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Published: January 22nd 2009
MERRY CHRISTMAS STOCKHOLM!
• From December 24th-27th we toured this lovely (one of our favorite cities!) city
• We arrived Christmas Eve with some snow fluff on the ground-- quite beautiful
• We walked the hallowed streets and there was nothing to eat- NO CHINESE!!!
• Hotel to the rescue a nice dinner buffet-- that was a bit pricey!
• Christmas day- slept-in (what more do you do?), Ice-skating in Kungsträdgården park, World’s largest Christmas Tree, stands 125 meters with the star, dine on pizza and gyros, it wasn't Chinese, but it was our own tradition!
• Wake up ready for site-seeing—walk around the old cobble-stone streets, peak in the windows (we rose too early for most shop owners).
• Hit up the Noble Prize Award Hall. Beautiful building. All the noble prizes are awarded here except the Peace Prize which was a peace offering from Sweden to Denmark/Austria? The spire at the top of this building stands at 106meters, just 1 meter shy of their competitive neighbors. Love a good competition!
• Castle tour—changing of the guard, royal army band (they played ABBA, shocking, I know!!!), royal flats, the castle basement, the
treasury-- these jewels look way too heavy to be comfortable!
• hefty walk to he Vasa Museum, by far one of the most interesting museums either of us has occupied. The museum is built around a ship, the Vasa Ship (1626, completed in 1628), named after King Gustav Vasa who demanded the ship be rushed to sea in order to prove their strength/might/dominance over Poland. She was shoved into sea a little too quickly with 185 shipmates aboard, men, some women (were invited by a relative or husband)—after 20 minutes of her sails at attention she sunk, leaving 30 people drowned and lost at sea. With no technology that we have nowadays the only salvaged items were the canons (which incidentally is what led to the sinkage of the ship, along with too many ornaments). It was left there and then forgotten. It wasn’t until 1960 that it was lost and then found again. The preservation team worked exhaustive hours to get the Vasa Ship back into shape. The ship was preserved well (aside from some chipped paint), the salt level in Stockholm’s waters is low and the people of Stockholm disposed of trash in the water which allowed
They decorate their windows too
I believe they had alligators and animals doing christmassy things...bacteria to nosh on that verses the ships wood. The museum is well designed with a floor that is dedicated to ‘life on board’ proving that back then, the conditions on board were not far from kind, but for some, it was a better way of life than living on land.
Here is a link to the VASA ship in case you want to know more about it...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_Museum
All in all, Stockholm we truly enjoyed this beautiful city. Christmastime might not of been the perfect time to see everything we wanted to, but we certainly want to go back. We're feeling a bout of 'Stockholm Syndrome' and we wish to go back soon.
Can't wait to see everyone, we leave next week. Seems crazy that our adventure is coming to an end. We've had an amazing time and have seen some great parts of the world!
Love,
A&G
PS: Along with pictures, I've uploaded a couple of videos-- there's one where I run into a man and shove him out of the way. It's easier than learning how to stop on ice-skates.
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