Stockholm

We've just come back from five days in Stockholm. Fortunately almost everyone in Sweden speaks amazing English. Our Swedish is, alas, practically non-existent, though it's easier to understand when it's written down than when it's spoken. For example, see the fine map above. Easy, eh?

And this makes it fairly clear what you want to spray on a fire, doesn't it?

Stockholm is very lovely (though horrifically expensive, argh) and we had a good time.

We went on a couple of boat trips with interesting commentary about Stockholm's past.

We visited the Vasa museum - greatly recommended. The Vasa is a huge warship which sank twenty minutes into its maiden voyage in 1628 with the loss of about thirty lives. Can you imagine how the boat builders must have felt, standing on the shore, watching it? There was a design fault which made it top heavy and it just toppled over when a wave hit it. Perhaps fortunately, the designer had died a couple of years before, so he was well out of trouble. The Vasa lay at the bottom of the Baltic, not far out from shore, till the 1960s, when it was located and raised and was then conserved for the next 17 years (and continuing). A vast museum has been built around it and it's amazing to walk round it and imagine the work that went into its building; and the worry, the panic, the misery, the guilt, the fear that must have surrounded its sinking.

It had brightly painted statues and other carvings - hundreds of them - most of which were also retrieved. A model has been built of it, its carvings painted with the carefully-researched original colours. It must have been quite a sight. Briefly.

Because holidays mean frantic activity for us - and also because we needed to get full value from our very expensive Stockholm Passes - we also visited various palaces and museums, such as the Royal Palace, which is very beautiful - they did themselves very well, the Swedish kings. Again, we found out quite a lot of Swedish history that I hadn't known, so it was very interesting. I hadn't realised that Sweden was such a huge power for a couple of centuries. Strangely enough, our school history lessons tended to dwell complacently on British successes - mainly English ones.

The current king's garden is impressive but I feel he needs more flowers. This photo isn't of him.

Yesterday we went to the Botanic Gardens, which are very different from Edinburgh's. In general I think ours are more lovely, but it has to be admitted that theirs has a better lake.

And the burning bush tree in the Japanese garden was stunning. I wonder if I could fit one into my little patch?

It was wonderful to get home, though (I HATE flying) and I can't wait to get my hands on our little castings-on, the grandchildren (or two of them anyway) tomorrow.