My name is Wilhelmina, also called Foxy becaus I have a jacket of the trade mark Fjällräven = Arctic fox. I am the one who is singing in the rain ;)

My husband and I made a trip to Stockholm. This was such a nice trip and I have so much happy memories and that’s why I want to share it with others. I also have a song that reminds me to this happy time in Stockholm it is a song by The Beatles named. Here comes the sun.

"Sun, sun, sun, here it comes !"

We went by plane to Stockholm and arrived to Arlanda airport about 7.00. We got our luggage and walked to the bus that was standing by exit of the airport. It is 30 minutes driving from Arlanda to Stockholm City. When we came to Stockholm we went by subway to our hotel. We had to walk about 500 metres from the subway to the hotel. We checked in at the hotel and got the key to our room. It was on the 6th floor and we had room 607.

This hotel was en old hotel but it was modern inside with shower and a little refrigerator and a TV. The doors were fur coloured. The bathroom had light brown glazed tiles. There was a glass door to the shower. And good ventilation in the shower. There was a dark blue spread on the bed. The beds were good. The name of the hotel was before Hotel Excelsior. But now the name was Crystal Plaza.

The folder of the hotel said:

First Hotel Crystal Plaza is steeped in tradition. In fact, it’s housed in one of Stockholm’s oldest hotel buildings, dating from 1895.

I felt like home in the hotel and the staff were so kind.

This trip was a "Package trip", named "Stockholm paket". It means that you get the hotel and a Stockholm card. The Stockholm card gives trips by the bus and subway and admission to museums and to the open air museum Skansen and the Fun fair, Gröna Lund. (a tivoli). The breakfast often includes in the hotel prize in Sweden.

The weather was sunny and nice and we decided to go to Skansen, the open air museum. It was founded in 1891 by Arthur Gazelius. He was a teacher and a searcher in Nordic languages.. We walked to Norrmalmstorg (a square) and took the bus to Skansen. Skansen have not only old buildings and old things. There are also a lot of animals and beautiful nature. You can walk around there a long time. It is a big park.. They also have the Skansen aquarium.

First we went to the Skansen aquarium. We saw very dangerous poison snakes and spiders and very big snakes like anaconda. And there were small cute frogs. But also dangerous poison frogs and these are not so cute. There is also an aquarium with tropical fishes And they had piraya fish too. It was very exciting to see the crocodiles. The Nile crocodiles are very dangerous.

They also had bats. As it's dark in the Moonlight Hall we could see the bats fly in their cage. But these bats were not dangerous, they only eat fruit.

I liked the Ring-tailed Lemurs most. They live on the ground and are active during the day. It is a cat sized animal. They eat fruit, nuts, leaves and flowers. They are so funny. You could go in into the area there the lemurs are. They were not afraid of the tourists. They are curious and like to be with people. But there was a zoo keeper who watched that the tourists should not scare the lemurs and you should not give them food or pet them. The lemurs run around the people and were sitting on the fences and they were so cute and so funny. Then one lemur jumped up on Ove’s backpack and was sitting there. The zoo keeper asked Ove is he had food in his backpacking. But he did not have any food there. We were laughing a lot at the lemur at Ove backpacking and I said: "Are you sure you have no lemur inside your backpacking", when we left Skansen. :-)

Ring-tailed Lemurs at Skansen

The apes live in a very big cage and this cage that was very nice for them. They did not get all food in a bowl, The zoo keepers let the apes work for there food. They got nuts mixed in straw, and they had to find the nuts.

They had a shop with the aquarium and you could buy small animals of plastic of soft toy animals. (like teddy bears) But I only bought a postcard with a lemur. I already had cards of these animal at home that I bought before.

The park was so beautiful. They had a lot of trees both pines and leave trees. And a rose garden and a herb garden. I enjoyed it so much to walk around and look at the plants, the flowers and the trees. And look out over the water and saw the small islands and the Kaknäs tower in the distance. And I was walking, walking, and walking, I had a happy song in my heart. And the sun was shining,

"Here comes the sun!
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes!"

There were old farmer houses and they had cows goats and sheep. There was a children farm too and they had a cute red kitten. We could pet him. I loved that kitten and did pet him very much. I did not know the name of the kitten but I called him for Ari

We went hungry and took a very simple lunch, a hamburger in a paper bag that you can eat in you hand and a Coca cola. If you wanted, you could sit and eat it on bench with a table. But you could not put anything on the tables because they were dirty of the gulls. The sea gulls were everywhere near the hamburger stand. And also on the tables. Yuck! We had our hamburger on a plastic tray on a table. But Ove forgot a napkin and walked from the table to the hamburger stand to take one. Then it happened...... a gull was landing at our table and was on it’s way to take Ove’s hamburger. I was sitting very near the gull but it was not afraid of me at all. I scared away the gull. And after it both Ove and I were laughing he, he, he :-)

They also had peacocks. They were walking on the paths. One peacock tried to scare me by sitting and screaming on a fence when I passed. But I did not take notice of the bird. I also saw an eagle, some owls, goose and ducks.

Ove and I looked at some old houses and old things in the houses. But the time should be too short to see all the things so Ove continued to look at old houses and I went to the zoo. They only had animals of the north. Bears, lynx wolves, wolverines and polar foxes. They also had seals in a very big pond. The brown bears had three cubs and they were so funny. They were playing together and climbed in a little tree. I stayed a very long time with the bears. The other adult bears were on another place.

After I had seen the bears I looked at the moose and the reindeer. I took a picture of an moose who was lying on the grass.

I saw a little old tool house that was named "Hack boden". That means "The Hack shed". And I went laughing again and I said to Ove. "This is a shed there the computer hackers can go". He, he, he :-)

The Hack Sked at Skansen

Skansen also has "Old town quarters" and there we saw an old Pharmacy. (Drugstore) The woman showed us how to make pills. The pills should have been round but they went oval and we all started laughing. There was a bookbindery, a bakery an old shop for grocery, a saddle maker, a tannery, a goldsmith, and glassworks. In the most shops there was no activity. You only could read about the houses or take a look. We had no time to see all houses. And my feet went very tired.. I had not the best walking shoes with me, because these shoes should have been too hot in Stockholm. But before going, we were in into the glass blower and they demonstrated glassblowing.

When we left Skansen we went to Norrmalms Square by a trolley car (tram in British English) A car on a rails and electric wires above it.

When we came to Norrmalmstorg, we both were thirsty and we took a soft drink and were drinking it with a outside. We seldom can sit and eat or drink outside in Umeå. I took a Coca cola and Ove took orange taste and a wienerbröd to it. How explain it: In the dictionary I found the word is Danish pastry , but it is from the town Wien, (Vienna). It is sweet and has yellow sweet vanilla cream in the middle.

There were sparrows and doves flying and walking around the tables. I gave the dove some crumbs from Ova’s wienerbröd. Suddenly something funny happened. There came a little empty plastic bag flying over the ground and a dove who was on the ground did not like it. And every time the wind was blowing and the bag was moving a little bit on the ground again, the dove run away over the ground. It was like the bag was hunting the dove and I was laughing again. :-)

We walked from Norrmalmstorg to the hotel.
Happy walking, and "Sun, sun, sun, here is comes" :-)

We rest a while and took a shower. I dressed myself in white pants and a white T-shirt and a blue hooded vest We walked to the subway and went to a place named Slussen, means the lock. My dictionary had the word sluice too. The boats go through it. Stockholm is build on island and also on hills. The water inside the lock is fresh water salt water. Inside the lock the name of the water is Mälaren and outside it is called Saltsdjön.

It was the leader Birger Jarl, a famous national leader who founded the town. Stockholm is build on hills. There are much beautiful trees. I liked the oak very much. We only have a few oak in Umeå in some park. Most of the streets in Stockholm has nice trees. But unfortunately I don’t know the name of these trees. There are not so much birches in Stockholm as in Umeå. In Umeå we almost only have birches. Oh, how I love to look at the trees in Stockholm.

Now we were on our way to the subway station named "Slussen". We  ordered a table at a boat named Vindhem. This boat should go a four hours trip in the creeks and bays. The boat was at the water named Strömmen, (The Stream).

We went aboard on the boat Vindhem. The waiter did welcome us and gave us a table. It was a table for 6 persons but we got the window place. Oh, I was happy for this because I love too look out over the water. Later there came two more guests with our table. They were two nice young girls and it was very nice to talk with them. And they like the same kind of music as I like.

We got shrimp, bread and butter to dinner. The shrimp were laid very decorated in glass bowls. You could buy wine and alcohol drinks and beer. But we took the no alcohol beer. The shrimp were not peeled. They were in the shell. And you had to peel them yourself on your plate. We could eat as much shrimp we liked. We four, Ove, the two young girls and I had one bowl shrimp for us four together but when it was empty we got a new bowl and we got more bread.

The boat went out at seven o’clock PM and was going in the beautiful bays. There were a lot of island and islets with nice houses and also mansions and big country houses. We also saw a lot of sea birds and ducks and swans I felt so happy to see swans. They are so beautiful.

There was a dance band aboard too. Ove and I were dancing, but not so much. We most were with the table and were looking out of the windows and talking. It is daylight a long time in Stockholm too but not light the whole night as it is in Umeå. At 10.30 it was dark And there were nice electric lamps with every window and this made it so cosy.

But before it went dark the boat stopped with a little island and we could go out on the island. There were a lot of pines on that island. They had a man who played the accordion on the deck. You could dance old Swedish dance folk dance, but there were only a few people dancing. Most people went out on the island. It was so nice too look out over the water from the island and the sun was going down in gold and the clouds had a golden lining. It was gorgeous!

We went aboard again and now we got a cheese supper. Some different sort like Camembert and brie cheese and cheddar and grapes and some crackers. We had water to the cheese. The sun coloured the sky in red and soon it was getting dark. We saw a lot of birds on the water. Now they looked black in the darkness. The lamps in the window had such a cosy light. And it was so much fun to see Stockholm by night from the water.

The boat Vindhem

The name of the band was Bomar Duo and they were playing all kind of nice songs. "I don’t know why I love you but I do" Tutti Frutti, "Next door to Alice" and "I see the bad moon rising." The funny thing was that we later saw the moon rising. It was a crescent moon and not a bad moon of course.

The boat passed the fun fair named Gröna Lund. It was nice to see it from the water, al the lamps in Gröna Lund were on. And it was so nice to see al the light from the town. When we were on land again I took a picture of the boat with the nice lights. And this picture was one of my best photos I got of this trip.

"Beep, beep, beep!" We awoke of Ova’s mobile phone. Ove let it beep at 7.30. I was thinking. "Where am I?" Oh yes of course we were in Stockholm!. I slept very well.

We took the elevator down to the breakfast restaurant. This elevator was very special. It never comes if you wanted, if often goes up and does not stop or it goes down and does not stop. I was laughing about it. But it was because of the guests who did not know how to push the up or down bottom at the right way. Finally we came down :-)

The breakfast was delicious and we could eat all kind of things. There was coffee and tea, four kinds of juice, milk yoghurt, filmilk, porridge, slices of bread that you could toast in the bread toaster, and rolls. Cheese, meat and marmalade to have on the bread. Egg and bacon, hot sausages and fruit. They had kiwi fruit, apples, oranges and melon.

When we were on our way out it started raining a little. But we had our umbrella with us. Ove has a black umbrella and I have a yellow-brown mottled umbrella. We should walk to Hötorget. (a square and market place). At Hötorget there is a beautiful Concert Hall. There is the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra playing. The designer of the building was Ivar Tengbom, one of the leading Swedish architects of his time. His idea was to "raise a musical temple not far from the Arctic Circle. It looked like a Greece colonnade temple. In front or the Concert Hall there is a sculpture made of Carl Milles. At night the Concert Hall is lighted with nice lamps.

But it went raining more and more and soon it was pouring down and we stayed under a roof of a store. But the rain did not make me sad. I felt so happy that I was in Stockholm. Many people had an umbrella and I saw a funny thing at Gamla Brogatan.(gata = street) A mother was coming with her little girl. And the little girl was holding her mothers big umbrella and she was laughing. And the mother tried to go under the umbrella that her girl was holding low, and she had to crouch down under the umbrella and than they went laughing, laughing, laughing! .:-)

Gamla Bro Street

And I was laughing too and a song came in my mind
"I’, singing in the rain I’m happy again"

I also was thinking of a song of Niel Sedaka named "Laughter in the rain" It was so pleasant to see that happy mother with her happy girl. Two shiny happy people going on the Gamla Bro Street. :-)

There were two nice lions made of stone on Gamla Bro Street. I took a picture of a stone lion. That stone line had such a kind face. I loved that lion.

The nice lion at Gamla Bro Street

I saw something funny at Gamla Bro street. It was a shop window and in the window there was a Santa Claus and the words "God Jul (Merry Christmas) and a lot of other Christmas decoration was in that window. Oh, my! I was almost laughing in one hour about it. Christmas windows in the middle of the summer! How funny they are in Stockholm :-)

I took a picture of that shop window. And I was joking with Ove that there maybe was a server ERROR and then it will be Christmas in the summer in all the shops he, he, he :-)

Now the store opened so we went in into a store. I bought a nice hair slide. It was white and iridescent. I also bought some postcards and other small things. Ove bought a nice tie.

And when we came out from the stores, the sun was shining again. We walked at Drottning gatan (The Queen Street) to the store named Åhlens. There was a group singing and dancing and playing music. Ove went in into the store but I stayed outside to hear to the music. It was such happy music and it was a kind of African Christian music with lot of rhythm.

Now the whether was so nice, and we decided to take the bus to Kaknästornet. The Kaknäs tower. When we were in the bus we saw a parade of guard coming. They played brass band music. In front of the parade there were two polices on their horses and back of the parade there were two polices on horses too. It was interesting to see them. They have every day the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace in Stockholm. We were not there this year. But we have seen this before on trips to Stockholm. Then the guard is riding on their horses and this is popular to look at.

Kaknäs tower is on the outskirts of the town and there were beautiful meadows and woods. When we got off the buss it was smelling so nice outside after the rain. And it was rather cool and nice in the air.

The Kaknäs Tower

The Kaknäs tower is a modern radio tower. It is 155 metres high. You can go up by elevator to the 30 floor. And there you have a beautiful view over the whole town. You are there behind window so you will not be cold. But if you will go outside you can walk up one more staircase and see the town through a gratin and this is a cage so nobody will try to jump down from the tower. In the hall with the glass windows you also can see pictures of the view you see so you can read what you will see. The elevator in the tower is fast. You can feel it in your ears if you go up.

There is a restaurant at the 28th floor. But it is expensive to eat there. We did not eat real lunch in Stockholm because we got a good breakfast at the hotel and then we only took a soft drink and cake. While drinking our soft drinking we had a gorgeous view over the water and the town. Oh, it was so beautiful to look at view of the town, the water, the woods and parks. We saw beautiful clouds in a light blue sky. We saw the boats in the bay, we saw horses in the meadows and the pines. We saw a harbour and the open air museum Skansen. And we saw the town. Everything was so small like toys.

They had Radio Vinyl on in the restaurant. You only can hear that radio station in Stockholm or on the computer on the net. They play 50th and 60th music the whole day and I like this music very much. They played they song Good vibration. There was the right song on the right place. So many good things happened.

We went down with the elevator again. In the hall you could buy souvenirs and postcards. I bought some postcards. They also had art that you could buy. It were hologram. It was fun to look at these.

We walked through the woods to the main road and this was a wonderful walk. It was cool and nice in the woods and there were beautiful trees and plants and the birds were singing and it was smelling so wonderful of flowers and trees. I heard the blackbird singing. This bird is not common in the north of Sweden and I am always so happy to hear it when I travel to the south. I stopped and was standing underneath the tree there the blackbird was singing and was listening to the song. And I got this song of the Beatles in my mind:

Blackbird singing in the dept of night
Take your broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.

We came to the road and walked on the bike road. There was a meadow beside the road. I took a picture of Kaknäs tower there you can see the meadow and the woods we passed. It was so peaceful there. And the blackbird was still singing.

We crossed the road and walked to the Technical museum. We went to the telephone museum first. It was interesting to see it and try al kind of telephones. Old ones and new ones and see how the connection worked. And how a operator in former times had to connect people. They also had an Internet Café so I could read my e-mail there.

They showed a famous model railroad, build of a man named Milton. He made all the things himself, the trains the railroad and the landscape. A woman told about the model trains and we could see the train riding in the landscape and through the tunnel. Oh this was so interesting. This train is a valuable thing for the museum.

There was a big room with machines, pump cars motors, steam engines and some models of planes. You could look at how they how they build houses and print books and there was a room about the new Öresund Bridge. There were a lot of technical things. and much to walk. My feet went so tired.

We took the bus to Sergelsgatan and from there the subway to Slusen. At Slussen we took the boat named Djurgården to Gröna Lund. 

The boat, Djurgården

The weather was sunny and I had the happy song in my mind again named:

"Here comes the sun.
Sun, sun, sun here it comes!"

It is so wonderful to be on a boat on the water named Strömmen. There is so much to see. and you can hear the gulls. And se the ducks and the swans.

Gröna Lund is a fun fair. We were hungry and decided to go and eat dinner first. There was a restaurant named Värdshuset Siesta. The food at that restaurant was expensive but they had the dish of the day. It was fried chicken in sweet sour chilli sauce and rice with vegetables. It was fun to sit and eat outside. We seldom can do this in Umeå. We got a nice table for two. And there was also music. A band played jazz music.

The waiter came with 2 plates with food and said: "Did you order beef?" No, we did not order beef so he moved on searching for the customer who should have the beef. Then another waiter came and with two plates of reindeer meat. But even this time we said we did not order this and even this waiter went moving on and searching he, he, he :-) And I was wondering what kind of food should come next. But now the right food came, we got the chicken.

When we had eaten we did queue up to buy tickets for the things we wanted to do. I dare not to ride the roller-coaster. We took a ticket for the big wheel (Ferris wheel). this was fun because you can get a nice view over the town from the wheel. And we took a ticket for the ghost house.

You could win soft toy animals. And some people did win VERY big soft animals. A mother to a little child did win a Pokemon that was as big as their own child. And they carried it in the pram while the child who should have been in the pram was walking beside it. He, he, he, it looked so funny with the big Pokémon in the pram :-)!

The technical things in the ghost house were interesting. They have all kind of dolls that moves electric. You have to walk in this ghost house. It is dark in the there, but you walk on a kind of walkways. There are lamps on the ground that gives light and there is a white stripe and that you can follow.

And there is ultra violet light. Then Ove's white skirt looked lilac and I could see him. But you cannot see black clothes. If you need to see a black ghost they did temporary light a white lamp. We saw a man who was a criminal in a jail and he went screaming and shaking the barred window and kicking on the door. That man was an electric doll too. And we saw a crow and a jackdaw. Also these were artificial. There were also a lot of sound like thunder, rattling and screaming and you could sometimes see lightning.

But there also were real living ghosts. They were real people. A man was a kind of Dracula and a woman was a witch. The man who played Dracula was very funny and we were laughing. And the witch was a nice and kind woman. Yes it is true. This was a very kind witch. She was sitting behind a door and when we came she threw a black bit of cloth to us trying to scare us. We found out that the witch not was a doll, she was a real woman and Ove shook hand with her and then I shaked hand with her too and she said kindly "Good day" And we all went laughing.

Later we saw a ghost behind a barrow window and we were wandering if this was a doll or a person. The ghost had white gloves and tried to scare us by scratching the barrow window. We figured out that this ghost was a real person and we started laughing again. It seemed we  scared all the ghosts instead of the ghosts should scare us he, he, he :-)

The Ghost House at Gröna Lund

The most funny thing in the ghost house was a big wooden arm chair. If you sat on that chair it began to growl. And I thought this was so funny so I sat on that chair several times and started laughing again. "Grooooowl!! " He, he, he, :-)

We went out from the ghost house and Ove went to the "Funny house" But this was not a house there you can go for laughing. It was a house there you had to do all kind of difficult things like climb strange staircases and a rolling carpets. And go through a tube that was moving around. You had to walk through all these things. But I let Ove do this alone while I was resting outside on a bench and took a picture of Ove. At the end of the fun house is a steep slide and you was sliding down on a carpet. I was waiting to see Ove sliding down. When Ove had done this we took the bus to Norrmalmstorg and walked to the hotel.

We slept well after this wonderful day.

I awoke very early, it still was dark. I went to the bathroom and went to bed again. Then I heard wonderful sound. It was the sound of a blackbird. It was singing just for ME with our window. I was lying in bed and listening.

Blackbird singing in the dept of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly!

I listened, and listened, and listened, and...... fell asleep and had sweet dreams.

We awoke with sunshine.
"Sun, sun, sun, here it comes.!"

Went to the restaurant and had a wonderful breakfast. This was a wonderful sunny morning. We decided to make a boat trip to some island.

We walked to the subway and went to Slussen again. We found a nice boat that should go to the island named Fjäderholmen. While waiting for the boat we sat down on a stone wall near the water and enjoyed the nice weather. Looked out over the water and looked at all the boats. There were so much beautiful boats. A chain of a boat was creaking with a sound like "Eeeek, eeeek, eeeek" I heard the sound of the water and I heard the gulls. And I saw swans rather near us swimming in the water. There came a boat with a sail. The number 827 was on the sail. And there was a very big boat named Berlin. This boat had a German flag. It was a beautiful white boat

The boat came. It’s name was Stockholm Ström. We got a good place at the deck so we could see all the things so well and heard the roar of the waves under the boat. We saw the part of Stockholm named Söder. There were many old houses and factories (plants). And we saw many nice boats. I wrote down some names. Gabriella, Skrarpö, Delfin XII, Symfoni, We saw some mills at Söder.

The island, Fjäderholmen.

We came to the island and it was so beautiful there. There were a lot of small houses. And shops and also some restaurants. But we did not eat on the island. We only bought an ice cream and eat it on the terrace of wonderful little restaurant. There were pink roses in the garden.

There were a lot of sea gulls, seabirds and swans near the island. We walked around and were sitting on a beach and looking out over the bay. We were in paradise. I took some photos.

There was a blacksmith and a glass blower on the island. And up on a hill there was a garden there you could buy seed for planting flowers. They also had a nice dog and some pigs in their garden.

We walked at a nature path. There were wonderful trees and plants and wild flowers. I found the flower named Styvmorsviol. That means The stepmother violet. It is a very little wild violet in a deep blue colour but one side of the flower is yellow, so it is a yellow-blue flower. It is the flower of the Landscape Ågermanland there Ove is born.

We came to a very old oak with a big hole in it’s stem. A big owl could live in this hole. But there was no bird there. The oak was named. Jenny Lind’s oak. She was a famous opera singer at the 1860 Century. Jenny went often to this oak for reading or meditating. the oak was beautiful and I took a picture of it. I felt so happy to go on this nature path. It was so peaceful to go there.

We bought a soft drink and were sitting on a bench again. Vi saw a boat with the name Falcon. I also saw Kaknäs tower from the island and some nice sailing boats. And a red and a green canoe.

The boat Stockholm Ström came and we got aboard. Even this time I had a nice place on deck. And I was enjoying this trip so much. When we came back to Stockholm it was cloudy but it was not raining. We were standing with the water a while just looking for all the boats. A very little boat run in front of the big boat Djurgården. And this could be dangerous for the little boat. And then the boat Djurgården gave a sharp Warning signal. "TOOT"! We saw so much nice and funny boats. And we also saw a little Viking skip. I took a picture of it but it was too far away The photo was not good.

We went up to the Katarinahissen. This is a public elevator. You will come to a higher place and a part of the town named Söder. (The south) As Stockholm was build on hills there is different in height. Sometimes you must climb a staircase or a rather steep hill. As the way to Söder is a long staircase it is easier to take the elevator. We should not go to Söder. We only went up to see the view over the town and the bay. And take some pictures. We went down with the elevator again and took the subway to Stureplan and walked to the hotel.

We took a shower and I dressed myself in my nice blue hooded vest. We walked to a nice restaurant named: Djingis Khan Barbecue. They had rebate on Sunday evening for a Mongolia barbecue dinner. We got a table for two, it was table number 36. First vi got Mongolian soup in a cup and with a spoon made of porcelain. And Mongolian bread to the soup. It was a bread I never tasted before. It was baked with meal and oil and there was apple and cinnamon in the bread. The waiter brought the soup to our table. But we had to go and pick up the main dish ourselves. There is a dish with all kind of raw meat and vegetables. You pick what you want on your plate and go to the cook who will grill the food. It tasted delicious. You should also pick the dessert yourself. There was fruit and ice cream.

After dinner we walked to Hötorget. I loved to go on Hötorget (The Hay Market). But now the sky was becoming dark and we hurried to the subway and went home. When we came out to the Subway at Birger Jarls Gatan the rain went pouring down and we put on umbrella. But this was only a short shower

Singing in the rain!

In the evening we did rest and read and write. And we went to a bar to drink a beer. We were sitting there a long time and talking. We had so much to talk about. We also made a little walk in the Briger Jarl Street.

After it we went to bed and also this night I slept very well.

It was both cloudy and sunny. We packed our bags and took down them in the elevator. We should not come back to our room. We had breakfast and checked out from the hotel and went to the subway. There we locked our luggage in a box with the railroad station. We should not go home yet. We should have one more wonderful day in Stockholm.

We walked to Sergels Torg. The Sergel Square. There is a nice big fountain and a magnificent sculpture of the artist Edwin Öhrström. The sculpture is named "Kristallvertikalaccent" made of drops of glass around a steel skeleton. At night there is a light in the sculpture. But we did not see it in darkness this year.

We looked at the store Åhléns but did not buy anything. We walked to the Gamla Bro street. We saw that there were small fences near the houses with a warning sign on it. It said:

"Warning for work on the roof".

Then I went laughing and said to Ove: "Warning for snow slid" Means a warning for heavy snow that is gliding down from the roof We have this in winter in the North of Sweden. And these fences are the same as for the snow. So I went joking about the snow gliding from the roofs. I said: "They has a Santa Claus in this shop window then they maybe can get snow too :-)

We looked at the stores in the PUB house again. I wanted to buy a CD with the Beatles with the song "Sun, sun, sun, here it comes" Thye did not have it but I found this CD later in a shop in Umeå

I found a souvenir shop named PUP Säsong (säsong = season) I bought a nice book about Stockholm that not was so heavy to carry. And not so expensive. The book was in Swedish, English and German. And then I saw....... no I could not believe my eyes... but I saw a corner with Christmas things and decoration. I went laughing again and was wondering if I should begin to sing the song Jingle Bells :-)

Christmas decoration in July he, he, he :-)

Now I could not keep my mouth shut and I asked the salesman in the shop why they had Christmas stuff. He said that the tourists asked for the Swedish Christmas stuff. Well, I almost asked the man why they did not have Easter things too he, he, he! :-)

We went in into a joke shop there you could buy all kind of funny things. But we did not buy anything there. Once we bought toilet paper that was made of one hundred crowns notes. Another time we bought half a cup. That cup was made as a half. Very funny. And if you have guest and say. "Do you want more coffee?" Then people often say: "Yes, thank you but only half a cup" And then we took that half a cup and gave it to our guest, he, he, he :-) We still have that cup at home.

Many years ago, it was when I had moved to Sweden and lived two months in Stockholm, bought a bag of laughter in that shop. a kind of box battery powered in a bag. If you push on the bag you can hear laughter and it sound very funny like.

"Hahahahahahahha heeeeeeee!!"

I had the laughter bag in my big bag and forgot to shot off it. And I was waiting for the train at the Östra station. Then the sound started and you could hear a hard laughter over the whole station. People were looking very confused when they hear that sound and did not know were it came from. Nobody figured out that it came from me. He, he, he :-)

We had lunch at a little coffee shop named Coffee By George. Ove took a sandwich and coffee and I took a pie with vegetables and a Coca cola.

Me at Hötorget (The Hay Market)

In the afternoon vi visited the office of en Internet company. It was fun to meet some people who work there. One of the tech showed us the servers and some technical things and this was very interesting. I was very excited to look at all these things. They had a funny elevator in that house. We pushed the bottom and...........

Nothing happened!

I was laughing. And said. There must be a server ERROR. And maybe we must restart the elevator he, he, he, :-)

We tried to open the door, close the door again an try again. And I could not help it but I just should ask Ove, "Shell we restart the elevator, like a computer", then the elevator was moving up. He, he, he, he :-)

The sun was shining when we came out and we walked to a garden that is named Kungsträdgården. This is a garden with beautiful trees and there is a big square pond with a fountain. Some small children were going barefooted in the pond and it was ending with that they got wet clothes. I went laughing when I saw the funny children in the pond. :-)

We sat down on a bench and enjoyed looking at the garden, the people and the birds. At Kugsträdgården there were birds named jackdaw. They are so funny and they are not afraid for people. One jackdaw was almost sitting on my foot while eating a crumb of bread.

Kungsträdgården (The King Garden)

We went hungry and searched for a restaurant. We found a nice Chinese restaurant at Drottning street. The name of the restaurant was Bamboo City. It was a real nice place. Is was decorated in Chinese stile and there were mirrors in the ceiling so you could see yourself and the table up and down and this was real funny. :-)

We ordered a dish named "Four small dishes" It was deep fried shrimp with sweet sour sauce, beef and onion, chicken in peanut sauce and deep fried pork. We took no alcohol beer to the food and I also ordered a big glass of ice water. I was very thirsty. The staff at the restaurant was so kind and asked if we liked the food. We said we liked it very much because it was delicious.

After dinner we walked through the park of the St Clara Church. And I prayed a grateful prayer to God for this wonderful vacation. We went to the railroad station to get our luggage from the box and took the bus to the airport.

I will remember this wonderful trip with a song in my heart