Project 60 - Number 30 An Opera Holiday

It won't have escaped your notice that we have been away again, if only because the blog fell uncharacteristically silent for over a week. We've been to Sweden on an Opera Holiday.

 

These days we are not big fans of travelling in groups, and if we had been the nightmare that was the Greek trip would have cured us of it for ever and a day, but it has to be said that holidays arranged around an activity that it I difficult or impossible to arrange for yourself have to be an exception to the rule that 'We Travel Alone'. And this was the case here, since the opportunity arose to go on a holiday with other opera enthusiasts to Sweden, including a performance at the world famous^ Drottningholm Court Theatre. We booked.

 

^ Just in case the fame has not yet reached your particular part of the world - do not worry. There will be much more to come on Drottningholm in a later post.

 

It was a fairly packed break it must be said. We landed at Arlanda airport last Thursday (it was raining, which I took as a personal affront, since in my universe Sweden in August is supposed to be warm and sunny) and were whisked straight away to a small town called Sigtuna, which fights against a little competition for the title of Sweden's oldest town. However old its origins may be, it's very pretty

 

 

Heather - that tapestry photo is especially for you. It was hanging in the church. The guide had no idea about who had made it, or when or why. Naughty guide!!

 

The next day we had a guided tour of Stockholm. The OH and I have been to Stockholm before but the tour included some places we hadn't visited so we tagged along. It took hours and as my sister once famously said at the age of three when asked about a walk we had just been taken on ' our legs were worn off all the way up to our knees'. I know much much more about the presentation of Nobel Prizes than I ever wanted or needed, but on the upside in a few more days it will all have melted from my mind leaving room for other stuff. I could have passed on the Changing of he Guard, and indeed we did pass on the Royal Palace because although our guide promised us she could get us round in an hour we knew she was lying. She was nice, she was good, but she was not fast, or economical with information.

 

More photos -

 

This was near our hotel - an C18 residence and garden for a titled family originally, but now belonging to some sort of financial concern.

 

One of many many photos I have of the beautiful Stockholm skyline, from this trip and several others.

There was some sort of Summer Festival on that we caught the end of - booths and odd activities popping up everywhere. Here's a man with a lute doing a comic turn with someone else dressed up as a Circus Ringmaster.

 

Inner courtyard of the Radhuset (City Hall) where they dish out the Nobel prizes

 

It's a city of flowers in summertime, everywhere you look

 

and here is the very nice place we found for a late lunch - a most unprepossessing frontage, but once you got past that you went down about four sets of uneven stairs to a huge former beer cellar. It was cool and quiet and, for Stockholm, reasonably priced too.

That evening was the first of three opera performances that we were to see, and it was the Drottningholm one. I'll give that a proper write up tomorrow.