Stockholm
15 August
A
thing about Swedish roads, we love them.
Compared to the narrow lane fjord hopping, which we did by choice in
Norway, and by the way the infrastructure of Norway and its roughly 5 million
population is second to none, driving along gently winding undulating roads is
almost boring. Mostly the highways are
two lanes with a third lane usually alternating on whichever direction is going
uphill. After each interchange there is also
usually an overtaking lane. On the
freeway we had four lanes and a 120k/h speed limit where occasionally ghosts of
European autobahns would give me the heebie geebies by screaming past at
racecourse speed. There are median
strips too, those tensioned wire limb severing jobs that motorcycle riders love
to hate and in places wide strips of green separate you from oncoming
traffic. At one point we were on a new
section of highway that the GPS didn’t recognise and it went into convulsions
trying to get us off the farms and greenery and back to the old highway - that’s
what we had as light entertainment for a while.
On
arrival in outer Stockholm we would have been completely bushed without the GPS
– we are completely converted now. Our
hotel is on Lidingö Island, out of town, but we had to drive through to get
here and with various road works (is there anywhere in the world not currently
undergoing major road upgrades?), sudden turns and afternoon traffic to contend
with we would probably have ended up in the harbour. Our hotel (Lidingö Hotel and Conference Centre)
is/was connected to/affiliated with a religious order but peaceful in a
wonderful rustic and parklike setting.
At first I thought it was an old castle.
It’s called an Adult high school and there seems to be plenty going on
here, lots of young people too.
This
morning, because we were in no hurry to go out, we had the happy experience of
making Skype phone contact with our Queensland family –next time we will make
it a video call for sure and then while in the mood phoned Kim and Joe (my
family) and had another laughathon with them while Kim downloaded and got
themselves a Skype account so now we can look at each other while we laugh.
The
bus stop is right next to the driveway and one bus to the metro, one train into
central and you are in the very thick of it and as we landed in the thick of
Stockholm’s summer cultural festival with people milling everywhere, tents, marquees
and street acts helping create a maelstrom of movement. We found our way to the old city and with
half the population of Scandinavia, snailed around looking at the marvellous architecture. Howard had his day pack and had brought and
extra 2kg of paperwork to post home, when we found out that Sweden does not
have post offices anymore!!! Take note –
do not let this happen in your country!
You may buy stamps and envelopes and post packs at supermarkets, if you
are lucky one of the assistants may even know how an overseas package is
handled. We weren’t so lucky. By sheer coincidence we spotted the Post
Museum down one of the old city streets and I dragged Howard in – just in case –
and yes there were people there who knew what to do. We did get some mail off but now Howard has
decided to save money and keep the stuff in his pack. We found a dungeon café – they dared us to
come down into the old jail – and had a nice lunch then back out into the
throng. Wish I was “shopping” here, the
sales are on and even though all the usual brand stores are here there are
plenty of independents with such lovely clothes, blah, blah, etc. etc, it’s as
interesting as the shops in Bergen. For
your next summer fashions, if baby doll, smock style blouses, long shirts aren’t
in the mix then we’re behind. Colours
are brilliant, florals and patterns sometimes mixed to great effect – nothing looked
cheap and Chinese. Business shirts and jackets with jeans are the go for both
sexes. Skirts and dresses are soft,
flowing without needing to be Indian style, short or long, no stiff or ill-fitting
skirts. Linen is popular too. Grey for denim next season.
I
think we lasted about 5 hours and then made the reverse journey back to the
sanctity and peace of the hotel.
Tomorrow we will go back in and do most of our sightseeing with help
from a hop on hop off boat, hoping to see more of the islands and harbour.
Just
a few photos today:
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