EuropeMay2012

Saturday 2 June - the weather was worse today with more rain. We went to the Palace to see the changing of the guard. The Royal band came out first.

Then we visited other parts of the place. The Royal Treasury which housed the crowns and royal jewels from the 16th century onwards was housed under the palace down 2 flights of stairs and in a vault that contained 2 large rooms. Following this we went to the Royal Apartments where special dinners and ceremonies are held. In each room there were displays of medals, paintings of the Kings and old uniforms.

World Trade Centre behind the train station

We then caught the train to Lund in the south of Sweden. It was 600kms and it took us 5 hours. The scenery was very picturesque. Many of the farm buildings were painted red.

We saw many lakes.

There were many pine forest in between the paddocks for crops.

We stayed in a one bedroom apartment as Morgan is travelling with us. It was very large and roomy and a a pleasant change to the small hotel room in Stockholm.

Friday 1 June - we visited the Vasa Museum where a Viking ship is housed. The ship sank in the harbour on its maiden voyage in the 17th century. It was finally raised from the floor of the harbour in the 1960's. It was 98% intact as there is no sea worms that eat wood in Swedish waters.

The timber at the back of the ship had beautiful sculpture with the country's coat of arms.

This is a replica of the ship in full colour of what it would have looked like before it sank.

Back of the ship

Then we walked to a food market.

We had a walk around the city centre.

The Palace

National Parliment

Cultural Centre Fountain

Opera Theatre built in the 18th century

International Food Market near the fountain with Australia represented. Two English people were running a stall selling BBQ kangaroo, beetroot and pineapple on a burger.

Thursday night 31 May - after coming back from Uppsala we walked through the old town of Stockholm before meeting Morgan's Swedish girlfriends and her Rotary counsellor.

Old town- it reminded us of the alleys on the Harry Potter's movies.

Morgan's Swedish friends - we had Fika (Swedish for coffee) near where Mikael Blomkvist in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" did some scenes for the movie.

Then we walked about 2 blocks to Morgan's Rotary counsellor and his wife who had magnificent views of the harbour from their apartment.

Then they took us for a walk around the harbour.

We saw a very old house.

Then we walked to a restaurant for dinner. The restaurant was at the hotel that is owned by Benny from Abba.

Thursday 31 May - took the train to Uppsala, 1 hour north of Stockholm. It is a University city and has the largest Cathedral in Sweden. Today was cold, wet and windy and only got up to 9 degrees.

Train trip

Uppsala was a pretty city.

Cathedral
It was built in the 11th century and was different to other cathedrals that we have seen. It was completely painted inside with murals depicting various scenes from the bible.

Morgan at the front door of the cathedral.

Gustavian museum
It is a part of the University and was opened in the 17th century.

The dome on the building was over the anatomy lecture theatre.

Morgan standing on the very steep stairs to the anatomy lecture theatre. Students had to stand during the lectures.

Exhibits in the museum were dated back to 2300 BC.

Wednesday 30 May - flew from Frankfurt to Stockholm by Scandinavian Airlines. Morgan was at the airport to meet us and we took the fast train into the city. It went at 200kms/hr. The weather was cool at 16 degrees and windy.

We stayed at the Rici Hotel in the middle of the city centre. The room was very small and we had to pay $330 Australian per night and was a 4 star hotel compared to the $115 for the 5-star Westin Hotel in Frankfurt.