It’s taken a little while, now that we’re home, to complete
this report and finalise this trip. Part
of the reason is the terrible tragedy in Eastern Ukraine where Malysian
Airlines MH17 was shot down by rocket
fire with the terrible loss of 298 lives.
We were completely rocked by the news and both of us in tears as we
watched the reports, partly because we had flown across western Ukraine,
enroute from Stockholm to Doha, only a matter of 12 hours before this terrible
tragedy. Added to that, we have flown
Malaysian a number of times and found them extremely good, but they don’t fly
in or out of Stockholm.
As for Stockholm itself, we can only say, it is one of our
favourite cities. It is clean, safe,
friendly and well laid out, with a rail system that works extremely well and
lots of restaurants and bars with good food and friendly staff. It is however, an expensive place to stay – accommodation
is not cheap and the food and drinks are relatively expensive. However, the city is lovely, buildings are
well laid out and there are lots of parks and trees for public outdoor
living. It’s very easy to get around on
the trains with a rail pass and many streets are pedestrian friendly,
particularly in the old town, Gamla Stan.
Our apartment was in Gamla Stan, only 200 meters from the station and we
had plenty of space, a good comfortable bed, washer and dryer and a large
sitting room. Our only problem, again,
was carting suitcases up to the third floor.
Gamla Stan is the site of the old original, walled city, the
Parliament and the Palace. These
buildings are quite spectacular and look out over the harbour, which itself is
fantastic. Newer areas on the mainland,
have some wonderful buildings as well, but the harbour is the gem of the
city. Much of the city is built around
the harbour and it’s very busy with water ferries, day-cruise boats and a
little further out, cruise ships and Baltic Sea ferries from Finland and the
Baltic states.
Added to all of this, of course, is the fact that we were
there for a wedding, so we now have family living in the city (suburbs), so it’s
highly likely that we’ll go back again.
My nephew Simon, married his Swedish Princess and they have a gorgeous
daughter, Willow, who won everybody’s heart.
The wedding was held in a beautiful old church at Nykopping, about 100km
south of Stockholm and the reception in an old converted barn, not far
away. Guests were bussed from Stockholm
to the Mercure Hotel at Nykopping and we had a wonderful time at the wedding
and reception, with guests from 14
different countries. Kim’s family are
lovely people and were very friendly and inclusive and spent a lot of time
ensuring all the guests had a great time.
One of the guests was a bit of a highlight, but we won’t go into that
here – not appropriate.
If you ever get the opportunity to visit Stockholm, take it –
it’s a really wonderful place.