Stockholm

---

I awoke this morning as we were cruising through the archipelago on our approach to Stockholm. I looked out of our window and thought I could be in Muskoka or the Thousand Islands…..many small rocky islands with single cottages perched on rocky outcrops. We sat out on the balcony and had our coffee. Stockholm is much larger than Helsinki and we had decided to do the Hop On/Hop Off bus and it worked out fine to get us around Stockholm which is quite spread out across multiple islands. We started off with a trip through the town and got off at the VASA Museum which houses a massive intact 17^thcentury wooden war ship. The ship, intended as a propaganda showpiece proclaiming the strength of the at the time, current ruler, sank within the first 20 minutes of it’s inaugural voyage – the victim of poor engineering. As a result it sat unscathed in the harbour for centuries and the museum was actually built around it while it was still in water and then the water drained as the ship was too heavy to move. The museum itself is in a very nice wooded area with several other museums and we also went to the Museum of Sweden which is a cultural museum showing displays of regular Swedish life across the ages.

We caught the HOHO bus with a view to head into the old medieval part of Stockholm. The bus has a standard route so we also got to see more modern parts of the city. There are lots of trees in Stockholm and the city itself is very clean with modern shopping districts. There is mixed residential and commercial areas in the city with lots of cafes spilling out onto the sidewalks with seating areas and people enjoying coffees and snacks. I got the feeling of a very active and vibrant city but also a relaxed way of life. Everything is very expensive by our standards and we did enjoy cappuccinos’and cake at the cost of $40 – cappuccinos were $9 each!!!



We finally reached the medieval town center and spent a good part of the afternoon wandering the winding streets. We stopped at a restaurant for lunch and oddly enough I started to recognize the music and it was an old compilation album that Zoltan has with throw back music from the 50’s – 60’s. The buildings are all very narrow and tall and painted bright colours. They also all have a distinctive lean to them as the underlying foundation is not very solid. So some buildings lean left, some right and it paints a rather odd picture. We had a delightful experience hearing some classical piano as we wandered down a small street. We followed the sound and came across a small courtyard with a tall shady tree and a pianist playing Schubert. As there was a bench we sat down and enjoyed this impromptu concert. I purchased a couple of his CDs as a memento and as he was also very good and I like to support the arts. We then headed back to the HOHO bus and our ship. It was a delightful day in Stockholm.

---

Photos

Vasa Museum
This is the best preserved medieval ship. Notice the size of the people on the left of the photo

Swedish Museum
I really enjoyed this museum which depicted the history of Sweden through popular culture. This shows a typical Swedish household prepared to celebrate midsummers eve.

Medieval Stockholm
This totally pedestrian area is full of restaurants and shops - mostly catering to tourists.

Pianist in the Courtyard
We happened on this pianist by following the music and spent some time enjoying his playing. I purchased two of his CDs.