Sunny Stockholm

Well, I made it through Kalmar, Sweden and arrived in Stockholm yesterday afternoon. First really warm day I've had since I left Austria. I'm even wearing shorts today.

Back to Copenhagen for a bit. The last day there, I saw quite a few groups of Swedes wandering around, loudly singing/chanting what I took to be sport fight songs. Also a lesser number of Danes doing the same thing. How can he tell a Swede from a Dane, you ask. The Swedes are blond, while the Danes ... No that's not it. The Swedes were wearing Blue and Gold T shirts, and the Danes red with a white cross.

Anyway, that evening, in the hotel common area, there was soccer (futbal) match on TV between Sweden and Denmark. Answers the question of why the fight songs. Nothing more to do, so I watched it. Things were really going Sweden's way when I got there. 3 - 0, but it soon changed to 3-3 and got really exciting. Then some idiot Dane ran out on the field and attacked the referee. The result was that the refs stopped the match, and awarded Sweden a 3 - 0 win. T&hat would really make some US fans stop and think. a Fellow American watching the game commented that his picture would be all over the papers the next day. It was. Some penalty.

Moving on. Took the bus to Kalmar. I may have told you that I skipped my planned trip to Malmo . It was rained out. Arrived in Kalmar and found a hostel/hotel to stay in. First nite in the hotel, and second nite in the hostel, as the hotel was fully booked. Not really much difference in the rooms. Found a nice restaurant, Italian, and had a pretty good seafood pasta dinner. There seem to me to be more foreign restaurants that local on this trip. Too late to do much but walk around the town. And that didn't take long. About an hour to circumnavigate the downtown area, which is also the second site of the town. More on that later.

The next day, I did some more looking. Nearly all the downtown area has cobblestone streets, as does what turns out to be the original town (Gamla Stan). I don't think they have been left untouched, though. They have metal access covers for utilities, sewers, etc. I went to the Seafaring Museum. It could have been much more interesting if they had anything in English. Lots of ship models and seafaring gear. It's their museum, so I can't complain. The docent spoke English, but he was much more interested in telling me about his adventures as a seaman along the US west coast from San Pedro to Astoria, and all places in between.

Then I went to the Kalmar castle. Dates back to the 16th century, and is quite the castle, or stoll in Swedish. Similar to schloss/burg in German. This one looked like a burg to me; where the warriors lived. But the kings lived here also. If I ever get to a computer on this trip with a CD, I think I know how to upload photos to the blog, so I may do that. I mentioned to original town earlier. Turns out it was situated right in the line of fire between the castle and any invading armies, and there were a lot of invading armies in those days. So they moved the Town to the island. The original town is now a rather nice residential area. Kalmar turned out to be a rather nice, relaxing stop on the trip. Far from the hustle and bustle of Copenhagen and Stockholm.

Had to leave early Tuesday in order to get to Stockholm at a reasonable hour. Took the bus again. 1/3 the price and a direct connection. I would have had to change trains with only 15 minutes to spare had I chosen the train.

The tourist info center I had counted on being in the train station closed two weeks ago. Guess they heard I was in the area. But the main one was a reasonably short distance away, and with only a three block overshoot, I found it right away. Does that make sense? Hope so. They found me a hotel in a residential neighborhood about a 10 minute train ride from the city center. Nice room, good breakfast, they do laundry, which has become important in recent days. The bag has filled up since I left Austria. I'd tried o book a room on the Internet, but all I tried had only dorms or were booked.

I found the downtown area clogged with people. There was some kind of demonstration going on. Many trucks and tractor pulled wagons filled with kyds. It seems this was a celebration for the end of school. At least that's what the two guys in the booth next to me at the ice cream parlor seemed to say. Really good ice cream, too. It was close to 30 C, or low 80´s when I arrived. A little cooler today, but not much. As I said before, it's shorts weather.

Town wasn't nearly as crowded this AM, around 10. Tried to find the Tallink office so I could make a reservation to take the ferry to Tallinn, Estonia when I leave here. But today is a National holiday, celebrating what, I'm not sure. Many commercial stores are open, but the travel office for Tallink was closed. A huge number of folks have come to town to help celebrate. The main drag is again packed. Not as bad a half dozen or so blocks away from the city center.

The big event for the day was to take the 'Under the Bridges' Boat tour. Stockholm is known by several titles, one of which is 'The Venice of the North', because it's built an a number of islands, necessitating bridges. Nice boat ride, nearly two hours long. That's one of the reasons I took it. It could be much shorter if it weren't for the fact that the boat has to go through two locks. The wait at each was close to 15 minutes. But I saw a lot, and it was a pleasant day to be trapped on a boat.

During my search for an Internet cafe (found one in a 7-11) I noted a lot of police vans along the street. They seemed to congregate on one corner, so I stayed to see what was up. Soon a troop of youngsters carrying flags and banners came marching by.In addition to all the vans full of police, there were a number on foot, and the marchers were escorted by about 18 or more mounted officers. What I didn't understand was that at the intersection, the marchers turned right, and the mounted officers turned left. Tis a puzzlement.

I think that's about it. Think I'll post this to the Blog and then head back for the main part of town. Hope the crowds have thinned, but I doubt it. I'll probably walk around in Gamla Stan (found out that appears to mean Old Town in Swedish. Malmo and Kalmar all have one). And think about something to eat. Swedish meatballs???