Stockholm, Day 1 – May 31, 2015
Well, waking up at 3:00 in the morning after going to be
early the previous day isn’t my idea of fun, but you have to work with what you
get. The jet lag hit me real hard, and I
was out like a light until I wasn’t.
There isn’t a lot happening on Sunday morning in Stockholm
at 5:30 in the morning, except me! It’s
always nice to explore a city while everyone is still in bed and staying out of
your pictures either intentionally or unintentionally. So, that’s what I did.
The trams from the hotel weren’t running that early in the
morning, so I walked from my hotel to the subway station – about 10
minutes. I took what I thought was a
shortcut only to find I had stumbled upon a camp of homeless people. They obviously took me for one of their own
and didn’t bother me, so I walked quietly back out the way I came and stuck to
the main road again.
The subway was open and there were maybe two or three people
there waiting for the train. Again, easy
peasey, I was in the Old Town in no time.
All of the pictures I am sharing on this page are of the Old
Town and surrounding area. I’ll do
different pages for the other two excursions I did today, so be on the lookout
for those too.
1st impressions:
I had an idea I was going to like this place when the lady bus driver
from the airport put on classical music for us to listen to on the way in. Talk about relaxing you into a country – who does
that? My hotel isn’t expensive, but it’s
one of the nicest I’ve stayed in at the cost in a long long time. Plenty of room to stretch out and throw your
stuff around, and the décor is really simple, artistic and elegant. Here is a link to give you an idea of what I’m
talking about:
The staff are also very pleasant and all speak English. Were able to help get me where I needed to go
and offered advice on where to eat, shop, etc., in the local area. What more can you ask for.
The people are all very friendly so far, and most of the
people I have talked to were able to help me in English.
Today I had lunch at a Thai Restaurant, and the
menu was in not English and the staff were all non-English speakers, but the
menu had pictures, and between my waitress and the pictures, we got the job
done. Yeaaaaa! Picture menus!!! I didn’t know how to ask for water, I didn’t
see a picture, so I ordered beer – we do what we must.
As far as the weather, yesterday when I arrived, it looked
pretty bleak and rained for the better part of the day. Today was a little better, but it was very
very very cold. I bought a Scotte Vest
for this trip – mostly for security reasons, but it really came in handy today
for the cold and keeping out the biting wind.
The vest is great, by the way, it has 500 pockets, about 499 pockets
more than I need, because I can never remember what I put where, and I wind up
putting everything in one pocket after all, but it gives me the false sense of
security I need to prevent pickpockets, etc.
But I digress… Anyway, the sun
came in and out all day, and it even rained a bit, but it wasn’t totally
terrible.
The city itself is easy to get around with my Map App and by
doing some planning ahead of time.
Google Maps helps me plan public transport from anywhere to there, so I
copy notes onto my iPad, and the info is available any time I need it. Using One Note, I can cut and paste clips
from my web browser to access off line as needed.
Here's a helpful website with lots of good info: http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Gamla_stan
Here are the pics from my early morning romp around the city’s
Old Town area.
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