Project 60 - Number 40 Part 1

I don't know whether to be pleased I am 2/3 of the way through or panic that I might not be able to fit another 20 new things into the next eight months....

Anyway Number 40 is visiting a foreign Christmas market. I have been trying to get the OH to do this for more years than I care to remember. Generally with the result that I got a twisted face and a long list of reasons why he didn't want to go to Germany anywhere/Vienna/Prague etc

 

This year though I hit the jackpot because I mentioned back in August that I thought there might be Christmas markets in Stockholm and five minutes after that he was researching them on the web and ten minutes after that he was sticking his head round my study door and telling me that BA had this great deal and should he book? And naturally I said yes.

 

There are four major Christmas markets in Stockholm and we decided to do the two most central as they were the easiest to get to. The first one was in Gamla Stan.

 

 

I seem only to have the one photo of this but I suppose that's not surprising as it was small and very crowded. Most of the stalls were selling food and drink, although a large proportion of them seemed to be sideshows of the tombola variety which was a bit disappointing. I think if we had known more about Swedish cuisine, and I had known more Swedish and we had been able to get near any of the stalls, we might have enjoyed it more. Or alternately if we had just gone with a Swedish person.

 

Still Gamla Stan is always good for a ramble about. I was hoping to find some Swedish yarn to bring home and found a wool shop and as the owner spoke no English, although she admitted to speaking German, I had perforce to carry on a short conversation in Swedish. She carried no Swedish yarn herself but there was a shop with some a bit further down the street, on the left, past the statue with the dragon (thank heavens for the Ingmar Bergen film of Magic Flute which meant that I knew what the Swedish for dragon is!). We found the shop, but alas although it had yarn from Norway, Iceland and Denmark there was none from Sweden. Which was a bit of a downer, although to be honest I was so thrilled to have followed the directions and actually found the shop, I didn't really mind all that much.