Stockholm, Sweeden - Easter Weekend

Waterways Archipelago

Josh and Shane talking man to man on the back of the boat

Open air museum

The Funicular in the open air museum One of the many bridges connecting the islands The ice bar The drinks where served in ice classes Check out the coats Pictures of the old town Everyone who went to Stockholm in the old town square. This weekend Louise, Teresa, Paula, Browyn, Malcom, Matt, Josh and I all went to Stockholm for Easter weekend. We left at 6am on Friday morning, arriving about mid-day. The sun was shining and we took a lovely walk around the old Town and had a drink in the sun. Everyone was exhausted so we had a nap before heading out for dinner. After dinenr went to the ice bar in our hotel - heaps of fun! On Saturday we walked to the island of Djurgarden to the Vasa museum (Stockholm is made up of a lot of little islands, all connected by bridges). The Vasa was a shipwreck (333 years old) they pulled from he sea. They pulled it up 1959 and brought it all restored to the museum in 1990 - very awesome. Also on Djurgarden we went to Skansen an open air museum, it had Nordic animals like moose, bear, lynx, wolf, wolverine and seals - only most of the animals where hiding! We went on a 'cafe' tram, did a bit of shopping and had a rest before heading out for dinner and drinks. Sunday was again a lovely and sunny day so we took a 3 hour boat ride around the Archipelago, then spent the afternoon/evening sitting in the sun having some beers before heading out for dinner. Everybody is boasting a little sunburn by now!! On our last day (Monday) we took another boat ride and went from the Baltic Sea via a lock into a lake - very cool. We also learnt that Frank Sinatra stayed at the Grand Hotel here and likes his slippers on the right side of the bed (I put that bit in for those people who requested it). We had lunch at a little underground cafe before catching a 1.5hr bus back to the airport. Our plane leaves at 10pm!

Saturday 4th April - Last Day

Today was our last day in NY, so to finish off the American experience, Josh brought tickets to Yankee stadium so we could see a 'ball game'. We fly out at 10.30 at night, arriving back in London Sunday morning at 10am.

Friday 3rd April

Today was raining - really heavily, so we started the day by doing a bit of shopping, then we sheltered from the rain at a dinner off 5th Ave that's been there since the 1930's, in fact Sarah Jessica Parker has eaten there. We had a good old fashioned piece of Lemon Meringue Pie dessert - very sweet but quite nice. in the afternoon we went to the Guggenheim - along with the beautiful oil paintings there was also a lot of modern art, our favourite was a piece on performance done by a Korean guy. He put on a work uniform and 'clocked-in', taking a picture of himself on the hour for a whole year! The photos and times where all displayed around the room and he had someone verify it! Very interesting, there where only a few times that he actually missed an hour as he was sleeping. In the evening we went to a Jazz bar.

Thursday 2nd April

Cosby Show Building Friends Building

Brooklyn Bridge

City Hall Wall Street Stock Exchange 'The Bull' in the Financial District - it was dropped outside the stock exchange as 'art' in the hope that someone would buy it but nobody did, it still stays here, now an icon. Ground Zero Today was again a lovely sunny day and we started at Ground Zero. They are currently re-building, then we went into the museum and saw the memorial for the dead - it was really sad, they even provided tissues! We then went on a walking tour of the financial district, where we saw: Century 21, NY stock exchange, Trinity Church and Federal hall. We then went to the Federal Reserve Bank and had a look around inside (after showing our passports and being searched like they do at the airport - that happens a lot over here). We walked through Battery Park and up to Pier 17 where we had a coffee and sat in the sun. We walked through Seaport and up to City Hall and saw the Municipal building, then we walked across Brooklyn Bridge. The walk across the bridge was really as beautiful as people say it is. We caught the subway to the West Village and saw Washington Park, had a lovely dink in a wine bar with an enclosed garden. Then we saw the front of the buildings they used in the Cosby show and Friends, we had a cupcake at the famous Magnolia Bakery - where Drew Barrymore gets hers' from - they where very nice! We ate dinner at a funky Mexican place in the west village. The West Village is really pretty with heaps of bars and restaurants.

Wednesday 1st April

Today we walked down to Madison Square and then to Union Square and had a look around Greenmarket. We had lunch at a nice Sushi restaurant before heading to the metropolitan museum of Art. We had a drink on the Upper East side then had dinner at a rib shack in Times Square - quite an experience - entitled 'Dalais BBQ Rib Shack' and it lived up to its name. We had BBQ ribs or chicken, the traditional chicken wings and massive frozen Margarita's.

Tuesday 31st March

Today was lovely and sunny so we spent the day at Central Park. We started with a horse and carriage ride, then took a walk though the Mall to the Fountain and had a drink at the Boathouse Cafe. We saw the Ball park and the old Carousal. Then we got on peddle car and got another ride around the park where we saw Strawberry fields - the memorial to John Lennon's death and had a photo where he was shot. His wife still owns 75% of the building. We saw the Ghost Busters building and the famous ice skating rink. We then took a walk through The Rambles to Belvadere castle. We saw Shakespears theatre and the Great Lawn. By this stage it was 3pm, Josh was sunburnt and had eaten the infamous hot dog so we headed to Soho and checked out the Prada store. We took a walk around Soho and had a cocktail in the sun. We walked along Canal street to Chinatown where we could have brought any number of 'real' handbags, sunglasses etc. We had another cocktail at the Rainbow Bar and watched the sunset over the city from the 86th floor - it was so beautiful. We then went up to the Top Deck observatory where we saw the skyline by night. We finished the evening looking around Times Square. Such a nice day!

Monday 30th March

Today we started the day by taking the Staten island ferry past the Statue of Liberty - much smaller than we expected. We then went up the Empire State Building - it was about 1.5hours queue until we reached the 86th floor. We payed extra and went up to the 102nd floor. The views where excellent. it was really windy today but the sun was out, which was nice. We stopped for a coffee before going to the Chrysler Building 9you can only go into the lobby, it's an office block now, but used to be the car showroom). We walked past the Daily Mail building and saw Trumps new 'Trump World Tower'. We then went into the UN building and did a tour so we could see the assembly. We sent postcards from there with UN stamp - its not US soild,its actually UN soil hence the special stamp! We went to Little Italy - the Italian sector of NY for dinner. As we where about to hail a cab on the way home a guy with a limo wanted to know if we wanted a ride and low and behold josh took it, so we rode home in a 10 seater limo for no more than $10 extra than the cab fare!

Sunday 29th March

Nothing opened until 11am today so we had fruit for breakfast in our room then had a walk around herald Square. At 11am we looked around Macey's - huge! We walked up 5th avenue - saw the outside of the NY public library, then went around the Rockefeller Centre - we saw the ice rink, the promenade and the Prometheus statue. We walked through the GE building and around the shopping concourse. We saw the Atlas statue, the international building and the NBC studios. We continued up 5th Avenue and saw Saks, St Patricks Cathedral, the Cartier shop (the jewlery was so Beautiful), Trump Tower and Tiffany's. We went into Abercrombie and Finch - the shop was like a nightclub! We went into Bergdof Goodman and FAO Schwartz (toy sotre). We walked back down Madison Ave to Grand Central Station - the market there had lots of lovely food! We walked down Park Ave and back to the hotel for 6pm. We enjoyed a really nice steak at a traditional (but classy) steak house 'Smith and Wolenskys' for dinner.