A Day in Stockholm

Yesterday we went to Stockholm Sweden for the day. On Thursday night we dropped Emerson off at the Larson's and then bright and early Friday morning we drove to the airport. We got there in plenty of time but still managed to almost miss our flight because we didn't know that the gate had changed until a couple minutes before we were supposed to go. We tried to get a little extra rest on the plane but I don't think either of us were very successful. When we got into Stockholm Airport we picked up our rental car and were off. Stephen had reserved a smart car but they didn't have any avaliable so we got upgraded to a mini coop instead. Stephen was a little bit sceptical at first but I think he thought it was cool by the end of the trip. We were quite taken back by the beauty of the country. There were lots of trees all around us as we drove down the highway. It reminded me of Vermont or Washington State.

One of our first stops in Sweden was a gas station to pick up some breakfast. We grabbed a couple muffins and a doughnut and some juice. Stephen we quite impressed by the doughnut. He said they could be the best doughnuts that he has ever had. Unfortunately we forgot to take a picture of this amazing pastry.

The first place we headed was the temple. We decided to take some back roads and enjoyed even more of the beauty this country has to offer.

These are some pictures of the temple. It was really quite beautiful the way the temple matched its surroundings and at the same time was like a beacon in the wooded nature that surrounded it.



After the temple we went just down the road a little ways and took a walk through the second oldest graveyard in Scandinavia. It was really interesting to see becuase all they had to use for gravestones were big rocks. Some of the sites had big piles of rocks while others the rocks were placed in circle patterns or arrows.

Aftewards we drove through Stockholm. It is a really beautiful city. The city is actually a collection of islands of varring sizes connected by bridges. Fourteen in total. It is full of greenery and the water is everywhere. We didn't get a lot of good pictures of the city because of all the railings on the bridges. This is probably one of the best that we got and definetly doesn't do the city justice.

One of our last stops before we headed back to the airport was Drottningholm Palace, home of the Swedish royal family. This was also gorgeous. The Palace was massive and then there were lots of very well manacured gardens extending out the back and the water came right up close to the front side of the palace. To the side of the palace was a lovely park with walks and a couple ponds. The lawn of the park was full of some kind of duck or goose and there were statues randomly placed throughout the park. My favorite garden at the palace was probably the one that was like a maze of hedges. You felt like you were in a labrynith. The picture of Stephen below is from that garden as we both went seperate ways and tried to get to one another.

On our way back to the airport we made our very last stop to another gas station so Stephen could get three more doughnuts to enjoy before we left Sweden.

The entire day was so much fun. The weather was great (especially for being so far north), the people were very kind, the landscape of the country was beautiful, and we got to spend the day together while Emerson apparently had a wonderful day with the Larson's.