A Swedish Odyssey......

Thursday 5th July. It rained during the night and the morning overcast. We were going on a cruise but it didn't run today so the day was rearranged and we headed into the city to see City Hall. A very impressive building, half of which is a fully functioning seat of city administration. The other half of the building, the one we have come to see, is the ceremonial side where state occasions take place, the most famous of which is the presentation on the Nobel Prize.




Waiting for our guided tour to start while soaking up the sun overlooking the water.



The main ballroom where the presentation takes place.


Another of the wonderful rooms, The Gold Room, for obvious reasons.


This ceiling is based on the structure of an upturned boat. The blue is paint not the sky.



After the tour we climbed to the top of the City Hall tower and had great views over Stockholm. This is over Gamla Stan towards Slussen.


The white building is Jim's office. The external balcony to the canteen can be seen at this end.



We found a nice place for lunch called Pickwick's but rather than sit outside with the crowd...



...we virtually had the inside to ourselves.

After lunch we caught the No47 bus to Skansen. This is a park that has been developed to show a cross section of old Sweden. Its in a beautiful setting and houses relocated buildings, workshops, farm buildings, church etc.


This is the sign outside the bread shop where we bought pastries. The sign reminded me of the knot shown on the coat of arms of the county of Staffordshire in England. The story goes that four men we due to be hanged and the judge said that whoever could design a knot to hang the other three could go free. True or false, who knows, but a good story.



Some of the old timber buildings with sod roofs.



Very old Rune stones everywhere.


In the children's section of a small zoo there is this strange decoration in a number of the trees around an enclosure that houses kittens.
On closer examination the decoration is made up of children's dummy's. To encourage children to give up their dummy's they are bought here and asked to donate them to the kittens. It seems to work as the trees are full of them.


Its been a very long, hectic and full day. Even our tour guide fell asleep on the ferry ride home.