Another fine day! Saturday, 7/6/24

 

It was our last day in Stockholm, and we had no particular agenda. After breakfast on the Mälardrottningen, we walked off the gangway, turned left, saw the tall tower in the distance and said, "let's go!"   'Twas a pretty morning, a bit windy (below), but all in all, a good day to be Out and About.

Neat-looking tower over there!

No, not there.

Yes, there!

Past this building ...

Around the waterfront to Stockholm's City Hall.

Guarded by lions (and flowers)

Hi Jimmy!  (I see a bride or two)

Tit for Tat, so to speak (above and below)

Wonderful ornamentation on/near this City Hall.  Since its inauguration in 1923, the building has had several functions, both political and ceremonial. One of it's functions is the Nobel Prize banquet which takes place each year, on December 10th.

And, it being Saturday, it was the day for weddings.  Brides in frilly white dresses were everywhere, as well as a groom, the family, a few dogs, and, of course, the photographers.  Quite interesting to watch (some of them).  The grounds of City Hall are perfect for photo ops.  Jimmy and I checked for tours and found out we could hike to the top of the tower at 1:45, so we paid a few bucks, saw we had an hour+ to kill, left the building to walk further.

We had a lovely walk along this canal, sharing it with other walkers, runners and cyclists, watching the yellow kayaks glide through the water; careful not to get lost.

You know, my paternal grandpa was born and grew up in a small Swedish town (not sure where), so it's a treat for me to see this country, land of my forebears, and this attractive city.

We wondered about the three crowns.

Wiki tells us they are one of two official coat of arms of Sweden.

By gum, we did it!  Look at the view!

There's the Mälardrottningen at the red checkmark!

The climb to the top of the tower is mainly stairs and sloped passageways, altogether 365 steps!  We were a little winded when we got to the top, but not too bad.  "The architect of City Hall is rumored to have walked several of the streets in Stockholm to find the perfect gradient for the sloping passageways that lead to the top."

We were here! 💗

That's Jimmy, heading down, down, down.

After this effort, we walked to Gamla Stan (Old Town), looking for a restaurant.  Sure it was early, but we were hungry!  Lucky us to find Barrels and The. Best. Burgers. Ever!  Really and truly.  With fries, also mucho delish.  I can think about these burgers next month and probably drool.

Stikki Nikki!

(Nope, didn't get any!)

Still walking, we stumbled upon Stortorget Square and had our ice cream cone from a kiosk to the left of the pic.  While sitting and enjoying them, we saw band members streaming into the square, chairs were setup, and shortly after, the band started playing.  Behind the band is the Nobel Prize Museum.  Well, Saturday late afternoon, music in the square, how absolutely lovely.  This is a great city.

In the middle of the square was the Swedish well.  It dried out in 1856 due to land elevation, but runs on city water now and is safe to drink.  We didn't fill our water bottle, but plenty of others did.  We strolled back to our hotel yacht, looked at those suitcases, and groaned.

That was our final day in Sweden and it was just exactly right.  Our three-week trip across the pond was finished. On Sunday morning, with suitcases packed, we hired a taxi to take us to the train station - Jimmy put his foot down on dragging those danged things over cobblestones again! - where we boarded the Arlanda Express for a zippy ride to Stockholm's airport.  No glitches, no worries.  We flew 8+ hours to Toronto in daylight, a couple of hours layover, and another 5+ hours in daylight to Sacramento, finally pulling in our driveway at 1am Monday.  By then we'd been up 30 hours and were bleary-eyed.

It was worth it. 💕