"rest day"

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We thought a "rest day" was in order and the Swedish weather gods complied. The weather was shithouse!

Single digit temps, constant drizzle, biting winds and no sign of Sol. Perfect conditions for a day indoors. That was until cabin fever set in and the kids started to turn on each other. There's only so much indecipherable swedish cartoons you can take before you lose it.

A few of the museums we had our eyes on were closed for renovation and the indoor food halls apparently don't open on Sundays. Neither do the wine shops btw. Important information that probably should be displayed at the airport. You can buy beer at the ICA or 7-11 so catastrophy averted.

The royal palace looks warm and dry and gives us a chance to wander around Gamla Stad (old town) again.

I'm typing this from 14 C on BA777 to London and was interupted by the food service. I have to mention that the Lemon Iced Bun they served was devine. Not a perfect match for my can of Heineken but I'll battle through it. Speaking of beer, I sampled a couple of Swedish beers in Stockholm (in addition to the omnipresent Carlsberg). Eriksberg on tap was memorable and Zuesner (?) at the pizza shop was reasonable as well. Our hosts left us a few beers in the fridge from local micro-brewery - Gamla Enskede Bryggeri (?). Boutique and they specialise in light beers - 2.4%. So sensible...so swedish!

Back to Stockholm. We trapes through Gamla Stad, hoods on and heads down in the cold wet winds. Seeking refuge where we could in souvenir shops and alley ways. We stopped at Comic Heaven and the kids both bought a comic book and we browsed nore than we mormally would before we found a nearby cafe for lunch. This cafe was frequented by monks in the 1600's and we ate our lunch in a medieval cellar or maybe even a dungeon. A pleasant surprise venue and a very enjoyable sandwich.

We arrived at the palace during the changing of the guard and access was limited as the full brass band played under the cover of the entrance. We bided our time in the gift shop and Milla marvelled at the post cards of the royal family. REAL Kings and Queens and REAL Princesses! She might just lose her mind at Buckingham Palace. How did we produce such a monarchist?

ABBA was playing on repeat in the gift shop and while I can't speak for all Swedes, I'm sure it's a certain type of Swede who flaunts ABBA with pride. It's like Aussies walking around dressed like Mick Dundee. A little cringe worthy. As I bought postcards for the kids I asked the cashier "Do they always play ABBA?". "just today and 3 hours so far" she joked. I asked "are you sick of it yet?" and her straight-faced co-worker replied "no!". He obviously possessed the sense of humour that the swedes are renowned for.

The palace itself is interesting without being too impressive. Understated in a scandinavian way. The original palace burned down in the 1690's and the cheif fire watcher (Sven Lindgren) and his assistants (Anders Andersson and Mattis Hansson) were charged over the fire. The chief was sentenced to death for allowing a fire on his watch and the assistants were sentenced to "run the gauntlet" 5 times. The king later reduced Sven's sentence to 7 gauntlet runs. The gauntlet was a corridor of soldiers with sticks and they struck you as you ran it with no shirt on. A gauntlet run was up and back. Anders and Mattis survived the brutal dash but Sven was not so lucky. Fire watcher sounds like a cruisy job but you've got to be vigilent.

Shops are warm! The girls headed to the indoor shopping centre with the rest of Stockholm and the kids and I made our way home. Took some snaps on the way but the conditions weren't ideal for photography and Milla's fingers were freezing off. We stopped for 3 varm choklud at the bageri next door to our place and then chilled watching cartoons on Netflix for a couple of hours.

The girls got home and our plan for a swedish meal was thwarted by the inclement weather. Pizza? I went back to the serbian pizza shop for some takeaway pizza and had a beer while I waited. I chatted to Daniel from Belgrade. He works 2 months in Stockholm then two months in Belgrade. He speaks serbian, swedish and english and appears to switch between the three with ease. Very impressive. I can say Hello, Thanks, Old, Pumpkin, Carrot, HeartStarter and Shit in swedish. Tough to make a sentence out of those.

None of us take much rocking these days and after a couple of the local beers and a belly full of pizza it was off to bed.

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