Moving North...?

Last weekend I travelled to Stockholm for a weekend, and am in agreement with a recent feature in Stylist magazine "Isn't it time you thought about moving to the Norcs (Northern Europe)?" read it here, there's also the regular listing on Forbes, showing Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands as some of the happiest places to live...

The argument stands up for itself, ranging from simply cleaner air and water, ahead of the pack maternity and paternity packages (up to a year and a half in Sweden), beautiful geography, and the fact that most countries have been relatively unhurt from the Recession (even including Iceland which has strong business links in tourism, arts, law and computer programming).

 

In just a few hours, I feel in love with Stockholm (and I'm sure that the rest of Sweden is wonderful too!). Staying in the super-cool Story Hotel, I was right in the centre of the best shops and the touring boats harbour, which took me around the city taking in the sights in 2 hours. The city is calm and everyone so friendly and happy to speak English (I can't even try to get the Swedish language in a day or 2!) - not to mention beautiful too!



The gorgeous sink in the Story hotel room

 

Wall art in the room at the Story

The food was incredible and I now have an addiction to the bread which is on offer before every meal! A lovely spot we went to was Riche restaurant, a modern cool place serving traditional Swedish dishes.

 

Riche restaurant - the place to be seen for lunch, dinner or drinks

The evidence is in...very compelling, and the only thing I can balance against the strong case to Move North is the extreme weather and light (or lack of) in Winter and Summer....OK, I'll be very happy to come back for weekends!