Stockholm Day 3

This is a very late posting - we’ve been very busy being tourists.

This morning after breakfast we said a very sad farewell to Karin and Mats. It’s been so special spending time with them and they’ve been very generous hosts and tour guides. We’re really appreciated the time and trouble they went to to ensure we had an enjoyable visit.

So, MrMacD and I were left to our own devices. We walked to the little island called Skeppsholmen to visit the Moderna Museet (Museum of Modern Art). The Moderna was a bit of a disappointment, as the art MrMacD wanted to see wasn’t on display, but we had a good look around anyway. There was the weird and the wonderful, the good and the bad, so it was an interesting visit.

We had lunch at the Moderna then walked to the Vasa Museum to look at the 17th century warship that sank on her maiden voyage in 1628. To see a ship that lay at the bottom of the sea for over 300 years is incredible enough, but to see it so well preserved and read the history and the stories about the crew and the skeletons that were also found was even more incredible. There was lots of information also about what life was like for a sailor in the 17th century. Man, life was hard back then!! Definitely not the “good old days”. It was an amazing and awe-inspiring visit. The weather has been absolutely amazing and the people of Stockholm are soaking up the sunshine after the long winter months.

We stopped at a café in the Kungsträdgården (Kings Garden) to enjoy a G&T. Interestingly, the waitress shook pepper over the top of the drink and it was rather nice. There wasn’t the usual slice of lemon, but a slice of cucumber. It was lovely to sit in the sun and watch the world go by. The sun makes people happy!

Without our trusty guides we had to find our own dinner venue tonight. So we walked left out of the hotel, then left again, then found a street on the right with lots of cafés and restaurants and when we saw a waiter delivering two beautiful bowls of pasta to a table the decision was made. We had dinner at Gioia and very nice it was too. I had a pudding, MrMacD had another glass of wine. A lovely evening for our last night in Stockholm.

The blips show views of the day