Stockholm Sweden/Wednesday July 18th 2007.

Drove into town today with the guys to do a bit of shopping before the trip to Norway next week. We took Johnnies car from Haninge in to Stockholm... Its great that they have such a great public transportation system, but sometimes its nice to just be able to drive in, which was much faster than the train. Gas is so expensive here that even those that have cars tent to use public transportation a lot....



Here are Niklas, Johnnie and Micke at the cheap tie store on Drottnings Gatan (Queens Street). Its a really long walking street lined with stores and i usually just packed with people, street musicians, hot dog vendors and the like....



Here is another view of NK. We started shopping at Gallerian right across the street...Gallerian is their version of a mall I guess...After that ate lunch in Kunghallerna and then we wandered around down the various parts of town.. I found another suit for a great price. Max joined us at Stureplan and just after he a huge downpour came up.. but it didn't last too long luckily...



Just after the rain with the Kunglig Dramatisk Teater in the background...oh and a rainbow...



Im actually staning in a McDonalds doorway where we waited out the rain for a minute... looking here towards Kungstradgarden...



Once we were done downtown we walked back to the car to go to some shops that were closer to Max's place...You sure do get a different view from the car. You get to see nearly as much in a subway sometimes.. Here are just a few shots from the car on the way over to Max's place in Nacka. The sign saying Aftonbladet in the photo above is for one of the daily newspapers that you see everywhere....



Here we are driving past the Rikdagen (Parliament). It is on its own island right between downtown and Gamla Stan. You can see the royal palace in Gamla Stan in the back right of the picture....



Here are just some great facades..These buildings are facing the Malaren lake side of Gamla Stan... and the church in the back is the Tyska (German) Kyrka.



This is right as you are about to leave Gamla Stan and drive over the bridge over the locks... looking straight ahead is looking east towards the baltic..and it is salt water on this side of the island... you can see the big cruise ship in the background. It probably goes to Finland, or Estonia..



Here is Max at the shopping center near his house in Sickla close to Nacka. These are some old factories that they have converted to shops.



We picked up some food at Max Restaurang in Hammarby Sjostad. I had an aloha burger... pineapple on a burger.. who knew....



Here is Max's place..the building in the middle.. it is right next to a lake. Perfect for swimming....Which of course is what we did after some frisbee.



It would be perfect to live here..like having your own private lake right outside.....It actually warmed up a bit after the rain, but the water was definitely warmer than the air....That's Johnnie in the water...



Here is the view looking west from the dock... the hill in the background is the ski hill that you can get a great view of the city... we walked up there after the swim...





Just a few shots of the lake...



Behind Max and across the lake is a nature preserve.. a huge forest that is pretty much right in the city... from this lake its only about 10 minutes on the bus or a 3o minute walk to be right in the city....Nature is very integrated into Stockholm...



After the swim we walked up to the top of the ski hill... I posted some more pictures of the on my first entry. This is the view looking southwest towards Globen (the globe), which is a large indoor arena that looks like a big golf ball... they have lots of concerts there etc....



Max, Johnnie and Micke on top of the ski hill. Looking east behind them you can see the forests of the nature reserve. After walking back to Max's via the waters edge, we all hung out at his place for a while and watched a movie..

It sure was nice not to have to wait for the night bus to get home....