Return To Sweden, Part 3

This third installment of David Anderson’s Return To Sweden lands him and his sister Debbie in the middle of Stockholm.   If you missed the near real time trip updates, go to Trip Highlights .  Editor.

Finally we have arrived in Stockholm.  It was rather surreal having my younger sister Debbie meet me in, of all places, Frankurt this morning after a ten hour flight from Seattle.  She had just flown in from Sacramento, via Chicago.  This is her first trip to Europe and she was quite nervous flying by herself.  Neither one of us can believe she is finally here!  We transferred from Lufthansa to an SAS flight up to Arlanda-Stockholm.

Because of the cloud cover over all of southern Sweden Debbie didn’t get to see much of the Swedish landscape on the flight north until we were on the ground at Arlanda.  As any tourist who is excited to be in a new place she goes crazy with the camera trying to take photos of each new and exciting piece of the Swedish landscape she sees!  I think we’ve all been there!

We, or should I say, I, wanted to take the high speed express train from Arlanda to Stockholm C, or downtown Stockholm.  I am amazed at the speed and how you really don’t notice the acceleration all that much, but soon find that you are going 205 km/hr (127 mph).  I could have sworn that I saw the speed up to 218 km/hr at one point!  The trip from the airport to Stockholm C station takes only 20 minutes to cover about 25 miles.  Not too shabby!

Our hotel is within easy walking distance, (like two blocks away!) from the central train station in downtown Stockholm.  That also means we are within easy walking distance from some of the main highlights of Stockholm. 

After a lunch stop we walked around Norrmalm a bit and saw the Klara kyrka,

 

which reportedly has the second tallest steeple in Scandinavia.  The only other real touristy thing we had time for today was the climb to the top of the Stadshuset (city hall) tower in Stockholm. 

 

 

It is very interesting to see the tower from the interior as you climb on the insides of the walls.  Despite the overcast the view from the top is spectacular.   You look down on Gamla Stan, Riksdag, Kungl Slott, east end of Lake Malaren as well as a lot of Stockholm in general.  What was really interesting was that when you are at the very top of the tower and stand still you can fell the tower sway.  A bit unnerving.

Tomorrow the roles of tourist and tour guide ramp up.   We also meet up with some distant cousins who live here in Stockholm.  It has been a long day we are both mentally exhausted.