Friday June 22 - Travel Kalmar to Stockholm, boat tour of the city

We left the hotel early and a three minute walk to the station gave us 30 minutes before the train from Kalmar to Alvesta left.

The engineer was already checking around and doing the standing brake test

There was plenty of room in first class and the hour and a half journey was uneventful.  We arrived in Alvesta in good time but the station announcements were only made in Swedish and there was only one departure board on an extremely long platform.  All Swedish platforms seem to be long -20 cars or more.  The X2000 to Stockholm was a couple of minutes late and we found our reserved seats alright.

The journey to Stockholm was again uneventful and we arrived about 10 minutes early.  Being a holiday the Central station was very crowded but the Tourist Office gave us directions and we walked to the hotel in about ten minutes.

The weather was good today but the forecast for the rest of our stay is not so good so we decided to take the two hour boat cruise to help orient ourselves.  The city is built on 17 islands and we were given a good idea of the way it is laid out.

Tree branches have been used to decorate buildings etc., for the midsummer holiday.

The old city, Gamla Stan, contains a lot of very old buildings but is ruined by the tourist traps.  We found a place to eat and decided to have Swedish meat balls and lingonberry sauce.

Swedish meat balls and lingonberry sauce with mashed potato and gravy,

A pissoir near the royal palace.

We did find a delightful small square (triangle) with a chestnut tree providing lots of shade.  The buildings dated from the 1600s and it was pleasant sitting there in a place that the tourists seemed to miss.

The stone over the door shows 1643

Mary liked the light and shade here.  I like it too.