We took a trip to Saltsjöbaden (Salt-lake-bath) today. It actually stood on our TODO-list for quite some time. Why?, you ask, well because it is a bit east of Stockholm near more open water. It is only one hour with public transit from our home. So a couple of you might guess our intentions: can we put a boat here? Well we knew before we went there that that was only a remote possibility because of the waiting lists and requirements of the boat clubs, but you can always try :-) So we took the subway to Slussen and changed to the aptly named Saltsjöbanan.

This little-train-that-could is basically an above-ground subway. The carriages are the same as the older subway trains. The ride is beautiful; you are taken through solid rock and often see a good bit of nice open waters. All the stations are made of wood and most platforms are as well. It has an extremely nice feel to it. The burning sun and the summer vibe might have helped as well ;-)

We ended up in Neglinge, two stops before the end. It is a quiet stunning little town, especially if you are used to the flat Dutch lands. Lots of green hillside and a striking lake as a background. I can live here, that is what I thought O:) We looked at two harbours there, one turned out to be a mostly private one and the other was a boat club harbour. The first one was situated next to a small neighbourhood with modern flats. Your boat in your yard and 5 min walking distance to the (~25m) train back to Stockholm... gulp. The boat club harbour was nice as well, but the waiting lists, oh the waiting lists...

Stockholm and surroundings continue to amaze me.

They had a nice and cosy spot on my TODO-list: Arduino-boards. Basically they allow rapid prototyping of electronics systems and they are fun. I stumbled upon them when creating a prototype of an electronically enhanced Swedish flag for the course Affective Interaction.

These easy and fast to program logic boards have a range of inputs and output and in combination with a breadboard they allow for superfast prototyping. We created half our prototype in one afternoon. I need these at home, not sure for what, but I think I need them O:)

They come in all sorts of sizes for different usage, for our project we are using a LilyPad. This small and flat board is actually meant for usage in fabric, but it will fit nicely in our design.

If you are still asking yourself what use they could have, just search for Arduino on YouTube.