Finished with Finland, back to Sweden

After a quiet night in Violetta´s driveway, we caught up again with Petteri somewhere along the highway on the way to his Mökki.

A Mökki is a finish summer house. It is of a high standard if it is situated on a lake, has a sauna and you can´t see the neighbors.

On two out of three we were doing well. And because the neighbors we could have seen were not there, we scored on all points!

It is hard to overstate the beauty and tranquility of this place, and just as hard to put it into words.

Petteri´s father had built the little hut, a sauna, woodshed, fireplace, tool shed, an outhouse, a couple of little jetties, all the things you need in such a place.

So the next couple of days were spent rowing on the lake, foraging for mushrooms and berries in the forest, driving around a bit to get different views of the lake, spotting moose, drinking beer with the locals at the “kiosk”, firing up the sauna and enjoying first the heat, then the cool waters of the lake, taking in the profound silence and cooking in the four different places suitable to do so (the kitchen in the hut, the outdoor kitchen, the hot stones in the sauna and the fireplace).

Pure bliss!

Nature is amazing!

The sauna

Carmelo is enjoying the view as well

Sunday morning after breakfast, we said our farewells and made a big leap across the map to Turku, from where a ferry would take us to Sweden Tuesday morning.

Turku, the oldest city in the country, was the capital of Finland until 1812, when Emperor Alexander I. of Russia decided to move the capital to Helsinki.
It took another 15 years, until a great fire ravaged the city, for most government institutions and the Royal Academy of Turku, now the University of Helsinki, to be moved to the new capital.

Turku´s canteen and café culture has often been compared to French food culture, which is why the city is sometimes known as the “Paris of Finland”.

Well, not sure about that one…

Maybe you would have to stay longer than one rainy and grey afternoon to find out.

Muesum ships in the harbor

The theater

Turunlinna, the city castle, is one of the main sights.
Built in 1280, it is strategically located at the mouth of the river Aura and is the biggest surviving Medieval building in the country.

Of course, it was closed on the day of our visit.

It took close to 9 hours to cross the Gulf of Bothnia on a ferry.

So, now we were back in Sweden, again, and hoping dearly that we finally had left the bad weather behind.

With the sun shining down on us, we made our way to Uppsala the next day. It is the fourth largest city in the country and home to Scandinavia´s largest cathedral, which was the frequent site of coronation of the Swedish monarch until the late 19th Century.

The Fyris river runs through the city and makes for a nice scenery with its small house boats, restaurants by the water and the Stadsskogen, the City Forest, alongside it.

With a small, walk-able city center, it is a pleasure to walk around here on a sunny day, sit by the river and enjoy an ice cream.

16th Century Uppsala Castle, built by King Gustav Vasa

Today it is the residence of the governor of Uppsala county

The University library holds over 5 million books and publications, including a few very rare and special volumes, which are displayed in the oldest part of the library.

The struggle for women´s rights is not new

The first notes of "The magic flute"

Not the most impressive building from the outside, but it holds countless treasures

Gamla Uppsala, a village just 5km outside the city, was an important religious, economic and political center, as early as the 3rd Century AD.

During the Middle Ages, it was the largest village of Uppland and the location of the "Thing of all Swedes", which was a "thing" (general assembly) held from prehistoric times to the Middle Ages.

The "Royal Mounds", Kungshögarna in Swedish, is the name of the three large barrows located at the edge of the village. According to folklore, the three gods Thor, Odin and Freyr would be at rest here.
They are dated to the 5th and 6th Century.

Now, on to the big one: Stockholm ("stock" means log and "holm" island)!

It is obviously the capital and most populous city of Sweden, as well as the largest urban area (1,6 million inhabitants) in the Nordic countries.
The Stockholm region alone accounts for a third of the country´s GDP!

The city stretches across fourteen islands and has been settled since the Stone Age, in the 6th millennium BC.

A lift takes you up to a viewing platform (or you take the stairs, as a certain someone did)

Quite a lot of construction going on all over the city

The city´s core, the present Old Town, or Gamla Stan, was built on the central island from the mid-13th century onward.
The city originally rose to prominence as a result of the Baltic trade of the Hanseatic League. Stockholm developed strong economic and cultural links with Lübeck, Hamburg, Gdansk, Visby, Tallinn and Riga during this time.

A lot has happened here during the ages, from fires, plagues, sieges and the "Stockholm Bloodbath" to war, economic decline and rejuvenation through immigration - all to make it what it is today, a vibrant, modern and ethnically diverse city scoring very high on livability, sustainability and education.

A "Nobel" museum, like the one we saw in Oslo, presumably

A silent witness to the "Stockholm bloodbath" that happened here in 1520

If you run out of building material, just use a rune stone

The most narrow "street" in the city, only 80cm wide at the top and named after a German

Advertisement done right for Pride day on the 1st of August

Of the many museums you can chose from here, Vasa museum, ABBA museum, Modern Art museum, Museum of Oriental antiques (oh, she was tempted ;-) and many more, my human decided on the Fotografiska, a world renown photography museum with changing exhibitions.

Lunch first - with a view, thank you, art later

by Joakim Möller

by Martin Parr

"The worst holiday ever" is not the title of this photo, it should be, though

Swedish humor

One obvious stop is the Royal Palace, ideally at 12pm, when the daily Change of Guards is happening.

Carl XVI Gustav is King of Sweden since 1973. Having reigned for 52 years so far, he is the longest-reigning monarch in Swedish history and the second longest-serving current head of state.

Although Kunglinga Slottet is his official residence, the King and Queen use Drottningholm Palace, a few kilometers outside the city center, as their home.

The Kungliga Slottet is one of the largest palaces in Europe and is used for representative purposes.
The original castle was built in the 13th Century and has since been re-built numerous times, due to war, fires and the like.

The interior of the current building consists of 1430 rooms, 660 of which have windows.