Stockholm!

[nineveh_uk]

In my last post, I was about to go on holiday to Stockholm for a week with antisoppist and her Small Daughter. We had a lovely week and the weather was very nice and I regretted not having packed more summery things. I was really, really happy with how my energy levels held up to sight-seeing, much better than a year ago, and the travel, though I probably did overdo it and was very tired when I got back for the rest of my time off work. Minor bug? Long Covid? It can be difficult to tell. I did a few small things and finished writing a fic, but not as much as I had hoped with my 5 remaining days of holiday, and a lot more flopping on the sofa watching Good Omens 2. I perked up on Monday, but then it was a manic week back at work. Plus ça change...

Anyway, Stockholm. It was as lovely as I remembered it, and the place we stayed on an island was perfect for what we needed (even with rail replacement bus service over the bridge. Swedish RRBs are much better than British ones). The surroundings were lovely, fresh cool air, forest, lake, sea, cherry tree in the garden, and a house that was so Swedish that it felt you might stumble upon a corpse at any moment. I played a mental game of "IKEA or Åhléns" with the interior design and came home determined to get on with my own decoration, though I will probably go fr slightly less exquisite shades of grey. I bought a metre of Marimekko fabric in the sale which will be a start as a pair of cushions. We visited the Norsdiska Museum, which had an amazing exhibition of couture fashion, plus Scandinavian travel posters and, more depressingly, the melting arctic, Gamla Stan, Storkyrkan (creative use of elk antlers in a George and the Dragon sculpture), the Royal Armouries (which turned out to be a fascinating exhibition of 500 years of Swedish monarchy, not words I would normally utter), Millesgården (just me), walked in the woods, caught the ferry into the city and to Vaxholm, and ate mostly cheese/pasta/cinnamon buns for minimum cooking. And cherries.

Comments

[mrs_redboots]

How fabulous! I do wish we had had more time in Stockholm - as it was, we had a wonderful walk the first evening, including stopping for supper in a random restaurant. And we took a tourist bus next day, since we hadn't had a chance to see most of what there was to see. But your week sounds wonderful, even if you were exhausted afterwards. We were, quite badly, after our trip, and could do nothing for a couple of days.

[nineveh_uk]

I definitely want to go back again soon and see more of it. I'm not surprised you were tired after your epic trip!

[mrs_redboots]

It actually took me a few weeks to feel really great again - obviously I'm not quite as fit as I thought I was, or maybe, at 70, I don't bounce back....

[azdak]

It all sounds wonderful and I'm very grateful that we got to see the creative use of antlers in the George and the Dragon sculpture. I think Wolfgang was in Vaxholm around the same time as you, or possibly shortly after - if you spotted a fat, elderly boat with a red and white Austrian flag that would have been Akka! He's currently somewhere between Copenhagen and Malmö on his way back, having carried out my strict instructions to buy some Ahlens (I admire your typographically correct rendering!) tea towels, though I doubt they will be as nice as that lovely fabric you acquired.

[nineveh_uk]

I was so impressed with the use of antlers to make a really organic-feeling dragon. It was wonderfully plausible as an animal.

I have just checked my photo of a smaller sailing boat, and it is not Akka. It looked absolutely lovely weather for sailing,I hope Wolfgang has been enjoying himself as well as purchasing teatowels. I did go round the entire home design department, but though I got a trivet and a lid for a Margrethe mixing bowl, I was mostly feeling that I had been inspired to get on with new radiators. The fabric was obtained in a failed quest for replacement Marimekko woollen socks (amazing, but do go through on the back of the heels), and I did not resist. I have got as far as washing and ironing it and purchasing zips, and yet have somehow not sewn.

(I checked and C+P'ed Ahlens.)

[nnozomi]

Very glad you guys enjoyed the trip! Lovely photos, I remember those warm-colored plastered walls from my only trip to Sweden years ago. And I love Marimekko fabrics.

[nineveh_uk]

It was a lovely break. antisoppist also indulged some different Marimekko.