For my girlfriend Clare’s 30th birthday, I decided to treat her to a winter break in Stockholm.
So as January is usually a quiet patch for me, off we flew for a 5-star hotel break
Don’t tell anyone, but I emailed the hotel ahead, pretending it was our 10-year anniversary and if they could arrange a nice room, we’d be most grateful…
… and guess what? We ended up with a splendid corner room view on the top floor of the old town! Happy days
Stockholm is made up of 14 islands and many of the inlets were frozen solid.
I took along my Canon 1000HS compact camera along for the ride. I like the cheeky little built-in ‘Miniature Effect’ mode it has.
Essentially it’s an impressively versatile fake tilt-shift
Some photos in this stash aren’t ‘Miniature Effect’, but all have received a lick of Lightroom love.
My brother bought me this arguably ridiculous ‘American Eagle’ hat while he was in the States, so I rocked around Sweden in a fluffy Mohawk
Every winter, pretty much without fail, England falls apart under a few inches of snow.
So it was interesting to see how Sweden just gets on with it. But moseying round the old town, we found out what they do with excess snow.
This old town square had an beautifully painterly ‘Konditori’ on the corner. The Swedish love these specialist coffee & cake shops.
I was warned by an Swedish pal who lived in Stockholm for years (and bizarrely moved back home to her folks about 2 weeks before we visited!) that you should try to keep your eyes peeled for falling overhead icicles. These ‘Warning Ice Risk’ signs point out areas prone to such hazards. 
I like the pastel colours of the old town buildings.
I’m try very hard not to make a rude comment about this statue…
Another quality old town square
This ancient church spikes out from the otherwise flat city tops
Obviously they don’t pay much attention to the 12th night decoration take-down rule
I like this image a lot. Nearly as much as I like the concept of a shop dedicated only to chocolate.
Varm Vit Choklad!
I do love it when other languages translate in a way that highlights their historic similarity with our own.
This famous, mainly wooden statue in the old town cathedral is of George slaying the dragon.
The dragons spikes are made of antlers!
I noticed a theme of deserted bikes around the city, many entombed in ice. Below are a few that caught my eye…
I particularly like this one.
What compelled someone to desert it here?
This guy was in a random little cave by the roadside
On the Saturday we set off to the old town to watch the changing of the guard.
Again, I love how the miniature mode adds a depth of field like effect to usually rather flat compact camera images.
I like this graphic image of a traditional Stockholm visage
I rather like this one of light passing over an icy pavement for it’s artistic merit.
We watched this masochist run up and down the snowy steps. 
Come dusk I liked the colours on the still water as the Djurgarden ferry sauntered by
Old town also looked nice from down the way
And as we wandered back to the hotel through old town, those narrow alleys still showed their pastel hues in streetlight.
I’ll be posting more highlights from our Stockholm visit in a couple of blogs time. Stay tuned if you’d like to see more!
B