Stockholm

We said our sad goodbyes to Norway as we'd had such a terrific time! The last 5 days of driving nearly 1000km was really great, being in the countryside and exploring freely without having to decide on museums and "must do" tours of cities.

We headed out to the airport at Tromsö, and found it and the rental car return easily, and so had more time to kill than we really needed, but airports are like that, they soak up so much time.

Our flight left a little late, but we made the connection in Oslo to Stockholm all OK. It made me realise just how far north we were in Norway when the flight south was about 2 hours or so. I guess a bit like Mebourne to Brisbane.

We read about the Arland Express, a train right from the airport to the centre of town, so we decided to take that option. It was a little expensive, but we knew the reailway station was near the Rica hotel where we were going to stay. After a little bit of walking about we found the hotel, which was OK, but the room was quite small, and we had to be careful where we placed things. The room was exceptionally quiet, looking out into the breakfast atrium.

We decided to head out for a walk, without backpacks and cameras for a change. We ended up walking non-stop for about 5 hours, just exploring the old town with its narrow streets and tourist shops and bars etc. We walked all around the extensive waterfront of the old town, and some of a neighbouring island, which was even nicer, as it was very green with many wonderfully smelling lilac trees hanging heavy with blossom. Eva and I both thought of our mothers - lilacs do that.

There were many people sunbaking, walking strollers or just sitting on the grass. On that island there were a number of large and colourful scultures by a french sculptor whose name I did not get, but we have seen their work in a fountain in Paris. Nice memories. We listened to a military band for a while and were fascinated by the one person not in uniform.

We asked back at the hotel for a recommendation for a restauant, and to cut a long story short we eventually ended up at the Radison Hotel's Fisk Restaurant (a fish restaurant) but we were pretty exhausted by the time we corrected the directions we were given. One of the fun things about travel! The fish was delish and the wine was fine!

Next day we decided to hire bicycles for a few hours and explore a larger island that had many paths, rivers, lakes, bars, marinas etc. It was glorious. We just poked along on our bikes, stopping to have sandwiches in the shade looking out over some sunbaking people to the water and the boats beyond. We also visited a place called the Skansen area where there was a reconstructed town, farms buildings from early Sweden, with some of the buildings and many artifacts original. There was a storehouse dating back to the 14th century or so. There was also a zoo, and I finally got to see reindeer, and was surprised to see just how big they were and how they have long thin legs!

We had a delicious icecream and then went on to give our bikes back. We were so surprised how slowly we now moved on two legs rather than 2 wheels!

Earlier in the day we had watched an international boules competition, and now returned for more and a beer. A well deserved rest. Also earlier in the day we had seen a large military band playing what I thought was a polka, so I grabbed Eva and we polked past them as they marched. It was nice getting applause from others in the crowd, though I think Eva was a bit embarassed!

We had dinner in the old town ina restaurand underground in a whitewashed cave. Great lamb shanks!

Last day we visited the Royal Palace and went on tours which were very interesting, telling us much of the history of the aristocracy of Stockholm. We then went to the National Museum, mainly to look at Sedish Design, which was interesting but not great. So, today was museum day!

Eva then went shopping, I went and did email and watched Australia play Brasil. We wandered around the old town again and picked a random place for dinner, and the fish I had was great. I had been wanting to try cloudberries, and finally did as a dessert. I'm still not sure what they are, but they are nice.

So, we ended up with a bit of a feel for Stockholm, finally, and tomorrow we head for Helsinki, probably after a quick extra shop for Eva and a wander about for me.

More from Helsinki later - sorry still not photos, but I have taken about 1000 and about 2-3 hours of video!