A Misty Rain

Today, it was time to pull out the long underwear.  The temperature never made it above 35 and it was just a dreary, drizzly day.  This is the first time that it has been this cold all day since we moved here.  Not bad, considering that it is late November.  EVERYONE keeps talking about what mild weather we have been having so far and how it is usually quite snowy at this time of year.  They are usually complaining when they say this because the snow is preferable to rain and everyone states that the snow really brightens things up.  It is not so dark when you have the snow to the reflect the light.  An interesting way to look at it, I suppose...
Fridays are my days of walking, as you know...
I dressed warmly and met up with my group at school.

We proceeded to do our long walk around Djurgården and then to stop for lunch and fika at our favorite little cafe.  I continue to meet new people almost every week and love the variety of people, nationalities, interests and reasons for being here!  It is never dull.

The hardest part is bundling back up to go back outside and walk the remaining couple of miles home.  Today, I struck out on my own and did a little window shopping and just plain wandering.  I really think that the best way to learn a place is to just take a new route once and awhile and to see what can be found.  I hadn't done this in a while so I made the effort today.  Very fun!  I found some wonderful little and big shops, another great park on a top of a hill, a few restaurants that I want to try, some cute streets and some beautiful Christmas decorations!

I will apologize because once again, I only had my phone with me to take pictures and not my real camera.

One of my stops was in front of the huge NK department store, right in the heart of Stockholm city.  Last weekend, we saw crowds of people standing on the sidewalk in front of the store but couldn't see what was going on.  Today, I figured out that they were all gathering to look at the huge, animated Christmas window displays that the store had just revealed.  Today, there were again lots of people crowded around the windows, just as I imagine took place at Macy's in New York city many years ago.  It was very fun to look at and I will have to take the kids down there soon.  Here is just a small sample of what I saw...

Without Thanksgiving in Sweden, people have moved right into the Christmas spirit.  It is definitely hard to wait to put up our Christmas decorations!