Went for a walk in the lovely, warm sunshine through the suburbs near the hostel down to Fåfängan which is a rocky outcrop on the edge of a cliff overlooking Stockholm. There's a cafe up there, and as we climbed the stairs we didn't even think that it would be open, but when we topped the climb there was a whole busload having a buffet breakfast inside. We just had coffee and cake being morning tea time, and sat and admired the views.
Then we wandered along the waterfront to a metro station, and around to the Vasa Museum on Djurgården Island. The Vasa is a very famous wooden warship, commissioned in 1628 by the Swedish king to be the pride of the fleet, and the scourge of Poland, which sank 20 minutes into its maiden voyage as soon as it hoisted sail. It only had 120 tonnes of ballast in the flat bottom, and almost no keel, which meant it couldn't even cope with a slight breeze. As often seemed to be the case in those days, the king designed the ship (being the expert he was), but the enquiry found the captain responsible. Reminds us of Russia where the Tsar designed the railway.
Anyway, the Vasa was lost and forgotten until someone went on a stubborn search in the 1950s and located it - upright and in good condition after 333 years. It was salvaged, and now sits in a huge museum which is visited by millions each year. Lots of Russian tour groups were there. How quickly we forgot what it was like to be in a Russian crowd!
Down past the Junibacken, a large children's museum devoted to children's literature and dedicated to Astrid Lindgren, the author of Pippi Longstocking. There were hundreds of prams lined up outside. You could even rent a pram wheel lock to stop somebody else upgrading their pram.
Walked through the diplomat's district, up the avenue where the expensive apartments are, past a huge park and playground for primary and kindergarten age kids, and back to the metro. Unfortunately the line was closed due to a wiring failure, so we endured a packed bus ride back home. The driver kept cracking jokes and had the bus laughing most of the way, so it didn't seem too bad.
Stockholm is a genuinely expensive city. Unlike Moscow (and even London) where things requiring service are expensive, but metro tokens and groceries are about normal, everything in Sweden is expensive, just like we found Geneva to be. The Big Mac index is AU$8.50, which is second only to Geneva in the cities we've visited.
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