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I got some pretty good pictures today. Here's the highlights:
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| From Sweden |
When it was clear that our boat to Uppsala did not exist -- or if it did, it wasn't leaving from where we were -- we decided that the best course of action was for a break. Claire, her father, and I deposited ourselves on Ridderholmen island looking out at the beautiful city hall.
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| From Sweden |
This is Claire asleep in my lap.
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| From Sweden |
After resting, we went over to the Riddarholmskyrkan, final resting place of many great Swedish kings. Unfortunately, photography was forbidden. Inside the floor is covered with worn down smooth marble panels with the name of the monarch that rests below. Off to to the sides and below were great gilded coffins, holding whole generations of families. At the altar, two sarcophagi with carved images of kings reclined upward -- staring at the massive silver chandelier.
Use your imagination.
Next we sought out Grace's Tea Shop, but found a beggar fox-woman along the way.
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| From Sweden |
Does anyone know what fairytale she belongs in?
Lunch at Grace's was excellent. It was a set meal of Jasmine tea, mushroom soup, steamed dumplings, and a fruit and yogurt salad. While a pretty traditional Chinese restaurant in Stockholm is an unusual find, stranger still was the price: 300KR total for the three of us. That's unbelievably cheap for a warming meal on a cool morning.
Our next task was to find the Central Station, and then to conquer the Stockholm rail system. Which we did. Bending the system to our will, we went out to the Historiska Museet to see the famous Gold Room.
Inside were shelf after shelf of Viking and medieval gold hoards. It was a very impressive collection, sadly not photographable. My favorites were easily a nicely preserved helmet with a horse-head mohawk that lead down to a tiny startled-looking head that rested below the nose of the wearer. There were also some belt buckles depicting battles with horrible monsters, which I adored. One of them seemed to show a man fighting a man/bear or man/wolf -- which I think to be a reference to berserkers. This might be the same one.
(linked from Wikipedia)
I wish I could have taken them all. Including the incredibly ornate crucipix with a "piece of the true cross" in it. I know it's fake, obviously, but I had never seen one of these famous relics before.
Then we did a little shopping in the trendy district, where I found all of 1997's websites.
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| From Sweden |
With the rail system now under our thumb and obeying our every command we headed back to the old town island -- Gamla Stan -- and took in a meal of Swedish meatballs and reindeer. We followed this with ice cream, and some final wanderings around the old city.
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| From Sweden |
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| From Sweden |
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| From Sweden |
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| From Sweden |
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| From Sweden |
After using the Swedish metro rail system (which is from the future) we hopped the tram back to our island -- Lidingö. This was definitely a heavy rattling relic from days gone by, whose every noise just emphasizes the weight of the train. It was utterly charming.
And then, off to bed. Here's Chuck (father of Claire) and Claire outside the nicer end of our hotel.
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| From Sweden |
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Today, Claire and I will meander down to Djurgården, and spend the day in its idyllic splendor. We're taking it easy today.
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