Aug 23 – Stockholm

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Happy Anniversary – to us! 39 wonderful years.



Today we arrived in Stockholm Sweden. When we got up we were still sailing through the archipelago of islands around Stockholm. It provides very scenic views as we sail slowly past the little cottages sprinkled on numerous islands. We learn later in the day that about half of them are summer cottages but the other half are lived in all year round. There is a year-round schedule of little boats that shuttle back and forth to connect people to Stockholm. While cruising, there were many seagulls flying around the ship looking for scraps – one passenger on a balcony below us started feeding them out of his hand (in flight) with pieces of bread.



We were in line behind two other cruise ships coming into port, and there was another behind us. Bottom line is that many of us tourists were visiting today. Our guide on the tour said that ships never come during the colder weather but it is a popular cruise ship stop during the summer – today we just a typical day.



However we are getting ahead of the day’s events. Last night we were unable to get Internet Service – too many subscribers all evening, so we tried early this morning to send the blog. No luck – we actually had to wait until after our tour before we could let you hear about yesterday. Anyway, we went up to the Horizon Court and watch the final stages of our arrival while we ate the usual breakfast – bacon, eggs, sausages, baked apple, couple of pastries, fresh fruit, and hash brown potatoes. Janet had something similar.



We reported to the Fusion Lounge at 9:40 for our tour. We were the 5^th bus going this route from our ship and who knows how many from the other ships. Our guide passed out little radio receivers and ear-buds for us to be able to hear her during the tour. David has never had any success with those ear plugs so he brought along a set of headphone (Janet thinks they look dorky but he could hear just fine).



We drove through the city to what was supposed to be our first stop, but there were too many buses already there so we proceeded to the second stop. The streets are very crowded with cars and buses, and the summer street construction made things worse in places. On top of that they were holding a Triathlon through the streets, so some places were closed for that. Anyway, we eventually got to the “old town” and the bus driver let us out to start walking. Here, as in many places we’ve visited, the streets and sidewalks are cobblestones, and some of them are very uneven to walk on. So up and down hills on rocks tend to make your feet sore eventually. Today turned out to be no exception.



We had driven past several national monuments and historical building, and now we walked by quiet a few others. Our guide said that there has been no invading army in Sweden in the last 150-200 years, so their buildings have not suffered from wars like so many other locations. We came to the National Armory which is in the basement of the Royal palace. It is not used as the residence of the royal family anymore but is the office of some of the Swedish government. In the Armory, there were several historical carriages on display along with life size replicas of the horses that pulled them. There are also displays of the clothes worn by past and present members of the royal family. Janet, of course, checked out all the beautiful needlework on all the outfits. And as befitting the name, there were displays of medieval armor and weapons. There were multiple tour groups going through at the same time, so it was something of a synchronized shifting of each group from room to room.



After that tour we were on own for lunch in the Market Square. As we headed that direction we discovered they were having the ceremonial “changing of the guard” outside the front of the residence. We were quite a few rows back, but we could see fairly well. They also had a band playing march-music. So we got a little pep in our step and headed off to lunch.



Our guide recommended a place where the profits go to support the poor of Stockholm. David had a ham and cheese sandwich and Janet had the shrimp salad. These are not signature Swedish dishes but were satisfying. This was also a chance to use the credit card instead of cash – the guide had told us they would accept Euros but would give any change back in Swedish Krona, which would have been pretty useless to us after today. After lunch, we then rejoined the group and got on the bus to the Vasa Museum.



The Vasa was a ship that was built for the Swedish army in 1628. The King wanted it to appear to be the most powerful ship anywhere and insisted on two decks to hold 64 cannons. This made the ship very top heavy and it sank after a few hundred feet in the harbor. When the wind blew and leaned the ship slightly, the round ballast stone rolled to the same side, and it capsized on it’s inaugural cruise within the harbor. They retrieved most of the cannons shortly after the sinking but left the rest under water until 1962. Because the water in the harbor is so cold, the ship was very well preserved. It is amazing to think that it was under water for 333 years. At that time they moved it to land and built a museum around it. All the paint had worn off but they have made replicas in the museum. However 98%!o(MISSING)f the wood remains intact today. What a very interesting part of history. We really enjoyed exploring this museum.



The group had scattered throughout the museum for “free time: and it took awhile to get everyone back together, but we boarded the bus again and returned to our ship about 3:30. There is a gift shop along side the pier, but there wasn’t anything there that we wanted. Back on the ship we got some pastries and coffee to keep body and soul together until dinner tonight. We also finally got on the internet so we could send yesterday’s blog and check our mail. Soon it was time to clean up for dinner



We had Formal Dinner tonight – nice of everyone else to get dressed up for our anniversary. We had also been invited to a special Hors d’Oeuvres session at 5:00 in the Starwalkers Lounge on the 18^th deck.. They were nice snacks and we got a bottle of wine and took the rest of it to dinner at 6:00. For dinner Janet had the Shrimp Cocktail, Crabmeat & Artichoke Dip, and Surf & Turf. David had the Fettuccini Alfredo again, Haddock & Potato Chowder, and Surf & Turf. They brought us a special anniversary chocolate cake for dessert. Everyone around us congratulated us on our anniversary.



After dinner we went back to the cabin. Janet watched part of the TV Movie (Les Miserable) and David went to watch a short show featuring acrobatics in the main Piazza. The show in the theater sounded like it might be good but we didn’t get finished with all the dinner activities before the show started. Since tonight we adjust the clocks forward an hour, this did not seem like a good time for a late night. We will just get this sent and get to bed.

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Photos

Feeding Seagulls
Stockholm Archipelio

Royal Carriage
Armory 0- Stockholm

Suits of Armor
Armory - Stockholm Sweden

Changinfg of the Guard
Stockholm

Vasa Warship
Stockholm Sweden

Vasa Warship - (read view)
Stockholm Sweden

Anniversary Cake
Janet & David - Stockholm