Swedish Adventure 2016 - Part 6 - More Stockholm!

27 April
After breakfast, we test out the Stockholm Pass, and take the one of the metro lines out to the very end and come back again.  Testing, testing, 123 testing.  We note that the stop for a ride on the Ericson Globe is actually called "Globen", so that's easy to remember.  Mr Mac is looking forward to that so we'll do it first thing tomorrow.  Today is about being in town and inside shops.  We spend some time in a big department store and more particularly it's watch department.  There Mr Mac dribbles over expensive watches that could grace his wrist if we win the lottery any time soon.  For me, most of them are overdecorated and overpriced, but - horses for courses.  

And then, as we are leaving we see the most extraordinary thing.  A queue.  A queue for a bog-standard choc-ice on a stick - but with a difference.
  

This is a queue to get yourself a hand built Magnum.  WHAT?????  Yes sirreebob!  a hand built Magnum by Walls Ice Cream.  It gets a special coating, and then artistes decorate it with stuff.  And the stuff is so normal.  Marshmallows, chocolate buttons, sprinkles, etc.  Gawd, I could do that!  But the artistes have special uniforms, special gloves and they take a huge amount of time to produce this ...... Just. For. You.

Come ON!  Someone is taking the mickey, surely?  But no, as you can see from the queue, people really are wanting a fancy dressed choc ice and paying over the odds for it too.  This is a two month special here in Stockholm, so I guess other Capital Cities will be seeing this phenomenon shortly.  Hahahaha!  Coming from the West Country, where speciality ice creams and sorbets are in abundance, why would I want a decorated Magnum from Walls Ice Cream?  Well obviously not me, but someone does.  What a brilliant sales pitch, eh?

It's a bit of an exciting day all round, what with the hand built ice cream and all, because very soon we are standing at a pedestrian crossing and we hear an explosion.  A bomb?  A gun?  A split second of fear and then there is another, and another..... and it's a 21 gun salute because it's the naming day for the latest Swedish royal baby!  And round the corner comes the mounted silver band, tootling and drumming away on their way to the palace.

I snap a few interesting things as we walk down to the water and to the State Museum, where there are some paintings I want to see.  Closed for restoration, and no sign on the website of where they have sent the collections.  With only a few days here I cannot go to every museum searching out Larssons, so may have to come back sometime.  So here are just a few shots of Stockholm.  Very random.

 Long day, interesting, legs hurt!  More tomorrow for our last full day when it's a ride up the Ericson Globe for starters.