The guard

I am in Stockholm, for a long weekend visit. Today I walked around the old town - Gamla Stan - enjoying the narrow lanes and interesting squares. At 12.15pm they changed the guard at the Royal Palace - Kungliga Slottet. This chap was most entertaining - trying manfully to keep the crowds back out of the way of the soon to be marching soldiers. He achieved this with a lot of stamping, arm gestures and assertive English instructions.

The ceremony itself was interesting too and more can be seen of that here.. The youth of the soldiers, male and female, was striking and poignant, in this week of six more terrible fatalities of young British soldiers in Afghanistan.