Stockholm - days 2 and 3

Stockholm is a really beautiful city. No matter where you walk there are beautiful buildings to admire, and lots of greenery around. The trains and buses are great, running frequently. We made excellent use of our Stockholm card, visiting lots of attractions. Today I did part of the Millenium walking tour around Sodermalm, checking out locations from "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", such as the Millenium office, Blomqvist's apartment and Lisbet's apartment. Now I'll have to watch the movie again.

One thing that is surprising in this supposedly welfare state is the large number of street beggars.  They are practically on every corner.  Perhaps someone can explain this.

 The Vasa - a warship built to fight in the 30 year war.  It sank 1 km into its maiden voyage in 1628, and was salvaged in 1962. It was unstable due to insufficient ballast. They ignored the testing which showed this as they did not want to upset the king - this was his "baby".

 How the Vasa would have looked as it set sail

 I had a ride on this at the amusement park. The swings move at 70kph. 

Great views all over Stockholm.

 Reindeer at Skansen - the open air museum with farmhouses, animals, craftsmen through the ages. Fun fact - the male reindeer lose their antlers before the females, so by December only the females have antlers. That means that Santa's helper Rudolph must be female.

 crossing the bridge to Gamla Stan

 view of the Royal Apartments - rebuilt in the 18th century

 Halliwell museum - a wealthy merchant's legacy to Stockholm

 view of cruise boats from the edge of Sodermalm - the island we are staying on

view of the State Museum on Sodermalm