Our Stay at Pinnacle Hotel Harborfront

We recently stayed at the Pinnacle Hotel Harbourfront during our visit to Vancouver in Dec 2021. We booked our stay online on Booking.com before our trip. Located in downtown Vancouver, by the seawall, the Pinnacle Hotel was a great choice for the first part of our visit!

We were pleasantly surprised by the size of the family room we got. It was great for the kids to run around in, especially since we spent our first day in the hotel room while waiting for our on-arrival Covid test results to come back. 

The Pinnacle Hotel is in a pretty central location near the seawall and a short walk to the shopping area of Robson Street.

The beds were smaller than we expected but they were comfortable and we liked having a fridge and coffee maker too.

The kids enjoyed having a bath tub since we only have a shower in our home in Sweden.

There was no room cleaning during Covid, but they did clean the hall and rooms of people who had checked out. There were glasses left outside the door of our room since before we arrived. They sat there for a day or two. We had to notify the hotel staff before they cleaned it up.

Hotel reception was helpful when we asked about good options for food delivery since we quarantined at our hotel for 24 hours waiting for our on-Arrival test results. 

Due to Covid, the hotel offered a modified Room Service option, but that required you physically going to pickup the food downstairs yourself. They also recommended some food delivery apps to use. We opted to order food delivery from a local grocery store and one Asian restaurant. 

After we got our negative results, we made sure to enjoy the pool and hot tub facilities. You don't need to book a time during Covid for the gym or pool area, but we were lucky that noone else was at the pool when we went. You do need to wear your mask everywhere inside the hotel, except when in the pool/hot tub (so in change rooms, hallways etc.).

 

View from our windows!

Overall, we had a pretty great stay at the Pinnacle Hotel Harbourfront and it was nice to be right in downtown for evening walks on the seawall. Despite it being the Pandemic, it was a really great start to our vacation for the holidays 2021.

Pinnacle Hotel Harbourfront 

1133 W Hastings St, Vancouver, BC V6E 3T3, Canada

Check out their website for availability and information.

Konbiniya Convenience Store

If you are looking for an assortment of Japanese food, snacks, drinks, sauces, or even ice cream, look no further than Konbiniya Japanese Grocery store in Vancouver, Canada. 

Located on the busy shopping street of Robson in downtown Vancouver, Konbiniya, is a Japanese convenience store that is very popular both with Japanese and non-Japanese customers. I have a few Japanese friends who have fond memories of shopping there often when they lived in Vancouver!

We were lucky to stay near Robson street during our holidays and we enjoyed taking advantage of the store's late hours! It was so easy to pop in and pick up some of the desserts to try!

One of our favourite desserts during our stay had to be the soft serve ice cream! You can order this from Bon Crepe which even has a window to order ice cream from outside Konbiniya.

Vanilla soft serve and Matcha soft serve.

Matcha twist soft serve!

We also tried this cream caramel pudding, which was also quite delicious! Made by CakeYa Port Moody.

Konbiniya can get busy, so keep that in mind if you plan to visit. There are usually two cashiers and the staff was great about helping customers find anything they were looking for.

Sooo many snacks! 

Coconama chocolates were also a delicious snack find. Soft, melt-in-your-mouth truffle cubes with a variety of flavors like mango and green tea!

In the front of the store, are some capsule toy machines that my kids enjoyed trying out. They loved that we had to use coins too ;) Sweden is a very card based society. We did find some small coin toy machines before but those machines have since been removed. 

Squishy ball and Totoro toy were acquired!

Stay safe and remember, don't forget your snacks!

Konbiniya Japan Center

1238 Robson St, Vancouver, BC V6E 1C1

Check out their website to see what's available.  They also have opened another location in Kerrisdale!

Vancouver Christmas Market

I was lucky to to visit the Vancouver Christmas Market during the 2021 holidays, before the surge in Covid cases that is. I made sure to go without the kids as well(since we wanted them to avoid being in crowded places). It was a lovely kidfree outing for me that day. Here's a look back at our visit in December 2021.

Located at Jack Poole Plaza in downtown Vancouver, this was the 9th year of the festive Christmas market! We visited the market during the "Early Bird" time slot (11:30am to 2:00pm) and this meant a slight discount on the ticket price and fewer people (although there were more people than expected).

It also happened to be the first snowfall for Vancouver that day! It snowed for about 30min before turning into rain ;)

To enter the Christmas Market, you needed to show your Vaccination Certificate, whether or not you were a Resident of BC. There was also a random bag check as my friend told me - they looked in their bag but they didn't bother checking mine. 

 

The Vancouver Christmas Market located by the 2010 Winter Olympics cauldron is just a quick walk over to Canada Place. The Market is very accessible by transit -  Skytrain or bus.

The Vancouver Christmas market featured a variety of vendors and both German and non-German food! The Market's website said around 80 vendors were there in 2021!

Aside from the covered, heated tent area to take your food, there were a few smallers areas to stand under cover to eat your snacks. We opted to stand outside  to avoid eating in the indoors tent area with the crowds.

I had to try a bratwurst and it was delicious! Prices, unfortunately, seemed to have gone up for everything!

The pork knuckle is another great option!

We were disappointed that the spaetzle or potato noodle vendor did not make it this year!! The cheesy noodle dish used to be my favorite German snack at the Market! I've also enjoyed it in Germany as well. It's sooo good!

When it started to drizzle, it started to get chilly. Of course, we had to keep warm with mulled wine! 

This was the Christmas mug design for 2021!

It's so unique to see high rises in the background of the Christmas market! Vancouver really is the city of glass!

One major disappointment was the traditional German decorations vendor Käthe Wohlfahrt, which used to have a large tent selling the ornaments, and German Christmas decorations also did not make. The tent was one of our favorite things to browse through during previous visits to the Christmas market.

Although this was missing, there were still many other things to see, it just meant we didn't need as much time at the market as we initially thought. 

If you have been to Christmas markets in Germany, like we have, then you'd know Vancouver's version is not the same. Although, its not the traditional Christmas market, we still enjoy visiting to try the eats and treats and check out the vendors!

Visiting the Vancouver Christmas Market will definitely get you in a festive mood to start your countdown to the holidays and it's nice to support the local vendors as well. Looking forward to next year's market!

Thanks for reading and remember don't forget your snacks (you can find so many snacks at a Christmas market)!

Vancouver Christmas Market

Jack Poole Plaza, Vancouver, Canada

Check out their website for vendors they have previously featured. 

Lancaster hotel in Bangkok Thailand

Here's a look back at one of the most fanciest hotel stays I've had!

The Lancaster Hotel is a 5-star luxury hotel located in the city centre of Bangkok, Thailand.

We stayed here for a few nights at the end of our month long stay in Thailand back in 2018 (this feels so long ago, and even longer now that it's been the Pandemic). We were on the islands enjoying the beach and were only in the city to fly home from Bangkok.

After being on the islands for weeks, it was really strange to wear actual shoes at first! I was so glad I packed my Tiger shoes. They were lightweight so the perfect travel shoes.

The Lancaster hotel was pretty brand new at the time of our stay.

The hotel helped us celebrate our anniversary during our stay by leaving a sweet note and dessert in our room!! 😍

We had a lovely room with some nice touches - like slippers, robes, and even a welcome gift. The bathroom had a beautiful tub. It's where my daughter started enjoying taking baths again. 

Thailand is also where my daughter learned to walk! She felt more comfortable walking on the sand! We have so many great memories from that trip.

The Lancaster Hotel breakfast buffet was pretty fancy. There was Asian breakfast options and North American options, and plenty of pastries and breads too. 

My then toddler threw a ceramic soup spoon and they told me it wasn't a problem, that they would clean it up. This is where we discovered why the other kids were so well behaved at restaurants (they were watching something on a phone or tablet!).

The pre-prepared Hotel breakfast box that they give you when you need to take your breakfast to-go (we had to do this because of our early morning flight), needed some improvement. I can't comment on what it's like now since I have not been in so long and now it's the Pandemic.

The pool area wasn't that large but it was nice and quiet with a view out to the city. At that time, the gym was still under renovation.

The staff at the hotel were helpful with getting taxis and telling the taxi where we were going. They gave us a little slip of paper with the hotel address, that we could show to a taxi when we needed to take it back to the hotel. We also took the Bangkok subway "Skytrain" around during our stay in the city.

We would definitely stay again!

I can only dream about another trip to Thailand since it's been the Pandemic. Hopefully, we can all safely travel again soon.

Stay safe and remember, don't forget your snacks!

Lancaster Hotel Bangkok

1777 New Phetchaburi Rd.

Bangkok 10310, Thailand

Check out their website for more information  

Hotel Quarantine Kids Activities

The requirements for visiting Canada during the holidays included random Arrival tests for those arriving. Now, with Omicron variant Canada is supposed to be increasing the Arrival testing.

You need to be in quarantine while you wait for your Arrival test results. We were told that the test results take 1-3 days. Thankfully, it only took 24h for our results.

We spent the day hanging out in our hotel room with the kids. We ordered food delivery that delivered right to our hotel room door. The Hotel only offered a modified version of Room Service where they pack it up for you but you still had to come down to the restaurant to pick it up.

Overall, we had a pretty relaxed time. We were adjusting to jetlag as well, so we napped and slept early. 

Here are some ideas to pass the time when in quarantine (other than screentime):

- Scavenger hunt (hide a few small toys! Good for 4+)

- Hide and Seek (not many places to hide but can switch who counts and who hides)

- Dance party !

- Mini Yoga session (stretching and pretending to be animals)

- Jumping on bed time (for exercise)

- Long Bathtime - Kids love baths but we don't have a bath tub at home, so that was a treat.

Food delivery- we asked the hotel which app to use and they recommended a few different ones to us.

Map for the little scavenger hunt we made ;)

Stay safe and remember, don't forget your snacks! We had a fridge at the hotel and it was full of snacks!

IKEA Kitchen Renovation

 

The first apartment that we owned here in Sweden, was in a pretty great location. We bought it at a reasonably low price considering it's location. But it did need a few updates so we had always planned to renovate the kitchen before we sold the apartment. 

We ended up renovating the Kitchen, floors and painting walls before we sold. The kitchen project took a while to get started and we were hoping it would be done before the baby arrived. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. The marble custom counter we had ordered took time to arrive because it was from Germany. It didn't help that our baby arrived 2 weeks earlier than expected. In retrospect, we would have started the Renovation earlier but we were really happy with the final result and would choose to do another IKEA kitchen in the future.

When building an IKEA kitchen, You can choose to do-it-yourself or let the staff help you plan. Unfortunately, I had to go back several times to the IKEA kitchen department to get help from them on using the IKEA software. It was really slow at home. Even at IKEA, the software was a bit laggy.

It was nice to have the IKEA kitchen specialists to go through what we had drafted and suggest different things. I'd say they were quite helpful although you have to wait for a time. 

IKEA has opened a new Planning Studio in Gothenburg Centre! It's a small space, where you can get some help to design and ask any questions you have. 

It's great to have this central option instead of having to travel out of the city just for a fee questions.

If it had existed when we did our kitchen renovation, it would have saved some time!

If you're planning a kitchen renovation for yourself this year, look into your options and do a little research before deciding. We would choose IKEA again if we do another kitchen renovation.

Thanks for reading, and remember, don't forget your snacks!

Top 5 things on Daycare in Sweden

We had no idea about daycare and what to expect until we had kids and they started attending daycare once we were done with all of our Parental Leave. 

Daycare in Sweden is called "Förskola" and there are daycares everywhere! In our little corner of the neighborhood, there are 4 different daycares! It's really nice to be able to just walk 10 minutes to drop kids off.

Here are 5 things to know about Swedish Daycare. 

1) In Sweden, kids can start daycare from 1 years old. Most kids are older when they first start. There is also an "inschooling" or adjustment period for your child. Depending on the school and the child, the length of inschooling can vary. 

2) You don't need to worry about lunches. The school feeds them lunch, snacks and if they are there early enough, even breakfast. That saves us parents from having to prepare lunch for them. They get to try various vegetables and fruits too. I found my daughter loved pear from school. I also try to check what kind of bread and favorite meals they have so I can give it to them at home sometimes too.

Some schools grow their own veggies and use it in their meals.

The daycare should also accommodate the kids allergies. You just need provide a doctor's note to the school. 

3) You're going to need to at least two sets of outdoor clothes for the kids. Outdoor overalls for rain and a winter version for colder temperatures.

They're going to be outside even if it rains! Especially these days during the Pandemic. 

4) The price of daycare is almost the same as the child benefit you get from the government so that makes it almost free!

5) My post on daycare in Sweden without be complete without mentioning this last thing to know.

Please keep in mind that this varies depending on the city or area you live in, but if you are on Parental Leave with a new baby, the older child can't attend full-time daycare. And if both parents aren't working,  you can't qualify for full-time daycare. 

The number of hours depends on the city/kommune. In Gothenburg, it was a maximum 20h a week, and the school decided on what the days/time would be. 

This made it very challenging having the older child go from enjoying full-time daycare to half-time. Not to mention, the older kid would then be home more and compete for attention with the new baby. It's tough going from big sibling to an only child!

***One more thing, that applies to all daycares, in every country...Kids will get sick often! Germs spread so quickly in daycare and unfortunately, Kids can get sick pretty often :(

Hope this list helps new parents who are planning to start daycare in Sweden.

Thanks for reading and remember, don't forget your snacks!