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Daniel in front of a toy store in Cambridge.
The Market from the top of Great Saint Mary's.
Elizabeth and Daniel on top of Great Saint Mary's Tower.
View of King's College.
Looking down on Cambridge.
Why is the door so small?
Checking out the Corpus Christi Clock.
Off the flight, through passports (yes, they needed the letter!), got their luggage, and ready to head to the bus.
We left Stockholm Friday. Subway to train, train to airport. Airport for a long time, waiting for our flight. We left really late, and missed our connection in Amsterdam. But by the time we got there, KLM had us all re-booked on a later flight to Heathrow. Which was good, since all the flights seemed full.
The view from our hotel room.
Bike racks in the snow.
Bikes in the snow, outside the stairs to the subway.
Alex looking out the window on the train.
I have a cold, so I slept in this morning while Alex went to his conference. He came back, and we headed out to see more sights. The big difference is that today it is snowing. A lot.
We were back at Gamla Stan for lunch (pizza and kabab place), and then up to the palace.
On the way we saw this telephone booth.
We went into the Cathedral, since Alex had not seen it.
The palace looks a bit different covered in snow.
We went into the Royal Palace, but we could not take photos. Then we walked around the side of the palace to the other side, on our way to the Medieval Museum. There was more snow, and the streets were pretty empty.
We were quickly covered in snow.
But we were not outside for too long.
One thing we saw puzzled us. All the birds gathered in one place on the river. But then a man came along and started to feed them. Maybe this is a normal place for bird feeding.
We found the museum. It is really under a bridge.
The museum has a portion of the medieval city wall, as well as other artifacts found when they excavated the area in the 1980s.
The stairs down to the museum.
The snow was hard to walk in, but it made everything beautiful.
Of course we wanted to stop and take photos, but that got us colder and wetter fast.
We went across the bridge and in search of some coffee in the more modern downtown area. We stopped at Coffee by George (which seems to be a chain), and then we went across the street to NK to get some dinner at the food court. After eating out so many times, bread and cheese seemed like enough! We walked from there inside a mall, and to the subway station to catch a green line back to Thorildsplan, the closest stop to our hotel.
No matter where we get on, we always seem to get off the train at the far end of the platform.
I said before that people were not riding bikes much. That is true, and you can see why. But the amazing thing is that we did see some people ride bikes in the heavy snow today. One girl did so in her mini-skirt! Some people are more committed to riding than most of us!
One last snow photo on the way back to the hotel.
Now we are in our room, flipping the channels and watching the BBC try to fill the time while they wait for some real news out of Egypt.
After getting me some late lunch, our next stop was the Vasa Museum. Alex has already blogged about it here. I will just add a few things.
Our Stockholm Cards were not cheep, but they let us into so many things, and we can ride public transportation with them too. We took the subway and then, after a few wrong turns, the #44 bus to get to the museum. It let us off in front of the Nordiska Museet, and it took us a bit to figure out how to get to the Vasa from there.
The outside of the museum, with the masts of the Vasa sticking out through the roof.
Alex took this one of me looking at the model of the ship.
The ship is huge. Ships like this that were successful did not survive. This one sunk on its way out of port in 1628, so it was intact when it was discovered in the 1950s. And they build the museum around it.
You can get an idea of the scale, those are people down there.
You can read all about it on the official site here.
After Alex and I met up, we decided not to waste the sunshine, and headed out on the subway to the Sky View ride on the Ericsson Globe. It is mostly an arena, for hockey, and performances, but there is a ride to the top that is part of our Stockholm Card, and since this is not exactly the tourist season we had no trouble getting tickets right away (unlike the London Eye!).
We asked another rider to take this of us at the top. We took one for them too.
Alex taking photos.
The view at the top. The ride up took a few minutes, then we stopped at the top for about 3 minutes, then we were back on our way down.
We waited for the next one to go up to see what it looked like. They must both of them only in the summer when there are more people.
As I wandered around, I noticed that there were plenty of places trying to separate tourists and their money. Everything here seems expensive, food, clothing, taxis, which I guess it not surprising for a major city. So mostly I window shopped, especially when I first got there, since many places did not open until 11:00.
There were plenty of cute little scenes, this one in the window of a toy shop.
Some places clearly had a sense of humor. This is a stereo store.
I took this one for Christy! These were on display in the window of an antiques store.
These little angles are very familiar from my childhood. My grandmother had a collection, that we then got, of all kinds of little angels playing and singing. I always wondered about these ones; I thought about them as the angels with no pants. It seemed slightly strange. The man who owns the shop says they are from East Germany. And they are VERY expensive. Even if I had wanted to, I could not have increased the collection much. And since I always though them a bit strange, they are not the ones I would have bought.
The main tourist streets are full of signs like this. And by lunch time more people.
I did not get a good photo of this sign when we were there at night, so I went back and took one. I love the combination of the dragon and the rocket. That really says it all.
One of the places I went on Wed. morning was the Royal Palace. It is part of Gamla Stan, but I figured it deserved its own post.
This was the courtyard in the morning, before the tourists arrived.
The palace was built in the 18th century on top of the original royal castle, Tre Kronor.
The place is guarded by the Royal Guards, Högvakten, part of the Swedish Armed Forces. The changing of the guard is a big deal in the summer months, and a bit smaller during the winter.
This is the side of the place.
The guards waiting for the relief to enter.
This fellow was guarding the tourists so we did not get too close to the action. There was a small chain indicating where we were to stand. The new guards are marching in from the back in this photo.
And yes, that is a serious weapon he has.
There were a few women in the guards. And plenty of short men, and men in glasses. So I guess height and perfect eyesight are not requirements.
These two guys provided the music. In the summer there is a full military band.
After the changing of the guard I was so cold I headed for the first indoor attraction I could find, which turned out to be the Skattkammaren, or Royal Treasury. Also included on our Stockholm Cards, this is a small exhibit of crowns, swards, and other royal treasures. And it was heated. But I couldn't take photos once I was in the exhibit. This is part of the entry way.
And here is the poster for the exhibit. There were plenty of amazing crowns like this one.
Alex went off to his conference in the morning, and I went out to play tourist.
On the way to the station we saw this group of children on a field trip. But why the helmets? We guessed ice skating, but who knows?
The little narrow streets are still charming in the daylight, and I took a lot of photos (I had the good camera, Alex certainly did not need it for the conference.
At first there were very few people.
There were plenty of bikes around, but not too many people riding on them. I think the ice on the roads makes it very hard! We have seen a few people riding.
Much of this area was built in the 12th century, roads just are not that wide. Or high.
This is one of the wider spots. I did see some trucks (small ones) making morning deliveries. And honking at others doing the same thing, since there is no room to pull over, cars and trucks just stop in the middle of most of these streets and anyone who comes along behind has to wait for the unloading to be done.
Another field trip of little people in bright reflective vests.
I went into the Storykyran, the Cathedral built 700 years ago. Coronations and royal weddings have been held here for centuries.
The statue of St. George and the Dragon is from 1471, by Berndt Notke. It was commissioned by Sten Sture the Elder to celebrate his victory over the Danes.
This is the same church we kept admiring at night. It is the Tyska Kyrkan, or German Church. The guidebook tells me it was built in the 1570s, but then enlarged in the 1630s and 1640s.
One more field trip shot. The reflective vests are certainly easy to spot.
We arrived just as the sun was starting to go down. We had plenty of light to see that there was snow on the ground, and in the trees.
Blurry, since I took it from the taxi, but you get the idea. In the city there is no snow on the ground, but there is plenty of slippery ice (I only fell once...)
This is the view from the 6th floor of our hotel down the stairs (we took the elevator). The taxi driver had no idea where the hotel was, but in the end he managed it, I think with plenty of help from the dispatch folks. This area reminds me of Hafencity in Hamburg when the Storys were first there, lots of construction, and streets that don't exist on the maps. It is a nice place, and we even have a tiny "kitchen" consisting of a fridge, microwave, two-burner stove, and sink.
We put our things down and set out to Gamla Stan, the oldest part of Stockholm, via the subway.
The entire area is charming, I am looking forward to going back in the daylight.
Charming little streets, cobblestones, places to eat, and plenty of places just waiting to take money from tourists.
I remember reading the Wonderful Adventures of Nils.
Plenty of Trolls.
We are near two metro stations. We went to Thorildsplan today, on the green line, and loved the tile work.
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