Sveriges Riksdag!

One of my official duties (I don't sit around and have fika ALL of the time, you know!) for the school's PTA, is to lead the Out and About Club.  This club meets once per month to see something a bit unusual around the city, or something that we might not normally see on our own.  This month, we were able to get a private tour of the Swedish Parliament.  Today was another horribly cold, windy and rainy day, so it was a good thing that we chose an indoor activity for this month!

We learned all about how the Swedish Parliament works from our wonderfully entertaining and knowledgeable tour guide!  It was especially interesting right now because the recent election has essentially caused the Swedish government to shut down!  Sweden does not currently have an acting Prime Minister or a Parliament!  The way that I understand it is this...  Sweden has 8 parties in it's government.  After an election, the winning party declares it's prime minister.  The reigning prime minister resigns immediately.  However, if the winning party does not have a true majority of the votes, (which with 8 parties is nearly impossible to achieve!), then a coalition must be achieved between several parties until a true majority is achieved.  To reach this alliance, parties must compromise in many aspects of their beliefs to form a consensus.  So, the winning party, must essentially knock on the doors of other parties until they can find willing participants for their coalition!  Only then can they form the new government and create the budget, put the Prime Minister in office, etc.  Very complicated and seems a bit crazy!!  As of now, the election was 8 days ago, no coalition has been created, no budget has been formed and no prime minister has been put into office. Apparently, they have until Nov 15 and if nothing is completed by then, a new election will take place.  Very interesting...

The rain finally stopped and the sun finally came out late, late this afternoon!  The temperature is in the 40's however, instead of the high 60's like we had on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning!  Fall seems to have arrived over night!

After walking Max to his track practice (he's bundled up in the blue coat),

I headed home.  Today, I finally took the time to enjoy one of the sights that I normally just hustle past.  This is the huge, old stadium that was built for the 1912 Olympic games.  It is a beautiful place and still used for many different things.  Max is amazed at it's size because it is really quite small, hard to believe that it was built for the Olympics.  Of course, as Max and I often discuss, how many people were able to travel to the Olympics back in 1912?

Three crowns are the symbol for Sweden

One of the turnstiles