Stockholm

Stockholm was significantly warmer than Helsinki, surprising as it would appear to be the same distance from the North Pole... Temperatures were a very comfortable 12-15 degrees, and with the sun out it felt like the beginning of summer.

 Finding my way to the Central Station, I managed to secure accommodation in a quaint hostel in Gamla-Stan (the Old Town).  The hostel felt like a maze, with rooms and corridors haphazardly added obviously over many years.

One of the Gamla Stan alleyways

Stockholm is a positively postcard city.  The water separating the islands, the architecture (a combination of many European styles plus Swedish designs), and harbour activity made it feel alive.  I went on a harbour cruise, where for about 2 hours we navigated between Lake Malaren and the Baltic Sea through locks, under bridges and around some of the islands comprising Stockholm.  It was a great opportunity to see the city in a relaxed fashion and take a few photos.

Determined to come back at a later stage with Jen, I spent the following day on one of the hireable 'city bikes' riding around the islands rather than going to all of the famous museums.  In addition, it was Good Friday - the city was considerably busier than it had been the day before, and queues for museums and other attractions were massive.  As such, simply riding around the city was a great way to spend time.  I enjoyed a lunch by the lake and organised my airport transfer for the following morning to Berlin.  The weather was absolutely fantastic and I couldn't have thought of a better way to spend the time.

Lunch time view across the lake

Upmarket shoping

I got up early the following day to make sure I was at the airport with plenty of time to spare (2 hrs +).  This proved to be unnecessarily efficient but gave me the time to sit quietly with the computer and organise my way to the hotel in Berlin, which proved to be a very nice boutique hotel halfway between the city and the airport.

Later that evening I went back to the airport to meet with a very tired Jen who had just arrived back from New Zealand.  It's great to have my wife and travelling companion back.

Neither of us felt up to too much the next day, so we slept in, had a big breakfast and made our way once again to the airport for our flight to Cape Town and the beginning of our cross-continent African Adventure.

In summary, Scandinavia has been great.  English is well understood and used, the cities and countries are incredibly clean and safe and above all, both the cities and countryside are picture perfect.  One could spend considerable amounts of time travelling from one place to the next, always with something different to see and redo the whole experience when the season changes.  Although more expensive than some of the places we have been to so far, comfortable and clean budget accommodation and food options are plentiful, limiting the financial hurt to about 50 Euro pp / day (all included).

I look forward to coming back and travelling more extensively through Sweden and Norway especially (as I saw less of them) with Jen at a later point.