More Photos of Stockholm

Takk!

During my sojourn in Stockholm, I stay in the suburbs of the city with a young Swedish couple, Anders and Lotta, whose hospitality, whimsical sense of the English language and overall good humor were a most delightful and heart warming surprise. "Takk" means "thank-you" in Swedish and I'm grateful to these two who were among the many who conspired to make my stay a fine adventure.

Traveling on local trains and buses and wearing out my legs walking the cobbled streets, I grow extremely fond of this region of some 1.8 million people who live in and around this "beauty on the water." The Swedes love their bicycles and their summer gardens, their boats and summer homes.... and, curiously, their statues of lions, which, like their fountains, are found even in small pocket parks throughout the city.

On my last day in Sweden I opt for a cruise through the archipelago which is made up of 35,000 islands in the ocean east of Stockholm. Many of the islands we pass have substantial summer houses and cottages on them, and the waters are filled with what seem to be thousands of sailboats.

Twenty-four hours before landing in Chicago in route to Denver, I lunch on the island of Finnhamm with a gleeful German woman who's studying architecture in Stockholm. I go for a quick swim and we sit on the rocky edge of the island, laughing at eachother and taking picture. We exchange email addresses before I catch a return boat to the city and she remains on Finnhamm. A day of varied weather– some scorching sunshine in the morning changing to torrential cloudbursts in the late afternoon– as befitting the end of World Water Week, this caps off my first visit to Sweden and the 10th annual Stockholm International Water Symposium.



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