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| Finally reaching the top of the hill after several attempts. |
Week six in Sweden has without a doubt been filled with many cultural experiences in Trollhättan and Stockholm. Showing William around Trollhättan proved to be more fun than I expected as Trollhättan is a very small town. However, the sun made the weekend much nicer as we enjoyed walking around a nearby park which I had not yet been to. The park was very peaceful with few people around which allowed William and I to mess around and attempt to climb the biggest grass hill in the park. After many attempts and falls on the slippy slope we both managed to reach the top. Although the sun was out several ponds in the park and the Göta Älv (river) were still frozen solid. This week I have also had my first visit to a Swedish cinema where the movie was shown in English with Swedish subtitles which surprised me as I always thought the movies would be in Swedish in Sweden.
Having spent a relaxing weekend in Trollhättan with William it was time to set off further afield. Filled with excitement and great expectations we got on our train bound for Stockholm.
When William and I arrived in Stockholm it was chaotic with the amount of people and it being rush hour. We managed to meet with my parents’ friend, Anna, who lives in Stockholm. Anna provided us with a map, a list of several tourist attractions and nice restaurants as well as helping us buy the correct travel card for our stay in Stockholm. This made navigating around the city a lot easier as there are several different modes of public transport; tram, tube, train, bus, boat and trying to cram everything into four days in Stockholm is a little crazy so we were both happy for some help!
While in Stockholm we wanted to see the ‘Changing of the Guard’ at the Royal Palace which is situated in the old city (Gamla Stan). We walked around the old city and saw some of the old buildings, statues and old streets such as ‘Kopmangatan’. We then arrived at the Royal Palace (Kungliga Slottet) in time to watch the ‘Changing of the Guard’. Here is a short video of some parts of the ceremony.
After watching the ceremony we then travelled towards the edge of Gamla Stan where we could get a boat to the island of Djurgården, which has some historical buildings and museums. On this island I had the opportunity to visit the Vasa Museum (Vasamuseet). The museum is devoted to a ship known as the Vasa that sank on her maiden voyage in Stockholm Harbour. The museum was very informative as it included a lot of information about the artistic adornment and symbolism of the Vasa, original objects, what life was like on board, the history of the construction and even had skeletons of some of those who perished on board.
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| The Vasa. |
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| Some of the materials used to create colour for the artistic adornments. |
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| Some of the artefacts found on board the sunken Vasa. |
We decided that we wanted to get some spectacular views of the city so we booked our tickets for SkyView; a gondola made of glass that takes you up on the outside of the Ericsson Globe. The summit is one hundred and thirty metres above sea level and is definitely not for the faint hearted! It took me a while to get to my feet in the gondola but once I had adjusted to the height I managed to take some photos of the wonderful view of the city. Another activity we managed to squeeze into our hectic schedule was ice skating in an outdoor ice-rink at Kungsträdgården. I enjoyed ice-skating outdoors as it had a great atmosphere.
Being in Stockholm and in plenty of shops I was noticing that the Princess Victoria and her husband were featuring a lot in the media. Trying my absolute best to translate the front covers of newspapers and magazines I realised that she had actually given birth to a baby girl. Now I can always say I was in Stockholm when the second heir to the throne was born.
Overall this week has been fantastic and I am glad that I still have two more days left with William. I have explored Trollhättan more and having the sun out definitely makes everything nicer as the snow is disappearing. It is great to see a blue sky even if it is still absolutely freezing! This week can only be described as amazing.
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