Stockholm

"Well I'm so glad we stumbled upon that". Mr Fluffy's sarcasm was palpable as we left the concert hall to the strains of a dungaree clad soprano singing a rather dramatic Swedish aria (for free I might add). It can be said that female opera is not Mr Fluffy's favourite style of music. She had a great voice but I'm not sure about the outfit - very unconventional.

welcoming us to Stockholm with a brass band

We had spent the morning wandering around Stockholm. I had hoped to go to the Vasa Museum but, being July, the queues were hideous so I placated myself by having my photo taken at the nearby ABBA museum, face plonked into the slot normally saved for Agnetha. I had hoped to buy a small trinket for my friend David (who taught himself Swedish so he could read their biography in the original language) but as the museum shop did not deal with cash, only tokens purchased from the hotel next door, I came out empty handed. We didn't go into the museum either.

Kerriagnetha

Stockholm is not Graham's favourite city so it will be good to leave tomorrow so I can see a smile on his face once again. It is a lovely city to walk around and we have parked at Langholmens camping area which is about a 3km walk into Gamla Stan (the old town) and then a short walk to the rest of the islands.

 

Dickie from Flyover - who wouldn't love this?

We were hoping to go to the island of Gotland but, once again, as it is July, the ferry was around £350 return and pretty much booked out. A good excuse to come back off season I think. So tomorrow we head south along the coast as we make our way towards Denmark.

K

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trying not to be miserable

Stockholm is a beautiful city with lots of water, and lovely old boats and huge numbers of tourists. I can’t put my finger on why but I (Graham) don’t really like the city.  We are parked under a flyover in a good campsite that is costing us £25 per night and is a lovely 3 kilometre walk along the canal to the ‘old town’. Today we noticed that there is another unofficial (and very nice) motorhome parking place along the road (Strandvage) near the bridge to Djurgarden where the Vasa museum is located. We did not visit any of the many museums as they were mainly closed/crowded and so expensive – the queue for the Vasa museum was very long and slow moving.

piggy wiggy doodle all the day - royal boat 

folding boat

The old town was mainly a collection of tourist tat shops with the odd pizza joint or burger bar and the ‘main’ town had many of the well known chain shops interspersed with more expensive cafés and restaurants selling food from around the world but few with Swedish dishes. Yesterday we dined in a very good Thai restaurant and today we ended up with a beefburger and chips and a plaice with one small new potato.  Kerriann had ordered the burger thinking it was something else – when it arrived she didn’t like it so we swapped.  Kerriann also doesn’t like fish with bones so I ended up eating the plaice as well. Luckily there was a nice baguette served with the meals so K pigged out on that - then snaffled the rest of the baguette for breakfast tomorrow.

in happier times when we stayed on a poisonous industrial site