Well, now - this is our last evening in Ulla's lovely little house, and we spend some time over cups of tea discussing Larsson, world politics, other guests, my guests back home in Dorset, her life, our life, and life in general including British tea (cups of). The following morning after our eggy breakfast, we are off to drive across to Stockholm, leave the car at the airport, and take the train into the city and our hotel.
It's very rainy in the morning, and we don't want to go but we have to, having hired the car for 5 days only. We take mostly major roads, and when coffee calls we slip off into a small town (Heby) and look for somewhere to park. What joy then, with the heavens pouring water like a waterfall down on the inhabitants, I spot two things at the same time. A parking space on a side road, and right opposite, the word Konditori ..... and as you know, we understand what that means. We have coffee and cake and get back on the road, and it seems in no time at all we are dropping the car off. It's been fun, not least of which because we now know that all IKEA products are names of Swedish towns and villages - or that is how it seems to us. We certainly drove through several small towns that were definitely the names of IKEA furniture!
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| Church steeple seen from the car, pouring with rain, windows covered in raindrops... but got it. It's black - an oddity for us but just an example really of the strangeness of countries that are not your own. See, just a few more trees, too!!! |
Catching the bus back to the airport, we decide to go for the Stockholm Express, a non-stop train taking us straight to Stockholm's central station. Bit of a shock at the price when we pay for the tickets on board, but if you decide to take this train, please note that tickets are cheaper in advance, and you get a great reduction if you are travelling as a pair. Station to hotel is as it says on the website - 7 minutes walk. Not a cheap option, but a great one because of it's position. Frey's Hotel. The rooms are small, the bathrooms lovely, the breakfast choices are huge (I mean you could eat yourself silly if you had a mind to and the cost is included).
We have a wander around the station (We like stations!) plenty of shops, plenty of life and we know we have 3 nights and 2 whole days in Stockholm, so after breakfast tomorrow we are gong to have to do some walking and looking! But we do get a 72 hour Stockholm Pass from the info office in the station, and that allows us unlimited travel on the entire Stockholm transport system - trains, trams buses, and boats. A good bargain - they come in 24 and 48 hour versions too.
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