Our Scandinavia Adventure: Day Nine (8 August)

Although in a way this trip seemed really long, it mostly felt pretty short, since we changed locations so much, and somehow here we were already at our last day in Stockholm, and it was barely a half-day at that. With still so much we wanted to see and do, we settled for just wandering around, saying goodbye to some of our favourite places. We saw some more interesting public art in the subway stations

(this station really could be a sci-fi set, don't you think?)


and got caught in a dramatic downpour in Gamla Stan. As we huddled in a doorway for about fifteen minutes, waiting for the rain to stop, we were treated to a performance of rain on cobblestones, a nearby church bell ringing, thunder shaking the sky, and shooting of cannons somewhere in the distance, perhaps for a changing of the guard? It was the most dramatic combination ever!
Eventually the rain stopped, and we had one last fika, even including the birds in our break, as Bob fed them from the tip of his shoe.
The sun came out again, making the oranges of Gamla Stan glow,
but all too soon we had to return to the hotel

to get our bag and head for the airport. Several times on this trip, we noticed tourism billboards for Finland,
and as two readers have already admonished us for, we also regretted not making the trek out to Helsinki on this visit, but the (not cheap) 16-hour boat from Stockholm to Helsinki coupled with a feeling that we were already moving around quite a bit during our stay meant that we'll have to save Helsinki for another time. At the airport, we used up the rest of our Swedish money to have a quick meal before getting on our (budget, no free meals or drinks) flight. I quite enjoyed this yogourt, both in terms of its delicious taste and its pleasing representation of strawberries and limes:
Today was the second time on this trip that we flew with airlines that we'd never heard of until we flew with them, but Sterling is apparently Europe's fourth largest budget airline.
The flight was fine, except for the fact that our cheap fares meant that we were crammed into the seats in the first six rows, which had substantially less legroom than the remaining rows. It didn't make my flight any less comfortable, but Bob's knees took a bit of a bashing. Still, he (and the very elderly woman sitting next to him) enjoyed their sudoku (I teased Bob that he's now officially an old lady), and before we knew it, we were back in London, on the train home, wondering where all the great light fixtures had gone and where we could fika.