Scandic Infra City Upplands-Väsby

Early start this am to catch 2 trains and a bus to Stansted airport for a Ryan air flight to Stockholm. That all went according to plan thank goodness, but every time we get on a Ryan air flight I think of cattle getting loaded onto a truck, a mad controlled rush to hopefully get a reasonable seat, and then at the last minute dad and mum and 5 yelling kids turn up ...

... for it, (which I guess I really did, in the end) I would have been pretty ****** with the value. For example, the treasury, about $15 to enter, and it was seriously one probably 20x20 room of crowns and jewels. Ok, fine, but $15, for that?? Pretty ridiculous. The actual castle was a bit better but they allow guided tours (aka HUGE tour buses that bring their own guides), so there were seriously about 15 groups milling about, clogging everything. It was ...

... what was left after it completely burnt down in 1697! The new palace is built on the same site, so the Tre Kronor Museum is down in the dungeons) * The Skansen Open-Air Museum (sort of like Perth Zoo, an aquarium and Pioneer World all rolled into one. We even got to see a cool display of Swedish Folk dancing!) * The Vasa Museum (definitely the best we saw ... an amazing museum about a massive ship that sank in the harbour 20 minutes into her ...

... packed for the following day and hit the hay.......................... Tuesday Laura and I were up bright and early to catch an 8.30am ferry tour "Good Morning Stockholm" which went out to the first islands of the archipelago and around the city. Maisie opened one eye, decided it wasn't worth bothering about and went back to sleep! The tour was interesting though and a chance to get out of the city and appreciate a very tiny amount of the 20,000 islands that surround ...

... see the bones poking out of the ground. next day we visited the salt mine which is the biggest or oldest or something. gimme a break it was months ago! anyway we were all to tight to pay for the english guide so we got the cheap polish guide. there was a massive cathedral in the middle of the mine which was really spectacular. i wished my friends fare well and hopefully i will catch up with them in the us (something tells me i will). i caught the overnight train ...

... morning and was able to get out of the hostel by around 9:30. Everyone was still asleep but I had wanted to go to a few places while I was in Stockholm, one of them was the Riksdag. The Riksdag is the Swedish Parliament and is an amazing building on its own small island. After a short walk there I was hoping to get a tour of it but my timing was bad. Tours begin next week so I decided to just do more exploring of Stockholm instead. I ...

... is her author, Astrid Lindgren. The museum has a train you sit in as it takes you through one of her tales. It is very well done, but the museum was totally mental. There had to be five hundred kids running riot in a very enclosed space. We got our tickets and noticed we had to wait 2.5 hours for the train. We snuck in early and got out quickly. Rosa loved it and wanted to go back. h. Skansen. Bit like the Riga Open Air Museum, only fun ...

... than Swedish, and she also knows enough German to get by. She said they start off learning the languages around age 10. Too bad we don't have the requirement to learn languages in the US. After finding the cache, we bid farewell as she had to go catch her ship back to Finland. She said I should come visit Finland sometime. I'd love to, someday. A bit out of the way for this trip. Next, I headed east through Sodermalm, finding another cache in a ...

... about that in the next entry. I have made arrangements to fly to Copenhagen on the 17th to join a tour group of the Scandinavian countries including Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Although there is a lot about group travel I do not like, it is easier to have someone else do the thinking and worrying. After that tour ends I plan to spend a few days in Prague, Czech Republic, before meeting Wolf in Germany for a few days. We will see Mimi ...

... about my trip sent from home. As well as a paper and my favourite magazines as requested. We went back to the apartment and then out to dinner. Ulrika had recommended a good area to look for food. We looked at a few places and settled on a pub meal for my birthday. Saturday the 27th of May. Around Stockholm and a boat trip. We had a large breakfast in the hotel with views from the rooftop and then headed into town. First to the tourist information to see about ...