Day 6
It's a full day in Stockholm today. And the whole morning tomorrow. It feels like we have a lot of time here compared to all the other stops.
As always, we start off with our city tour, with stops at the City hall, where the remaining Nobel prizes are awarded. As well as the Abba museum that I'm not entirely sure what to expect as I'm not from the Abba generation. But the tour is geared towards an older crowd so perhaps that is what they were thinking.
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| The Blue room in City Hall |
Every year Europe had a music contest, Eurovision, and Abba won it. I didn't realize that the contest had been going on for so long. It's actually going on right now and if so inclined I could watch the finals while I'm in Helsinki.
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| The gold room in City Hall |
The Scandinavian city halls are quite ornate here. The one in Stockholm is only open to guided tours, but I believe you can join a tour so it's not like you have to find an outside guide to bring you through. It is quite a decorated building but not so much more than Oslo and they let you walk through for free with no guide. We toured the blue room, which isn't blue at all because the architect decided he liked the bricks unpainted. It's huge atrium when you walk in where they do the dinner reception. The gold room is upstairs and is basically a giant mosaic with many of the pieces plated with gold. It's an incredible room telling various stories of Swedish history. And the building is perched right on the edge of the island it is on so it's really something great to see from the water.
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| Park across the street from my hotel |
There is a lovely garden across the street from my hotel and I've been told that underneath is the national library which contains a copy of every Swedish book written. It is quite a large park, lots of benches and floral displays. The city of Stockholm can be loosely divided into 3 equal categories, a third of the city is water, a third is housing and the final third is gardens and parks. Which I can understand because the area I stayed in was entirely made of apartment buildings that have no private green space.
I feel like I'm a little spoiled with my hotel room in Stockholm, I have a double room with all sorts of space. It is still a little small compared to hotel rooms at home which is always a culture shock when traveling but is still so much space for just me.
The cities have all been very walkable. They do have extensive bus and subway systems. Although the subway is more for the suburbs than the downtown area. But you see so much more on foot so walking works great for me.
The included tour also included the Abba museum. I was amused to learn that they released their last record the year I was born, so while the museum was nicely put together I didn't really have too much interest in much of it. Nor did many of my fellow travelers. I heard one lady say several times that she just doesn't like this type of music. One weird part of the museum is that they have gone completely cashless. If you want to use actual money you have to go to the hotel they are located in and get a gift card loaded with money. Even if it's something for 2 kroner. They claim it's faster and safer for everyone involved. While is is all true sometimes things happen and the machines go down. Or it seems like a lot of effort to buy a few little trinkets so you leave instead and they lose a sale. It's a little bizarre. The museum has some really intense moments. They have a piano that is hooked up with one of the band members personal piano so that when he plays at home the keys will move in the museum. As well, they have this giant red phone that only the 4 members of Abba can call so if it rings you can talk to them. I doubt these two things happen at all but it's a good marketing idea.
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| Chapel from inside the palace |
After the tour I headed to old town, Gamla Stan, to visit the palace. Because Prince Carl is getting married in a few weeks much of the area you can tour are closed due to cleaning and preparations for the wedding. So it seemed like a waste of time and money to tour inside. You can visit the chapel for free and wander around. It's very lovely and ornate and built right in the palace. It is a huge palace built right on the water but it's very plain. The parliament building next door is very fancy and you would almost think that it is actually the palace except for the fact of how small it is.
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| Horse parade around the palace |
I've been really confused by the presence of horse manure on the city streets everywhere. I did finally figure that out. The changing of the guard actually involves the guards in a horse parade with musical instruments and everything . I also ran into the parade a few more times while wandering the downtown area.
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| View of the city from the water |
After all the parade excitement I did another boat cruise. I know, I've done a few now. And being from landlocked Alberta I always forget how cold it can be. Even when it's warm out. But the tour was really nice. It's always an interesting perspective to see the city from the water. The city is on 14 islands between Lake Malaren and the Baltic Sea. To control the water levels they do have a few locks that the tour boat gets to go through. Those were a little exciting to go through, I'm a bit of a nerd sometimes and okay with it.
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| Streets of Gamla Stan |
Now I'm enjoying an early dinner in Gamla Stan. I was looking for tacky tourist shops and apparently they are all located here, in the old city. Gamla Stan is the old city center, filled with narrow, winding streets with the quaint cobblestones that is really just a tourist trap now, filled with stores and restaurants.
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| The boat going through one of the locks |
I did get caught in a bit of a rain storm. So of course today was the day I believed the weather forecast and didn't bring my umbrella. At least I didn't get too wet. It has been warmer in Stockholm but it still isn't short weather. It's looking like I'll have to wait until I get home to enjoy warm weather. One thing I've noticed is that at home when it gets even remotely warm some fool will be out in flip flops and shorts even though it's a little chilly. But people in Scandinavia don't do that. My first day home when I was getting groceries it wasn't that warm out and I saw 2 people right away wandering the store in shorts, flip flops and hoodies. And I thought 'well, I'm certainly home now'. I think I saw one lady in capri pants one day but I'm convinced she was a tourist, and she stood out.
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| Gardens in the harbour |
One last thought, people here are walking impaired. And with me primarily walking places it's driving me nuts. It's a little chaotic on the sidewalks. Even when I stand off to the side, next to the building, I get people almost walking into me because they seem to think I should move out of their way. Maybe this is why we have the reputation of being polite because we have more informal rules of walking. But I have noticed that things like lining up are a little nonexistent in some places and things can turn into free for all's sometimes. Like the ferries I'll be taking in a few days!
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| Palace from the water |
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