Stockholm; Friday, 27 July, 2007

Technically I should be feeling like something unmentionable. In the last week I had got only three decent nights sleep, I had covered several thousand miles, I had cycled to the Artic circle, and last night I had consumed a disgusting amount of food at the buffet dinner, not forgetting the bottle of wine that came with that, a whole bottle of Champaign, and two cans of beer. Instead, as stepped out of the shower, turning off the water with the gold plated taps, and stepping into the soft towelling dressing gown and towelling slippers, I felt disgustingly health.

The ferry docked in Stockholm on time, but it was not a part of Stockholm that I recognised. I had assumed, wrongly, that as they Viking and Silja services leave from roughly the same area of Helsinki, they would arrive into the same parts of Stockholm, near the Katerina Hissen and the Central station. Sadly, for Silja, this is not the case, their ships dock at a mooring North East of the city centre, a 500m walk from the T-Bahn and then a three stop ride to the Central station, and the left luggage lockers that I would be making use of.

After dropping off my luggage I walked out the back of the station and down to the town hall, where I boarded one of the lake Mälaren steam ships to head up the lake to the royal palace at Drottningholm. This is where the Swedish royal family actually live on a day to day basis, but despite this, during the summer at least, parts of the palace and grounds are open to the public to look around. The steamer is the most pleasant way of reaching the palaces, taking a little under an hour to steam up the lake to the palace.

I had a long look around the Palace, as well as the grounds and the small Chinese Palace at the back of the grounds, before heading back into Stockholm, this time by way of bus and T-Bahn. I went back to the Central station, picked up my luggage and headed onto the hotel to check in. After doing all the necessary at the hotel I headed back out into town. I wandered up to the palace in the centre of town and to the Cathedral, which I had not visited on my original trip to Stockholm. The cathedral looks quite small from the outside, but inside is much bigger, though quite dark with little natural light getting in. I had a long look around the cathedral before heading round to the side of the castle, just in time to watch an impressive changing of the guard.

Impressive for two reasons, one the number of soldiers involved, and two the spectacular cloudburst that took place for almost exactly the same time as the guard change ceremony. I was already standing in a cloister type arcade, mostly to get a better view, but as the first soldiers moved out to the centre of the courtyard the skies opened. They persevered through their ceremony, which took nearly 10 minutes, as it neared its end the rain reached a crescendo and it looked as though most of the courtyard, and then by knock on effect, the arcade, would flood. Thankfully, as the last soldier retreated to the dry the rain stopped.

I wandered through the old town for some time, watching the rivers cascade down the streets, it had been a really impressive storm! After stopping for dinner in a small restaurant in Gamla Stan I headed back to the hotel to get an early night.