Megumi and I went to Scandinavia for two weeks in late September and early October. We took along our new digital camera, complete with a 1-gigabyte disk for the thing (thanks to Adam for buying it for us and accepting only the US$3.00 we found in my sock drawer as payment) that we didn't come close to filling up. But we did take about 700 pictures in all, I think . . . AND HERE THEY ALL ARE! Kidding!
Here is the first batch of pictures. These were all taken in Stockholm, the first stop on our journey. We were there for three nights and enjoyed it a lot, even though we never seemed to find any restaurants to go to.
 |
This is the Johannes kyrka (church), which sat on the hill right behind our hotel. Se arrived on Saturday night and when we ventured out on Sunday morning the grounds were bustling with people on their way to services. Great weather, great color on the bricks and roof . . .
|
 |
We walked to Djurgården (hope that's the island and not the park), one of many islands in the "Venice of the north." Here Megumi wanted to see Junibacken, a useum of Swedish children's literature. Lots of kids and a packed parking area just for baby carriages. This is the view north to the Strandvågen, with its old industrialist mansions.
|
 |
One of the dozens of VERY blond kids we saw cavorting in the museum this day. Note the hand-hammered shingles on the roof; this room was a fully equipped workshop where kids could pound nails and saw boards.
|
 |
Megumi finds just the book she wants to read . . . after she masters Swedish. (She has this one in Japanese. There's a movie of it, too.) The Lotta series is by Astrid Lindgren, better known for creating Pippi Longstocking.
|
 |
We walked next to the old city center of Gamla Stan--a whole new island. This is the interior of the Storkyrkan, the Great Cathedral next to the royal palace. Beautiful brickwork you'll only see in a country with no earthquakes.
|
 |
Some random street leading down to the water.
|
 |
A narrow lane (and wide guy) in Gamla Stan.
|
 |
Megumi poses in the Stortorget, the square in front of the Nobel Museum. This was the site of the Stockholm Bloodbath. We looked for blood but they seemed to have cleaned it up nicely since 1520.
|
 |
One joy of going off-season: It's harder to find people to take a picture of the two of you, so you end up with solo shots and arm-straining self portraits like this one. Also on Gamla Stan.
|
 |
Ignore the fact that this photo goes with "random street" above. Here we are in that random street, which means for a moment it was there just for us, and not so random any more.
|
 |
Megumi walks down an old-town road.
|
 |
I took this picture because it screamed "Europe!" to me.
|
 |
Swedish flag, artfully draped ivy. *snap*
|
 |
The next day we went south again, crossing water and coming to a tower with a nice view. This is looking north to Gamla Stan and the City Hall tower beyond that (tower on the left). We'll go climb that next.
|
 |
The thing about Swedish phone booths is, Superman could never change in one without getting arrested for public indecency.
|
 |
Another view to the north. The far left is City Hall, which we decided to go check out after seeing it across the water.
|
 |
Climbing the 365 steps to the top of the tower. We didn't count them, but we saw some other people doing that.
|
 |
The view from the top! The sky was wonderful to look at these first few days.
|
 |
The ever-popular windblown look. We were on top at precisely 3:00 p.m., when the enormous bells right on top of us rang out some gargantuan song. It shocked us but we managed not to fall off.
|
 |
Posing on top of the tower. The camera has a swing-out screen that you can swivel for easy viewing. I could never get the hang of looking at the lens instead of that damn screen.
|
