Swedish Cuisine

I went to a "traditional" Swedish restaurant last night, in which the menu it stated that "unlike other countries, Swedish food has become renowned across the world"!!
Err... what? Is it just me that had never heard of a Swedish restaurant or of any particular dish (Smörgåsbord doesn't count). My experience of Swedish likes are meatballs, potatoes, meatballs, potatoes fish and ... potatoes.
Britain being an old colony of Sweden (according to a tour guide referring to Viking colonisation) appears to share much of the Nordics cuisine.

Absolut Ice Bar

Visited one of the coolest places in Stockholm. Quite a chilling experience... drinking out of an ice glass and everything made from ice.

A bit of a novelty as I had never been to one before although I hear an Ice Bar has now opened in Melbourne amongst many other places. The bar is kept at -5 degrees, maybe in December it will be warmer in the bar than outside.

The Stockholm Archipelago

A few work colleagues came up from Karlskrona to Stockholm for the weekend. Had a good walk around Galma Stan and the harbour. Decided to take a boat tour of the Archipelago which is every local's pride and joy.

Twenty-four thousand islands make up the archipelago and we only saw a very small part of it. It's a pity that the summer is behind me because this would be a great place to spend it. It's a good reason to come back. The weather could have passed for a summer's day though. Below is a short video clip from the boat I shot of the islands.

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Facebook

OK, I gave in and joined Facebook, seems to have had a sudden take off in Australia, everyone is finding everyone else from years and years ago, but I wonder what will happen when the novelty wears off.
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Stadshuset - City Hall

More photos from around Stockholm. Here I visited Stadshuset, the City Hall of Stockholm (see previous post for outside photo). This is where the Stockholm council meet and is still an administrative building. Below is the Blue Hall, not so blue, but there is a story behind this. This is where 1300 guests dine in the annual Nobel Prize banquet on the 10th of December each year. Each year the Nobel prize winners walk down these stairs for dinner.

This building was built in the early 20th century and is quite bizarre. The architect apparently found symmetry dull. It's almost like a cross between traditional 19th century architecture and some of the wacky ideas of the modern era.

After the tour it was a climb to the top of the tower, interesting view of the bricks on the way up to the top.

The view towards Riksdagshuset where the Swedish parliament sit (the semi-circle shaped building in the middle).

Looking towards Gama Stan.

Where is this? click here to see it on a map.

Stockholm - city by the water

Today the weather was reasonable, overcast, but not cold or wet. Originally I had planned to go to one of the many museums but since the weather was good I just walked, and walked and walked (see below map).
Here are some photos taken today. Stockholm is a city on the harbour made up of lots of islands, it was one of these that I walked around today. Below is the old town area of Riddar-Holmen taken from the City Hall. One great interesting thing about the architechture here compared to other places in Europe is how colourful the buildings are and how they contrast with one another.

This is looking back towards one of the many bridges crossing the waterways.

This is the canal right next to where I am staying looking down towards City Hall. You can climb the tower, so that's on the to do list.

Map of walk (hopefully it will show up)