Day 3: Stockholm

Today was our third and final day and it was going to be a full one. We'd learned the day before that the McDonald's breakfast (which we eat every now and again on holiday as a treat) are only served until 10:00, so we had to vacate the ship about twelve hours before flying home. That was fine, though; Stockholm is bigger than we originally thought, not least because of Djurgården, an island on the city's east, which was originally the royal game park.

The sun was shining, which meant that we, for once, had a lovely blue sky behind our photos:

and shimmery reflections on the water:

We knew we were on the right track once the imposing Nordic Museum appeared:

And so we walked around for a bit enjoying the greenery and scenery, and found the Estonia Monument. The Estonia was a ship which sank in 1994, leading to the deaths of 852 people.

The main attraction is Skansen, an open-air museum of life as it was a century ago. We were pleased to find it exactly where we expected it to be:

And so in we went. We saw flowerbeds in the village:

And two little huts by an allotment:

The postmaster's house appeared into view. He and his wife lived here with their six children:

A tunnel of trees made for welcome shade:

As did the summerhouse:

Before long a windmill sprang out of nowhere:

Over the following hour or so we saw several animals, including sheep, cows, and pigs:

And more animals in the zoo, including brown bears, and wolves:

And once that was done we were nearly back to the start. We saw a Sami tent:

Plus some huts:

And what may have been a church:

After that we strolled to the end of the island before crossing a bridge and beginning the scenic walk back to the main bit of town.

We had plenty of time to find food and then head to the airport, though not without a shock when there were too many people for the bus. Fortunately, the bus company seemed to know this would happen and had a second one following five minutes behind. As it happened, we could've waited for the timetabled next one anyway; our plane was delayed.

Stockholm was fun. We were particularly spoilt for weather on that last day. So far, it's our favourite Scandinavian capital, although we haven't tried Copenhagen yet. We'll be heading there in August!