There once was a vile band called Wet Wet Wet, who perpetrated a sequence of criminally limp-wristed ballads, the like of which would make that woeful git James Blunt proud. But the title of this blog entry doesn’t refer to them.
Nor does it refer to the once popular term for moderate politicians in the British Conservative party; nor even to a type of stew used in Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisine;
No, I’m talking about the state of being liquid or covered in liquid; more specifically, I’m talking about the weather today in Stockholm. It was wet; really very wet; wetter, in fact, than something completely not dry.
If I’m waffling, it’s because there’s not much to report.
After breakfast (which featured lots of pickled herring, although none in our party had the balls to partake), we walked around Gamla Stan and bought Eloïse a new raincoat. The old town of Gamla Stan is beautiful and, if Stockholm consisted of no more than this, I would still love the place. We got quite wet whilst walking around Gamla Stan.
Then, we walked around Södermalm and got even wetter. We took a break from the rain for lunch, then went outside again and continued to soak up the rain.
Outside, as I write this, I believe it’s still raining.
What can you do? We’re outdoor types and we knew the risk in coming to this part of Europe in the first few days of March. We can walk around all day in the rain without having our spirits dampened, but it’s definitely not ideal.
Still, wet or dry, I can cheerfully proclaim that I absolutely adore Stockholm. I had expected to be awed by Copenhagen and to find Stockholm merely pleasant, but the opposite has proved to be the case. Copenhagen, for all of its good points, left me with a sense of mild dissatisfaction, whereas Stockholm has blown me away with its charming historic old town, its harbour, its lovely cafés and its completely relaxed feel; and that was just day one.
The rain today also failed to deter a crowd of people, mostly and unsurprisingly of Serbian origin, from demonstrating in the centre of the old town against the recent proclamation of independence by Kosovo. The Swedish government, like the Dutch, have yet to recognise Kosovo as a sovereign state, so the demonstrators’ hope is that they can still be persuaded not to.
Anyway, as I said, there’s not much to report today; apart from the fact that it was very wet.