I've already mentioned how noisy the area we're staying in is and the lack of equipment in the flat so I won't labour on those issues. After breakfast we headed out to catch the 10:00 boat (we have a 2 day Red Sightseeing City Tour ticket which includes the boat), a few shots as we walked through the old town; it's certainly much nicer in the morning before the tourists descend.
Unfortunately the boat was cancelled about 10 mins before sailing time. We wouldn't have had time to do a whole circuit on the bus and be back for the 11:00 sailing so we had no choice but to sit around and kick our heels waiting.
Looking up Slottsbacken towards Stockholm Cathedral.
National Musuem with our boat finally approaching.
The Royal Palace from the water.
AF Chapman, built in February 1888 in Whitehaven, England, is a 3 masted fully-rigged ship now used as a youth hostel and cafe.
These rather Parisian-looking buildings are along Strandvagen, a famous waterfront boulevard and street located in the Ostermalm district of Stockholm, Sweden. The ornate 19th-century Neo-Renaissance and Art Nouveau apartment buildings were completed in 1897 for Stockholm World's Fair.
Shamrock, a two-masted wooden gaff schooner.
Some of the attractions at the Grona Lund Amusement Park.
This decommissioned shipyard dock crane painted to
look like a giraffe is called Tor and was relocated to Stockholm in 1988 having
once been one of a pair, the other being an elephant crane.
A hotel is now housed in this former 19th century grain mill.
I'm not sure what the red building at the front is but the taller one is a 19th century castle on a small island which is connected to the main areas by a bridge.
Gamla Stan's waterfront.
And back round to our starting point opposite the National Museum.
We then had a 20 mins or so wait for the next bus. Gamla Stan and Sodermalm (the next island
going south) are separated by the water
strait and traffic hub of Slussen which features a system of locks that
separate Lake Malaren from the Baltic Sea.
We're now on Vasterbron Bridge which crosses back over Lake Malaren.
Actually it's interesting to see from this map just how huge the Lake Malaren is (440 sqkm).
Back in central Stockholm, this is the clock tower of the central Post Office building.
Crossing the bridge onto the neighbouring island of Djurgarden.
We're now back in central Stockholm - sorry it's all a bit disjointed, sometimes it's just not possible to take a shot from a moving bus. This rather splendid building is the Royal Dramatic Theatre.
We then headed back on foot towards Gamla Stan, walking first through Kungstradgarden; this statue is of King Charles VIII.
St James's Church, named after James the Greater, the patron saint of pilgrims.
Walking past Parliament House.
The sculpture on the lawn celebrates 100 years of universal suffrage and democracy in Sweden. It depicts two contemporary young women carrying a tray with small busts and figures. These smaller sculptures represent the first five women elected to the Swedish Parliament in 1921.
This looked rather like a Chinese Fishing Net as seen in Kochi!
Looking back over the water is the home of the Royal Swedish Opera.
Strombron Bridge
The canal separating Parliament House from Gamla Stan, with the spire of Riddarholm Church visible in the background.
And a closer view of Riddarholm Church which is closed to visitors whilst the spire undergoes restoration - shame as it is the final resting place of Swedish kings and is Stockholm's only preserved medieval abbey.
Riddarholm Church is on Riddarholm Island (where else?) and some of the buildings nearby where quite lovely.
The steel construction over the water is an events and convention centre, somewhat overshadowed by the Radisson Hotel behind it.
Evert Taube, a famous Swedish balladeer and composer, shown playing a lute whilst seated.
Stockholm City Hall which hosts the annual Nobel Prizegiving.
Stockholm Central Station and Stockholm World Trade Centre.
This is Birger Jarls Tower a historic defensive tower
located on the northwest corner of Riddarholm. It was built around 1530 under King Gustav I to
replace earlier wooden fortifications destroyed by a fire in 1525. Birger
Jarl was the traditional founder of Stockholm, though the tower was actually
built centuries after his lifetime.
The gable end of the House of Nobility.
I couldn't safely get far enough back in the road to take a head on shot of the whole building, so I pinched this from online.
Back on Sodermalm we found the 18th century built area of Mariaberget which features narrow, winding cobblestone alleys and viewpoints overlooking Lake Malaren and Gamla Stan.
It was interesting to see that the stepped design of the roofs is purely ornamental and the roof behind is normal.
This sculpture is entitled Ship of Fools and like most others we've seen here, modern.
Another view of the lock system as we walked back to our apartment.
We got back to Gamla Stan around 17:00 and decided to stop for a drink and watch the world go by. The main pedestrian strip just near us was heaving and all the outside spaces in bars were taken, so we dropped down one street and found room outside an Irish pub called The Liffey (what else?). We were delighted to see it was Happy Hour and thus glasses of wine were 2 for 1 so went inside to order two and said we'd be sitting outside and the drinks were duly delivered. We got chatting to the guy sitting at the next table and he was very interesting; born on Corsica but bought up in Italy, he'd lived in Stockholm for many years and seemed to know everyone and everything about the area (he was quite keen to point out that, in terms of hospitality, most venues were Muslim owned and that the equivalent of crowd funding is very common within the Muslim community to enable people without the means to buy/rent premises) I rather think he was a bit of a local Mr Fix It and somehow involved in the rental and/or sale of restaurants etc. After an hour or so he made his excuses, got up and simply left; leaving us half wondering if his drinks had gone on our tab - never mind if they had, we'd enjoyed meeting him. As the sun was still shining we decided to stay and have another drink and when the young lady came over to take our order she surprised us by asking for payment in advance whereupon we explained that we'd already had 2 glasses but not yet paid. This apparently was totally against company policy so we described who had served us and she went off to check, coming back to say that there was nothing against our table and so, unfortunately, she couldn't charge us for the first two drinks.
So did the first bartender fail to charge us or open a table tab or, because we were chatting with Daniel, did they get paid for by him or even waived as we were drinking with Mr Fix It - we'll never know!
Having had some very cheap drinks we decided we could afford to eat in Stortorget, the main square and although the restaurant wasn't as well situated as the one we'd had a drink in yesterday, it was OK and the food edible.
