Wednesday 16th July was day one of my Oringen journey. We set off just after 9.00 am for what turned out to be a 12 drive from Umeå to Stockholm (this time included a few stops, including visiting Magnus and Emma on the way to Tumba, a suburb in Stockholm, where Helena's brother lived). We therefore arrived just before 9pm and were shown where the pool was pretty much straight away. Their pool was great, during the day it is heated by solar power and was about 25 degrees at the time we went in.
Thursday was tourist day. We left Tumba by train into Central Stockholm. We got off on Södermalm, one of the islands and walked to a lookout from which you would see a lot of Stockholm including many of the churches.
We then made our way into Gamla Stan (old town) for lunch. After lunch we then explored Gamla Stan looking at all the tourist shops. We walked past many beautiful buildings, and passed through Kungliga Slottet (the royal palace).
We took a boat from Gamla Stan another of Stockholms many islands... The island containing Gröna Lund! (Sadly we didn't stop to go on any of the rides as we were on the way to the Vasa museum!). We passed the Abba museum on the walk to Vasa, but sadly didn't go in (we took some photos outside instead).
For some afternoon tea we headed onto a nearly 100 year old ship. It was very interesting to look around, but not as interesting as the Vasa museum. The Vasa is a ship that was finished in 1928. It was a war ship that was to set sail to go to war. But sadly it didn't get much more than a kilometer out of its dock when a gust of wind unbalanced it and it sunk in the middle of Stockholm's harbour! About 300 years later it was recovered and is now lying in the museum in Stockholm. Definitely worth a visit!
After leaving the Vasa museum we made our way back to Tumba for a nice swim before the 9(ish) hour drive to Kristianstad the next day. I really loved visiting Stockholm, and I think it really is a beautiful city!
