Posted in Baltic Cruise, Trips at 12:00 on 8 June 2020
Our approach to Stockholm had been overnight so we hadn’t seen the environs. On the way out in the evening we found it is a beautiful set of islands through which the ship made its way. Back in the day I suppose these must have made Stockholm very easily defensible from the sea.



It must be great to be able to jump into your yacht and take off:-









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Posted in Architecture, Baltic Cruise, Bridges, Trips at 20:30 on 6 June 2020
The coach had dropped us off near Gamla Stan – old Stockholm, well worth a wander round. (In pre-coronavirus days anyway):-

Art Nouveau-ish Building, Gamla Stan, Stockholm:-

Church and bridge round corner from Gamla Stan:-

Traditional architecture:-


Gustav II Adolf (Gustavus Adolphus) statue and building opposite Riksdag and Opera House, Stockholm:-

More modern Swedish style:-

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Posted in Architecture, Baltic Cruise, Trips at 20:30 on 4 June 2020
National Museum:-

View from Royal Palace:-


From near Opera House:-

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Posted in Architecture, Baltic Cruise, Trips at 20:30 on 3 June 2020


Swedish Riksdag and aeroplane – a blast from the past:-

Between the Riksdag and the water is this statue of what I can only call a disporting gent. I have no idea who it is, or why. (Googling wasn’t much help):-


This lion statue was on the parapet of the bridge in front of the Riksdag. Stockholm Palace is over the bridge:-

Gateway on other side of Riskdag:-

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Posted in Architecture, Baltic Cruise, Trips at 12:00 on 3 June 2020
Stockholm really is a beautiful city – helped by all that water it is built on and over.
The coach from the ship dropped us off near the Riksdag (see previous post) and opposite the Opera House:-

We first went for a wander towards the more commercial area but managed to find a park. It had a statue of Linnaeus:-

On the way in we’d passed a great looking building that I thought we would never find on our own as the coach had seemed to go a long way past it. However on going further we looped around and there it was, the Drama Theatre:-

I couldn’t get far enough back to get the whole frontage in so this had to do:-

Such ornate lampposts though:-

This turned out not to be too far from where the caoch had stopped! A couple of minutes walk. This garden area was nearby and you can look across to the Royal Palace beyond:-

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Posted in Baltic Cruise, Bridges, Trips at 12:00 on 1 June 2020
Next stop on the Baltic cruise was Stockholm for our fifth day in a row of shore excursions. We were getting a bit knackered by then but Stockholm is a stunning city and made up for that. Being built on islands there is water everywhere and loads of bridges.

Riksdag (Swedish Parliament) and bridge. What a lovely aspect:-

This was by the other side of the Riksdag:-

Two for one here, foreground and background:-

This rather less elegant one was near the ship’s berth:-

When I first glimpsed this tower I had hoped it might be Art Deco but it’s not. Looks like a communications tower:-

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Posted in Trips at 20:52 on 11 June 2017
I’ve been away again.
A week in Orkney with the good lady, the furthest north either of us have been in Britain.
I have been further north (Stockholm and St Petersburg – or Leningrad, as it was then – since you ask; and the good lady has been to Bergen.)
Orkney was fantastic – lots to see and do. The landscape is a bit odd to a soft southerner. It took us a while to get used to the lack of trees. There are some trees on Orkney – mostly maples and usually in sheltered spots – but the hills are all bare. And you are never far from water.
The weather was all over the place though. Great sunshine for the first two days then it rained for the next two then there was another one of sun before the next saw a driving rain storm catch us on the Brough of Birsay. Still it apparently was dismal for the whole week where we live, so we escaped that.
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Posted in Trips at 12:00 on 17 September 2014
I’ve been in Holland.
Well, strictly speaking, since it was on the borders of the Friesland and Groningen provinces, make that The Netherlands.
The good lady’s eldest brother lives there. We had been supposed to visit for years but life got in the way.
We needed to renew our passports first. I sent the applications away late in July. Despite all the talk on the news about delays we got the new ones inside a week. (As I remember it was four days.) Maybe the Glasgow Passport office is more efficient than down south.
So another country visited. Apart from the constituent parts of the UK (though I only just made it into Wales) I’ve been to Sweden (Stockholm,) the Soviet Union (Leningrad as was) and Denmark (Copenhagen) on a school cruise when I was at Primary School, Portugal (the Azores, Madeira, Lisbon) and Spain (Vigo) on a Secondary School cruise, and as an adult to Germany (near Stuttgart) and France twice (Normandy for the D-Day beaches and Picardy for World War I battlefields.)
Since the good lady didn’t fancy being on a RoRo ferry overnight we drove down to Harwich (with an overnight stop) and the same on the way back. I’m knackered.
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