Stockholm Tourists

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7 weeks and one day away from home. Countdown is at 3 sleeps if you include the plane sleep…..

Today we energized and became tourists again. Had massive plans for walking to city hall for a tour then maybe to the ABBA museum and the Viking museum. Fail at the first hurdle.

Got to city hall easily - same way as the hire car place so I was on the money for a short walk. Unfortunately the only way into city hall is with a guided tour. Next tour was 1 hour wait. Bugger that.

Ok. Re-schedule plans. Into the old town to do the Royal Palace then other stuff there. As we walked over the bridge we noticed an old building (lots of them) which happened to only be open between 1100 and 1200. In we go. Small entry fee but onwards and upwards.

This place was a Nobility House where they had a massive main hall with the coats of arms from lots of important people from way back when. Too hard to explain but interesting place to wander about.

Then we went to a church where lots of old kings and queens were buried. Interesting until you get to one crypt where there are coffins lined up - one with the date of death and a skull and cross-bone on the front. Hmmmm…

On to the royal palace. Now this is big. We entered from the riverside entry and through the royal cellars. Not full of wine but lots of food, rats and other associated nastiest.

Up into the courtyard and around to the royal apartments. Past the guards on duty and I the next entry. Up stairs again and into the overly adorned areas of the palace.

Wandered around for longer than we expected. Eventually found our way out again and it was 1500. Time for a feed and drink. Found a square and a leave that did sandwiches. Arrived with appropriate drinks - coffee and beer - guess who….

While we were eating there was a group of guys at another restaurant across the square who were all dressed up who started singing and lasting guitars. Lovely singing voices and well appreciated by the people all around the square.

Finished and heading for the Järntorget square where we have arranged to meet up with an exchange student from Sweden who spent a whole week with us while she was on exchange in Tassie.

The exchange group organized that Tassie kids would come to Victoria for a week and our Victorian kids would do Tassie. Marie came over to Victoria while our exchange student, Gustavo went to Tassie.

Marie was 17 but had her 18th birthday with us. We had a good time with her and some interesting issues as well.

We had arranged to meet her in the square. I’m sure she was as hesitant about the meeting as we were. Initial meet and greet went well. I then broached the subject of her asking to get her tongue pierced while spending time with us to which we said no. She laughed and said that she did remember that but got the tongue pierced when she got back to Tassie. It lasted 3 weeks until it got infected and then it was out. See - we knew best.

We had a great catch up over a few beers. Marie kept saying how much she loved Melbourne and the time with us. We kept on reminding her of the things we did. Lots of laughs and a few things she had forgotten were raised for her to enjoy. Her best memory was going to the football with us. Even had a scarf to remember that game.

It was a fantastic time laughing about past times and hearing about how her life has moved on. Married now with 2 boys, 9 and 7. We walked off into the sunset and she hopped on to her bike home.

Found a nice restaurant for dinner. Steak and chips. Yum. Our main waitress at first appeared a bit grumpy but turned nice after we had done a bit of time schmoozing our way with her. In the end she was great. Singing and dancing while serving others and chatting with us.

Back to the room and rescued our big bag from the bag storage room and re-packed ready for the homeward journey.

Tomorrow we will try to be tourists again for our last day in Scandinavia. The weather has been kind and our time in Sweden has been busy but also relaxing in a weird way.

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