Stockholm - a view of the waterfront

It rained all day in Helsinki yesterday and when we set sail again at about 2pm it was still raining and even quite stormy. Last night, for the first time, we felt quite a bit of turbulence, because up until now it has been as smooth as can be with hardly any motion being detected. When we woke up this morning we were just arriving in Stockholm, and Gavin and I watched from the deck as they seemed to effortlessly line up and moor the boat.

We were very sad to leave the boat - it has been a fabulous week and we would love to do another cruise sometime, provided it is on a smaller boat such as this, and with such first class service, amenities and food. My only criticism of the cruise was that it was too short! We chose a 7 day cruise as we were not sure whether we would like it - most of their cruises are from 12 days upwards.

We dropped our bags at the hotel and set out to explore Stockholm. It is a very beautiful city, made up of 14 islands and neighbouring peninsulas with over 50 bridges connecting them. Apparently one in six Swedes own a boat, and boating is a way of life here, so I have included the mooring rope in this scene of a view of the waterfront on Blasieholmen.

It was overcast and cool so we started the day on a hop-on-hop-off bus tour which is always a good way to orientate oneself around the city. After that we walked to the old town (Gamla Stan) and admired the Royal Palace and charming architecture. I have added an extra of the main square here. Our bus ticket included a hop on hop off boat cruise so after lunch we went  on a boat cruise which was very informative, and more pleasant as by now was sunny.

 We got off at the stop near the Fotografiska Museum as I had planned to visit this museum of photographic works to see the current exhibition of Nick Brandt, called Inherit the Dust. I saw some of his work in London recently and when I heard he was having a large exhibition here, I had planned to see it. They also had an exhibition by Bryan Adams, who most people know as a rock musician but he is an excellent photographer who was recently awarded his Fellowship by the Royal Photographic Society. Both exhibitions were excellent and despite their initial grumbling about going to see them, all the boys loved the exhibitions and wanted to spend more time there. It was great to see a museum that only displays photographic work.

We finally went back to check in at our hotel and now we are getting ready for supper. At last I have decent wifi again but no time to catch up on journals, I will have to catch up when I get home again on Monday night.