Berlin to Stockholm: Part III: Trip to Gamla Stan

On the Sunday, I went to church, which was great.  I met up with another South African.  Werner is married to a Swede and we had a good kuier in Afrikaans - his first in a while.  The music and singing at church was great.  I didn't know any of the songs but the melodies were lovely...definitely different from what I know and amazingly beautiful.  

Taken from the back so unfortunately not very informational.

After church, I was fortunately enough to get 4 tour guides to take me to the oldest part in Stockholm called Gamla Stan.  As I understand it, it dates back from the 13th century.  

Pretty, hey?

At the square Stortoget

This is the narrowest street in Stockholm - Marten-Trotzigs-Graend. I don't have those funny letters, so it's spelled a little different - this is more the phonetic spelling.  It's really narrow; less than a meter wide.  

So you can see how narrow it is

Look at this quaint shopfront...

It's when you look closer that it gets a little freaky...it's a stuffed cat!  A real stuffed cat!!! Freaky-icky methinks.  There are a few stuffed animals in this window display AND in the shop.

Tourist-trap shops mostly, and very expensive.  How I wish i can afford one of these beautiful amber jewelry pieces.  

Just some interesting things from the old town...

Anna-Karin translates the writing - it is a Viking message.

The whole crew

More pretty things...

Old signs displayed in a shop 

The plaque under the light was proof that one had fire insurance and that in case of fire, there would be help in extinguishing fire.  If you didn't buy the insurance your house burnt down. 

Those things that look a bit like HIV/AIDS ribbons anchor the rafters.

This sign says something like Hi. Please don't let your friend pee here.  Sincerely.  The flowers.  

From a church around there...

Lots of shiny pretty things on the walls

I think this is the altar - behind these people are some of the graves you find in the church.

More bling - this where Leonardo got his ideas from?  

This is flat on the ground - a grave in the church.  Looks like it should be from Lord of the Rings.

The date on this grave is 1650

 As always I'm in love with the ornate architecture...

All these towers are covered with copper - hence the green colour.  Wonder how long these things would last in South Africa before someone steals the copper? 

Look at this stunning gargoyle

This one only South Africans would get the relevance of...

The acronym has something to do with the automobile club but doesn't translate too well into Afrikaans.    

One more post to go about my trip to Stockholm.  What a lovely city with really amazing, friendly people.  And joy of joys - everyone I encountered spoke English.  Highly recommended.  

Berlin to Stockholm Part II: Trip to Skansen

My hosts took me to Skansen, which is like an open-air museum in Stockholm.  It is a very popular place, not only for tourists, but also for locals.  

The map of Skansen - and you need it as there is so much to see

A closeup of the area we went to as I wanted to see bears and wolves

First we went for a meal.  I tried the most traditional Swedish thing that they had on the menu which is meatballs (I just ignored that nobody knew what kind of meat these meatballs are made of) with potatoes and lingonberries.   While Anna-Karin though my meal was "boring" as it is so typical of what people eat, to me, the tourist, it was interesting and authentic.  Interesting what an effect your point of view has on a meal.  Here is a picture of my meal.  Note the amazing pancakes the kids ate!  It looked fantastic and Emile couldn't wait until I took the picture - he just dug in as we sat down!

The family Steinholtz sans dad Erik who was still trying to find a parking spot for the car (from left, Emile, Anna-Karin, Gabriel and Emma)

 


Then we were off to see the animals.  There is quite a choice in this corner of the park.  

I must first say that I'm usually hesitant to watch animals in captivity.  Although animals are not kept in cages at Skansen, it still makes me sad to see wild animals in captivity.  Anyway, I wanted to see the wolves and bears as these predators are not indigenous to South Africa.  

This wolf was patrolling the boundary of their enclosure.  

It was very hard for me to watch these two brown bears play fight while watched by smiling crowds.  I just felt very sad that these animals will never know what true freedom is - even though they have a brilliant enclosure, it's just not how it was meant to be.  

At the park they have Elk (which is apparently the same as Moose in North America).  There were two males born in May and they were friendly towards the children.  

Emile and the moose child.

This park is a totally amazing place for children and the kids had a good run around and climb-fest.  Gabriel especially is crazy about climbing and I got pictures of him climbing things everywhere. I thought my nieces would love this rope climbing thing. 

Gabriel right at the top

A very feminine Emma

Gabriel balancing

Gabriel climbing again

Gabriel climbing, Emile following.  Those birds are peacocks

There are a number of relocated traditional Scandinavian buildings at Skansen.  Unfortunately the pictures I took didn't come out clear enough, but here is a sign that explains one of these. 

The Vasveit Storehouse came from a farm in Norway...parts of this building dates from the 14th century.

The older buildings in Stockholm are very decorative.  As it got later in the day, I shot some nice silhouette pictures. 

Anna-Karin feeding a peacock.

The longest escalator I've ever been on.

On our way home - walking to a rendezvous with Erik who had to fetch the car.   

It really was a great day and I had a lot of fun.  It wasn't that cold - I think around 10C and my Oros man jas is very effective.  I still have enough pictures for two more posts, which will follow soon. I also went to Berlin's festival of lights and I will post pictures of that soon.

At the moment I have a bit of flu, which isn't surprising considering that it's cold outside and hot inside.  So, my body has to cope with the constant temperature changes.  I'm still homesick but also enjoying my time here in Berlin.  Miss my dog, probably because I can't Skype her.  Very grateful for Skype - so easy to keep in touch with everyone.  

PS:  Sorry for the wonky picture layout.  Blogger doesn't seem to be WYSIWYG in their layout.  Hope the content of the pictures make out for the layout!

Berlin 2 Stockholm Part I

I was privileged enough to have an absolutely amazing weekend in Stockholm.  I visited friends I met in India in December 2010 - more about them in next posts.  I was warned beforehand that Stockholm would be colder than Berlin, so I made sure I bought a coat.  I look a  bit like the Oros-man in it but it is very warm.  I don't have an iPhone to make this picture look like a real fashion blog pic, but here you can see my jas.

Something funny at the airport here in Berlin - smokers have to get their last fix in this little cube.  I just had to take a picture and the smokers inside was not too chuffed with me.  How funny is this little cage-thingy in the middle of the departure hall.

From the Arlanda airport outside Stockholm, you can take a bus to Stockholm central station for 99SEK.  It's a 45 minute drive, very pleasant bus. 

I took some pictures on the way into Stockholm.

Lovely soft light up North

Most houses are painted this dark red

Airplanes leave these trails... I wonder why we don't see these in PE?

Old and new

Interesting things captured on the drive in...

Get it?  Rock 'n Roll with an accent.  LOL

Interesting combination

This is how you buy a ticket if you don't know what to buy at the automatic ticket machines.

Step 1:  You get a printout of a number.

Step 2:  You wait until your number comes up and go to the counter indicated.  Organised, hey?

More about the trip on the next post.  I took sooooo many pictures, so it will take a few posts to show all.