WANDERINGS - STOCKHOLM PART 3

Final part on Stockholm I promise!!

We returned to Stockholm on Sunday morning and with the sun now shining the City looked so completely different! I must admit that when I first arrived I wasn't sure about the city - definitely preferring Copenhagen, however with the sun shining............

There were people everywhere, boats - small and large - were ploughing across the channels separating all the islands and the water was dancing in the sunglight. The city was alive!



We decided to go to Skansen the world's first outdoor museum, home to over 150 old buildings brought from all over Sweden to the museum on Djurgarden. It's laid out geographicall with buildings from the north of Sweden to the north of the site and from the south of Sweden to the south. There are farmsteads, village halls, Sami summer villages, old shops and workshops, churches, schools etc. You can go inside many of the buildings and learn about life at the time the building was built and watch craftsmen making glass, furniture, shoes etc. The museum also has a selection of Scandinavian animals including wolverine, otters, elk and reindeer. All of this is set in beautiful surroundings with fantastic views over the City.




In the evening we took a walk along the waterfronts of the city watching a host of balloons floating gently across the skyline and viewing the colourful buildings in the dusk light.


Monday was our last morning in Stockholm so we walked through Sodermalm to do a little shopping in the trendy shops there - on the "Hump" from Slussen before heading to Gamla Stan for a final wander. On Gamla Stan we saw the changing of the guard outside the royal palace (now I would never watch this if it were happening outside Buckingham Palace but hey when abroad - be a tourist!!) and did a little more shopping before I headed to the airport and Mari to the Nobel Museum before she had to leave for the airport!

SHOPPING IN STOCKHOLM

We found some great little shops in Stockholm - particularly on Osterlangg. on Gamla Stan and Sodermalm. There were a number of beautiful knitting shops where I bought the most beautiful ball of finger weight yarn - Uruguayan not Scandinavian - from a company called Malabrigo (my travelling companion Mari was born in Uruguay so was taken with the yarn) which means bad coat, apparently something you would say if you go out without a raincoat, or too thin a coat! The yarn is hand-dyed merino and is soooo soft, it's a dark purply blue mix called Paris Night. I tihnk it will make a beautiful lace scarf!



There was also the most amazing sweet shop - just look at those lollipops in the window!



I also managed to buy a couple of magazines - my favourite Marie Claire Idee and Dwell - a US magazine that I actually like - I usually think they have too many adverts and not enough content but this one is pretty well balanced and the articles interesting - I particularly liked the article on playpark design.