Europe Trip 2014, Part 4

Stockholm

I LOVE this city!!

It has all the things I love about great European cities: beautiful architecture, good metro, amazing cathedrals and churches, plentiful gardens and green spaces, interesting sculptures and statues, good museums and lots of restaurant choices. Oh yes, and lots of shopping choices. Stockholm was all that and more. It is called the little Venice of the North. It does have plenty of water and bridges but it was a lot cleaner looking and better smelling than Venice was. Stockholm is actually built on a group of 14 islands. Each one seems to have it's own little personal history and place in society. All the people we met and talked to were very friendly and helpful.

But before we get to all of that, we had to drive from Trondheim Norway down to Stockholm, a 9ish hour drive. It was a very pretty drive. We had been watching for reindeer in Norway but finally found them in Sweden. From Wikipediea we learn,  "In most populations both sexes grow antlers and it is the only cervid species in which females grow them as well as males. In the Scandinavian populations, old males' antlers fall off in December, young males' fall off in the early spring, and females' fall off in the summer."

 There were many hillsides and areas in both Norway and Sweden that were covered with Lupine. The majority of the countryside houses and outbuildings were red with white trim but occasionally you could also find a yellow one here and there.

Now, into the city we go.

 Dennis in one of the churches the pipes for the pipe organ are up in the balcony.

 An example of interesting architecture.

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 The Nobel Museum - all about Alfred Nobel, his life and the people who have shaped our world through physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, economics and peace.

 While we on Gamla Stan island, where the Nobel Museum and Royal Palace is, there was a bomb threat that closed down half the island and prevented us from getting to the lunch cafe we had chosen. There were police, special unit forces, newscasters and a helicopter all congregated in the center of the island. Later in the day, we had to go around the detour near our hotel to get back. They were able to capture the guy and the city returned to normal.