We’d decided to spin our trip out a little and spend an extra day with our ace Trivia team in Stockholm.

So sailing in through the archipelago was not only a chance to reflect on our great cruise but was also time to look forward to a short time in a city we know and like very much.  The rainbow was a good omen, don’t you think?

We could see both ends, but my camera couldn’t.  Well, not at the same time, anyway

Disembarking from a cruise is always a bit of a parlarver.  Well, we each need to be matched up with our luggage, we’re all heading off in different directions and the logistics must be a nightmare.  However, it all comes together somehow (I guess they are quite practised in such things!)  Off we set for central Stockholm.

Our hotel was situated in an area of the city with which we were unfamiliar, but the location was fine and though our room was a triumph of style over substance, we were ok there for a night.  It was all a bit quirky and in the evenings, was really hopping: definitely the place to be seen.

We soon got our bearings and headed down to the harbour for a spot of lunch.

One of our favourite places is tucked away at the back of the Opera House.  If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you might have read about previous visits here (tagged Sweden in the archive).  It’s a good, reliable and rather special place to have lunch, we think.

You can’t reserve a table, you just have to turn up and take your chance for one of the 30 seats.  At 12.10pm there were half a dozen left, at 12.15pm, all were full.

I looked at the menu but there was really no need.  I knew exactly what I would choose.

No, not meatballs on this occasion!  We’re out to dinner tonight and I’m fairly sure they’ll be on the menu there.

Salmon!  Lightly smoked and served with dill potatoes in a cream sauce.  Delicious!  So delicious in fact, that I forgot to take a photo until I’d had a couple of bites!  I think too, there were a couple of springs of sweet cecily in those herbs as well?

Well, having eaten what seemed like half a salmon each, washed down with a good, cold beer, we needed to walk it off.  A stroll in the Kungsträdgården seemed like a good idea and though it wasn’t looking anything like as lovely as I’ve known it, we were happy to be here.  Anyway, you know where it leads?

To the Hamngatan and the NK department store  I wasn’t sure what was going on here, as we stepped inside, but looking at the website, it appears there were a series of talks about fashion and building a wardrobe, and yes, those do look like a bunch of fashion types, don’t they?

We always like to browse around the home departments, which are always so stylish and colourful.

There is usually something to make us smile!

A few familiar things, too – we happen to have these glasses at home.

The things on sale here are very much to our taste, confirmed by the number of familiar things we see – our serving spoons and things are here too!

So although we are not really here to buy, we are happy to browse and I take particular notice of displays such as this, which chimes closely with the workshops I was teaching with a  colleague earlier in the year.

But we are weary and a bit footsore by now, so we make our way back to the Haymarket and our strange, quirky room.

It’s not exactly comfortable and relaxing, but we have a few things to do before we meet our friends at 6.

There are always interesting things to observe, anyway, like this arrangement of photographs around a corner of the room.  I think I like it.

Anyway, dinner tonight is at another old favourite.  Oh my, are we creatures of habit or what!?