Sweden vs. Italy and the Stockholm Ghost Walk

Friday, 17 June, 2016:

This is the 1,900th post in the history of this blog.

I fly home to California two weeks from today.

I devoted the morning to finishing my latest book before heading into beautiful downtown Upplands Väsby to try a hamburger, fries and a Ben & Jerry's cinnamon bun shake at the recently opened . . .

I heard rave reviews from some

Wäsby Warriors adults

After eating lunch there today, I'm RAVING too!

Delicious.

Fotboll Mania

The big football Deal-of-the-Day in these parts was the 2016 UEFA Euro Cup Pool Play game between Sweden (0-0-1) and Italy (1-0-0) at 3:00 p.m.

I decided to watch the game in Stockholm's Gamla Stan but I had no clue where.

Time to meander . . .

 Swede's LOVE their Ice Cream

Me too.

This Irish Pub has the game

on several TV screens

I opted to go into the Pub's

cave area to watch the action

It was lots of fun watching the game with several Swedes who were living and dying with every kick of the ball.

In the 87th minute Italy scored the game's only goal to improve their record in Pool Play to 2-0-0. Sweden dropped to 0-1-1. On Saturday, Belgium (0-1-0) and Ireland (0-0-1) will meet to complete round two of this Pool's games.

Disappointing.

No way is this Café's Kladdkakan 

is as good as Katarina Cordeiro's

I had time to kill before my second activity of the afternoon, so I meandered some more through Gamla Stan.

Just some nice, old buildings

 I would later find out that

this spot used to be the city's

public execution site

 I think this artist lived here

Stockholm's narrowest street

Again, I would return here later in the evening to discover that drunken sailors would be shoved down these stairs by cutthroats in cahoots with prostitutes who alerted them as to which sailors were carrying large amounts of money.

If you are going out for drinks,

you might as well dress up

 A secure door

The Järntorget where I needed to

meet other people interested in . . .

 A FUN walking tour

I had taken similar ghost tours in London and Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany. In London I had also taken the Jack the Ripper tour.

All of these had been informative, interesting and great fun as well. So, I hoped for another fun night being led on this tour through Gamla Stan.

Our tour would end here

 Kallem our Tour Guide

He played his role to the hilt!

 The worn out steps of what in the

1700s was Stockholm's biggest

House of Pleasure

I think that they held chess tournaments.

Kale the dramatic teller

of tales

St. George and the Dragon

Symbolically, Sweden was St. George and the evil dragon was Denmark. Lots of dead people over the many years in these parts due to the enmity between these two neighboring countries.

 Stockholm's smallest sculpture

Stortorget

Scene of the

Stockholm Bloodbath of 1520

A total of 83 Swedish priests and noblemen were beheaded here in one day by the villainous Danish Kink Christian II.

Kale holding court

He did a great job entertaining us during our 90 minute tour.

Good times indeed!

I had to take another picture

of this spire

Stockholm Central Train Station

awaiting the 36 train back to 

Upplands Väsby

It was another good day (except for Team Sweden's loss) in Stockholm!

Reading Is FUNdamental

A good read about justice

for Gypsies set in Venice

Donna Leon's was a good mystery but not great in the vein of Nordic Noir writers.