Leaving the Royal Palace I was going to walk thru the old Gamla Town and find my way to my hotel. What surprised me on my first visit was that Stockholm is not a traditional city on a landmass but a collection of pebble like islands joined by bridges.Gamla Town the original old town sits on its own island of a few city blocks with a couple of smaller connecting islands. Last time I stayed on a ship hostel facing the old town but didnt venture much into the rest o...

Next section of the Palace was the State Apartments on the upper floor, again making other European Monarchs look like poor cousins. Once again photographs galore since none were allowed in my last visit in 2003 when I was so amazed.I had to rush a bit to complete it before they closed at 4pm. I also caught the hourly changing of the guards outside.

First stop was the Stockholm Royal Palace. As I hadnt checked into my hotel yet I still had my bag so had to find the luggage storage. There are different tickets for different sections of the Palace but all included in my pass.When I came in 2003 no photos were allowed and it was amazing inside, much richer than continental Europe or anything in the UK. Fortunately they have relaxed the photo rules so pics galore.Next was the Treasury where no pics were allowed,...

This morning I was leaving Lithuania the last of the Baltic States and flying into Stockholm Sweden for three days. In retrospect I should have ended my trip here as I had done so much since St Petersburg I was to exhaust myself with three more packed days.My friend and me were both flying out together on different flights, he was heading home while I continued in Sweden. Our flights were more than two hours apart but I offered to come to the airport with him.As ...

Malmo is Sweden's third largest city on the southwest coast, almost a suburb of Copenhagen now due to the 20 min Oresund Bridge Sea Crossing. On my last visit in 2003 I took the train south from Oslo, stopped in Malmo for about an hour, before getting back on the train to Copenhagen. Today was to be a similar short stop.I took the 45 min train from the northern port city of Helsingborg to Malmo, from where I had crossed by ferry into Sweden, arriving in Malmo by ...