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Published: September 24th 2007
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So there we were, another lovely standard and bright coloured flight, but this time for 1 Euro cent !! (with taxes and luggage allowance actualy about 25Euro). Cheap as chips, so we'll forget about the yellow coloured seat backs for now. getting into Stockholm Västeras airport at around 11pm, so not all that early. Last bus thankfully still waiting, so we got into town after midnight in the end, then having to find the hostel, which we managed after a bit of confusion (had lived there before in 1994), only to find it being in..... a basement....
Needing to make up bunk beds in a dorm room, in the complete dark, trying not to wake up too many people, wasn't our idea of a smooth arrival. There were 2 Spannish and an Irish guy on the same flight with us, also in the same room, so 50% of that dorm room was arriving after midnight to make up their beds....
Think the whole hostel (City Hostel, felminggatan) was definately one of my worst picks. Being in a basement it had no natural light whatsoever ! Not having a kitchen or common area didn't help either. You could make coffee
The old king, Birger Jarl
At the Stockholm Town Hall or tea underneath the siral staircase..... that's it.
Reason was there was almost NO availability for the weekend we were there. The reason for that we found out the night after when, and you guessed it, 5 drunk Danish soccer supporters walked in only 2 hours before midnight..... we'll leave it at that for the hostel. PS, the Sweden - Denmark game was a goalless draw.
I walked Peter around on the Friday, and again we were quite lucky with the weather; some sunshine most of the day, and only a slight drizzel in the afternoon. Funily enough the first stop was the old appartment block I lived at for 2 months, which was just down the street from the hostel !
Have always liked Stockholm as a city, and not just because of the long legged blonds. But in a way the city is similar (to those blonds), with a clean and open architecture, plenty of yellow and off-white coloured building, which stand out beatifully when the sun comes out. Then also some red brick buildings along the water, and here and there a few grand palaces, churches, hotels and opera buildings.
First
day we walked through Gamla Stan (the old town), enjoyed the narrow streets, had a first peek at the royal palace and parliament buildings. Then continuing into the city, passing through Kungstradgard and into the world famous (in Sweden anyway) NK shopping centre. Then back along Strandvagen and the water towards Djurgarden island, where the
Wasa museum, the zoo and the Gröna Lund theme park are. The Wasa museum in my humble tourist opinion is still one of the best museums in the world, and anyone who's walked through the front door will know what I mean. I left the museum for Peter for another day, as I've already been there twice.
Dinner was a simple Italian restaurant, a bit touristy maybe, but the beef was really good. It's getting a bit quiet on the tourist front this time of year (apart from the soccer of course), so there was not much happening in the streets. The aforementioned pack of Spanniards and Irishman did manage to find a nightclub... on a boat....
Saturday saw a change of weather (for the worse) and a change of plan (for the better). Decided to explore the Royal Palace on Gamla Stan, and
luck of the draw, saw more changing of guards. Big pack of guards, and a marching band as well (see video). Quite entertaining !
The palace itself was also interesting. Due to the Brazilian president's visit, some of the royal chambers were closed, but the rest was still quite interesting. The crown jewels by themselves were a treat, but our great and very tall swedish guide turned them into true "gems", so to speak. Always great when someone speaks with pride about their countries history, but manages to blend in a great deal of humour as well. I won't get into the one king who liked his legs a little bit too much.
On Sunday I left Peter to explore the Wasa museum, as I caught up with Lars (my former manager in Sweden and Holland), Anette and their 2 boys, to find the 2 boys having grown up so much that neither of them remember me ( but then again, who can blame them ;-), but also to have their boysterous playing in the house having been taken over by 2 big black dogs (flatcoat retrievers I think)! Some things always happen at the same time, so
I was also privileged to do a house viewing with them (4 doors down) as they are looking for a bigger house, where they ran into some old neighbours who are looking for a smaller house.... so they also had a look at Lars and Anette's house ! Small world.
As maybe said a few times before, the best part of this stage of the travels is simply having a wee bit more time to relax and catch up with old and new friends, same here, it was simply good fun to sit down, have a drink, and have a nice chat.
By Monday we had to execute the plan we originally had for Sunday: ferry out to Drottningholm, the Queen's palace. Just like the Royal Palace, I had actually not been inside ! So there were actually still plenty of things for me to do here as well, even though I've already spent so much time here. Peter ran into Madrileño David, who would accompany us for the day.
Drottningholm is one of those nice palaces with big gardens and a big pond, a small versailles more or less. the main difference is the "Ikea factor",
so to speak. Not everything you see here is real, some of the marble walls are actually just paint..... a lot cheaper of course. The big centre piece here the very elaborate Queen's formal bedroom, and the ballroom with all it's paintings (which was also used by one king's kids for playing badminton, they found the badminton sets stuck along the ceiling).
The evening we returned to the Royal palace, the church actually, for a concert of 4 different highschool choirs, singing mainly classical songs, but also Hey Jude by the Beatles! All of this followed by a quick drink and bite in a pub in Gamla Stan, also with live music ! My win for the day, a free beer for guessing the name of a band, a beer being a highly regarded prize here in Sweden!
Tuesday was the last day, and we headed out on a cruise along the Stockholm Archipelago. Again, have done this a few times, but it's still a great way to spend a few hours here, and some of the islands and scenery here are just stunning. Weather wasn't great, but at least it wasn't pooring down.
Not much else
to report here, we also saw Farewell Bafana, a movie about Mandela's prison guard, which as quite good.
The flight out was from the familiar Arlanda airport, which the very unfamiliar (yet efficient) FlyNordic company, towards Copenhagen......
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