Swedish impressions

Staying with friends in Stockholm gave us the opporunity to experience Swedish life like a Stockholm local along with the obligatory tourist acrtivites.

Tourist activities:
Royal Palaces, one a mini Versailles where the Royal Family live and the children enjoyed playing a game of 'chase the fox through the hedges'.  The Swedish royal family are much more connected with the community and share their facilities with the public such as the palace gardens.

The Vasa, a 400 year old 69m long shipwreck. It sank 20 minutes into it's maiden voyage due to a combination of being slightly too narrow (the 2nd attempt sailed for 30 years, being built only 1 metre wider), having a second gun deck making it top heavy and having too little and round ballast that rolled from side to side. It was raised intact(ish) from the harbour in 1961.

Walking around the atmoshepric narrow cobbled streets of the Gamla Stan, the old town and a cruise around the islands, as Stockholm is really a city built on many islands as well as the mainland.

Local impressions:

1. Safety management is different to Australia.  Child safety seems to be prioritised like window and oven locks but then electrically live train rails that people could fall on.  And at a heritage museum, hot wood stovers were unguarded with children walking within inches and a glass maker wearing open sandals and no protective equipment.
2. Everyone speaks English.  They are so clever.
3. Construction techniques, triple galzing and you can't hear the trains from 20 m away - yes we were in the closest apartment to the train line.
4. Shopping is cheap.  
5. Food is fabulous and not expensive.  We are told that eating out in the evening is expensive, but we didn't try that with 5 children.  We did enjoy lunches out most days.  Meatball sandwhiches are great.
6. School hours are very short.  8.30 to 1.30 for younger children with long breaks during that time.  Much more play based than Australian schools.
7. People look healthy and very few are overweight. 
8. The Swedes are like us.  They eat their national animal and the Moose (under our hosts expert hands) tasted great.

A highlight for Mia was the opportunity to spend a day at school.  She loved it there, despite not being able to speak Swedish.  She joined a grade 2 class with her cousin and seemed to keep up.  She loved the lunch.  Lunch is provided (free). She had potato pancakes, boiled egg, a ham and salad roll and chocolate cake.  We have never seen her eat as much as she apparently did there.  Shame our school canteens can't do the same.