Day 2: Stockholm

It was hard to tell what the weather was like when we woke up this morning and looked out of our porthole, but when we ventured outside we were pleased to see it was sunny. We set off into the town centre in search of breakfast. Breakfast proved rather difficult to find, but we did find an enormous church, not far from the train station.

Having explored Stockholm's old town last night, we decided to spend this morning concentrating on the newer town.

The city of Stockholm is built on 14 small islands, so pretty much everywhere you go there is a view of water.

In addition to a few ducks and swans, at one point we even saw a heron by the water's edge!

The Swedish parliament building is called Riksdaghuset and it's a rather imposing complex of buildings.

The front of the building in particular is really attractive.

We hadn't realised yesterday, but the parliament is actually located just around the corner from the royal palace.

Below the parliament garden there is a pretty little garden with fountains and oddly square trees.

We continued our way through the town and found the opera house, which we had walked past yesterday when looking for food.

Just around the corner from there is Sankt Jacobs kyrka.

It's a stunning church, in a bright terracotta colour.

Behind the church is another little park. This one had some beautiful planters full of tulips.

The day had really warmed up by this point, so we were able to stroll around without jumpers on.

We came out into another main square, which seemed surprisingly busy. It turned out there was a brass band playing, of all things, "What shall we do with a drunken sailor"!!

From there we walked to the slightly more peaceful library, which is situated in its own park.

We have no idea who this statue was of...

...but the tulips were amazing.

Back in the main town, we found the theatre.

We could hear some loud drums in the distance, and soon we were passed by a military marching band.

We went back to the boat for a brief rest, before setting out again to walk around a different part of the waterfront.

From here we had a great view back towards the parliament.

We could also see the red church in the background.

As we walked further around the waterfront we also had a view back towards the old town...

...and towards a new part of town we hadn't visited yet.

We found ourselves crossing a bridge onto the island of Skeppsholmen, which is where Stockholm meets the Baltic sea. As a result, there were quite a few boats, including a large cruise ship which we managed to strategically avoid getting in our photos!

There a few interesting buildings on the island. This building with the turrets is Admirality House...

...while this unusual round building appears to be a church.

We crossed another bridge and found ourselves on the tiny island of Kastellholmen.

This island had two castle-like buildings. First of all this one, at ground level...

...and then this one, which was up a bit of a hill.

We were quite tired by this point, so started walking back in the main town to find something to eat. We chanced upon an Italian restaurant, where we were able to sit outside and eat spaghetti bolognaise

As we made our way back towards to the boat, I was feeling suitably relaxed and not thinking about work at all.... until we turned a corner and Tim saw this

We've had a great day today in Stockholm and it feels like there is still plenty left to see tomorrow