Back in Brussels

Gustav Adolphs Torg (square) in Stockholm, with the Stockholm Opera house on the right.

Birch trees in a forest near Västerås.  Feels like looking into infinity.

Dala horse in Mora

The finish line for the Vasaloppet cross country ski race in Mora.  It's the longest, oldest, and largest ski race in the world.

I was absolutely shocked when I saw this thing in Mora.  It's a robotic lawn mower!  Apparently they are somewhat common in Europe.

An old movie theater in Stockholm called the Röda Kvarn (Red Mill) that's tragically been converted into a clothing store.

A night at the Opera - my first one!  It was Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro at Stockholm's Opera House. The opera was in Italian, but luckily there were Swedish subtitles displayed on a sign above the stage", so I knew exactly what was going on of course.  It was really difficult to take a good picture, so here's a little video that kind of shows the inside of the theater.  Hopefully it works.

Fried herring in Stockholm (with mashed potatoes, coleslaw, pickles, crispbread and Ramlösa).

View of Stockholm's Gamla Stan (Old Town), the royal palace and some boats.  One of them is a steamship that was puffing away pretty loudly.

The cinema at the Swedish Film Institute - the film being shown was Nosferatu (a silent film from 1922).  Not only was there live music (three musicians playing a number of different instruments), but one of the musicians was the Swedish composer Matti Bye, who's written a number of compositions for silent films, and had written a new score just for this screening.  It was an amazing show!

A nice park on Djurgården island in Stockholm.  My question is, why are there leaves on the ground in the middle of August??

Bust of actor Max von Sydow in Stockholm's Royal Dramatic Theater

Lunch at Gamla Uppsala - meatball and beet salad sandwich, washed down with some pretty nasty mead (alcohol made from fermented honey).

Burial mounds at Gamla Uppsala that date from around the 5th century.  There are three large burial mounds and then a number of smaller ones.  No one really knows who was buried here, but they were probably royalty of some kind. 

Map of Mora - there is actually a part of the town called "Canada."  As far as I could tell, "Canada" was either a residential area, or the trees behind the residential area.

Bach on a wall in Stockholm's Gamla Stan

The GB Glace clown has a wife!

Old movie theater built in 1919 in Uppsala.  It's been restored to exactly how it was originally, other than the seats.  Ingmar Bergman went to this cinema as a kid, and on the right you can see some of his movie posters.

Fika - the tradition in Sweden of drinking coffee and eating something sweet, often a kanelbulle (cinnamon bun).  This kanelbulle was from a cafe in Uppsala and was by far the best one I had in Sweden.

Gamla Stan in Västerås - a very well preserved area with lots of old, wooden, colourful houses and winding streets. 

Pirate ship docked at Västerås harbour

Cute, modern house in a pretty suburb in Västerås

Rune stone, burial mound and stone ships at Anundshög

Self portrait taken from on top of a garbage bin.  I'm in front of Skattungbyn church (featured in the Ingmar Bergman film Winter Light).  It's hard to tell, but the church is located at the top of a large hill, and there's a great view down into the valley.

There was a cultural festival going on in Stockholm, with lots of free concerts from all different genres.  This is a clip of the opera orchestra playing a piece from Bizet's Carmen.

Sunset at Rättvik.  The wooden pier there is over 600 meters long, and goes out to a very small island, which is the clump of trees on the right.

At my Rättvik hostel, drinking a local beer brewed in Mora