I think I have finally worn out Harvey.  I am comatose and doubt I will ever walk or sit comfortably again but I am pleased to tire out he who can go all day.

The breakfast hall was packed with people this morning and we had to queue so we only went round once.  I had a larger bowl than usual of muesli, yogurt and fruit salad with a large plate of what I had the stamina to queue for. Boiled egg, sausage, bacon, melon, pink grapefruit, turkey, tuna in mayonnaise, cornichons, beetroot salad, sprouts, a large crispbread with butter and a coffee. We walked back to Djurgarden (the island with Skansen on it) under a bright blue sky again – I did feel very lucky to be able to enjoy this beautiful city in sunshine. We walked past a design store I had read about in a blog my sister recommended to me so I popped in to have a look. Not really my style. I did like this huge dark grey velvet sofa but not the price tag. We had a quick look in the shop next door too. These paper lanterns were very pretty.  I would enjoy furnishing a house in Stockholm. Harvey’s chosen activity for today was to hire bicycles.  I do confess I was thinking about hiring them for an hour or two max, but he had other ideas and before I knew it I was signing up for 24 hours !  Apart from a couple of weeks ago, I have not been on a bike for about 2 years so I was feeling anxious.  Not about whether I can cycle or not but about how far I would manage to go.  I should not have worried though as we had an amazing day and cycled all round the island and backwards and forwards over the middle too.  The cycle back through the city centre afterwards was more frightening, mainly because I was not sure about all the road rules and am not used to being on the right.  Harvey is not used to cycling on the road at all and is far too confident so I think I did well to get us both back to the hotel in one piece.

Our cycle route today was gorgeous.  When possible we stuck to the waterside as I like the views and the charming boat scenes.There was a well laid track nearly all the way round which made cycling a real pleasure.

We ocassionally came to a dead end but that added to the fun of the day.
There were lots of places to stop and rest or to take photos or just admire the view. The water’s edge tended to be flat too, for which I was very grateful as the middle of the island definitely was not.
After a while we came to a long stretch of path which took us past some incredible homes. This was in the most South Easterly part of the island and was my favourite part of the cycle as the views were so lovely.  This area is called Blockhusudden. The smooth rocks were carved by glacial erosion during the last ice age.The water here was so calm.

A very pretty spot indeed.

The next part of our cycle ride took us along a canal path that separated Djurgarden from the neighbouring island.

It was pretty due to the almost perfect reflection on the water. We were lucky to enjoy the reflection as the kayak seen here on the left spoiled that. We went inland at about 3pm to Rosendals Tradgard. This is a garden where they grow lots of their own vegetables organically and everything is made fresh on site.  You sit and eat in one of the greenhouses. It was rustic, simple, busy and the food was delicious.  Just my kind of place. As we were so late the only food left was a ribollita soup, full of vegetables and cannellini beans, served with a generous chunk of sourdough crusty bread.  I also had a cinnamon roll but it was not as good as the one I had yesterday at Skansen.  The soup and bread were good.My weary legs were very glad of a rest.
Before getting back in the saddle we looked around the shop and the gardens. Our next destination was the Abba Museum.  I used to love Abba and really wanted to go to the museum which is also located on Djurgarden.  Harvey protested but I over ruled him and he actually enjoyed it too.  He was surprised that he knew all the songs he heard in there and he was really interested in the mock up of a recording studio and this mixing console. I am far less technically minded and clearly more shallow as I was interested in the Abba story, seeing their many gold discs, memorabilia from their world tours and the clothes.  Name the song that Abba were seen wearing these clothes in.  They are apparently the originals. That is me between the catsuits.Harvey was astonished that men wore such high platform boots.

As well as all the Abba stuff to look at, there are many activities you can do such as dance with Abba, karaoke, films to watch etc.  We only participated in a few of those and definitely not the dancing with Abba but I did giggle watching a middle aged couple give it their all.
It is a small museum, very expensive for what you get but I had to go and am glad I did and Harvey enjoyed it too.  We had a simple, cheap (relatively) and delicious pizza for supper in a place close to the hotel which my guidebook recommended; Pizza Hatt on Upplandsgattan.  I had the ‘Oktober’ pizza; on a sourdough base was red onion, rosemary, mushrooms, sharp Cheddar and chilli.  It was excellent.

The building looked like it should be condemmed but it was very friendly, packed with people eating in and taking away and very convivial.  The pizzas were good and this cost about half the amount of the other restaurants we have been to so I was happy with that.

This was a fantastic day.  It was a very tiring day but so much fun and we both loved the scenery and the cycling and ate well as we went along.  What shall we do tomorrow?

The costumes were from Waterloo, which Abba won the Eurovision Song Contest with in 1974.