Celebrating the Belgian King

Today is the King's Day in Belgium.  Who knew, right?  Well, I happen to play tennis with the ambassador of Belgium's wife, Myriam, who is a lovely hostess and a great tennis player!  She graciously invited Doug and I to the reception in their home tonight honoring their king.  It is a grim day here in Stockholm weather-wise so having a little something fun on the calendar gave us something to look forward to.  We got a bit dressed up and took public transportation out to the residence.  What a great gift to be able to take reliable, on time public transportation to our destination!
We arrived and greeted the ambassador and my friend Myriam, were served a glass of champagne and then feasted on a variety of appetizers that were among the best I've ever tasted.  Taking pictures would've been tacky so my description will have to suffice!  I especially enjoyed the ones made with shrimp and the cheese was simply divine.  When the dessert tartlets showed up, I was in heaven.  I indulged in one with strawberries and cream, one with lemon meringue, and the Pièce de résistance was the one with these gorgeous, huge raspberries on top of cream nestled in a beautiful pie crust.  Yum.
We knew a few folks from the diplomatic circle and met a wonderful Belgian business man and his wife.  All in all a fun and different experience and certainly a warmer environment than our fair city offered us today.