Stockholm, Sweden - August 2019

I was lucky to be able to explore Gamla Stan before the tourist arrived - yes it turns out jet lag is good for something.

Gamla Stan

Over the years I've been lucky enough to visit some of the great cities of the world, London, Paris, Singapore and Buenos Aires spring to mind when I think of great cities that I've visited. Now I've got another one to add to my list. Stockholm is another of those cities that I felt immediately at home in, not something that comes easily for someone who generally prefers to be camping on a windswept mountain in the rain on my own rather than hanging out in a city. 

Gamla Stan

The locals are incredibly stylish.

It's easy to lose hours exploring all the little nooks and crannies in Gamla Stan.

The light was amazing this morning.

I visited Stockholm on the way up to northern Sweden when I was walking the Kungsleden back in 2019, spending a few days in town while I organised a few last minute details for the walk. I was lucky that my travel agent (who is also a personal friend and knows me well) booked me into the Hilton Hotel at Slussen, this hotel was only a couple of minutes walk from the metro and it proved to be great location from which to branch out an explore the city, either on foot, bus, boat or by train. 

I bumped into these guys whilst wandering around Gamla Stan early in the morning.

I'm guessing that I was watching some kind of changing of the guard.

Gamla Stan

Gamla Stan

Gamla Stan

Some the streets in Gamla Stan are tiny.

Gamla Stan

My flight arrived into Arlanda fairly in the afternoon and after catching the quick and painless Arlanda Express I was at the hotel less than an hour after touching down. Even better I was able to check into my room straight way. After dropping my gear in my room and grabbing a shower and some clean clothes I set off on my first forays out into Stockholm on foot, managing to check out the local Slussen neighbourhood a little before jet lag caught up with me a bit.

Kungliga Slottet

Riksdagshuset

There was street festival on when I visited Stockholm with lots of music, street art and food.

Next morning I was up and heading out to explore Gamla Stan nice and early. Gamla Stan is the old town and being here early this morning meant that the streets were pretty well deserted. While this area can get very touristy if you are lucky enough to walk the narrow streets without too many other punters about then it's a magic spot. It was pretty easy for me to lose the morning poking around here.

Fishing in Norrström in the centre of Stockholm.

I'm thinking that this is the Stockholm Syndrome bank....maybe.

Nordiska Museet

Djurgårdsbron

Apparently these guys use to be popular.

I enjoy taking these bus tours when I visit a knew city.

This tour even got a little extreme sometimes.

My 24 hour ticket had enough time left on it that I could squeeze in a boat tour the next morning.

Stockholm is even more beautiful when seen from the water I think.

After spending the morning exploring Gamla Stan on foot I decided that it was time to venture a little further afield. On my walk that morning I'd noticed vendors selling tickets to a hop on hop off open topped bus that was doing loops of the city...that sounded like a good afternoons plan. I picked up a combination Bus & Boat ticket from City Sightseeing Stockholm, the 24 hour ticket allowed me to check out the city on the bus this afternoon before exploring on the boat tomorrow. I've somehow misplaced some of my photos from this part of my stay however I spent the next 24 hours on a bit of a cultural binge checking out Vasa Museet and the Fotograpfiska among the many other places.

A scale model of Skansen - this is a must do for first time visitors to Sweden I think.

Skansen is a big open air museum.

I checked out the Baltic Sea Science Centre.

The Baltic Sea Science Centre.

It wouldn't be a Swedish museum without a Volvo.

With my 24 hour pass about to run out I caught the boat over to Djurgården to spend the day checking out Skansen. For anyone out there in blogger land reading this then I want to highly recommend a visit to Skanson if you are lucky enough to ever find yourself in Stockholm. Skanson is a huge open air museum to all things Swedish, there's Indigenous displays, a Nordic Zoo, the Baltic Sea Science Centre along with too many other displays to mention them all. Skanson is big though, you'll need to bring your walking shoes if visiting here, I spent at least five hours walking around here and didn't see everything this place has to offer.

Skansen

Skansen

After a couple of days playing tourist in Stockhom I spent my last day in town organising some last minute stuff for my Kungsleden walk. If anything my last day was probably more local in that I used the Metro to get around town and visited less touristy shopping areas. Even accounting for the fact that my Swedish is non existent I found navigating my way around on the Metro reasonably strait forward, I picked up a 24 hour pass at the Slussen Station which got me around town today and also has enough time on it to get me to Central Station in the morning where I caught the Arlanda Express out to the airport.

How cool would it be to see a Wolf in the wild?

Skansen

Summertime in Stockholm.

The Dirt.

Ok,  the highlights of Stockholm for me were, in order of my enjoyment:-

1. Exploring Gamla Stan on foot before most of the tourists had woken up.
2. Spending the best part of the day walking around Skansen.
3. Checking out the Vasa Museet.
4. Checking out the Fotografsika.
5. Checking out the city whilst sitting on my arse by bus and boat.
6. And finally just being free to wander around talking to, and checking out the impossibly stylish and beautiful locals.

I mentioned it earlier however I'll say it again, Slussen proved to be a great spot to base myself, being close enough to a lot of the major attractions that I could just walk to them. If I needed the Metro then the station was only a couple of minutes from the Hilton, which was where I was staying.

Relevant Posts.

Day 1 of my Kungsleden Walk, 2019.

Abisko to Stockholm on the Night Train, 2019.

Skansen

Skansen

I saw a couple of these on my Kungsleden walk....

....and a few of these.....

....but none of these unfortunately.

Heading back to the hotel....it was time to head off on my Kungsleden Walk.

Walker Creek Camp to Florence Falls, Tabletop Track, Litchfield National Park - September 2010

The Tabletop Track descending through a valley filled with Cycads.

Another fine day greeted us on day four of our Tabletop Track adventure. Being slightly cooler than yesterday it made the climb back up onto the plateau to resume our circuit a little more pleasant. The walking this morning was quite nice with a fair variation in the country, at times we were walking along wide grassy valleys, while at other times we were in the more typical open Savannah woodland. Probably the highlight of the morning for me though was when we entered an area full of Cycads, these pre historic plants are always nice to see in the wild I think.

Litchfield National Park

Crossing these grassy plains the track could get a little vague.

It's against the laws of bushwalking physics however Bel's apparent age was coming down in inverse proportion the kilometres she'd walked on this trip!...

... I, on the other hand was looking more weather beaten by the kilometre!

I'm thinking that the scenery today was the most variable of the walk.

Litchfield National Park.

Typical Top End walking.

After a few hours walking we started to descend a relatively steep sided valley and when the track eventually crossed the creek it was time for lunch (and today's first swim). I'm not sure on the name of this creek however it was a fairly substantial watercourse, the flow here being similar to Wangi and Walker Creeks. While we didn't have a super deep pool to cool off in here the water was definitely deep enough to submerge our hot and sweaty bodies in and as always the cool water was just what we needed to revive us from the stifling tropical heat and humidity.

Our un-named lunch creek.

Spots like these are very welcome places in the heat of the day.

I'm looking forward to a lot of this kind of walking when I retire.

Our trip was coming to its end.

Skip is pulling on his boots for the last time.

With lunch finished and our bodies dried by the sun we set off into the afternoon heat. We didn't have far to go now on our walk, however after leaving this little oasis we had what was probably the steepest climb that we'd experienced on the Tabletop Track as we clambered up the side of the valley. Once on the top we were able to look down into another valley and another beautiful un-named waterfall, there are so many spots that I want to explore one day. Within thirty minutes of our climb levelling out we arrived back at the Florence Falls Link Track and the circuit part of our walk was over. After retracing our first days route back to Florence Falls we headed to the huge plunge pool to wash the accumulated dust and grime off again, before joining the throngs of day walkers as we made our way back to the car park... smiling with that euphoric feeling that you get after another great walk.

We've just arrived back at the Florence Falls Link Track.

The Dirt.

We walked 12 kilometres today and climbed around 150 metres on what I'd call a medium grade walk. Once again today the walking was pretty easy, although the climb back up to the Tabletop Track from Walker Creek and the climb away from our lunch spot both had their moments. There was a walkers camp site a couple of kilometres into our walk today however we didn't head in to check things out although from all reports its a little ordinary. There were no facilities at all today once we left Walker Creek until we arrived at the bustling Florence Falls, water was available from our lunch creek. I used the fifth edition of Maps NT Lichfield National Park map along with the Daly's notes out of their Take a Walk in Northern Territory's National Parks book on this walk.

Back down on Florence Creek and heading for the plunge pool.

The Tabletop Track is not a super hard core bushwalking track, even so if anyone is thinking of attempting it then someone in the party should know how to read a map and a compass. The pad is marked with little blue triangles, however sometimes it is necessary to scout around to locate the next marker and when we did the walk the pad itself faded in and out a bit. We walked around 50 kilometres and climbed around 600 metres over the four days we were on this medium grade walk, these figures are rough estimates off my map and notes as I wasn't using a GPS at the time. If walking early in the dry season then water wouldn't be a problem, however at the same time the pad may be harder to follow due to rapid growth after the wet season. The campsites on the walk all had a table and a long drop toilet. You can buy food if you do a side trip into Wangi Falls and I think there is phone there. Overall if you like heat, swimming, and don't mind a few hours of rough walking each day then this maybe a walk to consider, all things being equal I'll certainly be back one day.

Relevant Posts.

Tjenya Falls Camp to Walker Creek Camp, Litchfield National Park, 2010.

Our finish photo after our swim. Florence Falls are just visible through the canopy beside Skip.