more old town sights

hej! (swedish for 'hello'; pronounced like 'hey')
let's get right to it...
today we woke up late, in a bit of a frenzy since we believed breakfast would be over in 15 minutes. since obsession with food is definitely genetic, mama becky actually left me behind as she went to "get us a table". finding out breakfast hours are extended on the weekends, we enjoyed our routine leisurely breakfast of crepes, fruit, bacon, and for me, endless cups of tea. mama becky entertained with her running commentary on breakfastland's inhabitants. the woman misses nothing.

we decided to finish up at the royal palace in gamla stan, checking out the antiquity museum and treasury. the antiquity museum is definitely interesting, especially if you appreciate roman and greek history. it is a display of a collection of (i believe) gustav the third's classical statues. there's a great hall containing enormous statues of the muses, and a lesser hall lined with busts of gods, emperors, and mythological characters.

the treasury was much more intriguing to me personally. it contained selections of the crown jewels, including crowns, scepters, orbs, and swords from as far back at the sixteenth century. it deepened my appreciation of these ornaments as objects of power... in the dark, cool recesses of the palace's basement, haloed in rings of light, these ornaments evoke a sense of majesty and splendor that transcends intellectual understanding and instead comes from a deeper place.

 i cheated and took a few photos inside the royal palace. this is the entrance hall to the treasury and antiquity museum.

 the ceiling.... so gorgeous

so excited.

next, we wandered around gamla stan some more. i know it seems like we've been there the whole trip, and we practically have been, but it is so historically rich with so much to discover, i am glad we have taken our time to explore.

 so many beautiful little bakeries. julia, this is for you...

   slices of sky between very old buildings.

 interesting door.

the high point of the day for mama becky i believe was when we stumbled into a gallery, where an opening was in full swing. it was small and we were obviously the only tourists, and my initial thought was that we were crashing an intimate event, but the swedish artists welcomed us and gave mama becky a glass of wine and i had some really delicious candy. they were so friendly. mama becky made fast friends with this gentleman, whose name is escaping me at the moment, but his work was on display and he took great pleasure in explaining his paintings to us. the swedes are unerringly friendly and almost every one of them speaks perfect english.

we are getting ready to go to dinner, again in gamla stan, to experience traditional swedish cuisine at mama becky's request. i will report more when we return.