Stockholm 2

Today we woke up a little after nine and hurried downstairs for breakfast which ends at 10.  The sun was up, but it's location was more where it falls in NYC at 7:30 a.m.  Dawn and dusk seem to take hours to mature to their fullness.  Pär met us at the hotel and took us all over the city.  It was cold, but the sun was out and when it got too chilly we'd just duck inside someplace a bit.

 For my family:  Coffee bread is on the breakfast buffet.  I ate about 10 of these.

 Kurt and his personal shopper, Pär, evaluate gloves.

 Christmas market in downtown.

 We had Glögg, but alcohol is so highly regulated here I'm pretty sure these were not very potent.

 Walking toward Old Town...

 enjoying our beverages.

 I love horses.  I saw horse poo, but that's it.

 Old town...or Gamla Stan

 The Stockholm Arsenal Supporters bar.

 Then we headed over to Sodermalm...

 Kurt said his mom had one of these when he was growing up.

 Up some hills to a good photo spot....

 Down the other side...

 The right side is for pushing baby carriages up and down.

 Government sponsored artist colony.

 This is the Skype headquarters.  It's a Swedish company...which I didn't know.

 Records.

 A serious discussion about records...

 Coffee!  This place was cool.  There were a few punk rock kids.

 These were very dense and chewy...not too sweet...like an uncooked oatmeal cookie or something.

 It was dark when we left the cafe.  We jumped on a bus and headed North.  Dogs are allowed on all public transport here.

 Kurt's mustache on the bus.

 A bar known for it's crazy holiday decorations.  That is a Christmas tree tied to the ceiling.

 Pär took us to one of his old haunts.

 The biggest pint I've ever seen.  It was actually just a pint, but my entire face fit in that cup.

 I refuse to use flash.  I apologize that my camera has no stability control without it.  And when I raise the ISO it's too grainy.  This was about the 7th attempt at getting a good shot so we gave up.

 The 1st attempt.

 The Swedes are very serious.   And they really like licorice.

 This was at a 7-11.  They are all over the place here.  I love candy.

 We walked from the pub back to the hotel.

 Hotel lobby.

 Elevator.

Then we walked back to Sodermalm for a curry.

 This hill by the way...real steep.  Like San Francisco style steep.

 The only frenchie I've seen here.  They have a lot of small staffordshire terriers, spaniels, terriers, setters, weinmaraners, and large stock dogs.  I've seen one pug, 2 small chi things, and one small pomeranian cross.  

 Indian!

 After Indian we had one more drink at a place called "ChillBar".  It smelled funny and was playing bad dance music, definitely not chill.   We had a rousing discussion about the ancient world, conquests of Rome, the crusades, the 7 wonders of the word (old and modern), economics of the EU, and socializing healthcare in America.  It was 11:30 before we knew it so Pär went home and we headed back to the hotel.  He has finals next week-it was very gracious of him to give up his entire day to us.

Not really a walking town.  At midnight anyway.

Stockholm is an interesting place.  It's small, and expensive-you'll pay more for name brand items here than anywhere else I've been.  They sell things over MSRP, it isn't an exchange rate issue.  It's very clean and modern and beautiful.  The people are friendly and polite.  They base what they know of Americans off the many U.S. TV shows that they get here.  It is completely acceptable for men to have long hair, and they are not nearly as interested in talking about the Vikings as I am.

Tomorrow we head to Gutenburg on the 2:29 train.  We won't get in until 5:30.  It's 1:18 a.m. now, and we are both wide awake.  Which means I'll make some good progress in my travel read, North and South.