Day 175 - Sunday, July 15
We got to Stockholm around mid-afternoon on Sunday, and, after getting settled in, we went to explore a bit. As soon as we left the hotel it started to rain. We'd gotten pretty used to the rain at that point, so we didn't let it slow us down. Mere channelled her inner todler:
We sampled some traditional fried herring from a street vendor, which much like a hot dog, seems to require many potent condiments to mask the underlying less-than-desirable flavor of the fish, thus the heaping amount of onions, dill and mustard.
It was delicious, but only because the toppings were delicious. We then climbed up to the observation deck in the background of the photo above of our street vendor for a nice view of the city:
Day 176 - Monday, July 16
Finally, sunshine! It was beautiful day with clear blue skies and near perfect temps. This was the one full day we had in Stockholm, so we tried to make the most of it. Mere and I seemed to be on the same page in that both of us aren't really museum people, but she managed to convince me to go check out a few in Stockholm. The first was the Noble Prize Museum. Then we fought the crowds to watch the changing of the guard:
And then explored the Old Town area (aka Gamla Stan) for a while. Some photos:
We caught a ferry over to Djurgarden, an island just to the east of the city center. Some photos from the ferry and from walking around Djurgarden.
We then checked out another museum, the Vasa Museum, which was really neat. It's basically a museum about a super expensive
ship named Vasa that was supposed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread but tipped over and sank before sailing a mile of its maiden voyage. Hundreds of years later, it was brought up from the bottom and painstakingly pieced back together. The photos don't start to do it justice
Then off to dinner in the Sodermalm area, on the south side of Stockholm. We got some traditional Swedish fare at
Pelikan, including our second sampling of swedish meatballs for the day, and I had my first good beer since leaving Australia, Sitting Bulldog IPA, made by
these guys. They do a lot of things well in Asia, but good beer is not one of them.
Day 177 - Tuesday, July 17
Our flight to Finland wasn't until mid-afternoon, so we had some time in the morning to do some more exploring of Stockholm. We checked out the area to the east of the city center that's more of a posh area with nice restaurants, retail stores, etc. (as if Stockholm wasn't expensive enough already). It was beautiful all morning in Stockholm, and then just as we got to the central bus/train station to get a shuttle to the airport, it started pouring down rain. Guess we timed that one right. Off to Helsinki.
No comments:
Post a Comment