Off to the US

We'll be off to visit the US for the next few weeks, particularly to attend Kaliecia's graduation from the University of Utah, pictured above, on May 2nd. Hopefully we can catch a picture of her in a funny flat hat to share on our return. We'll miss Vappu Day on May 1st here in Finland, which is a country-wide party akin to Labor Day in the US, but also an end-of-year celebration for first year university students too. And I'm wondering when it will be getting dark when we return, as it's still light after 10pm now. The next big holiday will be Midsummer on June 21st, the summer solstice, and we'll report on that one. Back soon!

Stockholm - Norrmalm

Here are pictures taken from Norrmalm - the city center. One of the first beautiful things I noticed was the iron filagree spire of the Riddarholm church; there are city bikes for anyone to use; then we came across a guy catching a big fish right in town - it's in the net; ; and a rather symbolic clock on a building in the business district. We loved the Arlanda Express train from the airport right to the center of town, the excellent food everywhere; the exquisite architecture and a generally friendly vibe on the street. Being early April, it was also quiet as we walked into neighborhoods, though I can imagine it gets hectic with summer tourism as there is so much to see. It's not cheap but it is definitely worth a visit - one of the great cities of the world, to be sure. I've posted two more pages with pictures.

Stockholm - Djurgård

Here are pictures from the island of Djurgård. We rode a very well maintained historic trolley (the #7) to the Nodiska Museet where we saw cultural exhibits of the Sami, Swedish homes, and dress, and shoes (and where we'll return to see table settings through history as it was closed this time), the interior hall shown here, and then we saw some mounted police as we made our way back to the hotel. The Skansa outdoor musuem and the Vasa ship exhibit are on this island and we'll explore those another visit. I do recommend riding the trolley on its full run too.

A weekend in Stockholm - Gamla Stan

Gerald and I took a quick flight to Stockholm last weekend - and we even got a sandwich on our 45 minute flight on FinnAir. We really were impressed with this city. It was my first visit to Sweden where my grandfather was born and I'll return to research that soon. Gamla Stan is the medieval heart of Stockholm, on a small island that you can reach walking over from the center of town. I've posted pictures of a great pancake cafe, a statue on a small plaza by the royal palace, the palace guard on duty, and the parliment building traverse, all found on an easy walk across Gamla Stan.