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Steve headed off after breakfast this morning to pick up his fixed Nikon D80 camera from Nikon headquarters and so Hollie and I finished off some of the accumulated washing as the machines were free! Once all the chores were done and Steve became a happy camera bunny again we decided to buy a boat and bus ticket to get to know the City, real tripper stuff!  Caught the open top bus around the town and then hoped off for a beer in Gamla Stan which is the old part of town.  We then went to check out a couple of restaurants for Steve’s birthday celebration on the 4^th July.  First stop was Pontus by the Sea (Steve had another beer just to make sure it was okay!) and we sat outside watching the world go by.  Then a walk back to the main centre of the City and to a Restaurant called Restaurangen!  This does taste courses and you choose 3, 5 or 7 courses each with a drink to accompany it…..sounded lovely and so we booked a table for Steve’s birthday. Then we wandered back into town and the main park where people where beginning to congregate for the footy, Germany V Turkey semi final. There was a huge screen and the TV commentators who I’ve been listening to for the last few weeks but not having a clue what they were going on about, were there in their box! I just had to stay and watch the first half, there was a big Turkish crowd and red flares were being set off much to the annoyance of the numerous Police! It started to get a little cold and so at half time and the game pretty even we decided to wander back to the boat. It was a good job we did as during the second half a thunder storm in Austria where the game was held cut the transmission and so I was left listening to the commentators again!  Luckily texts came flooding in as my friend Martin and my brother Mark kept me updated on the ever changing score line.  The crowd back at the park got very frustrated looking at the pictures on the TV, especially when Germany went on to win, and so we were glad we’d made it home!

26^th June 2008 

Had a cycle ride through the Djurgarden, an old royal hunting ground with lots of wonderful trees and grass on a glorious hot day. We then headed for the Kaknastornet (TV tower) to get a view of the city and the sea. Its 155m tall and is one of the tallest buildings in Scandinavia!  Had afternoon tea before heading back to the park and a rest overlooking the water.

In the evening we went to Tivoli, one of the rides is like a huge swinging chair roundabout which we all went on, had to grip my flip flops on using my big toes, they almost ended up in the sea!

27^th June

Today we spent most of the day in Skansen which is a vast open air museum with 150 reconstructed buildings from a whole town to windmills and farms, laid out on a region by region basis.  There was also a zoo containing Nordic animals such as Elk, brown bears (didn’t know that they had bears…….lions and tigers and bears, oh my!!) which can be found up North, where we are going next!

Ended up at the Sami village and sat inside the wooden tipi, made some bread, chatted about Sami culture, now very excited about our trip on the Inlandsbanan, will say more later!

After a horse and carriage ride (I am sooooo allergic to horses and so sneezed all the way round!) and a funicular railway back down the hill we wandered out and headed for the Aquarium right by the marina. The aquarium was great, each part in regions of the world, my favourite being the Amazon……is this telling us something…..should we or shouldn’t we do the alternative ARC, the rally you’ve never heard of (Les Iles du Soleil Yachting monthly June 08 page 66!)….answers on a postcard please!!!!!

Got back to the boat and packed our bags for the land trip????!!! I had found out whilst reading the rough guide to Sweden that one of the must do trips is the Inlandsbanan, described as ranked as one of the best European train journeys covering 1167km up past the arctic circle and to the midnight sun.  Well must do it then team Parry!  All set and ready to go!