty, but you get the idea).
Happy almost birthday! What a heavenly place to celebrate it. Sweden sounds like a marvellously civilised country to me!
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