This morning I set off early to go ice skating, when I say ice skating what I really mean is walk the streets of Stockholm. The snow had turned to ice and the pavements were like glass.  I ice danced my way to Ladugardsgardet to find the Kaknastornet Tower to visit the 30th floor where the observation deck at 500 feet provides 360 degree views from the highest building in the city of Stockholm.  I set off early to get the best weather of the day and a small amount of sunshine… and the photos from up on high set Stockholm off well.

The next part of my walk took me onwards to Djurgarden and to Djurgardvagen 68 where I became the 5th member of Abba – that’s quite a feat for having only arrived in Stockholm two days ago!  What I actually mean is I went to the Abba Musuem where you can interactively participate in an Abba video, have pictures in Abba costumes and sing in a music studio.  Sounds pretty cool .. well yes it was… well apart from that my pictures never came out, but I do have a cool video of me and Abba !  This museum also is part dedicated to the Swedish music hall of fame, so includes mentions of newer Swedish music successes from The Hives, Avicii, First Aid Kit and Swedish House Mafia.

Over the last few days I have been able to get to lots of areas around Stockholm, and have walked miles and miles.  It has been good seeing and learning a bit about the place, though I find it hard to learn about history. Basically I hear a lot of facts, information, dates .. all about wars, independence, monarchs etc, and after a while countries histories seem to meld into one another ~ Danish, Norwegian and Swedish.. by the end of this trip I won’t be able to remember one Scandinavian history from another. Though I do know Sweden’s National Day is 6th June each year.

The day ended with dinner at ‘The Meat Grill & Bar’ as you might imagine this was not a place for vegetarians.  It was actually a South American restaurant here in Stockholm, and the food and beer were very good. Argentinian meat with Swedish beer was a really nice combination to end the day. .

There are a few mad observations I have noticed as I wandered the streets ~ PUB in Stockholm is a department store, Pong here is a sushi bar and all Swedes being blond is a myth, in fact in my experience not that many above normal.  I asked this guy what he thought, but he wasn’t saying very much.

What I do know is that each of the countries has character, is interesting and good on the eye. I’m off to Finland next to round out the Scandinavian adventure, and will find the short flight takes me yet another hour ahead, and 2 hours in front of GMT.