For the first time on this trip I slept more or less all through and for once I feel like staying in bed. I take it easy, even when I get up. By 0930 it’s starting to snow. I start thinking about travel plans. I may have left it too late to fit in everything I was planning. After looking at the weather forecast for the rest of my stay I decide I can’t afford to waste the day. I get myself ready in record time and make my way to the Hauptbahnhof; it only takes 15 min walking at my top speed.

I catch the 1021 ICE train to Ingolstadt. By now it’s snowing solidly and everything is white as we leave the station. I’m sitting next to a Dutch woman who is trying to get home from Austria. She’s already missed one connection due to bad weather at Garmisch. 20 min into the journey the train stops; problems with the overhead cables. We sit stationary for over ten minutes. I realise I will miss my next connection. My fellow passenger worries that she may miss her next one too, though she has a few hours left in the trip for the train to make up the time.

The train arrives at Ingolstadt at 1117. I have 50 min until the next train. Time for an early lunch at the station. At 1209 I depart to Neuberg am der Donau; my first destination for the day. We arrive st 1226.

I head for the old town. It’s not that well defined on my map, so it’s kind of hard to know when I’m there. It’s starting to snow more heavily. Different snow to the other day; less powdery.  I can see snowflakes. And it’s crunchier under foot.

There’s nobody about. They must be sitting somewhere warm. I make it to the river. This is the Danube. It’s a very wintery scene. I wander some more. There are plenty of beautiful buildings, but nothing that has got me overly excited. I check my phone and realise the next train is soon. If I scoot it I should make it. But then I take a wrong turn and decide it’s not worth it. I’ll hang around for another hour.

I’m so glad I do. While walking around more of the old town I stumble across a walking path that follows one side of the city walls.  I find a series of breathtaking snow bejeweled scenes that keep me and my camera very busy.

Eventually, it is time to make it make to the station and on to my next destination, Nördlingen.

I woke up after one of the best sleeps I've had on this holiday. It's was early, but I felt refreshed. After breakfast my first plan was to have one last go at photographing some of the older buildings in the city and then explore some more of the wall. 

Capturing the feel of the buildings is challenging. The streets are so narrow its often difficult to fit the whole building in and the streets are so dark that the contrast created by any light makes getting the right light balance tedious. I got some shots that I think will come out all right in post processing, but these two are OK as they are. The second one is meant to show just how ramshackle some of the buildings are. 

I picked up the wall from the eastern side and followed it around. It was still early in the morning and there were some great views. The wall is fascinating to walk and it's punctuated by gates and towers.

It was a beautiful clear morning and by the time I'd walked around the wall I was getting warm so I popped back to the apartment to change into lighter clothes. Then it was back to visit the Merchants Hall I had seen on my wall walk. It was built in the 1400s and was a guild hall for merchants. 

Somewhere on my walks I came across these cute goslings. There are quite a few geese in the rivers of York. I'm not fond of geese so I always make sure to keep my distance. 

From the Merchant Hall I made my way to Clifford's Tower. This used to be part of a castle. 

After grabbing some lunch I made my way to the main destination for the day - the National Railway Museum. 

They have a series of Royal carriages. This was the setting inside one of them.  Luxury.

They even have an authentic bullet train from Japan.

And some historic British trains. 

Probably the most fascinating was this cutaway steam train. I never realised that the round tank at the front contained all those pipes. I'd assumed it was just hollow. 

I spent quite a few hours wandering around before buying some great things from the shop. One is a book of transit system maps from around the world. It may sound a bit boring but I think some of these maps are mini works of art. I've always been a fan.

After popping back to the apartment again to drop of my purchases I walked my aching feet to one last destination - the York Museum. I had considered giving it a miss but I figure tomorrow is a train day and my feet can rest then. 

The museum was really well presented and gave a great insight into the history of York from prehistory, to Roman, Viking, Anglo and Norman. I took a photo of this tile because of the stamp. It just made it a whole lot more personal and real to think that someone placed that stamp there 2,000 years ago. 

That was a jam packed day. My feet aren't talking to me right now but I will rest them. Tomorrow I head on to the Lake District. 

I was up early this morning to take photos of Gemla Stan in more even light and with fewer people. It ended up being quite deserted. I think the images have an eerie feeling.

The weather has improved but my cold has deteriorated. After another restless night it was a relief to get up around 6:00am. It had already been light for a couple of hours. Today sunrise was at 4:47am and sunset will be 8:30pm. I was sticking to my plan of heading out early so I could get pictures with better light and fewer people. I figured I should make the most of the morning when I was likely to feel my best. 

I managed to get out the door by 7:45am. Because I'll be using the metro a lot over the next few days I bought a travel card which allows me to travel as much is I like over the next 3 days. I had a problem with both the money cards I had on me though. The terminal wouldn't accept either. It got me a little worried that something was wrong, but I was able to use my travel card successfully later in the day, so all good. 

When I got to Gamla Stan it was deserted. Such a contrast from yesterday. My plan had worked and I could photograph anywhere I liked. Of course, the pictures took on an eerie feel devoid of people. I'll post my favourites in separate blog post. 

After finishing with Gemla Stan I wandered towards where the tour boats depart. On the Internet a company advertised an "Under the Bridges" tour starting at 10:00am so I made that my mission. Turns out that there is a strike on which would affect the tour and the first would depart at 11:00am. I bought a ticked and wandered a bit more. 

I have found that all old cities have some really interesting doorways. Stockholm is nothing special in that regard, but I made it my mission to try and take some shots of the more interesting ones I found today. I'm going to put them in another separate post.

While waiting for the tour I came across one of the gardens nearby with a mass of blossoming trees. 

And this curious sculpture. 

Along the waterfront are some imposing facades as well as a huge variety of moored boats. 

Closer to 11:00am I got in line to board the boat. I was hoping to sit outside for maximum photo taking flexibility. Unfortunately the outside area of the boat was so small that I didn't manage to get out there and had to put up with photographing though the glass. In hindsight, it was probably better for my health. After all, I think sitting outside on the cruise in Copenhagen contributed to this cold.

The shores of the Baltic Sea and lakes around Stockholm have a huge variety of different buildings and terrain. 

I even saw some wildlife on one wharf.

By the end of the tour I was feeling pretty awful so I decided to make my way back to the apartment. It was only 1:30pm and the weather was beautiful. I felt guilty for wasting it but I had still done a lot. 

I took the metro from Kungstragarden station. I was aware that many of the metro stations have elaborate artwork/installations but this was the first I had seen. 

I had to change trains at Fridhemsplan where I discovered more. 

After having some soothing soup I went to bed for a couple of hours. I spent the evening writing my blog while listening to English on the Sky News. 

I had another restless sleep last night. I can feel my body fighting something. I think the combination of getting frozen on the canal cruise and my difficulty in getting the right temperature at night has done it. But I'm battling on and I won't let that stop me. 

I was up early so I could get myself to the airport with plenty of time. I thought of catching the train back to the airport but decided a taxi was much simpler. At the airport, check in and bag drop were all self-service and efficient. Though I was nervous that I'd scanned my bag correctly until it confirmed my flight number. 

I had a bit of time to wait so I wandered the massive array of shops and bought a nice t-shirt I saw. 

The flight boarded on time and was almost full. I few Norwiegen Airlines and interestingly everything said was in English first and so was their magazine. The flight went smoothly and I managed to get a shot of the islands below Stockholm and some of the terrain on our approach to the airport. 

I took the express train into the city. It was easy to organise and really comfortable. At that time of the day (around midday) it was almost empty. Once in the city I decided to brave the metro to get to the apartment. It took a fair bit of working out to get the right ticket and the right line but I made it without hitch. 

By now I was definitely sensing a different vibe in Stockholm to Copenhagen. I don't know if it's the areas I travelled today or just me having man-flu sensitivity, but the energy wasn't what I was expecting.  I didn't feel as welcome as I had in Copenhagen. We'll see if that is the same in the next few days. Maybe I just need to let go of any preconcieved ideas I have of the place. 

The apartment hotel was easy to find and check-in. It's a bit more basic than the last two places I've stayed though. Perfectly nice, but a bit more budget. 

The weather was good when I got here so I decided to head out straight away. The old town (Gamla Stan) was on my list to see so I thought that would be an easy choice. I could take the metro there directly. 

It's very much an old town with winding streets and picturesque alleys. But it was full of people. I guess it's a key tourist destination. Taking photos was awkward. Either people were headed towards me all the time or the combination of light and shadow made it difficult to get the light balance right. I took many shots but most were duds. Here are the ones I am most happy with.

I was surprised at how rapidly one of the rivers was flowing. 

A couple of signs caught my eye.  

I was feeling a bit rough so I decided to head back to the apartment via the supermarket. The closest one to the apartment is huge and it was bewildering trying to find my way around. But you do some guesswork and figure it out. 

I want to head out early in the morning. My plan is to head back to Gamla Stan and take more shots when there are fewer people and more even lighting conditions. I'm hoping I don't feel any worse tomorrow.

My last destination for the day was the Danish Design Museum. On the way I came across an old part of town where all the buildings were the same design and ochre render. 

There were some other interesting sights too. 

The design museum had a couple of exhibitions as well as their standard collections. An interesting exhibition was one that explored Japanese influences on Danish design.

I wandered around the museum, at one stage getting stuck in a guided tour bottleneck.  Here are some pictures of my favourite things.

This was the most beautiful thing I saw. It was in an exhibition of Danish design today. I couldn't work out whether it was glass or acrylic, but I think it's stunning. 

By the time I got to the end of the museum it was raining. It was still only mid afternoon, but I decided I'd done well fitting all that in and it was time to relax and head back to the apartment. I bought some more supplies as well as a delicious snack from a bakery nearby. Could this be why my waist is expanding? 

Tomorrow it's on to Stockholm.  

I didn't sleep all that well last night. The bed was really comfortable but the room temperature was too warm for my liking. I ended up putting the aircon on for a bit to try and cool it down! It rained throughout the night and when I got out of bed at 5:30am (my body, or mind, must still be in work wake up mode)  it was very grey and wintery outside. 

Undetered, I wrote my blog from yesterday while having my breakfast and eventually got ready to brave outside. My weather report said 4 degrees but I had 4 layers on and felt OK.  

Yesterday I took a photo of a dragon light pole. There are also dragons in a different style around where the hotel is. I did research last night and the originals were designed by Vilhelm Dahlerup and installed in 1892. The new ones are cubist reinterpretations of that original design. Other than that there appears to be no particular significance. 

I headed off along the harbour front near the hotel. Along the wharves are various buildings but this one attracted my attention because of the colour and the unusual window layout. 

From there I headed towards the city centre which took me past The Little Mermaid. Not something I'd make a trip to see, but since I was passing... 

I noticed a variety of building styles but the fresco pained at the top of this building was quite unique.  It had a slightly Egyptian feel to it.

And this was another striking building. 

The entire facade was covered in an extremely detailed mesh. 

Some bees were keeping guard on this building.

And someone must have thought that this box needed some extra colour or warmth. 

Amalienborg Slot is the official royal residence. It's a set of 4 buildings around a circular courtyard. I was surprised that the public could walk right into the courtyard. As I discovered later, this building is the queen's residence but she wasn't home at the time. 

Near these palaces is a park with some great sculpture. As soon as I saw them their style seemed familiar. Later I did some research and they were created by Arnaldo Pomodoro. And he also created a work I had seen in the sculpture park in Washington DC. The sculptures are four columns. This picture only shows you part of one, but it should give an idea of the style and detail.

So far the weather had behaved but soon it began to rain. And then I noticed tiny pellets of sleet. Well, not quite the snow I had hoped for, but close. But it ended quickly. 

Before long I made it to Nyhavn, a very picturesque and famous part of Copenhagen. When I first arrived it was very grey but I still managed to get some good pictures. Later the sun came out briefly and I took some more. 

As it looked like the weather had broken for a little while I decided it was good timing to go on a canal cruise. These leave regularly from Nyhavn. The tour went for just over an hour and took us out into the harbour (brrr), through many of the canals and under quite a few bridges.

We went past the opera house. 

In the distance we could see a tower. Our guide explained that it was part of a church and you can walk to the top. Weather permitting, I will try to do that tomorrow. 

These boxes were on one of the poles along the canal. I assume they are for birds. 

This structure on the side of one of the bridges reminded me of a submarine conning tower. But it also reminded me a little of one of the towers I saw at the Berlin Wall.

The tour took us past Christiansborg Palace. I believe this is now the parliament building. I couldn't see much of the building but this tower/spire was impressive. 

The most modern bridge we went under opens by each half retracting. You could see the massive wheel on one half as we went under. 

By the time the tour had finished I was frozen. It's easy for me to keep warm while walking but sitting outside (to take photos) on the boat was bitterly cold and my hands in particular had lost their feeling. I had forgotten to take my gloves with me this morning. It was also starting to rain again. I decided I needed some food and to warm up. After many indecisive moments perusing the menus along Nyhavn I settled on one small place that looked cosy and friendly. And it was. Once again, super friendly staff quite happy to speak in perfect English. I ordered a smorrebrod (Danish open sandwich) with roast beef and horseradish and a beer. The beer came in this enormous glass!

Once the rain had subsided, I emerged full, warmed and re-energised. I made my way to another castle I wanted to see. On the way I passed this shop window selling only lamps.

Rosenberg Castle was originally built as a summerhouse for King Christian IV. I was hoping to go inside but it closes at 2:00pm and it was already 1:30pm. I decided to leave it until tomorrow. 

My last planned destination was to check out some lakes further north in the city. I walked through the botanic gardens and came across this little guy. Much more ginger than those I've seen in England or America. 

The lakes were a little underwhelming so I wandered back in the general direction of the hotel discovering a few interesting things on the way and picking up some supplies for dinner. 

By the time I got to my apartment I was feeling exhausted. I sat on the couch and dozed off. When I awoke it was still light and the weather was holding. My mind was telling me that I should head out again to take advantage of the conditions. But my body wouldn't let me do it.  

There's one last thing I want to share though. This building is near the hotel. I think it typifies the architecture around here and it's completely clad in slate shingles. 

PS, I can't remember if I've written this already but I can feel I have put on weight already on this trip!