Stockholm, Sweden

Access to internet means the updates keep coming.  Where we left off we had one more day until arriving in Stockholm, so we woke early and started sightseeing at 8am.  We had stayed near Anundshog, so we headed there first.  It is a mound and stone ship (standing stones laid out in the shape of a ship) burial site, like what we saw at Jelling in Denmark.  It originates from 500-1050AD.  The site was used later in the middle ages as a gathering point to settle legal disputes and sentence criminals until 1450.

Next stop was the town of Uppsala.  Although we have a huge piles of pamphlets, we had no town map for here. We figured we would see the typical town map boards for tourist unfortunately they don't appear to have them so just had to follow our nose!  We saw the Cathedral (just got in before 11am Mass), the Castle and the Botanic Gardens where a petanque tournament was taking place.  We were tempted to visit the house and garden of famous Swedish Botanist Carl Linnaeus, but as we are on a tight budget we decided not this time.  Carl Linnaeus is famous for his classification of plants and animals.  There was an English bookshop in town which we also looked at.  Dale picked up a secondhand book for 10 kroner (1.15 euro).  I had some bad luck and the arm of my prescription sunglasses came off.  So I think I may need to do a good job with some tape until we get back to New Zealand.

 Carl Linnaeus home in Uppsala

After leaving Uppsala and managing to find a map at the Hammarby farm (see below) we checked and we had found the major sites, and only missed the main University building.
We headed south toward the town of Sigtuna stopping at 3 points along the way.
1.  The Stones of Mora, fragments of runestones that commemorate coronations of Swedish kings stored on the site of the coronations.  As in the past most stones have been destroyed the fragments that are left aren't all that important.
2.  Hammarby Farm, which was owned by Carl Linnaeus.
3.  Then to a lake where it was time for swimming and sunbathing.
Sigtuna is reputedly the oldest town in Sweden, from 970.  It has a lovely main street called Stora gatan lined with wooden houses and is on the lake front.

Hammerby Farm - Linnaeus

The following morning we arrived at my cousin Rebecca's in Stockholm. We received a very warm welcome and promptly set about catching up!  We had a fika (Swedish term for having coffee and cake, morning or afternoon tea) with iced coffee and cinnamon buns (another Swedish specialty).  Then it was off for a walk around the lake near their house with Benjamin (3.5 years), Olivia (2 years) and their dog, Hobbe.  Becky owns a few travel guides, so we have also been looking through those for ideas for Finland and St Petersburg.

The next day I started with a run. I've lost most of my fitness, and managed 25 minutes!  It was another hot day and we headed into the city.  Dale and I had a walk around the old town.  We have heard good things about Stockholm and we weren't disappointed.  The buildings are amazing and we were taking many photos.  We then headed to Skansen, which is an open air museum and zoo.  It was started in 1891 and features many Swedish farm houses, native animals and there is a children's zoo.  There are also some good views of the city from there.

Another day we visited Drottningholm Palace on the edge of the city.  Since 1981 it has been the residence of the King and Queen and is also a UNESCO site.  The grounds are free to walk around and we went into the palace at 2pm for a 45 minute tour.  The tour guide was very good and the only source of information as there aren't any room guides or text.  After the tour we re-visited the rooms for a closer look for another half an hour.

The following day we went into Stockholm with Joachim, Becky's husband kindly giving us a lift in the car.  The focus of the day was the History Museum (FREE on friday) where we arrived on opening and stayed for 4.5 hours including a 30 minute guided tour of their Viking period section.  We also saw art (almost exclusively religious) from the middle ages (of note two church pews from the 16th and 18th centuries- very cool) and an exhibition of the past 900 years of Swedish history.  We left about 3pm and went for a walk as far as the island of Soderhalm.  It had been a grey and rainy morning, which cleared in the afternoon, reaching 19 degrees.  On the way back to Joachim we saw a delicious looking cinnamon pastry and couldn't help ourselves.

Becky and Joachim went away for the weekend, and we chose to drive into Stockholm on Saturday (free parking on weekends).  We headed toward the Royal Palace as we wanted to see the Changing of the guard at midday. We went via the Jewish Synagogue.  We took a picture each and surprisingly we were approached by a security guard and questioned about our presence there.  Unfortunately, as the guard said, the Synagogue requires such security.  We reached the Palace and positioned ourselves to see the mounted procession approach, which was made up of armed guards and musician guards all on horseback.  We moved again to see them close up as they approached the courtyard of the Palace, and then again to see the goings on in the courtyard.  Unfortunately for the main part we had a very poor view as we weren't there to save good spots before the ceremony.  I suppose if we were to go again we would position ourselves in the courtyard to get a good view of the main show.  For lunch we headed to the park Kungstradgarten, where Brazil day was happening- including stalls, a concert and football games.  We stayed and watched a performance by two clowns, which was very entertaining.  They sat on unicycle and used a jump rope at the same time, juggled and did back flips.  Our next stop was the Concert hall, which is where they hold the Nobel Prize ceremony.  There is a exhibition on until the end of the month, with panels and pictures about the event.  We had a look through the food hall next door, which was very interesting.  They were selling an array of seafood, meat, spices, nuts, fruit and vegetables.  Swedish prices can get a little scary we spied a burger pattie for 25 kroner (2.90 euro) and a miniature cupcake (half a mouthful at most) for 20 kroner (2.30 euro).  We headed back to the van and embarked on a special journey to buy LPG from then only station on the outskirts of the city.  This was a bit of an adventure in itself as we passed through city streets, a tunnel with a maximum height of 3 metres (our van is 2.9), motorways and more tunnels (one was 4km in length).

We spent Sunday afternoon with the neighbours Erik and Maryanne, who took us to the neighbouring municipality of Taby, to visit the Taby Church and some rune stones, driving back via Vallentuna lake.  Taby Church was beautiful with original ceiling paintings- 66 in total mainly based on the old testament. It was one of the most memorable churches I have seen so far.  We joined Becky the following day for lunch at Kura- a kiwi inspired cafe run by 2 New Zealanders.  I enjoyed having a flat white and some rocky road to finish!  We stopped at a palace called Ulriksdal on the way home, not far from Becky and Joachim's home.  It is on the lake front and we enjoyed a walk around the grounds. Tonight we will have a meal with the Becky and Joachim, before leaving tomorrow.  We have been blessed to stay with them this week, and they have been very hospitable, as have their neighbours Erik and Maryanne.  It has been a very memorable week in our holiday so far.  My running has also improved- up to 40 minutes now and not wanting to stop along the way.  Tomorrow we head to Alund, an island between Sweden and Finland, and then on to Finland.

Thanks for reading everyone :-)