Stockholm Wednesday 27th February

Good evening. So nice of you to join me again, at the end of my last full day in Stockholm. Well, you remember me saying yesterday about how sharp the winter sunshine is here? Not a problem, today, thanks. Still rather mild for the time of year, but it meant that the wind was that little bit sharper today, and you couldn’t warm up in the sunshine, because there wasn’t any.

I nearly made a bit of a fool of myself on the pendeltag into the city this morning. Even though it was well gone 9, the train was full, and I was standing throughout the ten minute journey. No problem with that, except that after Stockholms Sodra, the last stop before mine, I suddenly found myself crowded by two very large pushchairs. I was wedged up against the door on the left, while the right hand doors had been opening at all stations. I tried suggesting to the parents involved that they might like to let me out through the universal language of the raised eyebrow, but either I was ignored, or it means something quite different in Swedish. I was just checking how much of a leap it would be to mount my high horse, when the train started pulling in, and the platform was actually on my side.

So, then, working on my city to do checklist, by yesterday evening I’d ridden on trams, commuter trains, the T Bana (metro) and buses, but not yet boats. So I took care of that this morning with a couple of rides across the bay , island hopping. Hence the sketch of the ferry I’d just got off when I got to the Djurgarden. There’s still a ton of ice all around Stockholm, but it’s broken up into huge chunks which you just watch floating by as you slip across from one island to another. There’s worse ways to spend your time.

Museum of the day was the Historiske – the Swedish History Museum. The first thing which came to mind when I arrived about 10 minutes before it opened was that it must be the Swedish equivalent of half term this week, since there seemed to be tons of kids waiting in ones and twos with parents and presumably grandparents. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the Historiske. Highlights included the Gold Room – which is basically a room full of gold objects – like the Dutch the Swedes are a commendably literal people. I studied Old Norse as part of my English degree, way back in the mists of time all those decades ago, and as with any body of literature it really helps if you learn at least a little about the historical context. So I found some of the Viking artifacts fascinating. Not that the museum is only about Viking history – far from it, that’s only one small part of the story. To be honest, it was one of those places where you suddenly look at your watch and realise that two hours have gone by since you came in.

From there back then to my favourite part of the city, Gamla Stan, where I made my only watercolour sketch of this trip so far. Once again, it was a little bit of a frustrating day for the exhibitionist type of urban sketcher, considering that all of my sketches today had their observers again, and once again absolutely nobody passed comment on them. I made three of today’s sketches on the Gamla Stan, in a period of about an hour and a half, starting with the Riddarholmskirk , and finishing with the Riksdag entrance. By the time I’d finished I literally was so cold that I couldn’t feel my fingers.

Having said that, though, I’ve had proof that it is still mild for the time of year. When I first arrived at Alvsjo, where the hotel is, on Monday,

coming out of the Pendeltag station I saw a huge mound of dirty, gritty snow piled up in the centre of the square. Both yesterday and today, when I’ve emerged from the station at the end of the day there has been a huge puddle seeping away from the mound, which has noticeably shrunk since Monday.

Well, that just about wraps it up for this episode. Tomorrow I fly back in the later afternoon, so there’s still time for foolishness in the morning. Watch this space.