Still travelling
I have sort of developed a Stockholm Syndrome: no one kidnapped us or anything, but I am absolutely in love with the city. It's one of the most beautiful places I have seen: channels with fast running water everywhere, intersected by bridges, and little islands chock full of deliciously decorated houses: painted, decorated, and with fanciful stonework.
Our hotel is in Gamla Stan, the oldest part of town (and yet another island): Gamla Stan is home to narrow medieval streets, a palace of Karl XII (of Poltava fame, a clearly a better builder than a fighter), various squares, konditerei (seriously, whoever invented that many ways to do a dessert has my undying love), coffee shops, stores, and ice-cream parlors.
Happiness for a twelve year old. Or me. One of the most amusing things are two buildings, quite near to each other: one is 'Lady Hamilton' restaurant and another is...'Lord Nelson hotel' complete with a wooden statue of a legless armless Nelson. I am unsure why the Swedish would want to name a hotel after a guy who was the enemy of the former boss of Swedenäs then-king, but maybe it's their desire to avenge themselves that got these above two buildings not too near each other. Not letting even this Nelson have fun :)
Lots of things are closed on Monday so we wandered around town, saw a Royal church (can you say OVERDONE) and ended up in a truly bizarre place: a little island home to hundreds of imported historical buildings from all over Sweden: 19th century farmhouses, 18th century belfries, and God knows what else, iincluding which looked like, I swear, Baba Yaga's hut, complete with chicken legs. The highlight of that visit was my very adult chasing after various chicken wandering in the yard as some representative chicken or similar.
The food is also yummy, though expensive. Ma and Pa, I had a pike dish, with potatoes. Very very Russian, actually (even more so than the various wooden houses in the museum).
Last but not least, our hotel. Heeeeee. Because we were last to check in last night, they said they only had one room. A suite, actually. In the basement. On the minus side, it had no windows and the furniture looked like left+overs from IKEA, but on the bright side, this was the first and only time we ever stayed in a room with our own conference table. This whole thing was labeled as 'conference room 1-3' and had, in addition to the bedroom: hallways with carpet,kitchen, living room with armchairs and what not, two bathrooms, and separate sinks, shower, sauna, and as I said, a huge long conference room, complete with arm chairs, projector and board.
I had nightmares that conferencers tried to break in :) Happily they switched us to a human+sized, prettier, above ground room today. We are clearly not cut out to be rich.
We are in Stockholm tomorrow and 'day after,' and then on 'day after,' in the evening are flying to Oslo.
P.S. Sorry for not responding to anyone, as computer time is pretty limited. Will do when get home...
Our hotel is in Gamla Stan, the oldest part of town (and yet another island): Gamla Stan is home to narrow medieval streets, a palace of Karl XII (of Poltava fame, a clearly a better builder than a fighter), various squares, konditerei (seriously, whoever invented that many ways to do a dessert has my undying love), coffee shops, stores, and ice-cream parlors.
Happiness for a twelve year old. Or me. One of the most amusing things are two buildings, quite near to each other: one is 'Lady Hamilton' restaurant and another is...'Lord Nelson hotel' complete with a wooden statue of a legless armless Nelson. I am unsure why the Swedish would want to name a hotel after a guy who was the enemy of the former boss of Swedenäs then-king, but maybe it's their desire to avenge themselves that got these above two buildings not too near each other. Not letting even this Nelson have fun :)
Lots of things are closed on Monday so we wandered around town, saw a Royal church (can you say OVERDONE) and ended up in a truly bizarre place: a little island home to hundreds of imported historical buildings from all over Sweden: 19th century farmhouses, 18th century belfries, and God knows what else, iincluding which looked like, I swear, Baba Yaga's hut, complete with chicken legs. The highlight of that visit was my very adult chasing after various chicken wandering in the yard as some representative chicken or similar.
The food is also yummy, though expensive. Ma and Pa, I had a pike dish, with potatoes. Very very Russian, actually (even more so than the various wooden houses in the museum).
Last but not least, our hotel. Heeeeee. Because we were last to check in last night, they said they only had one room. A suite, actually. In the basement. On the minus side, it had no windows and the furniture looked like left+overs from IKEA, but on the bright side, this was the first and only time we ever stayed in a room with our own conference table. This whole thing was labeled as 'conference room 1-3' and had, in addition to the bedroom: hallways with carpet,kitchen, living room with armchairs and what not, two bathrooms, and separate sinks, shower, sauna, and as I said, a huge long conference room, complete with arm chairs, projector and board.
I had nightmares that conferencers tried to break in :) Happily they switched us to a human+sized, prettier, above ground room today. We are clearly not cut out to be rich.
We are in Stockholm tomorrow and 'day after,' and then on 'day after,' in the evening are flying to Oslo.
P.S. Sorry for not responding to anyone, as computer time is pretty limited. Will do when get home...