Our third day in Stockholm started off with great weather. The sun came out and we set off a little earlier than planned to take advantage. The first place we went was back to the Södermalm area we visited the previous day because there were a couple of things we wanted to see and didn’t get a chance to the day before because of the rain. We wound our way through some of the small streets and finally found the one we were looking for. It led up to a small, semi-secluded area that offered a wonderful view of the city. We couldn’t get access to the building I wanted to see but we had a good view of it from where we were. There was a lot of construction down below that prohibited us from getting a ground level view.
From there, we returned to the Old Town to look into some of the nice shops around but a lot of the things we would have wanted to buy were way overpriced. We walked in the direction of the train station to the north because that was the main part of the city we hadn’t seen yet. Along the way, we stopped and took some pictures of the places we had already seen but with a blue sky behind them so they look better. A lot of the streets were filled with people coming and going and lots of large department stores mixed with overpriced restaurants. In a break in the buildings, we saw a nice looking church building so we headed for it. After some steep hills, we finally found St. Johanns Church. The style outside was a red brick neo-gothic look. The inside was elaborately decorated and contained some nice stained glass windows.
After the church, we just ambled through random streets while the weather around us rapidly deteriorated. We weren’t really looking for anything in particular except to see what that part of the city had to offer. The beautiful buildings abounded and we found another church that looked be constructed of white marble. A few cold gusts of wind and our lack of any kind of jacket or rain coat enlivened us to make a move back to the hostel to adequately dress ourselves. Along the way, we took a small detour and walked a path we had the night before so we could pass by the famous City Hall. It sits on the edge of Marieberg in the direction of Old Town. It’s a large dark brick building with a sea green and gold decoration on the tower part that connects the two buildings. I imagine its quite nice to work in that building with the views it has to offer.
We also passed an old famous church that I’d been wanting to see the inside of because the outside looked really old and interesting. Indeed, the church was quite old, five or six hundred years old and it was the royal church used by kings and queens for burials. The inside was decorated with tons of family shields and most of them had links to the royalty. In the crypt down below, there were six coffins made of gold and had recently been cleaned and restored. We left the church and made for the hostel because it was becoming colder and windier as the day went on.
Feeling warmer with our jackets on, we walked the waterfront around to the museum island. It’s a small island that is full of museums like the Archaeological Museum, Modern Museum of Art, and the National Gallery. We didn’t go to any of them because their exhibitions listed online didn’t seem to interesting but we did find the Museum of Asian Studies and they were hosting a showing of the Terra Cotta Army of China. The fee was a little steep but probably the same the High was charging in Atlanta when they were there and headed in. The exhibition was in an old military bunker that had never been used like this so they were excited about that and it probably added a nice layer of protection. There weren’t too many figures but enough to give you a good idea of what it looked like. The plaques throughout the exhibition were very informative and explained how the armies were probably built for the emperors of the Qin Dynasty to protect them in the afterlife. At first, they used to bury high-ranking officials with them so they could follow them to the afterlife and also a bunch of animals were placed in there so they would have an abundance of them in death. I think they realized the waste and started building terra cotta versions of all of these people and animals and placed them in the tombs. Most of the armies that have been found were in battle formations and the figures all represent different officers and warriors of different ranks and classes.
We started feeling the pangs of hunger so we headed back to the Old Town to try out a local place near our hostel. We order meatballs and an elk burger and shared them so we could try some local fare. Our friend in Uppsala later told us that the Swedes don’t differentiate between elk and moose. The burger was quite tasty and the meatballs were even better. Overall, it was a good day but our time in Stockholm was through and we headed back to the hostel to get some sleep and endure more of the old man’s shenanigans.
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