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This morning was all about practical stuff. Jennifer braved Swedish washing machine instructions, while I went shopping.

As is often the case, shopping is fascinating. Swedish supermarkets carry neither alcohol – beyond low-strength beer – nor basic medications. They do, however, have a wonderful line of breakfast cereals and muesli without chocolate or sugar – that’s unheard of in Europe – and makes me very happy.

I had to give up on wine because you can only buy it from official government-run shops, and they’re closed on Sundays. The pharmacy was another matter. Skye and Lea having colds meant we had run down our supplies of cold and flu medicine and Panadol. And Jennifer had woken with a sore throat.

I eventually tracked down a pharmacy but the pharmacist was the only person in the entirety of Scandinavia who doesn’t speak English. My Swedish and Russian are non-existent, so it was all about miming the need for cold medicine. It turns out that Sweden does not do combined cold and flu, you have to buy the various ingredients separately. I eventually did just that, having established a fine line in smiles-and-mimed-nose-blowing communication with the pharmacist.

Anyway, this afternoon we all went to the Museum of Swedish History and learnt a great deal about, well, the obvious. Then Minerva went to a transport museum, Skye and Jennifer went vintage clothes shopping. And I walked around Stockholm harbor. Everyone was happy.