RoyII

Well...I made it there and back!

Skansen girl in National costume

To be honest, I wasn't really anticipating any problems for my Stockholm trip - the only real concern I had was whether I would ever see my luggage again after trustingly handing it over to the airport staff at Heathrow Terminal 5. As it turned out, the only irritation was the two hour delay on the outbound flight to Arlanda Airport, caused by too much air traffic - Sweden was proving to be a very popular destination! Apart from obtaining the autograph of Tennis legend Bjorn Borg at the Arlanda Luggage Reclaim, the rest of the trip down was without incident, and I was at my hotel at approximately 10:30pm Stockholm time.

I was based in a place called Gamla Stan, an island roughly at the centre of Stockholm. Forming the 'Old Town' of the city, it truly was a lovely place with cobbled roads and medieval looking streets. It also had some great pubs. One I frequented regularly was called 'Stampen', which had live music every night. Even though it billed itself as a Jazz Pub, a lot of the music played was of the R & B styli played by the likes of Eric Clapton. All of it was good stuff though. The barmaid was also very attractive - she was part of the unusually high proportion of stunning blonde girls that the Swedes have in an endless supply. There seemed to be at least one of them in every cafe or restaurant I was in. At times it seemed unreal!

I didn't spend the whole time eating and drinking though. Getting around was made very easy by something called a Stockholm Card. This was a pass that could be picked up from the Tourist Office for about £40.00, that allowed you free public transport and admission for Museums and events over a period of forty eight hours after the card was first activated. I used it on the tubes and the trams, and I used it to go to a Midsummer's Festival in a place called Skansen, which is where the picture above was taken. In my travels I quickly recovered the cost of the pass.

The only minor gripe I had was the living costs - with beer and food prices being a little above the level here in London, I found my money went fast - a round of drinks would not get much change from SEK200, or just under twenty pounds. It was the same storey for coffees and meals.

Despite the above whinge - I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. I would love to go again...though I will have to quite a bit of saving first!