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Published: June 21st 2018
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After waking at 4:40am, it seemed liked a good idea to get up and start the day. Breakfast was included in my booking and with plenty of time on my hands, I made full use of it. Excellent quality and range of options available but I decided to go the healthy option of muesli, yoghurt and fruit with a coffee and orange juice.
After breakfast I started on my walk to the ABBA museum. I'm glad I got there early as when I was coming out, there was quite a queue to get in. It was really interesting to follow the story of the four band members and how they came together in the first place, as well as their journey once they became world wide sensations. A trip down memory lane, that's for sure. The museum has a lot of interactive options which makes it a fun day out for all. I chose not to participate in the on-stage options or karaoke in a sound booth options - might have been a different story if certain friends were with me lol.
I then spent the next few hours walking all around the waterfront areas taking in all the
grand buildings and just enjoying being in a new city. At 3pm I caught the ferry to Vaxholm as I wanted to explore some of the archipelago that makes up Stockholm. There are 30,000 islands, islets and rocks that make up this archipelago, so I was very interested in seeing a small snippet of this. Vaxholm is about an hour by ferry from Stockholm and makes several stops along the way, dropping off and picking up passengers. Many residents of Stockholm have summer holiday homes on the islands but there are also many people that live here. A few times I saw small islands, like the ones in Sydney Harbour, that had one house on them. How great would that be, to be the only people living on your island! Vaxholm is a pretty town with quaint house and shops. Everyone comes here to have the waffle cone with ice cream so of course I had to do that too. I walked around exploring the town for an hour before getting the 5:15 ferry back to Stockholm.
I got off the ferry in Gamla Stan - this island is the original town of Stockholm and dates back to the
13th century and consists of medieval alleyways and archaic architecture. I walked past - and around - The Royal Palace Kungliga Slottet. This place is huge! I fell in love with the old town. It reminded me of the old town in San Sebastián with its little cafes, bars and restaurants all along the cobbled streets. Tomorrow I am doing a 4 hour walking food tour which will bring us to this area to explore.
I walked back to my hotel to freshen up for dinner. The specialty of our hotel restaurant is the 'moules' or mussels as we like to call them. When I went down for dinner the waitress advised there were two dishes off the menu (finished) and one was the moules!!! Nooooooo .... anyway, she soon picked up I was disappointed ? but I said I would see if there was something else on the menu. After a while she returned to advise me that the kitchen had taken some mussels off another dish (not someone else plate but a dish that contained mussels ?) and would be able to serve me after all. Not sure how they managed it but so glad they did!
I had the Provençal and it was delicious. They also serve fresh bread with a fresh olive tapenade to go with it. All enjoyed with a glass of Argentinian rosé.
I finished dinner at 9:30 but thought it was so much earlier, as the sun was still shining bright. I went for a walk around the 'hood and was back in my room at 10pm, although still way too bright outside. Such a weird experience as it isn't something we ever see in Australia. Makes you wonder if their crime rates are lower due to the 18 hours of sunlight??
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