My Russian Life: Stockholm

We visited Stockholm, Sweden last weekend. I really love the Nordic countries - lots to do, great balance of culture & the outdoors, the people are friendly, super clean with a great focus on the environment, it's incredibly safe, and they have a really high standard of living (although it is expensive). Neither Pat nor I had ever visited Stockholm, and I was super excited to get to visit somewhere new.

Stockholm Cathedral

Main square in Old Town, Gamla Stan

Just in case you were not sure exactly where Stockholm is, here it is. And the city is made up of 14 islands, making just a small part of the Stockholm Archipelago (which is 30,000+ islands & islets in total)

My 1st laugh of the trip was after I got through passport control, and saw this. Of course I knew ABBA was from Sweden, but I didn't realize that I would see ABBA references everywhere . And these puppets are too funny.

We stayed at the Hotel Rival, in the Sodermalm neighborhood. I liked it a lot, a boutique-type hotel, nice bar & restaurant, cool design. It is owned by..... one of the ABBA members (Benny Anderson). Like I said, they are everywhere in this town

Cool nightclub at the hotel.

My favorite thing about the hotel was the city park in front of it. Nightly Boule tournaments (similar to Bocce, but the French version of the game). Fierce competition by a lot of people who looked like they spent most days playing Boule (vs. working)

Sodermalm is on a hill, so we had a great view of the city

Here are a few pictures of a really interesting church located on the island of Skeppsholmen. It's the Riddarholmskykan, or Riddarholmen Church. It dates back to 1270, and is one of the oldest remaining structures in Stockholm.

The church is the burial location of Swedish kings and other dignitaries for the past 400 years. On the walls of the church, there are hundreds of coats of arms of knights of the Order of Seraphim, hung when the knight dies.

Tomb of King Gustavus Adolphus and his immediate family. Gustav II Adolf reigned in the 1600's, and is credited with making Sweden the strong power that they were for many years

Walking home on Saturday after dinner.......

Hedvig Eleonora Church in the Ostermalm neighborhood. Cool octagonal shape.

We happened upon a Swedish army troop & decided to follow them. And I like the name "El Maco" much better than Big Mac!

They ended up at the Swedish Army Museum, and did a small performance before setting off on a city parade

I love food markets!

Behind me is Norstedts, a large & old Swedish book publishing company

I couldn't resist taking this picture.

Next was a tour around Gamla Stan, or Old Town. This is the main square, Stortorget, surrounded by old merchant houses and the stock exchange building. I could not figure out who the statue is

Alfred Nobel was Swedish. Now that I think about it, I do recall that they award the Nobel prizes in Stockholm. But I hadn't made the connection.

Alfred invented dynamite, but also had 350+ other patents. The story is that when Alfred's brother died in 1888, it was originally (and incorrectly) reported by French newspapers that Alfred had died. The obituary stated, “Le marchand de la mort est mort” or, "The merchant of death is dead", and went on to say that "Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday". Alfred didn't want that to be his legacy, so he set aside the bulk of his estate to establish the Nobel Prizes.

Below is the Nobel museum, which used to be the old Stockholm Stock Exchange Building, right in the central square.

After an afternoon of sightseeing, we were thirsty!!! I had read in the SAS magazine about a place called Sodra Bar. It was an outdoor terrace & bar, looking over the city. This is why you should ready the airplane magazines!