Stockholm and Area.........Sweden

  I left Amsterdam to fly to Stockholm, Sweden and arrived at the Arlanda Airport about 11pm. For some reason I could not get my ears to pop after the flight, I had never experienced this prolonged build up of pressure. The airport is about 40 kms from the capital so I used the credit card (money exchanges were closed) to get a train ticket to the center of Stockholm. Lucky for me I had left a friend in the Netherlands to meet another friend in Sweden, there are so many advantages to staying with a friend besides bonding, and accurate travel advice. From Stockholm my friend Sophie picked me up at 12:15 am and drove me to Trangsund which would be my home base; her and her family had a very nice home. Poor Sophie got to bed around 1am and had to get up for work at 5:30 am.

  In the morning Sophie's husband give me a ride into downtown Stockholm and I got a chance to see this magnificent capital in the daylight. The scenery was tremendous, it seemed no matter where I sat there was a nice view. My first journal entry was from Riddarholmen, one of the small islands of Stockholm. This Scandinavian capital is built on 14 islands and is surrounded by Lake Malaran and Saltsjon Inlet, a bay of the Baltic Sea. The city itself is over 750 years old so there are many structures that are worthy of a photo.

  I ventured up the tower at the city hall which is the highest outlook in the city and I took many photo's, the view was just beautiful.

                        

  Riddarholmen

                        

There were no big crowds, which is nice compared to other popular cities, and the local people were very friendly. I walked so many kms around the city, taking time to sit down once in awhile to take it all in before I took the train back to Trangsund.

  In the morning Sophie dropped me off in the city and I walked around in all directions until 12 noon when I watched the changing of the guards at the Royal Palace; there have been guards protecting the Royal Family since 1523.

                       

                                        


    I am not a fan of cities but I have to admit that cities like Stockholm should not be missed; I felt lucky that I was not rushed so that I could examine so much architecture. From the island of Skepps Holmen the view of Old Stockholm is just beautiful; I wrote several times in my journal, "very nice scenery"; perhaps I took too many photo's.

  Stockholm has so many nice buildings

                        

  The small public square in Gamla Stan (old town in Stockholm)

                         

                                         

 Wherever I looked the architecture was unique

                         

                                                  

 This Royal Army Museum has been around since 1879...one of the newer buildings

                            

  The next morning I took a boat to Sandhamn, the life in Sweden is very much integrated with water. There are so many nice boats that the locals use to access the many waterways that surround Stockholm.

                           


   So much of the scenery looks like the coast of British Columbia, Canada; there are hundreds of tree covered islands that looked nice....no photo was necessary though. After Sandhamn we stopped at Vaxholm which had both nice old buildings and cottages. The island of Finnhamn was not so special but I stopped there anyway. Boats run like a ferry to these islands, I learned two things the hard way; the boat named Cinderella that I took had Cinderella in Swedish on the opposite side of the boat; I did not recognize later that it was the same boat when it stopped. I then had to learn that if I wanted a boat to stop at the dock I had to raise a flag so the captain knew that someone wanted to be picked up.

  Sweden as a country has been at war so many times in the country's history, they used to possess Finland, some of Denmark, and parts of Germany. One only has to look on-line to see the long list of conflicts this nation has had with world powers such as Russia. Sweden has many famous military academies and there are also many castles and palaces scattered around the country as well.

  There are also many churches

                      

I put so many kms on my legs in the last couple of days, I just do not want to miss anything. I really noticed how many pregnant women were around, most often with a toddler in tow. There are many beautiful boats either sailing by or docked.

  Another morning I took the train to Marsta and then took a bus from there to Sigtuna. This oldest town in Sweden was founded in 980 and has a significant history; Swedens first coins were minted from here.

                                          

                                          


  I wanted to venture to my next historic site so I boarded a bus that had Steningebadet posted on the window, my intention was to go to Steninge Slott and this bus was supposed to go to within 2 kms of my destination. It turned out that Steningebadet was a place for swimming which meant that I had at least a 7 km return walk to get to where I wanted to go. Steninge Slott is a palace that was built in 1705, it was very nice and well worth the effort to get there.

 
   I can suggest to people not to miss experiencing the beauty of Stockholm and the surrounding area; I can say that you would probably find it hard not to take so many photo's (I took 300); I can suggest to give yourself enough time to relax and take it all in if you plan to go. What I can highly recommend is wear good shoes if you are going to walk more than 100 kms, AND make sure that if your flight itinerary reads July 1st, that you show up on that day. I missed my flight and had to spend 3,376 Kroner ($350 US) to get a new 2 hour flight to Amsterdam. Despite that brain malfunction, Stockholm was amazing.